Posts by Prophet

Premier League set for TV revolution with EVERY GAME available for streaming under £4billion new deal

There is the real possibility that Premier League matches could be played throughout the week to maximise the money-making potential

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Every Premier League game could be shown live on television inside the next five years as football embraces the biggest broadcasting revolution since 1992.

*** and BT Sport may be currently preparing their bids for the next television deal which kicks in for the 2016-17 season.

But the expected £4billion showdown will be peanuts if television and telecoms companies are given the go-ahead to take full advantage of streaming technology when that agreement expires in 2019.

Sunday Mirror Sport understands that there is a growing desire to give fans the opportunity to watch every single game live from the comfort of their own homes.

Viewing platforms will be linked to broadband packages - making satellite dishes obsolete.

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It means companies like Google and Apple will be well placed to challenge *** and BT Sport for the right to provide services.

And it also opens up the possibility of Premier League matches being played throughout the week to maximise the money-making potential.

Plans are still at an early stage, but the technology is already up and running, with growing numbers of supporters taking advantage of illegal streams via overseas providers.

The feeling is that the clubs themselves should be cashing in on those illicit viewers.

A telecoms source said: "There is absolutely nothing that can be done to stop fans in England watching live Premier League games via internet streams from abroad.

"At the moment, the clubs aren't earning a single penny from these viewers.

"There is a growing belief that the Premier League should look to cash in."

The huge financial potential of live streaming has to be balanced with the desire to ensure that attendances inside Premier League stadia remain high.

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Cashing in: The Premier League will get another huge payday in the new deal

And one of the possibilities being examined is to incorporate a 'black-out zone' within an agreed radius of grounds.

However, the financial projections of allowing live streaming of all games are so lucrative that gate receipts would become an insignificant part of clubs' revenue streams.

There is even a belief that clubs would be able to significantly reduce ticket prices to reward the fans who go through the turnstiles every week.

The bidding process for the next television deal, from the 2016-17 season, has already begun.

There will be 168 matches shown live, with up to 10 being shown on Friday nights.

It is estimated that the domestic deal alone will smash through the £4billion barrier - or about £7million per game.

But even those figures are seen to represent just a fraction of Premier League football's true financial potential.

Anyone expecting a swift conclusion to the current investigation into The Pirate Bay should stop holding their breath. According to prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad the process involves processing lots of evidence and will take many months to complete. But who else is on the prosecutor's radar?

Yesterday was the one month anniversary of the December 9, 2014 raid on The Pirate Bay. To this day the site remains down.

First week aside, most news has focused on the fate of the notorious site and whether it will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. There have been numerous teasers from people with access to The Pirate Bay’s main domain, thepiratebay.se, but no concrete signs either way.

But while millions of former users adjust to life without the site, authorities have remained fairly tight-lipped about when their investigation began and the position it’s at today. There are signs, however.

In 2012 it became evident that new action was being planned against the site when the Pirate Bay team revealed the existence of a new investigation. Just days later Swedish hosting company Binero confirmed that they had been approached by the police for information about the site’s domain.

Then, as predicted, in April 2013 prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad filed a motion at the District Court of Stockholm requesting the seizure of several Pirate Bay domains.

Shortly after, Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm was questioned in prison, a visit which confirmed the existence of a new investigation involving Swedish anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån and led by Ingblad.

Outwardly things went quiet in the months that followed but in November 2014 there was a significant development. The Pirate Bay’s Fredrik Neij was arrested, ostensibly to serve the sentence handed down for his previous involvement in the site.

However, emails obtained by TorrentFreak revealed Hollywood insiders discussing new criminal charges against Neij for his alleged continued involvement in the site.

Also of interest but not revealed until today, TF understands that last year Thai police were briefed on a number of individuals said to be involved in The Pirate Bay’s operations.

One of those individuals was a man employed at a hosting company back in Sweden, but not the company that was raided in December. After obtaining his photograph from a police briefing document TorrentFreak approached the man himself and also Rights Alliance lawyer Henrik Ponten for more information. Neither responded to our requests for comment.

The task ahead for Swedish authorities is said to be substantial. In the December raid large amounts of equipment and other evidence was seized and that will have to be systematically processed as the days unfold. According to prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad, that will take a considerable time.

“[The Pirate Bay] was seized, everything needs to be reviewed and analyzed. It will take many months to do so,” Ingblad said this week.

The big question now is whether Ingblad’s team will be investigating a dead site or one that has already risen from the ashes. They are watching, he confirmed.

“We will keep track of what happens,” the prosecutor added.

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The major movie studios are considering lawsuits against hosting providers in the U.S, and abroad. The MPAA specifically mentions the Dutch hoster LeaseWeb as a potential target, claiming that it frequently does business with pirate sites. LeaseWeb is surprised to be mentioned as a potential target and is not aware of any wrongdoing.

Last month a leaked document from the MPAA exposed Hollywood’s global anti-piracy priorities for the coming years.

The leak revealed where the movie studios would focus their efforts, with file-hosting and streaming sites among the top targets.

The same data breach also included a more in-depth overview of the anti-piracy plans which were previously unreported. This new leak comes from an email the MPAA sent to the movie studio’s top executives October last year and provides additional background.

One of MPAA’s main anti-piracy priorities are file-hosting services, often referred to as cyberlockers. As part of the strategy to deal with this threat the movie studios plan to sue the site’s hosting providers.

The two items below reveal Dutch hosting provider LeaseWeb is named as one of the possible targets. The MPAA also leaves the option open to go after “recalcitrant” hosters in the United States, if these choose not to cooperate.

- Litigation against a significant hosting provider in the Netherlands (e.g., Leaseweb).
– Outreach to hosting providers in the US, where sufficient legal precedent exists (potentially to be followed by litigation against recalcitrant US hosting providers).

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In a specific section describing its strategy towards hosting services the MPAA also notes that it will put a “political spotlight and pressure” on hosting providers who make a lot of revenue from pirate sites.

In addition the MPAA plans to make criminal referrals against hosting companies, accusing them of money laundering and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

Interestingly, it’s unclear whether the criminal route will be successful as the document mentions that the U.S. Government may be reluctant to take these on “given difficulty with Megaupload case.”

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LeaseWeb is surprised to learn that they are referenced in these MPAA documents. According to the company’s Senior Regulatory Counsel Alex de Joode there is no reason why they should be considered a target.

“There is no basis or ground for the MPAA to target any LeaseWeb company as part of its anti-piracy strategy,” De Joode tells TF.

“LeaseWeb companies that provide services to third parties have stringent policies to which cloud storage providers and video streaming sites must adhere, and which ensure rights holders can enforce their rights effectively. All LeaseWeb companies also have efficient abuse notification procedures in place, and act quickly upon takedown requests,” he adds.

