Today Show Sued Over Copyright Infringement

Copyright is a double-edged sword, and those who sharpen one side often get cut by the other.

In recent years NBC Universal has fiercely protected its copyrights. The company warned file-sharers of criminal prosecutions, pursued The Pirate Bay in court, and even tried to censor TorrentFreak with an inaccurate takedown notice.

This week, however, the company is on the receiving end of a copyright dispute. Photographer Alexander Stross filed a lawsuit at a Texas federal court accusing the Today Show of infringing his work through multiple venues.

In the complaint (pdf) Stross explains that a series of photos he took of micro houses in Texas gained mainstream new attention earlier this year. It was also covered in a segment of The Today Show, reaching an audience of millions of people.

However, the photos shown on air were used without permission from the photographer. In addition, one of the photos was posted in a tweet without attribution, which is still online today.

“The same day as the On-Air Segment, The Today Show ‘Tweeted’ about the story – reproducing one of the Photographs, with no attribution at all,” the complaint states.

A day later this coverage was followed by an article on The Today Show website, again featuring the infringing photos. To make matters worse these were credited to a third party.

“Defendant ascribed a false and misleading credit to each Photograph stating ‘Courtesy of Matt Garcia Design,’ as reflected below,” the complaint adds.

Screenshot from the complaint

In an attempt to resolve the matter Stross contacted The Today Show, notifying it about the incorrect credits. After he didn’t hear back for a month, he emailed again, but without a response.

Only after the photographer hired legal representation did a producer of the show reply, arguing that the architect of the houses gave permission to use the material. However, according to internal correspondence no permission was given at the time the material was used.

“Defendant knowingly published the Photographs in the Web Article with a false and misleading credit to [the architect] – before it ever received anything from Garcia.”

“When contacted by counsel, Defendant lied about the source of the Photographs, and its alleged belief that it had advance authorization to use them,” the complaint mentions.

Even more so, The Today Show knew that the credit was incorrect as it mentioned Stross as the author of the photos in the original segment. Nonetheless, they never contacted him to obtain permission.

According to Stross it is clear that The Today Show infringed on his copyrights and he demands both statutory and actual damages as compensation.

With eight photos in total the damages could reach a million dollars but of course, NBC Universal should be well aware of that already.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

International Economic Week in Review: The BOJ Goes Negative, Edition

     Oil’s price drop currently dominates market coverage.  While some analysts argue the net effect is positive, the majority of economists now believe the overall impact is bearish.  Economist James Hamilton recently provided an explanation: the combination of job loss and declining capital purchases outweighed the benefits of potential increased consumption.  While his article focused on North Dakota and Texas, its reasoning can be applied to entire

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US Bond Market Week in Review: Did the Fed Make a Mistake, Edition?

     Did the Fed make a mistake when it raised rates last month?  Obviously, we won’t know until we see more data.  While the economic numbers through December confirmed the Fed’s decision, post January 1 data has been troubling.  Retail sales are weak, industrial production is stalling, the leading economic indicators declined .2% and the coincident numbers are rising at a slower pace.  An article by Peter Coy of Bloomberg explains both sides.  The bea

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US Equity and Economic Review: It's a Slowdown, Not a Recession, Edition

     Bearish calls on the US economy increased measurably since the first of the year.  It’s obviously the result of increase market volatility and weaker economic numbers since the first of the year.  But a few key stories this week point to data indicating we’re not in a recession.  While industrial weakness is a primary reason for my recent bearishness, Tim Duy noted that the breadth of weak industrial numbers is very s

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Completely Ignoring the DMCA an Option for Torrent Sites?

Any site offering a facility for users to upload content has to be aware that some of that material is likely to infringe on someone’s copyrights. For sites aiming to please the United States of America, that means having a registered DMCA agent, at the very least.

For sites further afield, Russia for example, the DMCA is of little concern, but that doesn’t absolve them from copyright responsibilities. This week and after years of friction, the Russian state finally ordered the blocking of RuTracker, the country’s most popular torrent site.

The decision prompted an interesting response from the site. Instead of honoring takedown notices from copyright holders, RuTracker downgraded all of the special accounts it had given to anti-piracy outfits, effectively revoking their ability to take any content down. The message was essentially this: We cooperated and you still blocked us – *&$% you!

