Posts by Prophet

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Liberty Global has further increased its stake in ITV plc with the acquisition of
138.7 million shares.

Already the largest shareholder in the commercial broadcaster, the Virgin Media owner now speaks for approximately 9.9% of shares. It’s been financed through a hedging transaction, which combined with amending an existing hedging transaction with respect to ITV shares, will result in net cash being released to Liberty Global.

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said: “Given ITV’s operating and stock price performance, we were able to increase our stake to 9.9% with no incremental investment by hedging our existing equity position. This investment remains an opportunistic one for us in our largest market. ITV is a well-run company with attractive growth potential, and we are pleased to increase our position as their largest shareholder.”

Liberty Global acquired its initial 6.4% stake in ITV in July 2014 at a cost of £481 million, purchasing the remaining holding in the company by BSkyB.

Given the level of investment no regulatory approval is required.

Source : http://www.broadbandtvnews.com…y-takes-itv-stake-to-9-9/

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Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks has finalised its acquisition of Dutch premium movie service Film1 following regulatory approval from the European Commission.

SPT now fully owns and operates the five premium pay TV channels under the Film1 umbrella along with its Film1 Go service, and the business reports to Kate Marsh, SPT’s EVP, Networks, Western Europe.

“The acquisition of Film1 marks a key move into the Dutch market and underlines our continued commitment to grow our highly successful and diverse suite of channels across Europe,” said Kate Marsh said.

“Film1 complements and expands our successful Networks portfolio and we are looking forward to working with all our partners to continue to build on the success of the Film1 proposition.”

All five Film1 channels continue to be carried on the Ziggo cable TV platform, including the former UPC platform, as well as KPN, M7 and other current distribution partners in the Netherlands.

The five Film1 channels include Film1 Premiere, Film1 Action, Film1 Comedy & Kids, Film1 Spotlight and Film1 Sundance, and feature world class premium movies from Dreamworks, Fox, Paramount, MGM and Warner Bros. and are also home to the market’s leading independent film offer. The Film1 Go service is available to all Film1 channel subscribers on PCs, tablets and smartphones.

The acquisition further expands Sony Pictures Television Networks’ Western Europe footprint which also includes Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland. Last year, SPT acquired CSC Media, making SPT the No. 5 cable/satellite/multichannel player in the UK market in commercial ad views.

Source : http://www.broadbandtvnews.com…ctures-closes-film1-deal/

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Sky has published its results for the year ending June 30th 2015, the first to include the results of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland following their acquisition in November, reporting a 5 per cent increase in group revenue to €15.941 billion.

Jeremy Darroch, Group Chief Executive, said the past 12 months had been an outstanding period of growth for Sky. “We’ve successfully completed a deal that has transformed the size and scale of opportunity for the business whilst delivering an excellent financial and operational performance as more customers chose Sky and took more of our products.”

“It’s clear that the steps we have taken to broaden out our business are paying off. By distributing our content over multiple platforms and launching new products and services, we are now able to offer something for every household. The strength of the customer response is evident in our results: across the group, we added almost one million new customers over the year, 45 per cent more than the prior year. Our operating momentum delivered a 5 per cent increase in revenues which combined with a relentless focus on costs to achieve an 18 per cent increase in operating profit. This was an excellent performance in a year of such change for the business,” he declared.

“The UK and Ireland, where our strategy is most progressed, put in a particularly strong performance. We passed the 12 million customer milestone with the highest growth in 11 years; we surpassed 38 million paid-for subscription products; and we delivered the lowest churn in 11 years. This is the direct result of the investments we’ve made in connected services and quality content with more than 7 million customers now connected.”

“Germany and Italy also posted strong performances. Germany delivered its highest-ever customer growth, while Italy maintained its subscriber base in a tough market. Both businesses also achieved significantly increased customer loyalty, thanks to continued investment in the customer experience.”

“This has been a big year on screen. Across the portfolio, we’ve secured a series of big rights deals and made exciting progress in our push into original content. Crime drama Fortitude and Italian political drama 1992 became the first of our home-grown dramas to launch simultaneously across all five territories and there’s much to look forward to. We’re taking another step up in 2016 with a string of new commissioned dramas.”

“Looking ahead, we see an expanded opportunity for growth by serving the market broadly with multiple products and services. The investments we have made have given us a strong platform on which to build and we have a clear set of plans to deliver long-term growth and returns for our shareholders,” he concluded.

In terms of headline figures, Sky claimed “excellent” financial performance, with a 5 per cent increase in group revenue to £11.283 billion (€15.941bn), with an 18 per cent increase in operating profit to £1.4 billion. It also witnessed what it described as growing customer demand and loyalty, with 973,000 new customer additions, 45 per cent more than the prior year, and 4.6 million new paid-for subscription products. Churn, at under 10 per cent in each market, was described as a “stand-out performance”.

According to Sky, the year saw strong performance across all five territories, with the highest organic customer growth for 11 years in UK and Ireland to pass the 12 million milestone, as well as the highest-ever customer growth in Germany and Austria. In Italy, the customer base held stable after three years of negative growth.

Paolo Pescatore, Director, Multiplay and Video at CCS Insight, noted that another strong set of results for Sky, despite increasing competition from rivals in all markets. “This is even more significant as key telcos have moved aggressively into its core business” he advised.