LeaseWeb operates various companies, also in the United States, but the MPAA’s plan suggests that a possible lawsuit would take place in the Netherlands.

Thus far, however, LeaseWeb hasn’t seen any signs of or reasons for a potential lawsuit. In fact, they maintain a good relationship with the local Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group BREIN with which they have regular meetings in the Netherlands.

“Neither BREIN nor the MPAA has informed any LeaseWeb company that the MPAA may consider any of the LeaseWeb companies a target as part of its anti-piracy strategy or why such may be the case. The only reason that we can think of for ‘LeaseWeb’ to be on the list is that we are a big brand and big player in the hosting business, and as a group of companies have a vast and fast network.”

LeaseWeb is indeed a major player in the hosting business. It previously provided hundreds of servers to the now defunct Megaupload, and still serves many streaming sites and file-hosting services.

For now, no lawsuits against hosting providers have been filed by the MPAA. Whether or not this will happen depends in part on the level of funding the major movie studios are willing to contribute to the laid out anti-piracy proposals.

'Hacktivist' group Anonymous says it will avenge Charlie Hebdo attacks by shutting down jihadist websites

Hacker group Anonymous have released a video condemning the Paris attacks, saying "freedom of expression has suffered an inhuman assault"

(sorry the video is in French)

Hacker group Anonymous have released a video and a statement via Twitter condemning the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people, including eight journalists, were murdered.

The video description says that it is "a message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists", and was uploaded to the group's Belgian account.

In the clip, a figure wearing the group's symbolic Guy Fawkes mask is seated in front of a desk with the hashtag #OpCharlieHebdo - which stands for Operation Charlie Hebdo - featured on screen.

The figure, whose voice is obscured says: "We are declaring war against you, the terrorists."

They add that the group will track down and close all accounts on social networks related to terrorists in order to avenge those who have been killed.

This is backed up with a statement entitled "a message to the enemies of freedom of expression" posted to Pastebin, the hacker collective offered their condolences to "the families of the victims of this cowardly and despicable act".

They write "freedom of expression has suffered inhuman assault ... and it is our duty to react".

Anonymous are a group comprised of activists and hackers who claim to defend and protect democracy.

In the past the group have carried out cyber attacks on government, religious, and corporate websites by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks which attempt to overwhelm an online service with traffic from numerous sources so that users can no longer access it.

An unprecedented fast flood of leaked 'screener' copies of movies has hit torrent sites ahead of the official Oscar nominations announcement later this month. The latest Hobbit installment is proving most popular with over 500K downloads in the first 24 hours. None of the movies comes from a traditional 'scene' source.

While some pirates are content with downloading and viewing so-called ‘cam’ releases of the latest movies, few will be happy with the quality. Movies recorded surreptitiously in cinemas with home-made rigs can produce reasonable results but nothing beats the sparkle of a digital copy.

Filling that gap are DVD screeners, the advance copies of recent movies sent out to critics and awards voters. Often in DVD format (but now also in Blu-ray), these high quality releases are much sought after online and as a result are subjected to intense security by the studios sending them out.

But despite all the efforts, leaks always happen. Every year copies of DVD screeners (identified by the term DVDSCR) turn up on torrent sites and are downloaded in huge numbers. December and January are the key months for leaks and yesterday downloaders hit the jackpot.

Over the past 24 hours copies of at least nine big movies leaked online in decent quality, all apparently sourced from industry DVD screeners.

The Hobbit is a smash hit – without watermarks

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is proving exceptionally popular with BitTorrent users. Statistics gathered by TorrentFreak reveal that the movie was downloaded at least 500,000 times in the first 24 hours.

Several ‘versions’ of the movie exist on torrent sites, each labeled by rival release groups including CM8, EVO, TiTAN, Ozlem and RAV3N. But despite the apparent selection, sources inform TorrentFreak that there is only one true source. Whether that is CM8 remains unclear but in a comment the group revealed that a lot of time was spent removing security watermarks from Peter Jackson’s movie.

“Movie had watermarks visible and invisible ones, had to remove frames to get rid of them,” CM8 said.

“Nothing I haven’t done before. It was hours of work, but its finally done and here for you to get!”

Oscar hopefuls 2015

Yesterday, Indiewire published their Oscar predictions. Their ‘absolute locks’ for Best Picture include “Birdman” (Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis) and “The Imitation Game” (Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley). Both were leaked yesterday.

Also tipped for Best Picture is “Selma“, a chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. Paramount sent DVD screeners to Academy voters in December and the movie leaked yesterday.

Also battling it out for Oscar glory are Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie, and crime thriller Nightcrawler. While the latter was leaked in October, the other titles were in yesterday’s batch.

Rounding off the DVD Screener bonanza are Disney’s Big Hero 6, Into the Woods, and Big Eyes.

From studio to torrent site

Finally, it’s worth highlighting how these titles appeared online. For years one of the most popular routes was via the “The Scene” but in common with more recent times, yesterday’s DVD screeners hit the Internet via P2P/BitTorrent suppliers. These upstarts continue to slice the top off the so-called ‘piracy pyramid’.

According to TorrentFreak sources who asked to remain anonymous, the nine movies came from three different sources. One accounted for the Hobbit and another Big Hero 6. The remaining seven all came from a single source. The encoding on these is described as “choppy” suggesting the leaker may not be an experienced pirate.

Update: More screeners have leaked including The Gambler, Inherent Vice, A Most Violent Year and Kill The Messenger.

Quote from spudly

I was told they would block cable if it was on cccam

who told you that ?

As the battle to block user access to the world's largest torrent sites continues, another website has stepped up to battle censorship. RARBG, one of the most-used torrent sites on the Internet, has just launched PirateSnoop, a free web browser designed to easily skirt web blockades.

Blocking of file-sharing related sites is becoming widespread in Europe, particularly so in the UK. In fact, it’s now almost impossible to access a top torrent site from any of the country’s leading ISPs, with the notable exception of OldPirateBay since the site is so new.

Users in the United States can’t rest easy either. As reported here in December, the MPAA is working hard to introduce site-blocking by utilizing creative interpretations of existing law. It seems unlikely that Hollywood will stop until it gets its way.

It’s becoming clear that Internet users everywhere will need to prepare if they want unfettered access to the Internet. While that can be achieved using premium services such as VPNs, there will always be those looking for a free solution. Today we have news of one such product.

In appearance PirateSnoop looks a lot like the popular Chrome browser. In fact the only immediate giveaway that things are a little different is the existence of a small pirate-themed button on the right hand side of its toolbar.

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Underneath, however, PirateSnoop is based on the freeware web browser SRWare Iron which aims to eliminate some of the privacy-compromising features present in Google Chrome. PirateSnoop is then augmented with special extensions to enable its site unblocking features.

