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Thursday, August 8th, 2019

    Time Event
    7:20a
    Indian High Court Orders ISPs to Block 1,129 Sites to Protect One Movie From Piracy

    Blocking orders to prevent the distribution of copyright content are commonplace in several regions around the world.

    In India, however, blocking injunctions are regularly handed down to protect specific movies, oftentimes before those movies are even released.

    That is also the case with the movie ‘Nerkonda Paarvai’, a legal drama set to hit big screens worldwide today. In anticipation of this release, copyright holder Bayview LLP headed off to the Madras High Court, seeking a pre-emptive injunction to prevent the movie from being spread to the public for free via the Internet and other means.

    The High Court hasn’t published the full details of the application, meaning that the list of sites set to be targeted hasn’t yet been revealed in public. It almost certainly contains one, if not many domains, operated by the notorious torrent site Tamilrockers, but the rest remain open to speculation.

    What we do know is that a total of 39 Internet service providers were named as defendants in the order handed down this week by Justice Krishnan Ramasamy in the Madras High Court. The Judge acknowledges that the Bayview LLP production has been the subject of significant investment and is set to be released on more than 2,000 screens worldwide.

    While it’s not uncommon to list ISPs as defendants in such cases, often noting that they play an unwitting role in the distribution of infringing content, the wording in the Judge’s order, which cites the plaintiff’s case, seems to go considerably further. Whether that’s entirely intentional is open to question.

    “The learned counsel for applicant contended that the various cable and internet services provided by various persons (respondents 1–9) across the world are involved in activities of recording, cam-cording and reproducing the audio songs, audio-visual clips, audio-visual songs and full cinematographic films that are screened in theatres and then copying/reproducing them through various medium including but not limited to CDs, DVDs, VCDs, Blu-ray Discs, computer hard drives, pen drives etc.,and distribute the same for selling at a meager sum to the general public without any leave or authorization of the production houses/copyright holders/right holders such as the applicant herein,” the order reads.

    Citing the above and referencing the application, the Judge said that in his opinion a prima facie case had been made for him to award a preliminary injunction which will continue until August 20, 2019.

    The order, obtained by TorrentFreak, is available here (pdf). The full list of ISPs is detailed below.

    1) BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED
    2) Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.
    3) Bharati Airtel Ltd.
    4) Vodafone Idea Ltd. (Formerly Idea Cellular Ltd.)
    5) Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
    6) Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
    7) Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd.
    8) Tata Docomo
    9) Asianet Satellite Communications
    10) Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd.
    11) You Broadband And Cable India Ltd.
    12) Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd.
    13) Rail Tel Corporation of India Ltd.
    14) Shyam Spectra Pvt. Ltd.
    15) Sify Technologies Ltd.
    16) AT And T Global Network Service India Pvt. Ltd.
    17) Peak Air Pvt. Ltd.
    18) Knet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (Cherrinet)
    19) Limras Eronet Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd.
    20) SITI Networks Limited
    21) Andhra Pradesh State Fibre Net Ltd.,
    22) Raaj Internet (I) Pvt. Ltd.
    23) Joister Infoserve Pvt. Ltd.
    24) GTPL Hathway Ltd.
    25) Ready Link Internet Service Ltd.
    26) Nettlinx Limited
    27) Excitel Broadband Pvt. Ltd.
    28) Southern Online Bio Technologies Ltd.
    29) Dawn Supports Pvt. Ltd.
    30) Thalainagar Digital Cables (P) Ltd.
    31) Cable Cast New Media Pvt. Ltd.
    32) C32 Cable Net Pvt. Ltd.
    33) Team 5 Network
    34) SND Satellite Vision
    35) Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd.
    36) Asianet Digital Network Pvt. Ltd.
    37) DEN Networks Ltd.
    38) Starvision Cable TV Network
    39) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

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

    1:03p
    HTTPS Interception “Breaks” Slider Music Search Engine

    Over the years, dozens of ‘pirate’ sites have suspended their operations for a wide range of reasons.

    Pressure from rightsholders is perhaps the most common problem, but issues with hosting, domains, or even lack of time or resources have appeared high on the list.

    Music search engine Slider.kz has a now cited a reason never heard before.

    Slider.kz has been around for approximately nine years, having first appeared in 2010. It certainly doesn’t have the profile of some of today’s popular “stream-ripper” type sites but until recently has been quietly sourcing, indexing and making available for download thousands of tracks from its base in Kazakhstan.

    Now, however, the site has problems. The issues are briefly outlined in a popup message when users first visit the site, which references problems with encryption.

    Encryption problems

    Once the message goes away, users are met with the most recent version of the Slider.kz homepage, complete with the usual search box. But those hoping to download or stream music in the browser (Slider previously offered both options) are presented with a disappointing message.

    HTTPS woes for Slider

    The problems appear related to the news last month that the government in Kazakhstan has recently begun intercepting HTTPS traffic. According to reports, local Internet service providers have been ordered to force their subscribers to install root certificates issued by the government, something which would allow various agencies to intercept what would otherwise be secure web traffic.