“Fundamentally, it underlines the importance of owning a strong portfolio of content across all screens and seeing good uptake across all platforms. Furthermore, it validates Sky’s strategy of broadening its business beyond satellite DTH. Sky is now well placed to grow the business in other markets, but Italy still remains a challenging market. However, this should be bolstered by standout performance in the UK and encouraging signs in Germany.”

“We still strongly believe that strategically Vodafone and Sky would make the perfect fit, as their assets would strongly complement each other. Scale will also be important and as we move quickly towards multiplay, content will allow telcos to differentiate their offerings beyond price alone,” he suggested.

In a Q&A session with users of Slashdot this week, Kim Dotcom advised surprised readers not use Mega amid claims of a hostile takeover. Intrigued, TorrentFreak caught up with both Dotcom and his former colleagues at the cloud storage site. Both had plenty to say and it's now clear that previously warm relations have now iced over.

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For the past several years, Kim Dotcom has been the most vocal supporter of Mega.co.nz, the cloud storage site he helped launch in 2013. Two and a half years later, something has gone very sour.

In a Q&A session with Slashdot this week, Dotcom told surprised readers that Mega was to be avoided.

“I’m not involved in Mega anymore. Neither in a managing nor in a shareholder capacity. The company has suffered from a hostile takeover by a Chinese investor who is wanted in China for fraud. He used a number of straw-men and businesses to accumulate more and more Mega shares,” Dotcom explained.

“Recently his shares have been seized by the [New Zealand] government. Which means the NZ government is in control.”

Intrigued, TorrentFreak spoke with Kim Dotcom to find out more about his allegations.

“Mega has experienced a hostile takeover and is no longer in the control of people who care about Internet Freedom. The New Zealand Government and Hollywood have seized a significant share of the company,” Dotcom told TorrentFreak.

“The combined shares seized by the NZ government and Hollywood were significant enough to stop our listing on the New Zealand stock exchange. On the one side Hollywood seized Mega shares of a family trust that was created for the benefit of my children and on the other side Hollywood was lobbying US Senators and credit card companies to stop payment processing for Mega.”

Dotcom says that the efforts of the NZ government and Hollywood meant that Mega couldn’t raise the capital required from the stock market to carry out its business plan. Furthermore, attacks on its abilities to process payments have now “dried up” the company’s cash flow.

“As a result Mega has been forced into bankruptcy territory and recently had to raise new capital at an insanely low valuation of NZD 10 million,” Dotcom says.

“This company was worth over 200 million before the NZ government and Hollywood launched their combined effort to destroy Mega. I have always said that this is a political case and the systematic sabotage of Mega is further proof of that.”

All of this leads Dotcom to the conclusion that Mega is no longer a safe site to use.

“As a result of this and a number of other confidential issues I don’t trust Mega anymore. I don’t think your data is safe on Mega anymore. But my non-compete clause is running out at the end of the year and I will create a Mega competitor that is completely open source and non-profit, similar to the Wikipedia model,” Dotcom says.

“I want to give everyone free, unlimited and encrypted cloud storage with the help of donations from the community to keep things going.”

Mega bites back

With shots fired, TorrentFreak spoke with Mega CEO Graham Gaylard and CCO Stephen Hall. Needless to say, they see things quite differently.

“Mega is a New Zealand company privately owned by 17 local and international investors, whose identities are publicly disclosed on the New Zealand Government’s Companies Office website,” Mega told TF.

“Like all start-up companies, Mega has had several rounds of equity investment. More than 75% of shareholders have supported recent equity issues, so there has not been any ‘hostile takeover’, contrary to Mr Dotcom’s assertion. Those shareholders who have decided not to subscribe to recent issues have been diluted accordingly. That has been their choice.”

Turning to the 6% shareholding held by the Dotcom family trust (which is controlled by Mr Dotcom’s estranged wife and is currently subject to a High Court freezing order following a 2014 application by five Hollywood film studios), Mega says there is no cause for alarm.

“That is a matter for the Dotcom family trust and does not concern Mega. The authorities responsible for maintaining the order have not opposed or interfered in any of Mega’s operations,” the company explains.

“Two other shareholdings totaling 7% are subject to a separate restraint ordered by the New Zealand High Court in August 2014. That is also a matter for that investor and does not concern Mega. Mega is not a party to either of the above court proceedings.”

Turning to Kim Dotcom’s claims that Mega is no longer in the hands of people who care about privacy, Mega told TF that isn’t the case.

“Mega continues to be managed by its executive team, supported by a Board of Directors and shareholders, who all care deeply about Internet freedom and privacy and are passionate about supporting Mega’s user-controlled encryption for cloud storage and communication services,” the company says.

Turning to Dotcom himself, the cloud storage site gave its clearest statement yet on its relationship with the German. Mega says that while Dotcom was a co-founder of their operation he was not involved in the design and implementation of Mega technology, resigned as a director in 2013 and has had no managerial role since. Additionally, Mega says that Dotcom has not received any payments or renumeration from the company.

“Mega disagrees with a number of Mr Dotcom’s public comments,” Mega adds.

Turning to the security of Mega itself, the company says that the full source for its client-side software SDK is available on Github and the source for its MEGAsync and mobile applications will be published in due course.

“Mega’s encryption code has been examined by various international experts including the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute without any flaws being found,” the company says.