PirateSnoop (PS) was created by the team at public torrent site RARBG. While certainly less referenced by the mainstream media than The Pirate Bay for example, RARBG is now the 7th most popular torrent site in the world and a force to be reckoned with. It was also blocked by major UK ISPs recently.

Anti-censorship agenda

rarbg-logo“Nazi Germany had less censorship than we have today on the Internet,” the PS team informs TorrentFreak.

“However you are not paying for the Internet itself to your ISPs, but for the carrying of the Internet connectivity. ISPs are legally enforced by their countries to block content and what we are worried about is that little to none of the ISPs decided to fight any blocking court order.”

PirateSnoop vs PirateBrowser

The web-blocking features of PirateSnoop are similar to those of The Pirate Bay’s PirateBrowser, but there are some important differences. Although users are not rendered anonymous, PirateBrowser uses the TOR network. PirateSnoop sees this as problematic as torrent sites are increasingly blocking TOR IPs.

“The TOR network is abused by a lot of people – uploading fakes for example. It’s also used by DMCA agencies to scan sites. TOR is no longer an option to access sites. Its blocked on almost every site I know,” a dev explains.

Instead, PirateSnoop uses its own custom proxy network which utilizes full HTTPS instead of the HTTP used by basic proxies. Just like a regular browser to website connection, PS allows websites to see their users’ IP addresses (unless they’re using a VPN) in order to cut down on abuse.

Overall, PirateSnoop should be a faster browsing solution than PirateBrowser, its creators say.

Limitations and future upgrades

Currently several major blocked sites are supported by PirateSnoop but there are a couple of omissions. However, the team is prepared to expand the browser’s reach based on user demand.

“Any site that is requested to be added will be added immediately with no questions asked,” the team note.

The PirateSnoop team say they are committed to upgrades of their software to include proxy updates (added automatically upon browser restart) and full browser updates following any Iron browser core updates.

The Pirate Bay raid and various technical issues have caused headaches for the three of the largest BitTorrent trackers over the past month, but all have now returned. In addition, the people behind OpenBitTorrent have launched a separate tracker to share the load and help to serve millions of torrent users.

OpenBitTorrent, PublicBT and Istole.it are three of the largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet, coordinating the downloads of 30 million people at any given point in time.

This means that these non-commercial services handle a staggering three billion connections per day – each.

However, over the past several weeks the three trackers have been offline most of the time. While they have had their fair share of downtime in the past, it’s not often that these top trackers become unresponsive all at once.

OpenBitTorrent was the first to go offline early December. The domain name, registered to Pirate Bay’s Fredrik Neij, disappeared without notice leaving many downloaders in the cold.

Not much later the PublicBT and Istole.it trackers folded too. The latter was hit by the Pirate Bay raid as collateral damage, alongside several other BitTorrent related services.

During the weeks that followed the three trackers have worked hard on a comeback. There have been ups and downs, but now they’re all up and running again.

TF spoke to the operators of OpenBitTorrent (OBT) who explained that server issues were the root cause of its initial problems. After a few changes behind the scenes, the tracker eventually found a new home at a befriended torrent site.

“Through IRC we proceeded looking for a safe provider and we had an offer from a torrent site that was willing to let us use one of their servers for the tracker,” OBT tells TF.

While the tracker is up and running for most people, there may still be some stability issues, we were told.

“We are currently facing stability issues due to a large amount of users trying to connect to the tracker, so there might be some downtime until we stabilize.”

In order to make the tracker ecosystem more resilient one of the OpenBitTorrent developers has now launched a separate tracker, BTZoo.eu. The OBT team encourages torrent users to use both trackers.

“We’re planning on sharing the peers of OpenBitTorrent with BTZoo.eu and have users also use that tracker as it will help lower the load of the tracker at this crucial stage,” OBT told us.

During the weeks to come OpenBitTorrent’s operators hope things will normalize. In the meantime, they hope to revive some other Pirate Bay affiliated ventures including Bayfiles.net, but more on that later.

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A claim by Kim Dotcom's estranged wife Mona against 50% of assets seized following the raid on Megaupload should be rejected, the U.S. Government says. Dismissing her interests in the property as "inchoate and murky", the U.S. insists that Mona should get nothing.

Following the 2012 raid on Megaupload and Kim Dotcom, U.S. and New Zealand authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and other property.

Claiming the assets were obtained through copyright and money laundering crimes, last July the U.S. government launched a separate civil action in which it asked the court to forfeit the bank accounts, cars and other seized possessions of the Megaupload defendants.

In August 2014, Dotcom and his co-defendants responded by filing their own claims against the property, a move which resulted in the U.S. branding the former Megaupload operators as “fugitives“.

Early September Mona Dotcom, Kim Dotcom’s wife, filed her own claim against some of the seized property. Mona said that under New Zealand law she had “a 50% marital interest” in the assets named in the civil forfeiture complaint, which includes luxury vehicles and other expensive items.

No standing to claim

However, in a new filing the U.S. states that Mona currently has no standing to make such a claim, arguing that her interest under New Zealand law remains “unquantifiable” until she obtains a New Zealand court order defining the extent of her marital property.

Noting that Mona herself previously claimed to have been “completely financially dependent” on Kim Dotcom since their marriage, the U.S. states that Mona has failed to provide evidence that she has “dominion and control over the properties” which give her standing to make a claim.

Highlighting Mona’s claim to one of the seized vehicles, the U.S. notes that “Mona Dotcom cannot even drive — and without that ability, it would seem nearly impossible for her to establish that she had dominion and control over the vehicles.”

Already received millions from marriage

Also at issue is the value of the 50% claim itself. According to the U.S. government, Mona has already received assets “far in excess” of the value of her claim from her marriage thus far.

“Mona Dotcom has already received more than any possible marital interest claim from releases from the New Zealand Courts, as well as from a direct transfer to her from Kim Dotcom of assets not restrained by this Court,” the U.S. argues.

According to the filing, through successful court action the Dotcom’s have obtained 40% of the assets previously seized in New Zealand.

“As of December 2014, more than NZ$1 million (currently US$770,000) in restrained funds were released to the Dotcoms as ‘living expenses’ by the New Zealand courts,” the filing reads.

“An additional approximate NZ$6 million (US$4.64 million) in legal fees have already been released to the Dotcoms. Mona Dotcom has benefited from the attacks on the restraints and has continued to enjoy a lavish lifestyle as a result.”

The U.S. also references assets in cloud-storage service Mega which were gifted to Mona by husband Kim. The 17% share is estimated to be worth NZ$35 million.

“This gift, combined with the apparent proceeds of previous sales of stock in Mega Limited and [music service] Baboom, means that Mona Dotcom has been provided and still controls assets well in excess of the approximately NZ$23 million she is trying to claim in this proceeding as her marital assets.

“Because she has already been provided those assets, her claim that she is still owed half the interest in Kim Dotcom’s restrained assets cannot be established under New Zealand law.”

