Kino.to Uploader Speaks Out, Cyberlockers Down, Anon DDoS

enigmax
June 11, 2011
62
anonymous,
Kino.to
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This week’s raids against Kino.to led to many arrests and the rapid disappearance of many cyberlocker services, including Duckload.com. As an uploader to Kino.to reveals how he worked with the site, Anonymous have added more chaos to the mix by DDoSing the Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group responsible for the raid.

Three days ago, 13 German nationals were arrested in an operation carried out against movie and TV show links site Kino.to.

The raids, which involved 250 police and other authorities tackling 42 locations in Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands, followed an intensive investigation carried out by the Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group GVU.

The main suspect is said to have been detained in Leipzig and another arrestee in Spain. One individual is still at large (possibly the admin of cyberlocker service, unconfirmed) and another has since been released. As of Thursday evening, reports suggested the rest remained in custody.

As we are aware, Kino.to hosted no illegal content, but indexed material and provided links to movies and TV shows stored on file-hosters and other streaming services.

Crucially, those links have to be put there by someone and that task fell to Kino.to’s loose-knit team of link uploaders. In the wake of the site’s demise, one of them has just broken ranks and given an interesting interview on how parts of the site operated.

Speaking under the assumed name John Sandy, the uploader said that he regularly supplied Kino.to with links to documentaries and US TV shows, the most-viewed content on the site.

The links offered by Sandy were submitted to a hidden area of the site and were subsequently moderated, probably for duplicates and quality. Whether this process was carried out by man or machine, Sandy isn’t sure. Successful links went on to make it to the site’s public facing webpage for regular users to access.

Sandy says that he had no contact with the site’s operators and there was no direct financial reward for uploading TV show links to Kino.to. However, Sandy said that there is money in uploading content to file-hosters and he had made around $1,000 per month by generating traffic to these sites.

“I don’t see myself as a criminal,” Sandy explained. “If America can watch these series episodes for free and legally, why should this be not allowed in Germany?”

While GVU and Hollywood won’t be pleased that US TV shows were available via links on Kino.to, it’s fair to say that the addition of hundreds, maybe thousands of movies proved even less popular. The sheer size of the site and its prominence meant that it was just a matter of time before it became a target.

However, while all of the publicity has been focused on the takedown of Kino.to, either by design or huge coincidence at least four German-hosted storage sites – Duckload.com, Frog Movz, Karamba Vidz and Loombo – all suddenly disappeared after the raid.

TorrentFreak is informed that the admin of Duckload was one of the individuals sought by the police and that their operation – which is believed to be around 500 servers – was completely shutdown. Initially the feeling was that Duckload would come back online but the seriousness of the situation appears to be hitting home and now a return seems unlikely, at least at this stage.

Several other hosters in a range of locations are also down. They include archiv.to, quickload.to, tubeload.to and loaded.it. Whether not they were connected to Kino.to, or the indeed the raids, remains to be seen. Another cyberlocker – Freeload.to – was definitely connected since it’s now displaying the same shutdown notice as Kino.to.

But these sites aren’t the only ones connected to the operation which had their services disrupted this week. The website of GVU, the anti-piracy brains behind the Kino.to takedown, was also taken offline following a DDoS attack carried out by Anonymous.

German members of the group put up a video on YouTube describing the attack and according to a translation by Janko Roettgers, they declared the following:

“We believe that running a search engine for videos isn’t illegal… That’s why we immediately reacted by taking down the GVU website… Knowledge is free, and streaming is, too.”

The DDoS attack itself had limited effect and the GVU site is now fully operational, which is more than can be said for Kino.to and several file-hosting services. Nevertheless, rumors of a Kino.to resurrection from an old site backup are circulating. Stranger things have happened but that would be a particularly brave move, especially in Europe.

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Somethingwat

Nice one Anonymous!
- ICKE
  
  Yes, nice. They justify what the anti-pirates say, give them ammo to use against you, and alienate the normal people we NEED to convince if we want to have any hope of winning this battle in the long term in order to give our side some cheap laughs. Nice. I’m happy.
  - Noah C.
    