In closing, Mega issued a statement which indicates a collapse in relations with their co-founder.

“Mega views Mr Dotcom’s defamatory comments as self-serving and designed simply to [promote] his supposed new business venture,” Mega says.

“They are inconsistent with his previous desire to ensure that the shareholding in Mega remains a valuable asset for his children and reflect just how completely Mr Dotcom and Mega have now moved apart if he can make such an unwarranted and irresponsible, defamatory attack,” the company concludes.

In concert with rightsholders and Internet service providers, Portugal has just introduced a mechanism which enables the streamlined blocking of 'pirate' sites. Set to go into effect during mid-August, the system will target sites with more than 500 allegedly infringing links and those whose indexes contain more than 66% infringing content.

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There can be little doubt that one of the most-favored anti-piracy mechanisms of the past several years is that of site-blocking. Rather than tackling sites head on with expensive legal action, rightsholders have domains blocked at the ISP level with the aim of diminishing ease of access and reducing direct traffic.

The strategy is mainly employed around Europe, with the UK standing out as the clear front-runner. Hundreds of domains are now blocked there by local ISPs after several High Court injunctions. Now Portugal has joined the club with a new system that not only aims to speed up the blocking process, but one that could put the UK quickly in the shade.

This week the Ministry of Culture announced the signing of a memorandum between its own General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC), the Portuguese Association of Telecommunication Operators (APRITEL), various rightsholder groups, the body responsible for administering Portugal’s .PT domain and representatives from the advertising industry.

The memorandum lays out a new mechanism for blocking so-called ‘pirate’ sites. In common with similar frameworks elsewhere, the process is initiated by a complaint from a rightsholder association. Local anti-piracy group MAPINET then collates evidence that a site is engaged in the unlawful distribution of copyright works and has failed to cease its activities.

MAPINET subsequently forwards its complaints to the Ministry of Culture where the General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC) conducts an assessment and notifies local Internet service providers of the sites being targeted.

According to reports in local media, the system will target sites with more than 500 allegedly infringing links and those whose indexes contain more than 66% infringing content.

Only two complaints can be filed against pirate sites each month. However, each complaint can contain 50 websites, meaning that 100 sites could become blocked every month. Visitors to those sites will receive a notice in their browser advising them that the site has been blocked.

The memorandum is expected to come into force during the next two weeks so sites could be blocked as early as September.

BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen has earned a spot in the Internet hall of fame already, but he is not yet done with disruptive peer-to-peer technologies. This week Cohen was granted a patent for his BitTorrent-based streaming technology, which may be the start of a new breakthrough.

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Hoping to revolutionize live broadcasting on the Internet, Bram Cohen started working on a new protocol for live streaming video more than half a decade ago.

At the time BitTorrent was believed to be responsible for a third of all Internet traffic. However, streaming services were quickly gaining momentum.

The problem with streaming, live streaming in particular, are high latencies. It can sometimes take up to a minute before a “live” stream reaches the audience.

Cohen solved this problem with a new BitTorrent Live protocol that has a much lower latency while sharing the bandwidth costs among users. This allows anyone to stream to an audience of millions at minimal cost.

This week Bram Cohen’s patent for the live streaming patent was awarded (pdf). According to BitTorrent’s inventor, who still works at the company, his technology can shape the future of live broadcasts.

Two years ago BitTorrent Inc. first demoed the technology in a web-based player, but this project was later discontinued. The company is now working on a new release that will come in the form of a mobile application.

“We’re working on using the technology for a new application, focusing on mobile,” Cohen tells TF.

Mobile live streaming has taken off this year with the release of Periscope and Meerkat. Both apps allow users to start live streams instantly and Cohen says they could make good partners for BitTorrent Live.

“Periscope and Meerkat are applications which use live, where what we have is underlying technology. We may work with them in the future,” he notes.

That said, the true strength of BitTorrent Live becomes apparent when there is a huge audience, not just a few viewers. This means that it will excel at streaming major events such as sports games and breaking news.

“The amount of utility of BitTorrent Live is based on how many people are watching something simultaneously. Big events where everybody is watching the same thing at the same time, like sports, are the best applications,” Cohen tells us.

Since BitTorrent Live shares the distribution costs among viewers, the bandwidth investment for these streams will be minimal compared to current solutions. In addition, latency will also be much lower making these broadcasts ‘more live.’

“Ironically in addition to being much better on bandwidth costs BitTorrent Live also has much lower latency, five seconds instead of 30-60 seconds, which is bordering on tape delayed instead of live,” Cohen says.

Previously BitTorrent Inc. suggested that it could help Netflix to increase its performance. Not with BitTorrent Live, but with the standard BitTorrent streaming technology which will allow Netflix to offer higher quality streams for a fraction of the current costs.

It appears that Netflix realizes the power of BitTorrent-like streaming, as the company is currently working on its own P2P streaming technology.

Eventually Cohen believes that all streaming will go over the Internet, both live and pre-recorded. It is much cheaper than the cable approach, especially with BitTorrent under the hood.

Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN has published details of its operations in the first half of 2015. In addition to pressuring local web hosts to take down 128 file-sharing sites, BREIN says it has obtained a dozen injunctions against those offering digital content without permission, four relating to major BitTorrent uploaders and another against a moderator of one of the largest torrent sites.