Benefits from illegal activity?

The U.S. government also insists that in order to have a valid claim for assets Mona might have to prove that she has not unlawfully benefited from criminal activity associated with her husband and Megaupload.

“Whatever the New Zealand courts ultimately determine Mona Dotcom’s marital interest to be, New Zealand courts have consistently refused to allow even an entirely innocent and unaware spouse to retain any interest in criminal proceeds,” the U.S. government writes.

But according to government’s lawyers, it may not come to that. They say that Mona was one of the incorporators of the “Megateam Corp.” in the Philipines and had no less than six separate Megaupload accounts associated with her email addresses.

“Mona Dotcom’s claim is insufficient to give her standing because she cannot establish any concrete injury,” the U.S. concludes. “Until the New Zealand courts quantify whatever property interest she may have, the nature of her property interest is at best, inchoate and murky.”

Finally, it appears the U.S. is also concerned about the amount of cash being burned through by the Dotcoms. In December Kim Dotcom filed a request for further legal expenses (estimated by the U.S. as likely to run into “millions”) plus additional living expenses (US$77,000 per month) to be released. That hearing will take place next week.

Copyright holders asked Google to remove more than 345,000,000 allegedly infringing links from its search engine in 2014. The staggering number is an increase of 75% compared to the year before. While Google has taken some steps to downrank pirate sites, the rate at which takedown notices are sent continues to rise.

In the hope of steering prospective customers away from pirate sites, copyright holders are overloading Google with DMCA takedown notices.

These requests have increased dramatically over the years. In 2008, the search engine received only a few dozen takedown notices during the entire year, but today it processes more than a million reported “pirate” links per day.

Google doesn’t report yearly figures, but at TF we processed all the weekly reports and found that the number of URLs submitted by copyright holders last year surpassed the 345 million mark – 345,169,134 to be exact.

The majority of these requests are honored with the associated links being removed from Google’s search results. However, Google sometimes takes “no action” if they are seemed not to be infringing or if they have been taken down previously.

Most takedown requests were sent for the domains 4shared.com, rapidgator.net and uploaded.net, with more than five million targeted URLs each. The UK Music industry group BPI is the top copyright holder of 2014, good for more than 60 million reported links.

Despite the frequent use of the takedown process many copyright holders have stressed that the search giant should take responsibility and do more to tackle the piracy problem.

Facing this harsh criticism from copyright holders, Google has gradually changed its attitudes towards sites and services that are often associated with piracy.

October last year the company implemented the most significant change to its search algorithm to date, aimed at downranking sites that often link to copyright-infringing material.

This significantly reduced the visibility of pirate links in search results and had a major impact on the traffic levels of some sites. However, Google also reminded copyright holders that they too can do more to prevent piracy.

Without legal options it’s hard to beat unauthorized copying, is the argument Google often repeats.

“Piracy often arises when consumer demand goes unmet by legitimate supply. As services ranging from Netflix to Spotify to iTunes have demonstrated, the best way to combat piracy is with better and more convenient legitimate services,” the company noted earlier.

“The right combination of price, convenience, and inventory will do far more to reduce piracy than enforcement can.”

In recent weeks tensions between rightsholders and Google reached a new high. After the MPAA issued a ‘snarky’ press release responding to Google’s downranking efforts, the company ended its anti-piracy cooperation with the Hollywood group.

Not much later, Google sued Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood who secretly collaborated with the MPAA to get certain pirate sites delisted.

Strangely unreported by mainstream media, there is a major revision of the copyright monopoly underway in the European Union. And the person in charge, Julia Reda, is a Pirate Party representative. The tide is turning.

europe-flagFor years – nay, for decades – net activists and freedom-of-speech activists have been fighting against the copyright industry’s corrupt initiatives. In country after country, the copyright industry was practically calling out for mail-order legislation, and receiving it every time.

The collateral damage to liberties has been immense, and has spilled far outside the net. In the US, people are complaining that copyright monopoly law is now unintentionally preventing them to modify items they legally own, such as cars or games consoles. They’re absolutely wrong: that was the exact intention with the most recent round of revisions to copyright monopoly law – to limit property rights and to lock people out of their own possessions. (The copyright monopoly is, and has always been, a limitation on property rights.)

Further, that collateral damage includes making messengers (“intermediaries”) liable for any damages caused by a message they carry, unless they immediately take sites offline – which they would of course rather do, rather than risking immense lawsuits. The messenger immunity was gutted around the turn of the century, by the EUCD and the DMCA alike. “Notice-and-takedown” has been abused by everybody and their corporate brother, up to and including the oil company Neste Oil who attacked a Greenpeace protest site by threatening the Internet provider of Greenpeace, thereby killing the protest site.

As activists fought – and won! – against software patent monopolies in Europe in 2005, it became clear that we couldn’t fight one bad thing after another, never having the initiative, always being on the defense against onslaught from corporate mail-order legislation. For every exhausting victory, there were nine bad laws being passed in the shadows. We had to go on the offense. We had to aspire to write the law ourselves, keeping corporate lobbyists firmly out of any corrupt influence.

On January 1, 2006, I founded the Swedish and first Pirate Party. It’s now on its tenth year, and on its second term in the European Parliament. This term, that European Parliament is revising the copyright monopoly – definitely once, possibly twice. It starts out by evaluating what works and what doesn’t with the current set of laws on the matter. And the rapporteur for that dossier – meaning “the person writing the actual legislative document” – is Julia Reda, representative for the Pirate Party from Germany.

Let’s take that again: a Pirate Party representative is writing the European Union’s official evaluation of the copyright monopoly, and listing a set of necessary changes.

In 2006, did I imagine that a pirate would be writing the European Parliament’s official evaluation of how well the copyright monopoly has worked – and what needs to be changed – in the European Union, the world’s largest economy? No, I didn’t, to be honest. But neither did I expect that the Pirate Party representatives would manage to get “three strikes” schemes outlawed across all of Europe in 2009, or take a radical reform proposal (allowing file-sharing and more) into the political mainstream in 2012. When you open the floodgates of the unrepresented, things can apparently happen fast.

Now, just because it’s a pirate writing the legislative document, that doesn’t mean that document is going to pass a vote in the European Parliament no matter what it contains. It needs to be negotiated to get majority support, as usual and as appropriate in a parliamentary democracy. The first of those votes is in the Legal Affairs committee on April 16, and the vote in the European Parliament as a whole is on May 20. So pirates aren’t “in charge”; democracy is, as it should be.

But the initiative has shifted. It is no longer solely initiated by mail-order lobbyists for corrupt incumbents who gladly sacrifice civil liberties and the entire Internet to preserve an unjust and immoral lucrative monopoly. For the first time, legislation on the matter is initiated by net liberty activists.

This shift of the initiative was what we set out to accomplish ten years ago. I think it went faster than most people had expected.