Of course, this attitude to copyright law is nothing new. The Pirate Bay has refused to take anything down on copyright grounds from day one and yet it remains up today. However, The Pirate Bay is a giant site with huge resources at its disposal, meaning that keeping the site going in spite of the law is a completely achievable task.

While it’s common knowledge that TPB’s attitude has placed it on law enforcement radars, the same goes for dozens of other less aggressive sites too. All major torrent and streaming sites have been warned by the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit that they consider their operations to be criminal, and the High Court has been happy to order local ISPs to block them all.

So given that the police would arrest the operators of most sites given the right resources, what is actually the point of taking down any content at all? Why aren’t sites simply giving copyright holders the middle finger as RuTracker did this week?

Getting site admins to talk on this topic isn’t easy, but this week and on condition of anonymity, TF spoke with the operators of several sites who agreed to share their thoughts on DMCA-style compliance. It appears that while sites have a precarious position, keeping on the right side of civil law is an important part of staying online.

“We had an email from [PIPCU] but we also had letters from other anti-piracy agencies for years now. We’re too far in to close and if we did our record [with the copyright holders / authorities] won’t be cleaned anyway,” one site operator informs TF.

“Our main problem is to stay hosted so we obey [takedown notices] to keep our host out of trouble. We do that we stay online. That’s all he asks. It works for us but every few months we have to move. Hosts get tired of complaints.”

Another site operator told us that while takedown notices still come in, dealing with them is a futile exercise that does nothing to take pressure off the site.

“There’s no point in taking down anything anymore,” he says.

“They now go after your server provider, domain registrar, domain reseller, domain NIC, mail hosting, DNS hosting and SSL provider, toilet paper supplier and even cocaine supplier. They go after whoever you can think of, even if you are compliant.”

But while there may be no point in expecting that dealing with DMCA notices will make life easier, one admin confirms that taking steps like those taken by RuTracker this week will eventually lead to problems.

“RuTracker will eventually run into issues with their server providers because A) They will be pushed hard from ‘someone’, B) The upstreams of their server providers will be pushed hard,” he explains.

“They will be pushed hard because they stated ‘fuck you’ to all MPAA/RIAA/etc.”

Generally, it seems that complying with the DMCA and its European equivalents is all about staying online. While some hosts appear to be less sensitive to the issue, most do not want to be dealing with endless complaints about copyright content not being taken down. After all, human patience has limits, whether the complaints received are justified or not.

The big question then is just how compliant sites are choosing to be. It’s common knowledge that sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz comply with DMCA notices as a matter of course, the gaps in their search results and reports that torrents have been removed are a testament to that. Others (and it’s hard to say how many) now find it as important to be seen to be compliant to please their hosts.

Overall, it seems unlikely that many sites will publicly extend a middle finger to the DMCA, even though they know that complying with it does little to stop attacks on their infrastructure. It does keep them friendly with their hosts though, and while hosts may not like the hassle, they remain tolerant as long the balance between profit and time spent stays in the black.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Pirate Party Risks Future to Protect Hyperlinks

Over the years many people have put their necks on the line to defend what they believe to be right. Sadly, when things get out of control, some have even paid with their lives.

While copyright struggles are important, they are rarely a matter of life and death. Nevertheless, there are those who are prepared to make big sacrifices to defend citizens’ rights to communicate freely online. Activists come in all shapes and sizes but within the file-sharing landscape few have been more daring than the world’s various Pirate parties.

Both the Swedish and UK Pirate parties have stepped up to defend and support The Pirate Bay in recent years and both have lived to tell the tale. However, members of the Czech Pirate Party are now staring down the barrel of a gun with their future at stake.

As reported earlier this week, the party is being prosecuted by the police for running TV piracy site Sledujuserialy.cz (translated: I Watch TV Series). However, while most site operators try to avoid trouble, the chief of the party’s International Department says this conflict with the law was intentional.

“The original idea to create the web page came from outside. However, the former owners were threatened by ČPU (Czech Anti-Piracy Union) so they agreed to transfer control to us, since our party was ready to face the fight with ČPU,” Mikuláš Ferjenčík informs TF.