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Anti-piracy groups come in all shapes and sizes but one of the most famous is Dutch outfit BREIN. Although its mission has expanded in recent years, BREIN is generally viewed as one of the more aggressive groups doing Hollywood’s bidding in Europe. That has included taking on giants such as The Pirate Bay.

Unlike most groups operating in its field, each year BREIN publishes an overview of its anti-piracy enforcement actions. It’s a broad report that for operational and security reasons tends to leave out specific details. Nevertheless, the highlights of its initial 2015 report provide a useful insight to the outfit’s current focus.

In the first half of the year BREIN continued its threats to local webhosts who offer services to file-sharing sites. While some are less responsive than others, BREIN says 128 ‘illegal’ sites were taken down in this way. Almost two dozen were BitTorrent sites, 37 takedowns hit streaming video portals and two targeted cyberlockers distributing music. The remainder were linking sites used to spread content hosted on cyberlockers and Usenet.

Like its counterparts overseas, BREIN mentions the tendency of ‘pirate’ sites to attempt to hide their locations behind the services of U.S.-based Cloudflare. However, the anti-piracy group says that unmasking sites’ true locations can be achieved upon request.

“BREIN believes that the services provided by CloudFlare to illegal providers should be discontinued after notification by BREIN,” the group adds.

As previously reported, BREIN also took action against several sites helping to distribute Popcorn Time software. The anti-piracy group says it targeted seven in all, with two “fleeing abroad” to be pursued by other copyright enforcers.

Also in the first half of 2015, BREIN says it obtained a total of 12 ex-parte injunctions, i.e court orders against alleged infringers who were not present to defend themselves during the proceedings.

Five of the orders concerned large uploaders, four connected to BitTorrent and the other to Usenet. BREIN said it also obtained an injunction against “an important moderator” on one of the “largest illegal BitTorrent sites”. In line with BREIN policy, the site itself is not named.

Five of the ex-parte orders related to those offering movies and TV shows without permission while two were connected to eBook offerings, one of which was a 13,500 title supplier. Two video game infringement injunctions were also obtained, one of which related to modification of consoles.

In action directed away from individuals, BREIN says it continued with its efforts to have infringing links delisted from Google. In the first half of the year the group says it sent 1.4 million infringement reports to Google, making 10 million reports since the program began in 2012.

BREIN also notes that it targeted various dedicated BitTorrent trackers with requests to “blacklist illegal infohashes”. Two of the trackers reportedly complied but a third “fled abroad” where it is now being pressured by another anti-piracy outfit.

Finally, BREIN reminds everyone that the long-running Pirate Bay blocking case is not over yet. After a big legal defeat in January 2014, BREIN is now taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

The RIAA has obtained subpoenas from a federal court in Columbia ordering domain name registrar Dynadot to hand over the IP and email addresses and all other identifying information related to the operator of the unauthorized music service Soundpiff. In addition, the RIAA notes that the registrar may want to disconnect the site due to its repeated infringements.

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Despite an increased availability of legal options, millions of people still stream MP3s from unofficial sources. These sites are a thorn in the side of the RIAA.

Going after these pirate sites is a problem, according to the music group, as the operators are often unknown and hidden behind Whois privacy services. This is one of the reasons why the RIAA is supporting an ICANN proposal to limit domain name privacy.

But even under current laws and regulations it’s often possible to find out who runs a website, through a DMCA subpoena for example. And a recent case shows that the process isn’t too hard.

A few days ago the RIAA obtained a DMCA subpoena from the U.S. District Court of Columbia ordering domain name registrar Dynadot to expose the personal details of a customer. These subpoenas are signed off by a clerk and don’t require any overview from a judge.

With the subpoena in hand RIAA asked Dynadot to identify the owner of the music streaming site Soundpiff.net, claiming that the site infringes the work of artists such as Eminem, Drake and Selena Gomez. Among other details, the registrar is ordered to share the IP-address and email address of the site’s operator.

“We believe your service is hosting the below-referenced domain name on its network. The website associated with this domain name offers files containing sound recordings which are owned by one or more of our member companies and have not been authorized for this kind of use,” the RIAA writes.

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In addition, the RIAA also urges Dynadot to review whether the site violates its terms of service as a repeat infringer, which means that it should be pulled offline.

“We also ask that you consider the widespread and repeated infringing nature of the site operator(s)’ conduct, and whether the site(s)‘ activities violate your terms of service and/or your company’s repeat infringer policy.”

Soundpiff.net is a relatively small site that allows user to discover, stream and download music tracks. The audio files themselves appear to be sourced from the music hosting service Audioinbox, and are not hosted on the site’s servers.

“On our website you can find links that lead to media files. These files are stored somewhere else on the internet and are not a part of this website. SoundPiff.net does not carry any responsibility for them,” the website’s operator notes.

It is unclear what the RIAA is planning to do if they obtain the personal information of the site owners. In addition to suggesting that Dynadot should disconnect the site as a repeat infringer, the music group will probably issue a warning to the site’s operator.

For now, however, Soundpiff is still up and running.

This is not the first time that the RIAA has gone after similar sites in this way. Over the past several years the group has targeted several other download and streaming sites via their registrars or Whois privacy services. Some of these have closed, but others still remain online today.