Making a list of the world’s most-visited torrent sites has been a long-standing tradition at TF, which we continue today. At the start of 2015 KickassTorrents is pulling in most traffic followed by Torrentz. File-sharing icon The Pirate Bay is currently down, but gets a mention thanks to a popular copy.

Most torrent users rarely change their downloading habits or the places where they get their daily torrent dose.

This is also reflected in our annual top 10 where most sites have had a consistent listing for more than half a decade.

Like every year there are a few movers and shakers though, and the biggest impact was made by the Pirate Bay raid early last month.

The notorious torrent site has been crowned the most popular torrent site since 2008, but isn’t serving any torrents at the beginning of this year. As a result, the top spot is now taken by KickassTorrents.

The Pirate Bay hasn’t gone away completely though. There are currently several popular clones and copies of the site that together can easily match the traffic of most other sites that are listed.

Thanks to one of its top copies TPB managed to secure a spot in 4th place. Considering the situation we decided to mention both the original Pirate Bay domain and the most-used copy.

The rest of the top 10 consists of other familiar names. Bitsnoop.com is the only site to drop from the list, with Limetorrents.cc taking its place.

Demonoid, which returned online earlier this year, just fell out of the top 10 but appears to be making a slow but steady comeback that’s worth mentioning. There is a good chance that it will return again next year.

Below is the full list of the top 10 most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year. Only public and English language content sites are included. The list is based on various traffic reports and we display the Alexa and U.S. Compete rank for each. In addition, we include last year’s ranking for each of the 10 sites.

1. KickassTorrents

KickassTorrents was founded in 2009 and surpassed The Pirate Bay in traffic this year, even before it went down. Battling various censorship efforts the site has burned through a few different domain names over the years. Most recently it switched to the Somalian Kickass.so address.
Alexa Rank: 151 / Compete Rank: 711 / Last year #2
2. Torrentz

Torrentz has been the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for many years. Unlike the other sites featured in the list Torrentz does not host any torrent files, it merely redirects visitors to other places on the web. The site uses several domain names with .eu being the most popular.
Alexa Rank: 206 / Compete Rank: 1.716 / Last year #3
3. ExtraTorrent

ExtraTorrent continues to gain more traffic and has become one of the most active torrent communities. The site is also the home of the popular ETTV and ETRG release groups.
Alexa Rank: 356 / Compete Rank: 3,446 / Last year #4
4. The Pirate Bay (copies and clones)

At the time of writing The Pirate Bay isn’t serving any torrents. However, there are several copies and clones of the site which, at least temporarily, take its place. OldPiratebay.org is currently the most popular and based on its recent traffic the site is already ranked at least 4th in this list.
Alexa Rank: NA / Compete Rank: NA / Last year #1
5. YTS

YTS, also known as the release group “YIFY,” has become the most recognizable movie piracy brands on the Internet. Despite a court court-ordered ISP blockade in the UK the group’s torrent site continues expand.
Alexa Rank: 740 / Compete Rank: 4,271 / Last year #5
6. EZTV

TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Because of its narrow focus, EZTV’s traffic varies in line with the TV seasons. Despite posting only a few dozen torrents per week it attracts millions of visitors.
Alexa Rank: 1,262 / Compete Rank: 5,421 / Last year #6
7. RARBG

RARBG, which started out as a Bulgarian tracker, was last year’s newcomer and continues to rake in more visitors. The site was blocked by UK ISPs last month, which put it on par with most other sites in the top 10.
Alexa Rank: 1,326 / Compete Rank: 8,890 / Last year #10
8. isoHunt.to

Isohunt.to was launched in 2013, less than two weeks after isoHunt.com shut down. The site is not affiliated with the old isoHunt but hopes to keep its spirit alive. The same people are also behind Oldpiratebay.org, which is is listed in 4th place.
Alexa Rank: 1,890 / Compete Rank: 7,723 / Last year #8
9. 1337x

1337x is a community driven torrent site. The site’s owners say they launched 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” This year the site dropped its .org domain and is now operating from 1337x.to.
Alexa Rank: 2,581 / Compete Rank: 11,389 / Last year #7
10. Limetorrents

Limetorrents.cc has been around for several years already, and regained a spot in the top 10 this year. The site appeared in the news this summer after it was sued by LionsGate for posting a link to a leaked copy of The Expendables 3. The case is still ongoing.
Alexa Rank: 2,608 / Compete Rank: 3,984 / Last year #NA

Disclaimer: Yes, we know that Alexa isn’t perfect and that Compete has plenty of flaws, but combined both do a pretty good job at comparing sites that operate in a similar niche.

We reported before the holiday that Al-Jazeera’s news and entertainment channels were to switch to Qatar’s own Es’Hail-1 satellite. It is now clear that the new transmission model includes Al-Jazeera’s non-news channels, as well as its ‘English’ and ‘America’ versions of its news channel. The decision covers channels from Al-Jazeera Media Network.

Transmissions are already on air (as of December 31st) and have been available to viewers for much of the past year. The final switch is being made on January 1st, and while viewers will not have to re-align satellite dishes because Es’Hail shares Arabsat’s orbital position of 25.5 degrees East. However, viewers will have to tune into Al-Jazeera’s new frequencies from Es’Hail.

The decision also means an end to Al-Jazeera’s broadcasts on Arabsat. Al-Jazeera has been using Arabsat’s BADR-4 and BADR-5 satellites. Transmissions from Nilesat will continue as normal.

Es’Hail says that all its existing Al-Jazeera channels “and potential new channel bundles” will now be available from Es’Hail.

Es’Hail-1 is a satellite that is jointly-owned between Qatar and Eutelsat.

Es’hailSat’s CEO, Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari said: “We believe that we have the optimum solution for AJMN not only in terms of technical capabilities and performance, but also in terms of independence and security of the content we broadcast. We have designed Es’hail 1 and our second satellite Es’hail 2 with advanced anti-jamming capabilities. Selecting Es’hailSat further demonstrates the value of our broadcasting independence, quality of service, and our market penetration.”

Netflix is starting to block subscribers who access its service using VPN services and other tools that bypass geolocation restrictions. The changes, which may also affect legitimate users, have been requested by the movie studios who want full control over what people can see in their respective countries.

Due to complicated licensing agreements Netflix is only available in a few dozen countries, all of which have a different content library.

Some people bypass these content and access restrictions by using VPNs or other circumvention tools that change their geographical location. This makes it easy for people all around the world to pay for access to the U.S. version of Netflix, for example.

The movie studios are not happy with these deviant subscribers as it hurts their licensing agreements. Previously entertainment industry sources in Australia complained bitterly that tens of thousands of Netflix “VPN-pirates” were hurting their business.

