Distributor Lionsgate was quick to react. Just days after the leak the entertainment company sued several file-sharing sites, which eventually resulted in the closure of file-hosting site Hulkfile. But more action was yet to come.

Doubling up on their efforts, Lionsgate also targeted hosting providers, domain registrars and seedboxes while at the same time sending thousands of DMCA takedown notices to have content and links to content removed.

However, a big question remained unanswered. Would the makers of The Expendables 3 start tracking down alleged file-sharers to force them into cash settlements as happened with previous iterations of the movie? It’s taken a few weeks but confirmation is now in.

Millennium Films, the production company behind The Expendables 3, is now shaking down individual Internet users they believe to have downloaded and shared the leaked movie without permission. What do they want? Hard cash, of course.

Interestingly, and at least for now, the company isn’t going through the courts filing subpoenas against ISPs to obtain downloaders’ personal details. In a switch of tactics the company is sending DMCA takedown notices to ISPs via CEG TEK International and requesting that the notices are forwarded to the customers in question instead. In addition to the usual cease and desist terminology, Millennium tag on cash settlements demands too.

As can be seen in the image above, the production company is giving notice recipients until October 5, 2014 to come up with the money – or else.

“If within the prescribed time period described above you fail to (i) respond or settle, or (ii) provide by email to support@cegtek.com written evidence of your having consent or permission from Millennium Films to use the Work in connection with Peer-to-Peer networks (note that fraudulent submissions may give rise to additional liabilities), the above matter may be referred to attorneys representing the Work’s owner for legal action,” the settlement offer reads.

Of course, whether people fill in CEG TEK’s settlement form or write to them with their personal details, the end result will be the same. The company will now have the person’s identity, something they didn’t previously have since at this stage ISPs have only forwarded the notices.

While the notices are real (CEG TEK have confirmed the action) little is known about how much money Millenium/CEG TEK are demanding to make a supposed lawsuit go away. However, TorrentFreak has learned that CEG TEK are simultaneously sending out settlement demands to alleged downloaders of The Expendables 2. A copy of the settlement page demand – $300 – is shown below.

While some people will no doubt be worrying about how to deal with these demands and whether Millenium will follow through on its implied threat to sue, at least some of these notices will be falling on deaf ears. LiquidVPN, an anonymity company listed in our 2014 report, received one such notice but as a no-log provider, could not forward it to its customer.

Compare that to the despair of a user posting on KickassTorrents who got caught after relying on IP address blocking software (typos etc corrected).

“I woke up to this alongside four other notices from my ISP. I stopped downloading six days ago, but I’m receiving old notices about movies that were downloaded a month ago and I basically can’t do nothing about it since its old. I use PeerBlock and it’s a bunch of bullshit. What should I do with this October 5 deadline on a settlement? Please help!” he wrote.

Finally, and as Lionsgate, Millennium Films and CEG TEK shake down sites, hosting services, domain registrars, seedbox providers and now end users, the big mystery surrounding the most important questions remain unanswered.

Who – at Lionsgate, Millennium or one of its partners – had full access to a clean DVD copy of the movie? Who then put that copy in a position of being placed online? The FBI, who can crack the most complex of terrorist crimes, are reportedly involved and must’ve asked these questions. Yet the culprit still hasn’t been found……

Could it be that studios become less cooperative when blame falls too close to home?

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Many insiders blame the pre-release leak of the film for the disappointing numbers. Millions of people have downloaded pirated copies and skipped the box office, they argue.

Over the past several weeks Lionsgate has countered the leak by sending tens of thousands of takedown requests. The movie studio even went as far as suing the operators of six websites that allegedly failed to remove the infringing files – Limetorrents.com, Billionuploads.com, Hulkfile.eu, Played.to, Swankshare.com and Dotsemper.com.

This pressure resulted in drastic actions at several of these sites. Faced with a preliminary injunction, cloud hosting service Hulkfile shut down its website, for example, and Swankshare did the same. LimeTorrents remained online, but removed all expendables torrents, including the trailers.

TorrentFreak spoke with the operator of the torrent site who says he installed a filter that blocks everything related to the Expendables franchise. He hoped that this would be enough to appease the movie studio, but thus far Lionsgate has no plans to back down without compensation.

In an email the movie studio’s lawyer notes that the preliminary injunction stays in place. Interestingly, however, the torrent site operator is invited to discuss a potential settlement.

“Thanks for the email. As you know the court has entered a preliminary injunction, and the lawsuit is going to continue unless we can reach a settlement. I think it would be helpful to set up a time to talk by phone,” Lionsgate’s lawyer writes.

Whether Lionsgate is serious about settling or whether it merely wants to know more about the identity of Limetorrents’ operator remains anyone’s guess. It’s very unlikely that the movie studio will settle for anything short of a few million dollars in damages, something the torrent site owner can’t afford.

So for now, this means that the lawsuit is destined to drag on.

Yesterday LimeTorrents’ domain registrar eNom had to hand over any information it has on the site’s owner. With the domain name at risk LimeTorrents has decided to move its website to a new .CC domain name, where it will continue serving torrents, minus the Expendables.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Fearing a massive loss in revenue, movie studio Lionsgate sued the operators of six websites that allegedly failed to remove the infringing files – Limetorrents.com, Billionuploads.com, Hulkfile.eu, Played.to, Swankshare.com and Dotsemper.com.