    You don’t understand what, why, or how anon even works. Shut the fuck up.
    - ICKE
      
      Oh, I understand. We see something happen that we don’t like, so we respond with whatever force we’re able to muster, whether that’s hacking into a network, doing a DDOS attack or just sending police and pizzas to the house of some dumb kid. This can be good, such as when anonymous attacks the governmental infrastructure of tyranical countries, but oftentimes it’s just a group reaction to some company doing something they don’t like which ends up getting people to pity the affected company. The average person hears “Anonymous attacks X company” and assumes that Anonymous is being a bunch of dicks and that the company does not deserve it. That’s a problem here because we need to convince average people that our cause is just. People don’t respond favorably to vigilantism if they don’t fully understand the cause of the vigilante. The actions of Anonymous are not sacred and unquestionable, and they have damaged our cause here.
    - ICKE
      
      Oh, I understand. We see something happen that we don’t like, so we respond with whatever force we’re able to muster, whether that’s hacking into a network, doing a DDOS attack or just sending police and pizzas to the house of some dumb kid. This can be good, such as when anonymous attacks the governmental infrastructure of tyranical countries, but oftentimes it’s just a group reaction to some company doing something they don’t like which ends up getting people to pity the affected company. The average person hears “Anonymous attacks X company” and assumes that Anonymous is being a bunch of dicks and that the company does not deserve it. That’s a problem here because we need to convince average people that our cause is just. People don’t respond favorably to vigilantism if they don’t fully understand the cause of the vigilante. The actions of Anonymous are not sacred and unquestionable, and they have damaged our cause here.
    - Noah C
      
      I suck cocks
    - http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
      
      Peaceful response seems to be somewhat futile nowadays. There were times in history where heads had to be cut to make things work better for the ordinary folks.
      
      What those guys do, ddos and other activities, is a form of protest. Govts around the world are using big guns and power against harmless file sharers so why can’t they (the Anon) use their laz0rs?
  - Jeremy the Great
    
    im glad your happy david icke, now run along back to your angelina jolie reptile stuff :)
    - ICKE
      
      You know, when I posted this, I honestly had no idea who David Icke was. I was just writing ICE when I accidentally put a k in it and decided to keep it. I googled him, and dear lord does he look crazy. Thank you for being awesome and pointing out a reference I didn’t even know I was making.
  - Jeremy the Great
    
    im glad your happy david icke, now run along back to your angelina jolie reptile stuff :)
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001523952987 Jeremy Koepke
    
    Malcolm X had a better idea of how to take freedom and keep it. Your idea is basically the sit down and take it until they get tired and go home policy. That policy is never successful and even in times when it was historically used people died or were jailed by the thousands for it. Torrent freedom is an issue that will go down in someone’s history book. Be on the right side of it.
- Acheron
  
  I don’t get whats nice about it.
  They’re putting the Anti-Piracy sites offline, right? How is that gonna help anything? Getting Anti-Piracy enforcement agency’s into legal problems would help. But taking a propaganda site offline? Sorry, it wont help anything.
Anonymous

I hope Loombo is back up soon. I used that site a lot on a few other “linking” sites.
Anonymous

I hope Loombo is back up soon. I used that site a lot on a few other “linking” sites.
Julian

Isn’t duckload the sponsor of famous sc2 player whiteRa :)
Jamie

“If America can watch these series episodes for free and legally, why should this be not allowed in Germany?”

1. Because there’s an audience much larger in the US and advertisers pay for all those eyeballs.

2. Because those series are produced in the US.

3. Because the TV industry still thinks it’s in the 80s and they screw themselves even here by limiting content with time windows (instead of getting as many eyeballs as possible)

4. Because there’s not enough advertisers to pay for eyeballs outside of the US.
- Jamie
  
  HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCKS COCKS
- Jeremy the Great
  
  i think you made a mistake there, it should say lamie
- Jeremy the Great
  
  i think you made a mistake there, it should say lamie
- Reader
  
  Most of that makes sense, however, it seems to be based around the assumption that the streams and downloads that people use the watch the shows outside of the US, as somehow stealing bandwidth from the US distributors… but why?
  
  The only bandwidth being used is likely from home users or seedboxes, neither of which advertisers are paying to have their crappy products advertised on, so there is NO LOSS for the advertiser or the product producer… i hate ignorant companies, and i hate region lockouts even more!
http://www.facebook.com/jordan.kratz Jordan Kratz

Go Anonymous Go !!!
- jaK
  
  Go Anonymous
  Use DDoS
  ?_?
  - http://crashsuit.blogspot.com crashsuit
    
    (/) (?,,,?) (/) -( GVU is bad and they should feel bad! )
Pingback: Kino.to Uploader Speaks Out, Cyberlockers Down, Anon DDoS | Torrentfreak.com
http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Dilly/1624894683 Don Dilly

Ive never understood the logic of anonymous and others hitting the copyright and media industry org sites ie MPAA types.