“We took patronage over the website in January 2013 in order to achieve a precedent similar to the Svensson case, so our original intention was to initiate such a reaction.”

And a reaction is what the party got.

On Thursday 21st January the Czech pirates were officially notified that their party will be prosecuted in criminal court for running the site. They’re keen to point out that the site carried no copyrighted content on its servers but instead linked to TV series via embedded links.

“Our intention is to create a precedent clearly confirming that a link is not a crime. No one shall be persecuted for referring to other’s web sites,” Ferjenčík says.

“Until now, mainly physical persons were criminalized by the Anti-Piracy Union. Their [targets’] positions were unfair since they often had no money to pay lawyers, so they often had to accept unfair extrajudicial settlements.

“We are capable of covering the necessary costs and we would like to publicly show that the Anti-Piracy Union’s legal position is not strong enough for such behavior.”

Ferjenčík informs TF that while the site’s domain was registered to the party, the identity of its administrators is being protected. So, in this case no individual is being targeted by the Anti-Piracy Union and no-one is going to jail. However, the party’s actions could have serious consequences if it all goes wrong.

“We might have to ‘refund the losses’ (estimated to 5.5 millions CZK, around 200 thousand EUR). It is also possible that the Pirate Party could be dissolved as a legal entity. Fortunately, no physical person is in danger of being punished in any way,” Ferjenčík explains.

Despite the risks the party feels entirely justified in the position it has taken and stands by its decision to defend the hyperlink.

“Linking cannot be criminalized otherwise one would have to criminalize services like Google or Facebook and many others. It would break the Internet as we know it and it would result in huge damage to the whole economy,” Ferjenčík says.

Of course, the Pirate Party is a political entity and the current case will also have the effect of thrusting it into the spotlight. The timing couldn’t be better.

“The timing is very advantageous for us, since there will be regional elections during October 2016,” Ferjenčík concludes.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Weekly Indicators: still "less worse" edition

The big news in the past week was that 4th Quarter GDP remained positive, even if only slightly.  The more forward looking indicators of that release also were positive.  Q4 median wages also improved.  Monthly data included positive new home sales, and a big rebound in the Chicago PMI. Two measures of consumer sentiment moved in opposite directions. Durable goods were negative.

 

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Strike Torrent Search Goes Open Source, After RIAA Debacle

Last December, Aurous developer Andrew Sampson settled his legal dispute with the RIAA for a massive $3 million, according to the legal paperwork.

The legal trouble also affected another popular project Sampson ran, the torrent search engine Strike. While it was not specifically mentioned in the settlement agreement the Florida-based developer decided to pull the plug on this project too.

While the site has been offline for weeks, interest in the project hardly waned. Sampson informs TorrentFreak that over a million visitors still landed on the site, which served pages cached by CloudFlare. In addition, many external services called on the site’s defunct API.

This prompted the developer to make the code available for others, releasing it under an open source license.

“I don’t want to leave thousands of developers hanging; the API received over 25,000,000 unique requests a month, not to mention the millions of unique users we received every month,” Sampson tells us.

“I wanted to leave something, it may not be the prettiest thing, but the least I can do is extend an olive branch and give people a small tool set for hosting their own search engines.”

With the code anyone can set up a custom torrent search engine, replicating the Strike service. The only thing that’s missing are the actual torrent scrapers. After consulting his lawyers, Sampson decided not to make those public.

The past few weeks have been rough for the developer, who says he suffered mentally from his run-in with the RIAA.

“After dealing with this lawsuit I’m a bit taxed mentally, I hit a really low point for a while, depression kind of overwhelmed me, I lost a decade long friendship, a lot of my savings, I just became kind of bitter and angry,” Sampson notes.

However, he’s slowly starting to get a grip on reality again and is looking forward to working on new projects. While he still has a healthy interest in P2P and BitTorrent, he will stay away from anything remotely infringing.

“I’d much rather focus my energy on work and building open source tools that don’t cross grey lines. It is a lot less stressful and feels great.”

The release of Strike’s source code offers the developer the closure he needs, so he can move on to other things.

Currently he’s working on a new project called Ulterius. This is an open source C# based framework that allows users to manage windows based systems from any HTML5 enabled browser.