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Sweden's most visited pirate streaming site will close this week, forever. The administrator of the site, whose identity is now public, has revealed that police carried out a raid against him earlier this month and detained him for almost four days. This Friday, five years of pirate activity will come to an end.

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While millions associate Sweden with BitTorrent through its connections with The Pirate Bay, over the past several years the public has increasingly been obtaining its content in other ways.

Thanks to cheap bandwidth and an appetite for instant gratification, so-called streaming portals have grown in popularity, with movies and TV shows just a couple of clicks away in convenient Netflix-style interfaces.

Founded in 2011, Swefilmer is currently Sweden’s most popular streaming movie and TV show site. Research last year from Media Vision claimed that 25% of all web TV viewing in the country was carried out on Swefilmer and another similar site, Dreamfilm.

According to Alexa the site is currently the country’s 100th most popular domain, but in the next three days it will shut down for good.

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The revelation comes from the site’s admin, who has just been revealed as local man Ola Johansson. He says that a surprise and unwelcome visit made it clear that he could not continue.

In a YouTube video posted yesterday, Johansson reports that earlier this month he was raided by the police who seized various items of computer equipment and placed him under arrest.

“It’s been a tough month to say the least. On 8 July, I received a search by the police at home. I lost a computer, mobile phone and other things,” Johansson says.

While most suspects in similar cases are released after a few hours or perhaps overnight, Johansson says he was subjected to an extended detention.

ola“I got to sit in jail for 90 hours. When I came out on Monday [after being raided on Wednesday] the site had been down since Friday,” he explains.

The Swede said he noticed something was amiss at the beginning of July when he began experiencing problems with the Russian server that was used to host the site’s videos.

“It started when all things from OK.ru disappeared. That’s the service where we have uploaded all the videos,” Johansson says.

While the site remains online for now, the Swede says that this Friday Swefilmer will close down for good. The closure will mark the end of an era but since he is now facing a criminal prosecution that’s likely to conclude in a high-profile trial, Johansson has little choice but to pull the plug.

The site’s considerable userbase will be disappointed with the outcome but there are others that are welcoming the crackdown.

“We are not an anonymous Hollywood studio,” said local director Anders Nilsson in response to the news.

“We are a group of film makers and we will not give up when someone spits in our faces by stealing our movies and putting them on criminal sites to share them in the free world. It is just as insulting as if someone had stolen the purely physical property.”

Aside from creating a gap in the unauthorized streaming market, the forthcoming closure of Swefilmer will have repercussions in the courtroom too, particularly concerning an important legal process currently playing out in Sweden.

Last November, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry filed a lawsuit in the Stockholm District Court against local ISP Bredbandsbolaget (The Broadband Company). It demands that the ISP blocks subscriber access to The Pirate Bay and also Swefilmer.

Even after negotiation Bredbandsbolaget refused to comply, so the parties will now meet in an October hearing to determine the future of website blocking in Sweden.

It is believed that the plaintiffs in the case were keen to tackle a torrent site and a streaming site in the same process but whether Swefilmer will now be replaced by another site is currently unknown. If it does, Dreamfilm could be the most likely candidate.

Google has published an extension for its Chrome browser that fixes a serious security hole that can reveal a user's real IP address even though they're using a VPN. The vulnerability was made headlines in early 2015 and caused a wave of panic but Chrome users can now mitigate the problem with few clicks.

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As large numbers of Internet users wise up to seemingly endless online privacy issues, security products are increasingly being viewed as essential for even basic tasks such as web browsing.

In addition to regular anti-virus, firewall and ad-busting products, users wishing to go the extra mile often invest in a decent VPN service which allow them to hide their real IP addresses from the world. Well that’s the theory at least.

January this year details of a serious vulnerability revealed that in certain situations third parties were able to discover the real IP addresses of Chrome and Firefox users even though they were connected to a VPN.

This wasn’t the fault of any VPN provider though. The problem was caused by features present in WebRTC, an open-source project supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera.

By placing a few lines of code on a website and using a STUN server it became possible to reveal not only users’ true IP addresses, but also their local network address too.

While users were immediately alerted to broad blocking techniques that could mitigate the problem, it’s taken many months for the first wave of ‘smart’ solutions to arrive.

Following on the heels of a Chrome fix published by Rentamob earlier this month which protects against VPN leaks while leaving WebRTC enabled, Google has now thrown its hat into the ring.

Titled ‘WebRTC Network Limiter‘, the tiny Chrome extension (just 7.31KB) disables the WebRTC multiple-routes option in Chrome’s privacy settings while configuring WebRTC not to use certain IP addresses.

In addition to hiding local IP addresses that are normally inaccessible to the public Internet (such as 192.168.1.1), the extension also stops other public IP addresses being revealed.

“Any public IP addresses associated with network interfaces that are not used for web traffic (e.g. an ISP-provided address, when browsing through a VPN) [are hidden],” Google says.

“Once the extension is installed, WebRTC will only use public IP addresses associated with the interface used for web traffic, typically the same addresses that are already provided to sites in browser HTTP requests.”

While both the Google and Rentamob solutions provide more elegant responses to the problem than previously available, both admit to having issues.

“Some WebRTC functions, like VOIP, may be affected by the multiple routes disabled setting. This is unavoidable,” Rentamob explains.