By targeting them, these bodies set up by the main industry players are serving one of their purposes, to defect flak from the media companies that hide behind them as they are nothing more than corporate lobby groups and defensive armour.

To get noticed and get your message through you have to cut through the armour. Just look at what has happened to sony as an example. The company has posted a loss, I saw $200m wiped off its market capitalization in ONE DAY last week.

Another excellent example was when Ministry of Sound tried to sue aledged filesharers they suddenly found both their online store and their ticket bookings system were forced offline through DDoS. The company could tell the difference between the bugus hypothetical losses to filesharing and the very real losses caused by their site going down and dropped the cases.
Any protestors would do far better to identify the companies that fund the GVU.
- Noah C.
  
  Well, as a pirate supporter, I do not support full-fledged hacking. I am a pirate, not a criminal. (ironic, isn’t it?)
  
  The Sony situation… I feel sorry for Sony. But I do not appreciate what the hackers have done to the company.
  - http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
    
    Well, sometimes one needs some hard beating to get some sense back into their heads. Go against your ppl and for a few greedy corrupt bastards and that’s what you’ll get. Maybe by feeling the rage of the ppl ans sustaining real losses instead of imaginary lost sales will actually make them evolve for good.
Anonymous

Always keep in mind that the copyright side is not always into legal action but about harassment and destroying anyone who stands up against them and who supports public desires. So getting raided and arrested is not about unlawful actions even if they say it is.

Most such websites are still legal and many have been found legal in court. Keep the faith I would say. Fight them hard on every front they make in this War. Don’t let them take more freedoms from us.

Sharing is only caring.
SufiMenthol

$1000 a month? Not in my name.

Sharing is caring, alternate independent business models FTW. Waving your new watch in front of the the artist who made what you just sold – not cool.
- Reassa
  
  Wait, what are you trying to say? Are you saying that him making $1000 a month off of uploading content is bad, or are you saying that the sharing is good? I’m confused.
- Cmcjacob
  
  I’m assuming the $1k a month was from advertising revenue, which is a morally acceptable stream of revenue from any high-traffic domain, regardless of it’s activities. If they were actually selling access to the movies, your metaphor would be valid. Providing they obviously were not doing this, your metaphor thus becomes null and void.
  - SufiMenthol
    
    I think it is fair to thing the many of us believe that we as common people should not be obligated to pay to access content. This raises the question of how artists survive in a capitalist world where everything costs money. Funding content indirectly (including through ad revenue) is potentially a great way of avoiding up front costs. We get our free stuff and artists get money to pay the rent. So yes, it is “selling” – clearly and plainly.
    
    For the record people would not visit these sites and click the ads if it wasn’t for what was uploaded. I don’t see how any revenue derived off the sweat of other people is morally right.
    
    With Bit Torrent, none of the swarm makes any money from sharing, we are there because we love that we share (and statistically we probably buy it as well). Where as anyone who uploads the same file to a video hosting site will receive a financial kickback. Submitting it to a linking site generates hits, and money. All that money is lost in the system of the uploader, the linker and the hoster. None of it goes to anyone involved in the creation of the content. In my mind that is just as parasitic as the MAFIAA, if not worse (though without the lobbying).
    
    Please do not confuse freedom to share, with the profit motive. They are different beasts and stand at opposite ends of the spectrum.
- Freetardo
  
  I agree, sharing is caring. Now share your money with me. Thanks.
Yo Mamma

A lot of grammatical errors in this article…
PREDATOR

“Speaking under the assumed name John Sandy”

Ya right! My Hass! Now the corporate parasites are fabricating evidence with fake persona claiming to make money with links!

LET’S KILL ALL THESE PARASITES BEFORE THEY DESTROY THE PLANET!
Anonymous

movie2k didn’t miss a beat
Askyourmother

wow anonymous has shutdown gvu.de which nobody visits anyhow… good job stupids!
Askyourmother

wow anonymous has shutdown gvu.de which nobody visits anyhow… good job stupids!
Foff

I think we need to be careful about what we post here. The Mafiaa has spies here so from now on be careful do not give them any ideas on what to attack.