“I received a lot of support from the community during this, I can only hope they like what I make next. I’m 20 years old, so I’m just getting started,” he concludes.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Steal This Show S01E05: P2P takes on Ebay

In this episode we’re joined by Washington Sanchez, co-founder of P2P marketplace Open Bazaar, and Angel Leon, founder of popular torrent client Frostwire and OpenBazaar contributor.

This week we discuss Netflix and the use of VPNs by its content-hungry customers to evade geoblocking; the increasingly businesslike and quite possibly criminal vibe from some large torrent sites; and the fact that Vladimir Putin’s Internet Adviser is running a filesharing site.

Finally, we delve into how Open Bazaar is creating a peer-to-peer network that will put the “d” in “decommerce”.

—

Steal This Show aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary and analysis.

The guests for our news discussions will vary and we’ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds.

Host: Jamie King

Guests: Washington Sanchez and Angel Leon.

Produced by Jamie King
Edited & Mixed by Eric Bouthiller
Original Music by David Triana
Web Production by Siraje Amarniss

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

U.S. Govt: Excessive Piracy Punishments Should Be Avoided

Three years ago the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force started to explore various ways that current copyright law could be improved.

Following extensive discussions and a public consultation process it finalized its recommendations this week, releasing a whitepaper (pdf) with several concrete proposals.

One of the main topics covers the ‘penalties’ for online piracy, which can currently reach $150,000 per copied work. These statutory damages can lead to excessive awards, as shown in two RIAA cases.

The Task Force notes that the award amount doesn’t have to be lowered, as it may be appropriate as a deterrent for online piracy in extreme cases. However, steps should be taken against disproportionate punishments and copyright trolling.

“It is important to avoid excessive and inconsistent awards that risk encouraging disrespect for copyright law or chilling investment in innovation. And the abusive enforcement campaigns reported by commenters should not be tolerated,” the paper reads.

Instead of changing the maximum statutory damages the Task Force recommends an update to current legislation with a list of factors for courts and juries to consider when determining the amount of a damages award.

Possible factors include the financial situation of the defendant. Someone who’s unemployed should not pay the same amount in damages as a billion dollar company for the same offense.

“The Task Force recognizes the concern that some awards of statutory damages can be far beyond the capacity of the defendant to pay – whether an individual or a start-up business. Requiring juries and judges to consider the defendant’s financial situation when assessing the level of the award will help address that concern,” the recommendation reads.

The value of the infringed work and the harm it causes the copyright holder should also be taken into account. This means that leaking a pre-release copy of a blockbuster movie should receive a higher punishment than sharing a B-film usually offered at a discount.

“An award that takes into account the likely heightened magnitude of harm to the market for a pre-release work may enable the copyright owner to receive a more appropriate level of compensation than an award of actual damages.”

Taking the value of the work into account may also help to deter copyright trolls, who generally sue people over adult content and other niche material.

“On the other hand, when the infringed work is of minimal commercial value, a lower award may be appropriate. This can help address concerns about holders of low-value copyrights … using the threat of statutory damages to turn litigation threats into a profit center,” the Task Force adds.

The paper further recognizes that the “abusive enforcement actions” of copyright trolls are harmful to the copyright system as well as the judicial system.

Some stakeholders suggested to tackle this problem by lowering the maximum of $150,000 in statutory damages, so copyright trolls can’t use it as a threat. However, the Task Force believes that the courts have other means to address these excesses, as they’ve done with Righthaven and Prenda Law.

“The unfair tactics used by certain litigants should be curbed without cutting back a remedy that serves legitimate purposes of compensation and deterrence. The courts are well positioned to evaluate such tactics and have sanctioned counsel and parties who pursue baseless, reckless, or vexatious claims,” the paper reads.

The Government’s proposed changes don’t leave statutory damages completely untouched though. In cases of non-willful secondary liability of online services, the paper proposes to move away from the strict “per work” rule.

This means that a court may issue a lower damages award against a site or service if the number of infringed works is very high, which now automatically results in hundreds of millions in potential damages.