    “Pursuant to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Communications and clause 11 of Rules for Issuing and Applying Security Certificates, Kcell JSC informs its customers of the need to install Security Certificate on devices capable of connecting to the Internet,” service provider Kcell told its customers in a recent announcement.

    “According to law, telecom network operators are to ensure that customers with whom the operators have service contracts are able to install the security certificate on their mobile devices.”

    The provider goes on to explain that the security certificate must be installed on all devices used to access the Internet (whether mobile or desktop-based) because if not, customers may face “technical limitations when accessing certain websites.”

    Slider.kz does not currently have a security certificate and is running on basic HTTP, meaning that simply accessing the site isn’t a problem. However, Slider appears to index music sourced from elsewhere so it’s possible that the new regime in Kazakhstan is interfering with that in some way.

    We have been unable to reach Slider’s operator for a more detailed explanation but we can confirm that at least some the 499 sample tracks compiled by the site’s operator (a small selection of what is usually available) stream directly from the site’s server, not from third-party sources.

    All that being said, it’s possible that Slider may return, sooner rather than later. Local media reports are now suggesting that the government may be backtracking on its earlier requirement for citizens to install the security certificate. Only time will tell if this will completely solve Slider’s problems.

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

    8:36p
    Torrent Mogul YTS is Being Sued By Yet Another Movie Company

    This week many avid torrenters were taken by surprise when two of the largest pirate sites stopped adding fresh content.

    Both EZTV.io and YTS.lt didn’t have any new torrents for several days. This unusual hiatus, which eventually ended a few hours ago, remains unexplained thus far.

    While some were ready to call the end of the sites, it’s more likely that they were hit by some kind of technical hiccup. However, that doesn’t mean that there are no other issues behind the scenes at the moment.

    As we reported earlier, YTS has already been hit by two separate complaints filed by movie companies in US courts this year. While it may not be directly related to this week’s problems, another lawsuit has just been added to this growing list.

    In a complaint filed at a Hawaii federal court, Wicked Nevada, the company behind the biographical thriller “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” accuses the site of contributing to widespread copyright infringement of the film.

    In addition to going after the site’s unnamed operator, the lawsuit also targets 16 “John Does” who are accused of downloading and sharing a copy of the movie that was uploaded by YTS. These “Does” are subscribers of ISPs Spectrum, Hawaiian Telcom and Verizon.

    “Defendant JOHN DOE has made the torrent file ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile (2019) [WEBRip] [720p] [YTS.AM]’ available to users in Hawaii such as Defendants DOES 1-16, the United States and the entire World to download from its interactive YTS website,” the complaint reads.

    The complaint displays a lot of similarities with the lawsuits that were filed earlier. For example, it mentions that the YTS.lt domain was registered by the now-dissolved UK company Techmodo Limited. In addition, it mentions that the torrent site uses the services of a variety of US-based companies.

    Cloudflare, for example, is mentioned as a hosting and nameserver provider. The movie company used this US connection to obtain a subpoena and find out more about the alleged operator of the torrent site. This revealed that the Cloudflare account in question was logged into by AT&T, Spectrum, and Verizon Wireless IP-addresses.

    Whether these IP-addresses have anything to do with the operator remains a question, of course, as this person could also have used an IP-obfuscation tool such as Hola, which routes traffic over the IP-addresses of other people. That would actually make sense, as the account was also logged into by a VPN IP-address and from the TOR network.

    “Defendant JOHN DOE further uses the Virtual Private Network provider London Trust Media (Colorado) and even the Onion Router exit relays of the US Naval Research Labs in Washington, DC and an individual in Texas to conceal its login records to its Cloudflare account when operating the interactive websites,” the complaint reads.

    With the lawsuit, the movie company hopes to recoup some of its alleged losses. It accuses the YTS operator and its users of contributory and direct copyright infringement, while tagging on a claim of intentional inducement against the former.

    Wicked Nevada also requests an injunction to stop the defendants’ infringing activities and to prevent third-party intermediaries such as hosting companies, domain registrars, and search engines, from facilitating access to the YTS domains. Ultimately, the company hopes to shut the site down.

    Again, these claims are very similar to those made in the previously filed cases against YTS.

    All in all, the three lawsuits make YTS the most sued pirate site in the US that we know of. It’s worth noting that all these cases are filed in the state of Hawaii by the same attorney, Kerry Culpepper, who represents quite a few movie outfits.

    It’s not entirely clear to us what the reason is for filing separate lawsuits, as these companies could also bundle their powers. However, with every added lawsuit, the rightsholders may believe that they are getting closer to the operator.

    This week, Wicked Nevada requested two new ex-parte motions for a subpoena. These motions are sealed, so we don’t know which companies it targets, but it will likely be another effort to obtain more information.

    That brings us back to the issues YTS and EZTV faced over the past several days. While we can only speculate at this point, it’s possible that the legal pressure caused the sites, which may be interconnected, to lose a hosting provider. That could explain the temporary lack of new content.

    For now, however, we can only speculate. That said, with YTS being the most visited torrent site on the Internet, the lawsuits are well worth keeping a close eye on.

    A copy of the complaint filed by Wicked Nevada at the US District Court for the District of Hawaii is available here (pdf).

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

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