The industry is scared to death about streaming. This cuts directly into cable and Tv viewing and affects advertising. Just like the death of the album the death of bundled cable and TV is coming. Al la carte TV is the future. We haven’t had cable in years and my kids never watch the free channels. Just look at all the money all the media parasites make. Tv stars, Athletes, even news commentators etc, if everyone dumped cable and used the internet to watch only what they wanted advert revenue would be in the toliet and all these people would have to work a little harder to earn the big money.

I like sports but I don’t need cable to bring me sports ad nauseum I only need the events that interest me. I could also care less about the obnoxious jock panels that rattle on and on just to fill up time. At one time thousands of channels sounded fun but the industry got greedy and now only gives a handful at an obscene price. Streaming is the future. I just can’t wait until the quality reaches HD.
Foff

I think we need to be careful about what we post here. The Mafiaa has spies here so from now on be careful do not give them any ideas on what to attack.

The industry is scared to death about streaming. This cuts directly into cable and Tv viewing and affects advertising. Just like the death of the album the death of bundled cable and TV is coming. Al la carte TV is the future. We haven’t had cable in years and my kids never watch the free channels. Just look at all the money all the media parasites make. Tv stars, Athletes, even news commentators etc, if everyone dumped cable and used the internet to watch only what they wanted advert revenue would be in the toliet and all these people would have to work a little harder to earn the big money.

I like sports but I don’t need cable to bring me sports ad nauseum I only need the events that interest me. I could also care less about the obnoxious jock panels that rattle on and on just to fill up time. At one time thousands of channels sounded fun but the industry got greedy and now only gives a handful at an obscene price. Streaming is the future. I just can’t wait until the quality reaches HD.
Themightysmoker

the problem is that they may have the ground force, we have the internet force! which one will prevail? haha
Themightysmoker

the problem is that they may have the ground force, we have the internet force! which one will prevail? haha
Guest

Pity.
http://twitter.com/p2jack P2p Jack

Thank you Torrentfreak for mentioning Duckload in this thread :) Nice to see you read our twitter @s xD
Peteref

There are probably more filehoster/usenet sites like this. Look how the rlslog adverise usenet.nl and other filehosters.
Anonymous

tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
Anonymous

tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
http://twitter.com/p2jack P2p Jack

@peteref – rlslog log those sites using referal links…

it seems admins of kino owned those file hosts… well that’s how it seems
Pingback: Kino.to Uploader Speaks Out, Cyberlockers Down, Anon DDoS | Pixelbean
Pat

funny all the free sites like kino to get taken down but the uber expensive rip offs which invoice u hundreds of dollars for fake movie ads stay online……..
Anon

I’d much rather see GVU’s emails liberated ;)
Nakki

file sharing = good
making money from it = bad
http://twitter.com/______Steve : )

Can you please create an article explaining how DDOSing is actually a digital version of a sit in. People need to realise Anon are not “attacking”, certainly not “hacking” they’re PROTESTING.
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Anonymous

tinyurl.com/2a7usxg
http://www.xbomber.co.uk/ Crash

I think it is an attack because they’re temporarily stopping something from working properly – and that’s not what protesting is.
I do agree that DDOSing is not hacking. It’s like calling ‘putting a brick through a window’ lock-picking.
- Benno Tanner
  
  No that’s -exactly- what a sit-in is. If you stage a sit-in in a business (like the lunch counters during the Greensboro sit-ins), you effectively render the place nonoperational. Which is very similar to how DDOSing works – so it’s a pretty clear example of direct nonviolent action.
  - http://www.xbomber.co.uk/ Crash
    
    You’re right about the sit-ins but when I hear the word “protest”, I still think of a lawful procession moving along some street somewhere, rather than people intentionally sending spurious requests over a network.
    
    Another thing is that when people do a sit-in, they are present and, presumably, identifiable.
    I would think that the whole point of ‘Anonymous’ is that they don’t want to be identifiable and they’re not really present either.
    
    I don’t think their actions are unjustified in many cases, but there is a kind of malicious element (that is sometimes justified), which I don’t think is there in most peoples’ understanding of the word ‘protest’.
    Even if 90% of what they’re trying to do is just to ‘send a message’ (ie. protest), there is that extra, slightly malicious 10% still floating there.
Anonymous

tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
Anonymous

tinyurl.com/2a7usxg
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Kino.to Uploader Speaks Out, Cyberlockers Down, Anon DDoS

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