Overall the proposals are well-balanced. The whitepaper strikes a careful balance between proponents and opponents of decreased statutory damages, reflected in positive comments from both sides.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

XE Market Analysis: Asia - Jan 29, 2016

The dollar was broadly higher in N.Y. trade on Friday, largely thanks to the BoJ, and its foray into NIRP. USD-JPY posted new trend highs of 121.69 in N.Y, before succumbing to a bout of pre-weekend, month-end position squaring. EUR-USD meanwhile, dipped to 1.0810 from early highs over 1.0920. The better risk backdrop allowed Wall Street to rally strongly, a USD positive, while the BoJ's easing move reminded markets it's the ECB's turn to ease next. USD-CAD ranged between 1.3970 and 1.4109, as the CAD once again followed the vagaries of the oil market.

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News Site Blocked By ISPs For Embedding YouTube Videos

Blocking websites is in vogue for copyright holders all around Europe. They normally need to go to court to have allegedly-infringing sites blocked at the ISP level but in Portugal no such formality is required.

In recent months local Internet providers have already blocked hundreds of websites for allegedly linking to copyright infringing content. The action is the result of a voluntary arrangement between the Ministry of Culture, the Association of Telecommunication Operators, and copyright holders including anti-piracy group MAPiNET.

The lack of judicial oversight has been a concern for activists ever since the introduction of the agreement. Now it appears their fears were not unfounded.

Ultimate Music is a site operated by journalist and blogger Josep Vinaixa. He reports on entertainment industry news, such as track and album releases, and also embeds YouTube videos. In the image below one can see a typical piece which announces the launch of an album by Sigma and embeds an official Sigma video from YouTube.

Vinaixa works with international record labels who send him information about releases and even request that he embeds their videos in his site. However, local anti-piracy group MAPiNET believes that embedding YouTube videos is illegal unless Vinaixa’s website is licensed.

In an email from MAPiNET dated Dec 18 and shared with TorrentFreak, the anti-piracy outfit warns Vinaixa that he needs to “change his conduct” or face the consequences. (broken English email quoted verbatim)

“On the past 30 of July we have celebrated a MoU with the Portuguese association of ISPs APRITEL, Portuguese Cultural inspection entity IGAC, and others,” the email states.

“On this MoU websites that have more than 500 copyright protected works or if 2/3 of his content is copyrighted material presented there with no authorization from the legal rights owner are eligible to be blocked by DNS in Portugal.

“If this website do not change its conduct within the next 24 hours we will make all the diligences to proceed with the DNS blocking request.”

Less than an hour later a bemused Vinaixa responded, asking MAPiNET what could possibly be wrong with writing about artists and embedding their official videos in his news articles.

“I really want to fix this because I don’t want any problem. I’m just promoting the new music releases,” he explained.

After receiving no response, Vinaixa’s site was blocked by ISPs in Portugal on Christmas Day. The message now seen by visitors is shown below.

Credit: Revolucaodosbytes.pt

(Translated: The site you want to access is blocked in the wake of compliance of a Entitdade Regulatory notification)

On December 29, Vinaixa wrote to MAPiNET again.

“You blocked my site in Portugal and you didn’t answer my message. I want to fix this and make my site available in Portugal again. Can you please tell me what I have to do?” he begged.

On January 5, 2016, Vinaixa received a reply but it was not what he’d been hoping for.

“According to the information we have gathered from the Portuguese Music Licensing Company (PassMusica) and all music related Collective Management Entities, you have not submitted any licensing request for your site to operate in the Portuguese Territory,” MAPiNET explained.

“Having said that, we recommend you, as a first step, to obtain the correct licensing for your site to work properly and according to the Portuguese Legislation, and therefore we urge you to address the above mentioned entities.”

So, after being blocked by MAPiNET, Vinaixa turned to PassMusica for help.

“My website is a music site about new releases and future artists from all parts of the world. All the music / videos are from official channels like Youtube, Spotify, Soundcloud or Vevo,” Vinaixa told the licensing outfit.

“I do not understand what I could do wrong, for you to block my access throughout your country. I simply want to return to be operational in Portugal and fix something if there is something to fix. Thank you so much.”

Again, the response was disappointing.

“Further to your email, we can confirm that we have not received any licensing request from you in order to operate in Portugal. Furthermore, we also have information that you have not requested authorization [from] the Record Company to make the music videos and tracks available through your website, as all the platforms you’ve mentioned have requested,” PassMusica told Vinaixa.

