TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Kim Dotcom Dismissed As Fraudster By Twitter and Facebook
- FileSonic, Oron and Their Users Hit With Piracy Lawsuit
- Ubisoft DRM Lets In Remote Attackers, Google Engineer Reports
| Kim Dotcom Dismissed As Fraudster By Twitter and Facebook Posted: 31 Jul 2012 04:36 AM PDT Like many famous people and other celebrities online, Kim Dotcom has many tens of thousands of fans and followers. However, not all of these people have his best interests at heart. The problem comes when people do a search for Kim’s Twitter account using Google. Although his own account with more than 113K followers appears right there in the top results, so does another bearing the Kim Dotcom name. The account is fake, but it is set up to look like the real thing. People who know Kim will hopefully realize that tweets such as “EFF THE FEDS. IMMA BUST OUT OF JAIL TODAY. WATCH ME. MY MEGAESCAPE WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE ON THE INNANET. MEGAUPLOAD.COM 4 LYF,” aren’t genuine, but nearly 9,300 followers of the account appear not to. To try and add further credibility to his own account, Kim asked Twitter to terminate the fake and give him a verified account. His correspondence with Twitter shared with TorrentFreak a few minutes ago is detailed below: — KimDotcom, Jul 09 07:57 pm (PDT): Full name: Kim Dotcom Description: This account is impersonating me. Using my photo, etc. Please terminate that account because a lot of people who search for me find the Impersonator instead of me. Email address: [REDACTED] Anything else? (optional): I would also humbly ask to please verify my account so that I have the verify label. — Of course, when it comes to being identifiable, Dotcom can quite literally put most of us in the shade – the man is a giant in every sense of the word, especially online. So to accompany his application he sent over some photo ID – his driving license. Things didn’t go well. “Here is the reply I received [from Twitter] after I sent them a copy of my Hong Kong international driving license with photo and government stamp,” Kim told TorrentFreak.  “@Twitter declines to certify me. I faxed an ID. They think it’s fake. A search for my name shows imposter as the first result. Might quit!” Kim said in response to the rejection. But hold on, there might be another way. Like millions of others, here on TorrentFreak we’re massive fans of Reddit and their AMAs. The site has a number of accepted ways for people to show who they say they are, so we suggested one method to Kim. Hopefully this will be enough for Twitter.  The full, genuine, real deal, verified-by-the-people Twitter account of Kim Dotcom can be found here, but with Facebook there is another problem, as illustrated in their email to Kim shown below. — The problem? Dotcom is not accepted by Facebook as Kim’s second name. Source: Kim Dotcom Dismissed As Fraudster By Twitter and Facebook |
| FileSonic, Oron and Their Users Hit With Piracy Lawsuit Posted: 30 Jul 2012 10:40 AM PDT
Flava Works, known for winning a preliminary injunction (currently under appeal) in its landmark lawsuit against MyVidster, a case which involved Google, Facebook and even the MPAA, is now targeting two prominent file-hosting services and 26 of their users. In papers filed at the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois last week, the company accuses FileSonic and Oron of several copyright related offenses. Among other things, the complaint alleges that FileSonic and Oron are “websites that copy, store, distribute, display, profit from unauthorized copyrighted materials, and/or induce and assist others to infringe copyrighted materials.” The two cyberlockers are joined by 26 John Doe defendants who allegedly shared links to copyrighted material with each other via several Yahoo groups. It is claimed that through these mailing lists the defendants actively traded links, some of which were uploaded by the defendants themselves.
The complaint characterizes FileSonic as an “illegitimate” outfit, a description repeated for Oron. “On information and belief, at all relevant times, Filesonic.com is not a legitimate file storage company. Filesonic.com's affiliates reward program offered members the opportunity to make money by uploading copyrighted videos.” “Affiliates members are paid based upon the number of downloads of their posted materials and based upon how many other premium memberships were bought by users accessing Filesonic.com through the member's links.” Flava Works goes on to accuse FileSonic, Oron and the Doe defendants on several counts including direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement and inducement of copyright infringement. The adult company asks for a permanent injunction and temporary restraining order against the defendants. Flava Works further requests statutory, compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged infringements. It is unclear why Flava Works has singled out these two file-hosting services as the complaint also mentions that Hotfile, Fileserve and Rapidshare were used to share files. Filesonic in particular seems to be an odd choice since the cyberlocker disabled public file-sharing months ago, which led to an exodus of users. For Oron, this is the second lawsuit brought against the site this summer. Last month adult studio Corbin Fisher sued the company for no less than $34.8 million for alleged copyright infringements. As part of a settlement, Oron then offered to assist the studio prosecute its own users. Both Oron and FileSonic have yet to respond to the complaint. Source: FileSonic, Oron and Their Users Hit With Piracy Lawsuit |
| Ubisoft DRM Lets In Remote Attackers, Google Engineer Reports Posted: 30 Jul 2012 05:23 AM PDT
But all too often DRM hits the headlines when it either fails to do its job or generates unintended side-effects that cause headaches for legitimate users. Today could be the start of a very big headache indeed for Ubisoft and people who have purchased the company’s games. According to hacker/researcher Tavis Ormandy, the Uplay DRM system designed and operated by Ubisoft could be opening up the company’s customers’ machines to a whole world of hurt. “While on vacation recently I bought a video game called ‘Assassin’s Creed Revelations’. I didn’t have much of a chance to play it, but it seems fun so far,” Ormandy wrote on the Full Disclosure mailing list yesterday. “However, I noticed the installation procedure creates a browser plugin for its accompanying Uplay launcher, which grants unexpectedly (at least to me) wide access to websites. I don’t know if it’s by design, but I thought I’d mention it here in case someone else wants to look into it.”  Just 24 hours later Ormandy was back with a worrying update. “I got it working,” he wrote. “I submitted it to Ubisoft via the online form.” What Ormandy appears to be suggesting is that once hackers understand how this vulnerability works, websites could incorporate an exploit into their designs which could then allow them to gain access to a Ubisoft game-player’s PC. The sky’s the limit with this kind of opening – software installs, keyloggers, bots or other malware all become possible. A list of games running Uplay DRM can be found here – they include some huge names such as the Assassins Creed series, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Driver: San Francisco, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, and all the Tom Clancy games. TorrentFreak contacted Ormandy for comment and we will update this article with his comments when they come in. Source: Ubisoft DRM Lets In Remote Attackers, Google Engineer Reports |
After targeting hundreds of thousands of BitTorrent users, adult entertainment companies have recently expanded their legal efforts to file-hosting sites and their users.
According to Flava Works the file-hosting sites directly profited from these infringements through their affiliate programs. 
Digital Rights Management (DRM) software is seen as an essential part of life for many games developers. It allows them to control who and who cannot copy, install and otherwise operate their software, usually for the purposes of piracy control.| You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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