TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Game of Thrones Crowned Most Pirated TV-Show of the Season
- Pirate Bay Pesters Copyright Holders with Yet Another New IP-Address
- Big Four Music Labels Hire Students To Chase File-Sharers
| Game of Thrones Crowned Most Pirated TV-Show of the Season Posted: 08 Jun 2012 05:09 AM PDT
While there are many reasons for people to download TV-shows through BitTorrent, airing delays and HBO’s choice not to make it widely available online are two of the top reasons. Game of Thrones is particularly popular in Australia, where people have to wait a week after the U.S. release comes out. Nevertheless, even in the U.S. hundreds and thousands are downloading the show for free, although many would love to pay for it if HBO offered a standalone HBO GO subscription. It’s clear that HBO (and others) prefer exclusiveness over piracy, which is a dangerous game. They might make decent money in the long run by selling subscriptions. However, this limited availability also breeds pirates, and one has to wonder how easy it is to covert these people to subscriptions once they have experienced BitTorrent. For now, Game of Thrones appears to be the top contender to throw Dexter off the throne by the end of the year, to become the most pirated TV-show of 2012. – Below we have compiled a list of the most downloaded TV-shows worldwide (estimates per single episode) for the spring season up until June 1st 2012, together with the viewer average for TV in the US. The data for the top 10 is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all public BitTorrent trackers.
Source: Game of Thrones Crowned Most Pirated TV-Show of the Season
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| Pirate Bay Pesters Copyright Holders with Yet Another New IP-Address Posted: 07 Jun 2012 12:15 PM PDT
After expensive legal battles they managed to get ISPs to block the site in the UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere. But despite these orders the BitTorrent site remains widely available. To make matters even worse, the increased media attention has boosted the site’s visitor count. Besides the many proxy sites that exists, The Pirate Bay team found out that simply adding a new IP-address circumvents the blockades as well. They added 194.71.107.80 last month, which allowed subscribers to access the site again, for a while. Responding to the move, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN had to return to court again to get the new IP-address added to the filter. They succeeded, but now that the ISPs have started to block this address, The Pirate Bay has responded by adding a new one today. “We wonder what it costs BREIN to file for these injunctions, as we have hundreds more IPs we can add,” the Pirate Bay team told us jokingly. In the UK, where the procedure to add new domains and IP-addresses is part of a “”private agreement,” it’s no different. Virgin Media recently expanded their filter and blocked the .80 address. However, affected subscribers can now access the site via .81, circumventing the blockade. And that’s not all. The Pirate Bay team informs TorrentFreak that they have added an IPv6 address as well, opening a can of new unblocking options. As none of the court orders lists IPv6-addresses, using a compatible connection should re-enable access the site. Not to mention the IPv6 -> IPv4 tunnels that become fully operational proxies now. The above once again shows that it's virtually impossible to completely prevent people from accessing The Pirate Bay. There are simply too many options for people to route around the blockades. Worst of all for the copyright holders, The Pirate Bay team appears to be enjoying themselves. In The UK O2 said it will start blocking access to The Pirate Bay tonight, but this blockade will already be outdated when it goes online. BT, the last ISP to comply to the court order, is expected to follow suit later. Source: Pirate Bay Pesters Copyright Holders with Yet Another New IP-Address
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| Big Four Music Labels Hire Students To Chase File-Sharers Posted: 07 Jun 2012 08:09 AM PDT While organizations such as IFPI have somewhat of a global plan for dealing with online piracy, in recent times it’s become evident that their member companies will pursue local strategies taking both the law – and what they can get away with politically – into consideration. As we know, in the United States the labels will shortly go down the warning notice route, following in the footsteps of countries such as New Zealand and France. Elsewhere, however, the situation is quite different. Due to legal developments in Germany in recent years, it has become easy to extract money from alleged file-sharers by threatening to sue, something the major labels aren’t averse to getting involved in. One of the anti-piracy companies that EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner are putting money into for this purpose is proMedia. This Hamburg-based company has an exclusive contract to hunt down copyright infringements on behalf of the IFPI-affiliated BVMI industry group, of which the above-mentioned labels are members. The operations of these anti-piracy companies are usually shrouded in secrecy, but on condition of anonymity an insider has been speaking out about his work hunting pirates at proMedia. The individual, referred to only as ‘Peter’, told SpiegelOnline that he has worked for the company for four years, tracking down copyright infringements on behalf of the big labels. Peter, a musician and student teacher, works in proMedia’s Hamburg office, but he is not alone. According to the 26-year-old, proMedia employs a total of 35 students in a range of anti-piracy roles. In addition to using Google to search forums, blogs and cyberlockers for infringements, Peter and his colleagues also engage in the most controversial anti-piracy work – tracking down file-sharers on P2P networks such as BitTorrent in order to extract cash settlements from them. The labels’ aggressive stance towards infringement is well-known, so file-sharers shouldn’t be surprised if they’re targeted, Peter says. “If someone is caught, it’s his own fault,” he explains. According to Spiegel, the BVMI reports that it closed (read: settled or gave up on) 13,562 civil cases on behalf of the labels in 2008 alone (more recent data was not provided). As revealed by an earlier TorrentFreak investigation, there is big money to be made from these settlements. Universal, Warner and Universal look for around 1,200 euros per time, with Sony requesting around 950 euros. Of course, the entire system is widely hated by just about everyone not making money from it, largely because of what is perceived as a bullying and disproportionate response to individuals downloading a few songs. But Peter insists that this is still theft and comparable to shoplifting. “The only difference is that songs are apparently not perceived by many as a valuable commodity and everyone generally thinks they should be freely accessible,” he says. As a musician, Peter says he has also been personally hit by piracy. After selling an album of his band’s music after concerts, to his annoyance even his friends were copying his music. Peter’s not any more pleased with the Pirate Party either, noting that their plans for the revision of copyright law would deprive musicians of income. “I do not think much of the politics of the pirates,” says Peter. “As a musician myself, I feel degraded by them.” And yet, like so many in the anti-piracy business, Peter was once on the other side of the fence. “Anyone who claims to have never downloaded something is lying,” he concludes. Source: Big Four Music Labels Hire Students To Chase File-Sharers
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