“We appreciate that the music and all the videos are from official channels, but those channels have negotiated directly with the record companies in order to be able to make such usage of music, as we are sure you have not. Also, those channels, in their disclaimers do not authorize such utilization.”

But according to Vinaixa, that is nonsense.

“Excuse me but that’s not true,” he told PassMusica earlier this month.

“All the labels from UK, Australia, USA and Spain send me the information about the releases from their artists and they want me to put all of the videos and audios (official link) on the site.”

Vinaixa told the licensing outfit he’s been working with the labels for three years and no one has ever complained. In fact, all he gets is thanks for his cooperation in promoting the labels’ artists.

“I don’t understand why Portugal blocked me when all the other countries are working with me, the labels and the artists’ advertising agencies. I just want to work properly as I have been doing around the world for 3 years. So you do not tell me I have no license, because I work closely with almost all the record labels.”

So for now Vinaixa and his site is in limbo while being treated like the dozens of hardcore pirate sites on MAPiNET’s register. They are no longer responding to his questions and Portuguese users are still unable to view his site.

According to a 2014 decision by the EU’s Court of Justice, if content is already freely available after being legally published and isn’t already subject to restrictions such as a subscription or pay wall, embedding is not a breach of EU law.

TorrentFreak contacted MAPiNET on two occasions to hear its reasons for blocking Ultimate Music but the anti-piracy group did respond to requests for comment.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

XE Market Analysis: North America - Jan 29, 2016

The yen plummeted after the BoJ unexpectedly announced that it will impose a -0.1% interest rate on excess reserves, effective from Feb-16. This was a shock as BoJ governor Kuroda said recently that did not intend to cut rates on excess reserves, and market analysts had been expecting that any easing move would come in the form of an expansion in the QQE program.

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Copyright Infringing News Sites Raided and Shut Down

Every year dozens of file-sharing websites are raided, blocked or otherwise attacked by authorities seeking to clamp down on the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content. With the entertainment industries the main driving force, protection of their content always gets the most attention.

However, developments now being reported by the Italian government shows that authorities are prepared to get tough with people aiming to make money off the back of other web-based content.

According to an announcement by the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), a law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance, coordinated national action has now been taken to prevent the unauthorized distribution of subscription editorial content.

Following an investigation carried out by the Special Unit for Broadcasting and Publishing, a number of individuals were identified as being responsible for the unauthorized publication of national and international newspapers and periodicals to the web without permission from rightsholders. In other words, news pirates.

The GdF says that following authorization from Rome Prosecutor’s office, ‘Operation Phoenix’ targeted locations in Naples, Carbonia-Iglesias, Brescia, Rome, Frosinone and Turin. Five Italian nationals were arrested on suspicion of being behind a total of 15 websites offering pirated news content including digital copies of subscription newspapers.

Ten local websites were raided and shutdown while five websites based overseas were blocked by interfering with their DNS records. Various items of computer equipment were also seized.

According to the GdF the operation was made possible following the introduction of a new system developed by the leading national media groups which enables the tracking of digital copies online. It said that the same principles applied in file-sharing cases were utilized in the current investigation.

“The enforcement efforts put in place by the Guardia di Finanza were made even more effective thanks to the innovative method of investigation based on the principle of ‘Follow the Money’,” the GdF said.

The authorities say they were led to the suspects after tracking the financial resources that connect the operators of the pirate sites to the suppliers of the adverts that appeared on their platforms.

According to the GdF a recent study on what it terms “the Italian publishing crisis” revealed that piracy of editorial content resulted in lost sales amounting to 400,000 copies of news articles each day during 2014. It claims that a five-year decline in sales has led to 4,800 jobs being lost in the sector.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

XE Market Analysis: Europe - Jan 29, 2016

The yen plummeted as JGB yields hit record lows after the BoJ shocked markets by announcing that it will impose a -0.1% interest rate on excess reserves from Feb-16. Shock is the right word as BoJ governor Kuroda said recently that did not intend to cut rates on excess reserves, and market analysts had been expecting that any easing move would come in the form of an expansion in the QQE program.