Google details similar problems, including issues directly linked to funneling traffic through a VPN.

“This extension may affect the performance of applications that use WebRTC for audio/video or real-time data communication. Because it limits the potential network paths, WebRTC may pick a path that results in significantly longer delay or lower quality (e.g. through a VPN). We are attempting to determine how common this is,” the company concludes.

After applying the blocks and fixes detailed above, Chrome users can check for IP address leaks by using sites including IPLeak and BrowserLeaks.

Several prominent music groups including the RIAA, A2IM and ASCAP have accused CNET of hosting infringing apps on Download.com. In a letter sent to the CEO of parent company CBS, the groups urge the company to reconsider whether it's wise to offer "ripping" software.

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Despite growing revenue streams from digital music, the music industry still sees online piracy as a significant threat.

This week a coalition of 16 music groups including the RIAA, the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) voiced their concern over so-called “ripping” software.

The groups are not happy with CNET’s Download.com as the software portal offers access to various YouTube downloaders and other stream ripping tools. In a letter to Les Moonves, CEO of CNET’s parent company CBS, they accuse the download portal of offering infringing software.

“[CNET’s Download.com] has made various computer, web, and mobile applications available that induce users to infringe copyrighted content by ripping the audio or the audio and video from what might be an otherwise legitimate stream,” the letter reads.

“We ask that you consider the above in light of industry best practices, your company’s reputation, the clear infringing nature of these applications, and your role in creating a safe, legitimate, and innovative Internet ecosystem,” the groups add.

Despite the strong wording, CBS doesn’t appear to be very impressed by the accusations.

In response cited by Billboard the company notes that “all of the software indexed on Download.com is legal”. According to CBS the mentioned software can be used for legal means and the company notes that this is the responsibility of the user.

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This isn’t the first time that CNET and CBS have been called out for allegedly facilitating piracy. A few years ago a group of artists sued CBS and CNET for their role in distributing uTorrent, LimeWire and other P2P software.

The artists claimed that CNET profits heavily from distributing file-sharing software via Download.com, while demonstrating in editorial reviews how these application can be used to download copyright-infringing material.

The judge eventually ruled in favor of CBS and CNET and said that there was no indication that the companies will purposefully encourage copyright infringement in the future. A software ban would therefore needlessly silence “public discussion of P2P technologies.”

Given CBS’s response to the music group’s recent letter, the current request won’t be effective either.

TF asked RIAA, A2IM and ASCAP for additional details on the letter it sent to CBS but none of the groups replied to our inquiry before publication.

Quote from Glyn

It appears I am the latest victim. I bought the box of Mark Redfern in June and it was delivered quickly and worked fine. I went away for a couple of weeks and when I returned it won't get any channels, not even BBC1 etc. I have tried to contact him but he used a FB name of Mark Jones and is no longer on FB - and of course, I never had a phone number. i wish I had read this thread before I bought!!

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I have a phone number for Mark Redfern which appears on my bank statement - but he doesn't answer or call back. Hoho!! Would it be okay for me to post the phone number here??

Sorry but we would prefer no personal details posted here, thank you for warning members all the same

thanks for the post, will move it to the 4K Ultra HD section to keep things together

Closed - be greatful your not taking a holiday

Crystal Palace v Sporting Lisbon in the Cape Town Trophy

10 East - 11005 - H - 7120 - FTA HD

The MPAA has revived its legal campaign against piracy sites with a new lawsuit against movie streaming platform MovieTube. The people behind MovieTube allegedly operate a group of infringing sites and the studios are demanding millions of dollars in damages. The first success may have already been booked, as all mentioned sites are currently offline.

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Unauthorized movie streaming sites have been a thorn in the side of Hollywood for many years, and yesterday the MPAA decided to take one of the most prominent players to court.

MPAA members 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros filed a lawsuit against a group of MovieTube affiliated websites, which operate from more than two dozen domain names.

In the complaint, filed at a New York District Court a few hours ago, the movie studios describe MovieTube as a business that’s designed and operated to promote copyright infringement for profit.

The MPAA lists several popular websites including MovieTube.cc, TuneVideo.net, Watch33.tv, MovieTube.cz, Anime1.tv, MovieTube.pm, FunTube.co, MovieTube.la and KissDrama.net. These sites share hosting facilities and a similar design and the studios believe that they are operated by the same people.

The websites in question are typical streaming sites, where users can watch videos and in some cases download the source files to their computers.

“Defendants, through the MovieTube Websites, aggregate, organize and provide embedded links to extensive libraries of Infringing Copies of Plaintiffs’ Works,” the compliant (pdf) reads.

“…users can watch Infringing Copies without leaving the MovieTube Websites. The MovieTube Websites even allow users, in some instances, to download Infringing Copies by clicking on a selection from a menu built into the video player software supplied by Defendants.”

According to the MPAA, MovieTube’s operators are well aware of the infringing nature of their site. On one of their Facebook pages they write that it’s not a problem that many films are pirated, since they are not bound by U.S. laws.

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The complaint accuses MovieTube of various counts of copyright and trademark infringement. This means that the site’s operators face millions of dollars in statutory damages.

Perhaps more importantly, the MPAA is also demanding a broad preliminary injunction to make it virtually impossible for the operators to keep their sites online.