Over the past weeks Netflix has started to take action against people who use certain circumvention tools. The Android application started to force Google DNS which now makes it harder to use DNS based location unblockers, and several VPN IP-ranges were targeted as well.

Thus far the actions are limited in scope, so not all VPN users may experience problems just yet. However, TorGuard is one of the VPN providers which noticed a surge in access problems by its users, starting mid-December.

“This is a brand new development. Just two weeks ago we received the first report from a handful of clients that Netflix blocked access due to VPN or proxy usage. This is the very first time I’ve ever heard Netflix displaying this type of error message to a VPN user,” TorGuard’s Ben Van der Pelt tells us.

In TorGuard’s case the users were able to quickly gain access again by logging into another U.S. location. It further appears that some of the blocking efforts were temporary, probably as a test for a full-scale rollout at a later date.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that Netflix may be testing these new IP blocking methods temporarily in certain markets. At this time the blocks do not seem aggressive and may only be targeted at IP ranges that exceed too many simultaneous logins.”

Netflix is reportedly testing a variety of blocking methods. From querying the user’s time zone through the web browser or mobile device GPS and comparing it to the timezone of their IP-address, to forcing Google’s DNS services in the Android app.

TorGuard told us that if Netflix continues with a strict ban policy, they will provide an easy solution to bypass the blocks. Other services, such as Unblock-us are also suggesting workarounds to their customers.

Netflix’ efforts to block geoblocking circumvention tools doesn’t come as a surprise. TF has seen a draft of the content protection agreement Sony Pictures prepared for Netflix earlier this year. This agreement specifically requires Netflix to verify that registered users are indeed residing in the proper locations.

Among other things Netflix must “use such geolocation bypass detection technology to detect known web proxies, DNS based proxies, anonymizing services and VPNs which have been created for the primary intent of bypassing geo-restrictions.”

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Blocking VPN and proxy “pirates” has become a priority for the movie studios as streaming services have failed to introduce proper countermeasures. Early 2014 the movie studio looked into the accessibility of various services through popular circumvention tools, including TorGuard, to find out that most are not blocked.

In a follow-up during the summer of 2014 Sony Pictures conducted research to identify the IP-ranges of various VPNs and proxies. These results were shared with Netflix and other streaming services so they could take action and expand their blocklists where needed.

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Based on the above it’s safe to conclude that Netflix will continue to roll out more aggressive blocking tools during the months to come. As with all blocks, this may also affect some people who use VPNs for privacy and security reasons. Whether Netflix will factor this in has yet to be seen.

TF contacted Netflix for a comment on the findings and its future plans, but a few days have passed and we have yet to receive a response.

Netflix is not the only streaming service that’s targeting VPN and proxy users. A few months ago Hulu implemented similar restrictions. This made the site unusable for location “pirates,” but also U.S. based paying customers who used a VPN for privacy reasons.

Wiziwig, one of the world's largest streaming sports portals, shut down this week to the dismay of millions of fans. TorrentFreak caught up with the site's operators who told us a now familiar story. If only sports companies and broadcasters got their act together and fulfilled consumer demand, sites such as Wiziwig would never exist.

Until our report yesterday it’s likely that Wiziwig, a streaming portal covering just about every spectator sport around, had flown under the radars of many readers. And that’s surprising.

The site is ranked #1,546 worlwide by Alexa and is the 239th most-popular site in the UK. On Thursday the term ‘wiziwig’ was the 8th most popular search on Google.co.uk, ahead of official sports broadcaster BT Sport. But the popularity wasn’t based on good news. Citing changes in Spanish law, Wiziwig had been forced to close just hours earlier.

In the wake of the closure TorrentFreak caught up with the operators of this hugely popular site to find out about events leading up to its shutdown. Interestingly it’s what didn’t happen on the site’s first day offline that topped the discussion.

Among dozens of other sports, Wiziwig carried links to live soccer games and as a result became somewhat of a magnet for companies such as the UK’s Premier League. New Year’s Day is a traditionally big date for UK soccer so coinciding with the first day of Wiziwig downtime, the site’s operators stood back and watched what happened.

“What we noticed Thursday, and that’s what we’ve always been thinking, is that the Premier League has only been focusing on Wiziwig lately to take down streams, like those from [P2P streaming service] Sopcast for example,” Wiziwig told us.

“If we added a Sopcast link for a game in the Premier League, then quickly that link was made inaccessible. On Thursday all Sopcast channels kept working all day, without any been taking down during the early kickoff, 3pm game and late game. Coincidence?”

The idea that the soccer league had been using Wiziwig to find streams and have them taken down at source was confirmed when matches streamed from other sources also remained up.

“Same applied with Veetle links, as when those previously appeared on Wiziwig they were quickly taken down. If we didn’t add them they were working all game long, while people could find them easily in Veetle. That also applied to several other links.”

Aside from changes in Spanish law where the site was based, Wiziwig also reminded us of two serious events in the UK earlier in the year. In April the operator of sports streaming site Nutjob.eu was arrested by officers from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit. That was followed by a September raid on the operator of the Coolsport streaming service.

When all things were considered (Wiziwig’s Twitter account was shutdown by a complaint in December) the team felt that the timing was right to call it a day. But even though Wiziwig is no more, other sites are bound to try and fill the gap the portal has left in the market. These, Wiziwig’s operators say, wouldn’t even exist if more effort was put into getting official services to consumers.

“We’ve seen in the past several years that people don’t get the right options to watch the sports and games they want to watch. Many sports events, and many games, aren’t available worldwide. The Leagues or competitions often don’t provide the right options for people to watch games in a legal way, which is also what we’ve seen from many replies on Twitter and Facebook,” Wiziwig explain.

“People want to subscribe to some games, some PPV events, and don’t want long contracts. In many countries there are no options to watch specific sports events and competitions. So not just the big sports/leagues, but also for smaller events.

“Then people decide to watch the online streams. A good example is the 3pm soccer games in England which aren’t shown on UK TV due to an old law designed to keep stadiums full. If the leagues fail to provide such options then websites like Wiziwig and [illicit] streams will always exist,” Wiziwig adds.

With the site closed the team are now turning their attention to GetYourFixtures, a TV guide for sports with links to only official streams.

“GetYourFixtures’ aim is to provide people with the correct TV info for all sports events, and if there isn’t a TV channel showing it then they want to give people the options to watch it officially online.

“Maybe leagues and competitions will wake up and start working on providing decent PPV options, letting people pay for just a single game, a flexible way of watching sports. On TV, mobile or tablet: wherever they are, either free and supported with advertisements when there isn’t any TV coverage/legal pay option, or just for small fees. They should work together,” Wiziwig concludes.

Starting today Canadian Internet providers are required to forward copyright infringement notices to their subscribers. This notification scheme provides a safe harbor for ISPs but is also expected to result in a surge in piracy settlement schemes. The new law further causes trouble for VPN providers, who are now required to log customers for at least six months.