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“Piracy Harms” Are Now Part of U.S. Education Law

With bipartisan support, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) became law late last year, outlining what U.S. public education policy looks like in the years to come.

One of the key changes to its predecessor is a stronger focus on technology. If fully funded, school districts can receive up to a billion dollars to spend on education technology.

What hasn’t been mentioned in any mainstream coverage, however, is that this technology part includes a piracy component.

It turns out that various entertainment industry lobby groups have kept a close eye on the bill. In its most recent disclosure the MPAA lists “content protection” as a lobbying topic related to ESSA, and this hasn’t been in vain.

When reading through the final text we see several mentions of “piracy harms,” always related to education technology. For example, the available funds can be used for all sorts of educational training and development related to the “harms of copyright piracy”

“(i) effectively integrate technology into curricula and instruction (including education about the harms of copyright piracy),” one reference reads.

Piracy harms…

The law doesn’t go into detail on what the harms of online piracy are. This might turn into some interesting discussions down the road as academic studies show varying results.

The addition of the piracy related language is celebrated by the entertainment industries, including the MPAA-backed organization Creative Future. The group lists a thank you note on its website allowing the public to forward the message to Congress.

“Congress did the right thing! [ESSA], which sets new educational standards for our country, ensures that teachers, parents, and staff who are learning about new technologies in order to instruct the next generation of digital citizens must also understand the harms associated with piracy.”

“There is no better time to help students understand copyright than when they are learning how to use the Internet! Now, technology training for educators will also include this important pro-creativity message,” Creative Future adds.

In recent years the MPAA and RIAA have already started to get involved in copyright education. As part of the Center of Copyright Information they helped to create a new curriculum for California schools.

Initially the lesson materials were rather one-sided, lacking a proper mention of issues such as fair use and alternatives to standard copyright licenses. After a public outcry, this was eventually changed in an updated version of the lesson materials.

Continuing down this path, it’s expected that various copyright groups will now reach out to educators to assist them with training and education related to the harms of piracy.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

XE Market Analysis: Asia - Jan 28, 2016

The dollar was mostly lower in N.Y. trade on Thursday, with sentiment dented by a very weak U.S. durables report, which highlighted the Fed's data-dependent outlook, and pushed back most rate hike expectations to June from March. EUR-USD posted seven-session highs of 1.0967, as USD-JPY was capped ahead of 119, before falling back under 118.60. Focus now shifts to the BoJ, where the market has been pushing for further stimulus moves. We expect however, that Mr. Kuroda will not bite, and remain in a wait-and-see stance.

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The Pirate Bay’s Mobile Domain Suspended By Registrar

After many years of virtual stagnation on the development front, during the summer of 2014 The Pirate Bay announced the launch of a new site.

Designed especially for mobile devices, TheMobileBay.org provided a new and clean interface rather than a simply scaled-down version of its existing site.

As can be seen in the image below, the new layout got rid of the clutter and made the site much more easy to navigate on phones and tablets.

The new vs. old mobile look

Since the launch of TheMobileBay.org 18 months ago users of mobile devices have been automatically diverted to this special version of The Pirate Bay. However, this week those diversions faltered and then completely broke down. The reason, once again, is that The Pirate Bay has lost yet another domain.

Like several other Pirate Bay domains in recent months, TheMobileBay.org has been suspended by its registrar. Back in December the site’s .LA, .GD, .MN and .VG domains were all listed as “clienthold” by registrar 1API GmbH, and now TheMobileBay.org has suffered the same fate.

As a result of these fresh domain troubles The Pirate Bay is currently not reachable by visiting TheMobileBay.org. Additionally, those visiting ThePirateBay.se can’t access it either, unless they instruct their browsers to access the desktop version of the site instead. Sadly even this has its drawbacks as it’s the old, mobile-unfriendly version of the site that loads.

While mobile users of the site will be variously denied access to the site or simply disappointed by a return to the old layout, the loss of TheMobileBay.org domain will be felt strongly in the UK. For reasons that remain unclear, since its launch The Mobile Bay has not been blocked by UK ISPs, meaning that users have been able to evade the High Court blockade won by rightsholders in 2013.