Among other things, the proposed measures would prevent domain registrars, domain registries, hosting companies, advertisers and other third-party outfits from doing business with the site.

If granted, MovieTube’s operators will have a hard time keeping the sites afloat, but it appears that the injunction may not even be needed.

At the time of writing all MovieTube domain names are unreachable. It is unclear whether the operators took this decision themselves, but for now the future of these sites looks grim.

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The full list of sites mentioned in the complaint is as follows: MovieTube.tw, MovieTube.ph, TVStreaming.cc, MovieTube.sx, MovieTube.pw, MovieTubeNow.com, MovieTube.tf, MovieTube.co, MovieOnDrive.com, MovieTube.vc, TuneVideo.net, MovieTube.mn, MovieTube.cc, Watch33.tv, MovieTube.cz, Anime1.tv, MovieTube.pm, FunTube.co, MovieTube.la, KissDrama.net, MovieTube.so, MovieTube.click, MovieTubeHD.co, MovieTubeHD.net, MovieTubeHD.org, MovieTubeHD.tv, MovieTubeHD.us, MovieTubenow.in and TuneMovie.me.

A five year-old case billed by prosecutors as the largest of its kind to go trial in Sweden has ended in disappointment for Hollywood. Accused of administering an infamous 'Scene' topsite known as 'Devil', the defendant faced copyright infringement charges on more than 2,200 movies. He's just received probation and community service.

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After tracking down hundreds of Internet pirates over the years, a case that came to a head at the turn of the decade was shaping up to be one of the most important for anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån (now Rights Alliance).

More often focused on lower-hanging fruit, Antipiratbyrån had their eyes on the “warez scene”, the people and infrastructure at the very top of the so-called “piracy pyramid” from where content trickles down to the masses.

In 2010 and following a lengthy investigation by Antipiratbyrån, police raided a topsite known as ‘Devil’. Topsites are top-secret, high-speed servers used by piracy release groups and their affiliates for storing and distributing unauthorized copyrighted content. When Devil went down dozens of servers were seized, together containing an estimated 250 terabytes of pirate content.

One man was also arrested but it took until 2014 for him to be charged with unlawfully making content available “intentionally or by gross negligence.”

According to police the 50-something year old man from Väsby, Sweden, acted “in consultation or in concert with other persons, supplied, installed, programmed, maintained, funded and otherwise administered and managed” the Devil file-sharing network. Before its shutdown, Devil was reported to service around 200 elite members.

Considering Antipiratbyrån’s links with the movie industry it came as no surprise that the charges included the unlawful making available of 2,250 mainly Hollywood movies. According to the prosecutor, those numbers made the case a record breaker.

“We have not prosecuted for this many movies in the past. There are many movies and large data set,” prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad commented earlier. “It is also the largest analysis of computers ever made in an individual case.”

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Given the scale of the case it was expected that punishments would be equally harsh but things did not play out that way.

Despite admitting that he operated servers at his home and in central Stockholm and the court acknowledging that rightsholders had suffered great damage, the man has just been sentenced to probation and 160 hours of community service.

According to Mitti.se, two key elements appear to have kept the man’s punishment down. Firstly, he cooperated with police in the investigation. Secondly – and this is a feature in many file-sharing prosecutions – the case simply dragged on for too long.

“It is worrying that the bottleneck at the police has affected the sentence,” says Sara Lindbäck of Rights Alliance.

Defense lawyer Henrik Olsson Lilja says that he’s pleased his client has avoided jail but adds that no decision has yet been made on any appeal. That being said, an end to the criminal case doesn’t necessarily mean the matter is completely over.

Last year Rights Alliance indicated that the six main studios behind the prosecution might initiate a civil action against the man and demand between $673,400 and $2.69m per title infringed, albeit on a smaller sample-sized selection of the 2,250 movies involved in the case.

No announcement has been made on that front and Rights Alliance did not respond to our requests for comment.

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The European Commission has sent a Statement of Objections on cross-border provision of pay-TV services available in UK and Ireland.

The statement was sent to Sky UK and six major US film studios: Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros.

The Commission takes the preliminary view that each of the six studios and Sky UK have bilaterally agreed to put in place contractual restrictions that prevent Sky UK from allowing EU consumers located elsewhere to access, via satellite or online, pay-TV services available in the UK and Ireland.

Without these restrictions, Sky UK would be free to decide on commercial grounds whether to sell its pay-TV services to such consumers requesting access to its services, taking into account the regulatory framework including, as regards online pay-TV services, the relevant national copyright laws.

If the Commission’s preliminary position were to be confirmed, each of the companies would have breached EU competition rules prohibiting anti-competitive agreements. The sending of a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

“European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of where they live or travel in the EU,” said EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager.

“Our investigation shows that they cannot do this today, also because licensing agreements between the major film studios and Sky UK do not allow consumers in other EU countries to access Sky’s UK and Irish pay-TV services, via satellite or online. We believe that this may be in breach of EU competition rules. The studios and Sky UK now have the chance to respond to our concerns.”

US film studios typically license audio-visual content, such as films, to a single pay-TV broadcaster in each Member State (or combined for a few Member States with a common language).

The Commission’s investigation, which was opened in January 2014, identified clauses in licensing agreements between the six film studios and Sky UK which require Sky UK to block access to films through its online pay-TV services (so-called “geo-blocking”) or through its satellite pay-TV services to consumers outside its licensed territory (UK and Ireland).