After years of public and private discussions, Canada started implementing a new copyright law in recent years.

The law introduced great improvements in terms of fair use and non-commercial file-sharing, and also adopts a “notice-and-notice” policy for ISPs that goes into effect today, January 2nd.

Under the new law Internet providers are required to forward copyright notices they receive from rightsholders to their customers. Providers who do not comply, including VPN services, face damages up to $10,000.

The notice scheme creates a safe harbor for Internet providers, protecting them from copyright holder lawsuits. For Internet subscribers the effects are limited to warnings, which is less draconian than the “strikes” systems other countries have implemented.

University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who has been a critical follower of the copyright law changes, notes that despite its modesty people should be wary of the negative consequences these notices may have.

“I think they’re generally a good solution – proven effective when used informally and far less draconian than takedown systems. That said, there is the danger of potential abuse that will be need to be monitored,” Geist tells TF.

Among the most prominent concerns are the so-called settlement schemes where copyright holders ask pirating subscribers to pay a fee. These have become relatively common in the U.S. and are now expected to expand into Canada.

One of the companies that helps rightsholders to collect settlements is CEG TEK, and they are already gearing up to enter the Canadian market.

“We have been conducting tests in the Canada market and see positive results with ISPs. We look forward to a full-scale launch in the new year,” CEG TEK’s COO Kyle Reed informs TF.

These settlement notices are a “significant concern” according to Professor Geist. He says that the law currently doesn’t prohibit copyright holders from sending them in, but that subscribers’ identities are shielded.

“The law does not preclude the inclusion of a settlement demand, though Canada has a cap on liability for non-commercial infringement and the sender of the notice obviously does not know the identity of the subscriber,” Geist tells TF

“ISPs would seemingly be required to send these notifications, but there is nothing in the law that would stop them from advising subscribers on the context of these notices,” he adds.

The new notice-and-notice system also has a great impact on VPN providers. The new law requires them to identify pirating customers so they can forward the infringement notices.

To be able to do so the companies have to retain access logs for a minimum of six months. This mandatory data retention is expected to lead to a customer exodus as it makes it impossible for providers to guarantee people’s anonymity, a key feature of any VPN service.

As we pointed out before, the new law requires VPN providers to implement an extensive logging and notice policy to deal with takedown notices. This will prove to be quite costly or simply impossible, especially for smaller companies that are sometimes run by individuals.

Many VPN providers assign shared IP-addresses to their customers, so even if they wanted to there is no option to accurately identify a copyright infringer. For these companies the only option will be to shut down, or move the company outside of Canada.

During the months to come it will become apparent what impact the notice-and-notice system will have on businesses and customers.

What happens when movie and TV show companies have sites blocked at the ISP level in the UK? A leaked report commission by the studios shows that on the one hand direct traffic to pirate sites seriously reduced. But on the other, usage of unblocked linking-only sites increased by more than 230%.

During 2014, several key strategies emerged to lead the mainstream entertainment industries’ anti-piracy efforts. At the consumer end, so-called “strikes” programs saw errant Internet subscribers receive warning notices in an effort to correct their behaviors.

Then, on top of sending millions of DMCA-style takedown notices to sites and search engines, entertainment companies went to court in several regions to have domains blocked at the ISP level. The UK was hit particularly hard and now dozens of sites are inaccessible via regular means.

But the big question remains – is this an effective way to reduce piracy? Earlier this year the movie studios decided to find out by hiring a company called Incopro to conduct a study. The report has never been made public but TorrentFreak has now obtained a copy.

The report, titled ‘Site Blocking Efficacy Study United Kingdom’ is dated September 30, 2014 and focuses on the top 250 “open access” websites involved in the unauthorized distribution of film and television content. Dedicated music sites were not included.

Overall the 26 page report, which relies heavily on Alexa data, found that blocking had resulted in targeted sites losing an average 73.2% of their direct traffic. And, when compared to the global control, usage of pirate sites had declined over time.

The report breaks sites down into three categories – linking only sites (the majority of sites in the top 250), public P2P portals and hosting.

Three sites were identified as the most popular among UK users in August 2014 – watchseries.lt (link), putlocker.is (link) and nowvideo.sx (host), with the former maintaining the number one position for the previous six months. And despite being blocked in March 2013 and taking a large hit in direct traffic, KickassTorrents maintained its place in the top 10.

In all cases, direct traffic to ‘pirate’ sites plummeted when ISPs implemented court-ordered blockades. The chart below shows the effect of a 2013 blocking order against BitSnoop, TorrentReactor, TorrentHound, Torrent Downloads, Monova, Filestube, Filecrop, 1337x, Torrentz, TorrentCrazy and ExtraTorrent.

However, while direct traffic to ‘pirate’ sites diminishes following blocking actions, Incopro found that a particular kind of site in the top 250 actually does better over time.

So-called “linking only” sites (i.e not a P2P portal or hosting site) enjoy significant boosts, as shown in the chart below.

“Linking Only sites have shown a growth in usage over time, indicating that these sites increase in usage and can take the place of those that are blocked if they are allowed to grow over time,” the company warns.

“In summary, where there are sustained periods of blocking, usage levels are driven downwards across all site categories. Linking Only sites are the fastest growing category and should be considered as blocking targets over a sustained period to curtail their growth.”

Circumvention techniques

While the Alexa data relied on by Incopro relates to direct traffic to sites, the big unknown is how many people continue to visit blocked sites using circumvention tools such as VPNs and proxy services. In its report, Incopro highlights three different types

1. Dedicated sites offering access or a mirror of a blocked site
2. Sites offering access to more than one blocked site (i.e come.in)
3. VPNs or proxy services offering access to any site

Immediately there is a problem for anyone looking to measure traffic to sites when the above methods are used. While option 1 is relatively easy to measure, options 2 and 3 present significant technical issues. For these reasons, Incopro measured only option 1. Nevertheless, as the chart below shows, use of dedicated proxies accounts for more than half of blocked “pirate” site traffic.

Conclusion

In summing up, Incopro found that when a website and all of its domains and dedicated proxies are blocked by court order (and updated quickly), “there is a significant impact in reducing infringement by the sites themselves and a reduction in the overall infringement undertaken by the most popular websites in the UK.”

But to really get to the heart of the problem requires a much deeper analysis and the answer to a question that sits way outside the scope of the report.

Does site blocking really put more money into the pockets of the entertainment industries?

