TorrentFreak's Journal
 
[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View]

Friday, March 15th, 2019

    Time Event
    9:10a
    Zippyshare is Blocked for UK Visitors, But Why?

    Founded in 2006,  Zippyshare has gathered an impressive userbase over the years.

    While early competitors such as Rapidshare, Hotfile, and Megaupload, are now long gone, the free file-hosting service continued to thrive. 

    The site currently has millions of visitors per day from all over the world. There are also significant numbers hailing from the UK, where it is one of the most-used download portals not currently blocked by a High Court order. 

    However, starting a few days ago, UK visitors are no longer able to access the site. Instead of the usual download page, they are welcomed by a “403 forbidden” error message in their browsers. This remains the case today. 

    Forbidden!

    The site serves as a popular hosting location for both third-party ‘linking’ sites and individual users. Some people have used it for over a decade, but that recently came to an abrupt end. For now at least.

    This mysterious blockade led to numerous complaints and unanswered questions all over the Internet. 

    One of the many tweets

    Even several anti-piracy outfits were puzzled by the issue. VideoLock and Digital Copyright both mentioned the issue on Twitter. The latter initially suspected an ISP block, it seems, which would be a surprise as Zippyshare has always been extremely cooperative.

    Blocked?

    Since court-ordered site blockades are fairly common, several people reached the conclusion that Zippyshare had become the latest target. This suspicion even made it into the Wikipedia entry, as Bob spotted, although it was deleted soon after, probably for good reason. 

    It is true that some UK ISPs may block Zippyshare under their parental control filters, but court-ordered blockades don’t result in “403” errors. And since users of UK based VPN IP-addresses see the same error message, there’s clearly something else going on. But what?

    The error message in question suggests that Zippyshare is blocking UK visitors. This could be intentional or due to some misconfiguration. To find out more, TorrentFreak reached out to Zippyshare at the beginning of this week but, thus far, we haven’t heard back. 

    This leaves us with little other option than to speculate. One possibility is that Zippyshare took this step after some kind of legal pressure. It wouldn’t be the first time that a website does this. Two years ago, several stream-rippers also blocked UK traffic, presumably over legal concerns.

    Without jumping to too many conclusions, it is evident that Zippyshare has been under quite a bit pressure. A few months ago the RIAA reported it as a notorious pirate site to the US Trade Representative, which already called out the site in the past.

    Without an official explanation from Zippyshare, we can only guess what the real reason for the UK visitor blockade is. In any case, no matter who’s initiating the blockade, there’s always a way around it. UK visitors can still access the site from a non-UK VPN server.

    Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

    2:51p
    Russia Plans to Block Pirate Sites Without Trial & De-Anonymize Their Operators

    Like most regions in the world, Russia has an online piracy problem, with millions of citizens regularly using pirate sites to access free movies, music, TV shows, and other content.

    Russia is already a world-leader when it comes to site-blocking but if new proposals are written into law, life for pirate site owners could become much more difficult.

    Back in 2018 the Ministry of Culture began mulling amendments to copyright law and this week it became clear that it has a tightened site-blocking regime in mind, along with other significant changes.

    Local publication RBC had the opportunity to review the draft, which includes measures for the blocking of sites where pirated content is made available, without rightsholders having to go to court as they do now.

    Instead, they will be able to go directly to the web hosts of sites making content available without a license, with instructions to block platforms, if they are unresponsive to takedown demands.

    Furthermore, if the amendments are approved, owners of platforms where pirated content is made available will be compelled to sacrifice their anonymity. All such sites will be required to publish the names, addresses, and other contact details of their owners.

    It isn’t yet clear how this requirement will be enforced, or how contact details will be checked for authenticity. However, it seems unlikely that company names and/or home addresses (in the case of individuals) will be willingly given up, particularly when site operators are already breaking the law by knowingly hosting or linking to infringing content.

    The draft amendments were agreed by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, and the Ministry of Economic Development, after consultation with entertainment industry companies, RBC reports.

    News of the amendments arrives just days after authorities held talks with major rightsholders, hosting platforms, and search providers, with the aim of writing the terms of an anti-piracy memorandum into law.

    The currently voluntary agreement aims to create an ever-growing centralized database of infringing content to enable hosting platforms and search engines to take down media and links both quickly and efficiently.

    According to comments made this week by Sergey Selyanov, head of the Association of Film and Television Producers, the memorandum is working as planned.

    Finally, local search giant Yandex has reportedly developed and launched its own set of tools for detecting pirated content online. Using information being made available in the recently-established piracy database, Yandex is using machine learning to “clean up” its own search results. The company is currently declining to offer any additional details.

    Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

    9:55p
    Scammers Use Fake Copyright Notices to Steal Instagram Accounts

    There is no denying that many people spend several hours per day on their social media accounts.

    Those who gain enough status on sites such as Instagram can even make a living out of it.

    When this livelihood is threatened, panic and fear can ensue. This is something scammers are well aware of and some are gladly exploiting it for their benefit.

    According to cybersecurity company and anti-virus provider Kaspersky, a new phishing scheme that uses fake copyright notices is “gaining momentum.”  The email campaign uses an Instagram letterhead and warns recipients that their accounts will be suspended.

    “We regret to inform you that your account will be suspending because you have violated the copyright laws. Your account will be deleted within 24 hours. If you think we make a mistake please verify, to secure your account,” the email reads.

    Example of the email, courtesy of Kaspersky.

    Most native speakers will spot the grammatical errors, which should sound the alarms bells. On the other hand, people who are less fluent in English, or don’t read closely, might easily be drawn to the “verify account” button which leads to a heap of trouble.

    “If you click it, you end up on a convincing phishing page, where fraudsters put an image saying they care very much about copyright protection and offer you a link to ‘Appeal’,” Kaspersky writes.

    People who click the appeal link will be asked to enter their Instagram credentials, which will obviously be stolen. And while the scammers are at it, victims are also asked to verify their email addresses.

    “We need to verify your feedback and check if your e-mail account matches the Instagram account,” the fake notice reads. Those who proceed will be asked to choose their email provider and submit their address and password, which undoubtedly be stolen as well.

    None of these phishing tricks are new and it appears that this scam has been running for a few months already. What’s interesting, however, is that copyright infringement is used as a threat to spur people into action.

    With all the recent talk about upload filters and disappearing memes, people are likely to be more susceptible to fall for this scheme than an ordinary “verify your account” email. Especially if their precious social media accounts are supposedly at risk.

    Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

    << Previous Day 2019/03/15
    [Calendar]
    Next Day >>

TorrentFreak   About LJ.Rossia.org