The Commission previously also set out concerns as regards licensing agreements between the film studios and other major European broadcasters (Canal Plus of France, Sky Italia of Italy, Sky Deutschland of Germany and DTS of Spain).

Source : http://www.broadbandtvnews.com…e-against-sky-us-studios/

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Ultra HD programming is expected to see strong take-up rates globally, with failure to invest now will mean a failure to tap into its growing premium revenues, according to Alan Crisp, Analyst at satellite industry market research and consulting services firm NSR.

Writing in NSR’s ‘Bottom Line’ Blog, Crisp says that despite continuing concerns about OTT threatening the future growth of Linear TV (which are for the most part unwarranted), Ultra HD, with its premium nature, is being seen as a fresh way to grow DTH, Cable and IPTV businesses further worldwide.

“While 3DTV never really took off, Ultra HD investment has risen to new highs, with seemingly every few weeks another DTH platform announcing its Ultra HD intentions, trials, or commercial broadcast. Just last week Sky Deutschland secured more capacity in order to commence Ultra HD broadcasts, and the Polish public broadcaster, TVP is trialling Ultra HD on terrestrial television in Warsaw. Don’t be surprised to see more Ultra HD announcements coming to a DTH platform near you,” he advises.

According to NSR’s recently released Linear TV via Satellite: DTH, OTT & IPTV, 8th Edition, the number Ultra HD channels broadcasting will accelerate longer term with growth of the new format in every region worldwide, developing and developed

On DTH platforms, by 2024 NSR expects Ultra HD linear content to consume approx. 70 transponders globally from 315+ Ultra HD channels. This equates to an estimated additional $185M in leasing revenues from Ultra HD content on DTH alone. This means in 2024, Ultra HD represents 1.2 per cent of capacity globally on Ku-band DTH – a niche market, but one which is highly sought after by the premium market.

For video distribution to Cable and IPTV headends, a similar trend emerges: 180 Ultra HD channels on Ku-band and 75 channels on C-band, leading to a combined total of 57 transponders, roughly 4 per cent of global distribution capacity on all bands attributed to Ultra HD, leading to an even larger $219 million in leasing revenues.

“NSR previously noted that SD programming is the largest driver for subscribers, revenues, and channels in developing (high growth) regions. Whilst NSR sees SD to be the largest growth opportunity in these regions, Ultra HD plays a key supplemental role at targeting those with increasingly higher levels of disposable income available. This is the view that DTH platforms in India took when they publicly announced their Ultra HD plans, with sports content now available in the format, likewise with Tricolor TV in Russia when they are expected to launch their Ultra HD channel in the next year,” reports Crisp.

“On the other hand in developed regions, where subscriber growth remains low, and in the United States in some instances declining, Ultra HD is poised to be a way to move customers from basic TV packages, primarily SD content, towards premium and ultra-premium services, thus increasing ARPU and revenue growth. KT SkyLife in Korea and Sky PerfecTV in Japan are already broadcasting 24 hours per day a variety of content on their linear streams. Both markets are already quite saturated with pay-TV, but they intend for Ultra HD to increase revenues from their existing subscriber bases,” he notes.

“Ultra HD isn’t limited to the realm of Linear TV – in fact far from it. The popularity of the format has already been demonstrated in North America and elsewhere with the success of the Ultra HD subscriber base on Netflix, where not only is Netflix able to charger higher monthly fees for Ultra HD access, but actually been successful in convincing customers to join this highest tier. Higher ARPUs from Ultra HD content have already been demonstrated,” he observes.

According to Crisp, this combined with the fact that Ultra HD TV sets are now lower in price than ever before, with Sharp now selling Ultra HD TV sets for under $600, means that Linear TV will follow in the footsteps of OTT services and start broadcasting content soon in the new format.

“Although these OTT services are cutting into viewing hours of traditional Linear TV content, it is NSR’s view that there remain very compelling reasons for consumers to continue subscribing and paying for Linear content – most notably movies, sports, and other live events. What’s notable is this is the exact type of content that is first being filmed in Ultra HD – movies and sports. Without an Ultra HD service in the medium-term, Linear TV may appear to be a lower quality service compared to OTT in regions that are offering Ultra HD content. Thus implementing Ultra HD for sports content adds yet another compelling reason for customers to sign-up and remain subscribers for pay TV services. With Netflix, YouTube and other OTT platforms already serving Ultra HD content and consumer awareness and familiarity of Ultra HD rising, consumers in developed regions will come to expect Ultra HD content on their pay TV services, sooner rather than later. No wonder satellite operators are upping their investment for these high quality products,” he says.

In conclusion, Crisp says that Ultra HD programming is expected to see strong take-up rates globally, with fastest growth expected in North America and the weakest in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Although SD content is driving growth in developing regions, providing Ultra HD content is important to capture the higher levels of spending that some in these markets can afford. While the satellite capacity requirements over the long-term are a niche market, it is an important niche that will drive Linear TV platforms towards higher ARPUs and revenues. The upward trend for Ultra HD is clearer than ever, and a failure to invest now will mean a failure to tap into its growing premium revenues,” he warns.

Source : http://advanced-television.com…hd-an-ultra-growth-story/