Top 250 leading “pirate” movie/TV sites (dedicated music sites excluded)

watchseries.lt
putlocker.is
nowvideo.sx
uploaded.net
kickass.to
videoweed.es
sockshare.com
firedrive.com
movshare.net
alluc.to
vodlocker.com
isohunt.to
thepiratebay.se
4shared.com
novamov.com
rapidgator.net
torrentz.eu
gorillavid.in
free-tv-video-online.me
cucirca.eu
rarbg.com
torlock.com
warez-bb.org
mega.co.nz
yify-torrent.org
g2g.fm
watchtvseries.to
rlslog.net
zzstream.li
allmyvideos.net
thevideo.me
dfiles.eu
played.to
sendspace.com
letitbit.net
icefilms.info
vidbull.com
daclips.in
couchtuner.eu
billionuploads.com
thefile.me
watchseries-online.ch
thedarewall.com
filenuke.com
promptfile.com
primewire.ag
extratorrent.cc
stream-tv.me
cokeandpopcorn.ch
letmewatchthis.ae
tv-series.me
eztv.it
turbobit.net
videomega.tv
vidto.me
zalukaj.tv
torrentbutler.eu
watchserieshd.eu
filmai.in
watchtvseries.ch
watch32.com
iwatchonline.to
uploadboy.com
movreel.com
ch131.so
movie4k.to
movpod.in
tubeplus.me
p30download.com
rapidshare.com
viooz.co
avaxsearch.net
bitshare.com
sceper.ws
torrents.to
nosvideo.com
sharesix.com
torrentfunk.com
expressleech.com
rapidmoviez.com
heroturko.me
vidspot.net
seedpeer.me
www2.zmovie.tw
downloadha.com
uploadc.com
torrentbit.net
180upload.com
vidbux.com
tehparadox.com
bestreams.net
clicktoview.org
divxstage.to
2shared.com
sharebeast.com
ffilms.org
watchmovies.to
terafile.co
rlsbb.com
torrentus.si
mightyupload.com
filefactory.com
vidxden.com
freakshare.com
losmovies.com
flashx.tv
youtubeonfire.com
uppit.com
desitorrents.com
movie25.cm
Filmix.net
torrents.net
uploadable.ch
watchseries7.eu
fsplay.net
sharerepo.com
watch-tvseries.net
watchonlineseries.eu
videobull.to
tusfiles.net
seriespepito.com
seventorrents.re
zalaa.com
wareztuga.tv
uploadbaz.com
filepost.com
afdah.com
990.ro
tv-release.net
vidshark.ws
kinogo.net
torrenthound.com
moovyshoovy.com
vodu.ch
rutor.org
peliculaspepito.com
boerse.bz
lostfilm.tv
allyoulike.com
kinox.to
bigcinema.tv
kino-v-online.tv
kinozal.tv
rodfile.com
putlockertvshows.me
watchfreemovies.ch
filehoot.com
nowdownload.ch
solarmovie.ag
2baksa.net
filecore.co.nz
shaanig.com
luckyshare.net
d-addicts.com
sumotorrent.sx
1337x.to
exsite.pl
yourbittorrent.com
awesomedl.ru
thetorrent.org
filecloud.io
kinoman.tv
cloudyvideos.com
vidics.ch
300mbfilms.co
zone-telechargement.com
cuevana2.tv
video.tt
uptobox.com
linksfu.com
depfile.com
h33t.to
megafilmeshd.net
onfillm.ru
vitorrent.org
movzap.com
dpstream.net
videobam.com
greek-movies.com
softarchive.net
filmifullizle.com
torrentroom.com
v1vn.com
1fichier.com
youwatch.org
tnttorrent.info
apnadesiforums.com
divxplanet.com
movie8k.to
1channelmovie.com
watchonlinefree.tv
online.stepashka.com
fileom.com
tormovies.org
movierulz.com
oneclickwatch.org
stream.cz
torrent.cd
mobi-live.ru
myvideolinks.eu
rajtamil.com
netload.in
dubbedepisodes.org
monova.org
torrentreactor.net
channelcut.tv
rslinks.org
torrenty.org
fileserve.com
keep2s.cc
divxstream.net
zi-m.com
torrentz.to
kingfiles.net
uloz.to
tvshow7.eu
megashares.com
darkwarez.pl
vodly.to
scrapetorrent.com
ryushare.com
cinemaxx.ro
watchmoviespro.pw
hdvnbits.org
torrents.fm
datafile.com
secureupload.eu
phim3s.net
vidhog.com
peb.pl
solarmovie.me
share-online.biz
watchopolis.net
mega-search.me
fileswap.com
chameleons-download.com
zmovie.in
vertor.eu
kinoprosmotr.net
rusfolder.com
divxcentral.com
popcorntime.io
ourrelease.org
keep2share.cc
uploadrocket.net
motionempire.me
crocko.com
filenuke.net
fulldls.com
filestube.to

Sports streaming site Wiziwig and torrent site Elitetorrent stopped linking to copyrighted material today. Worried that they will face hefty fines under Spain's new anti-piracy law, both sites have decided to throw in the towel.

For a long time Spain has had a reputation for being easy on copyright infringement, but this lenient stance shifted last year. After continued pressure from entertainment industry groups, new copyright law amendments were passed which outlaw sites that link to pirated material.

The changes expose site owners to massive fines of up to €600,000 if they fail to respond to takedown requests in time. This liability also applies to non-profit sites that only use advertisements to cover their costs.

Today the changes officially go into effect and already they’ve resulted in two prominent casualties. Popular sports streaming links site Wiziwig.tv and torrent index Elitetorrent.net have both stopped linking to copyrighted material effective immediately.

With hundreds of thousands of visitors per day Wiziwig is the goto site for many sports fans who can’t watch their favorite teams through legal channels.

According to the owner the site was specifically setup in Spain, where linking sites were declared legal in the past.

With the new amendments, however, the site can no longer operate from Spain without risking potential bankruptcy.

“Today is a sad day for all fans of live sports streaming, as we at Wiziwig have to announce that we’re forced to close our website, at least for now. This due to new laws in Spain,” the site’s owner writes in a statement.

“Failing to comply with the new reform puts us at risks of fines being as high as €600,000,- and also losing our domain, hosting and other necessary stuff to operate wiziwig,” he adds.

The founder of Elitetorrent.net also took drastic measures in response to the new legislation. et-censuradoHis website, which is ranked among the 100 most visited sites in Spain, didn’t shut down completely but removed all torrents.

“I have always shown to be operating within the law, so I regret that after 11 years elitetorrent.net has to remove all links to downloads that are copyright protected, to suit the new legislation,” Elitetorrent’s Juan José says.

“Despite having fought battles for years against powerful forces, this last battle is very unequal and impossible to win. While the powerful use an army with tanks and warplanes, I can only fight with a stick,” he adds.

Elitetorrent.net remains open without links to downloads, but the owner is encouraging visitors to stay on board. He plans to transform the site into a lively community of movie and TV-fans, with news, trailers and other information.

Wiziwig.tv will shut down completely with the site’s owner deciding to push official content instead of unauthorized streams. He’s joined a new project, GetYourFixtures.com, a website providing information and official links to live sports events.