Considering The Pirate Bay’s standing it’s likely that a copyright holder complaint triggered the suspension of The Mobile Bay, but that hasn’t been officially confirmed.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Apartment rents soar 5% in 4th Quarter; vacancies decline back to generational low

This morning's release on the apartment vacancy rate and median asking rents was a true "Holy Cr*p!" moment.  To cut to the chase, the median asking rent for an apartment in the US jumped by over 5% in the 4th Quarter alone!  YoY the increase is about 7%.  Here's the graph showing the damage:  

 

 

 

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XE Market Analysis: North America - Jan 28, 2016

The dollar traded mixed, moderately firmer against the yen and euro, though stalling, in the case against the latter, for a second day above 1.0900, but losing ground to sterling, which posted a relief rally on preliminary UK Q4 GDP data, and the commodity currencies. This price action was seen amid divergent themes, with stocks in Asia finishing mixed, oil prices rallying to fresh rebound highs, but European shares tipping lower amid weak earnings reports and weaker than expected confidence readings out of the Eurozone and the UK.

[EUR, USD]

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DVD Screener Piracy Could Be Stamped Out…But Not Yet

When perusing various file-sharing sites throughout the year it’s not uncommon to find posts which inquire when users can expect to find DVD screener copies of brand new films for illegal download.

Indeed, the practice is so common these days that when one types “when do dv” into Google the search engine helpfully autocompletes the question.

The point is that the leaking of DVD screeners online every year is all but guaranteed and there doesn’t appear to be a single thing that Hollywood can do about it. This past Christmas leaks descended into a massive free-for-all, prompting angry industry executives to slam the attacks on their industry.

So assuming that most or all Hollywood executives really do believe that screener leaks aren’t free promotion, why after years of unrelenting leaks isn’t their security much better?

Well, according to Variety it seems like a straightforward case of failing to adapt to the digital age, topped off with a fear of – wait for it – piracy.

The most obvious approach would be to stop sending out physical discs to Oscar voters, granting them access to streaming copies instead. However, according to the report studio executives are worried that providing multiple secure digital video delivery platforms will lead to confusion and even stop people from voting.

Perhaps the great irony here is that in comparison pirates have to jump through many hoops to get hold of leaked screeners online yet are able to do so in their millions, despite it not being part of their job. Viewing apathy is not part of the equation. Are awards voters really that disinterested in movies?

Apparently the MPAA is aware that forcing awards voters to use multiple video platforms could act as a deterrent to watching screeners so is reportedly working with an outside vendor to supply an app that will provide a single point of access.

Interestingly there is no such app available to the general public who are forced to subscribe to dozens of services if they want access to all movies.

But things get really bizarre when one reads about the discussions surrounding potential platforms for the distribution of digital screeners. Prime Focus Technologies offers a service called SecureScreener which it says eliminates the need for DVD copies.

“Have peace of mind with CLEAR’s Secure Player as it is unbreakable. It cleverly blocks any download attempt so you know your content is safe,” the company explains.

“And to top it, it offers high-quality viewing experience so your users don’t miss the DVD feel. No more wait for feedback – Access to information like who viewed, liked, shared, and downloaded your content at your fingertips, literally!”

The system even offers a double verification system involving a username and password combo backed up a special code sent to the designated viewer’s (voter’s) cell phone. But somewhat hilariously this is apparently too advanced for some awards voters.

“Some film reps are concerned that not all Academy voters have cell phones to receive text notification,” Variety reports.

But even for those that do, the studios are still concerned about how screeners will be viewed if delivered digitally.

Will voters watch the movie on a smartphone and lose the cinematic experience? will they watch on a tablet and miss out on a meticulously arranged soundtrack? One can hear Tarantino wringing his hands right now, torn between a pre-release of The Hateful Eight and an Ultra Panavision extravaganza being displayed on a 7″ tablet.

So while millions of Hollywood’s customers are yearning for content to be delivered to them digitally in every possible way, the studios appear to be hamstrung by fears that industry voters – the people one might hope are on the cutting edge – can’t be universally trusted with anything more advanced than a DVD.

Of course, times will eventually change and following the DVD screener debacle of 2015, a greater urgency is definitely required to avoid a repeat in 2016/17 and beyond. Whatever happens though, it’s likely that the DVD screener has a few more years in it yet. And that will be great news for pirates.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.