A few days ago the court sided with Lionsgate and granted a preliminary injunction to seize the financial assets of the site’s operators. In addition the sites were forbidden from linking to the infringing material. Since this includes user uploaded files, the order effectively means that the sites have to shut down.

Today the broad order claimed its first major casualty in cloud hosting provider Hulkfile. The company informs TorrentFreak that it has disabled access to all visitors from the United States and that it intends to shut down globally during the coming days.

“Hulkfile.eu is no longer accessible in the U.S. and will shut down completely soon. We can’t keep building our business on the weak base the preliminary injunction left us with,” Hulkfile’s operator says.

Hulkfile believes that Lionsgate has painted a tainted picture of its service to the U.S. federal court. The file-storage service says it honors all takedown requests, and even developed a special removal tool for copyright holders which is used by various takedown services.

“We’re not doing anything wrong, it’s a service just like any other cloud storage service in the world. If Hulkfile was started to support piracy, then why would we have created a takedown system which provided access to more than 40 copyright holders and piracy fighters?”

The takedown notices Lionsgate sent for the Expendables leak hadn’t been processed yet due to the vacation period, the hosting service claims. The movie studio could have taken the links down themselves if they used Hulkfile’s removal tool, but Lionsgate’s takedown partner MarkMonitor has apparently shown no interest in using it.

“We showed good faith by providing access to a removal tool which MarkMonitor never asked to gain access to, even after we offered it multiple times. Every day there is a new file-sharing service launching somewhere. The only way for copyright holders to protect their material is to cooperate, not to fight,” Hulkfile tells TF.

With an injunction that basically prevents Hulkfile from operating its service, the company sees no other option than to throw in the towel. Users will get the option to transfer their files to another hosting provider, but Hulkfile will not come back after that.

It seems that Hulkfile is not the only casualty. The smaller file-sharing service Swankshare completely vanished from the Internet shortly after the court issued its preliminary injunction. It’s currently unknown whether this site plans to stay down for good.

While the Expendables leak posed a serious threat to Lionsgate’s revenue, one has to wonder whether this justifies putting several other companies out of business with such broad injunctions. In particular because Hulkfile and others had no real option to defend themselves due to the ex-parte nature of the order.

Considering the ‘success’ booked by Lionsgate in such a small time period it’s safe to expect that more movie companies will use the same strategy in the future.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Fearing a massive loss in revenue, movie studio Lionsgate issued thousands of takedown requests to limit the film’s availability. While most sites swiftly removed links to the pre-release leak, according to the studio some did not respond at all.

Late last week Lionsgate sued the operators of six file-sharing sites that allegedly failed to remove the infringing files – Limetorrents.com, Billionuploads.com, Hulkfile.eu, Played.to, Swankshare.com and Dotsemper.com.

Lionsgate accused the sites of several copyright infringement offenses and asked for a permanent injunction to stop further distribution of the film, as well as seizure of the sites’ bank accounts and other assets.

Yesterday the case appeared before Judge Margaret Morrow at the California federal court. None of the file-sharing sites had responded to the allegations and the judge granted Lionsgate’s request for a broad preliminary injunction.

The preliminary injunction prevents the sites from hosting and linking to copies of the movie. The same applies to all companies that provide services to or in connection with the sites, which means that the sites are at risk of losing their domain names.

In addition, the court also ordered that all bank accounts and other financial assets of the sites can be frozen.

“All banks, savings and loan associations, payment processors or other financial institutions, payment providers, third-party processors and advertising service providers of Defendants or any of them must, upon receiving notice of this Order, immediately locate all accounts connected to Defendants,” the injunction states.

The seized funds may be needed to compensate Lionsgate for the losses it suffered as a result of the leak, the judge argues.

“Such an asset freeze is appropriate in this case to preserve Lions Gate’s right to such recovery against Defendants, who are trafficking in the Stolen Film and may secret assets to insulate them from judgment,”Judge Morrow notes.

This is not the first ruling in favor of the movie studio. Earlier this week Lionsgate also obtained permission to subpoena various third-party web services including Google, Cloudflare and GoDaddy to obtain personal details on several of the defendants.

With the preliminary injunction, Lionsgate now has the potential to severely cripple the accused file-sharing sites. Whether it will be enough to stop the distribution of the leaked film has yet to be seen.

Thus far all six sites remain operational and links to the Expendables 3 leak are still widely available.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Scheduled for an August 15 U.S. release, Expendables 3 leaked in near DVD quality a full two weeks ahead. The timing and quality combined to make the leak one of the most prominent in recent years.

The movie studios behind the film have been rather quiet, but behind the scenes they have been trying hard to limit the damage. Lionsgate in particular sent takedown requests to numerous file-sharing sites. While most sites complied by taking down infringing links or copies, some failed to respond.

In response to this apparent lack of cooperation, Lionsgate has now sued the operators of six file-sharing sites – Limetorrents.com, Billionuploads.com, Hulkfile.eu, Played.to, Swankshare.com and Dotsemper.com. The complaint (copy below) filed at a federal court in California accuses the sites’ owners of direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.

Limetorrents is the only torrent site in the lawsuit, and Lionsgate notes that the Expendables leak was still prominently available on the site when the complaint was drafted.

“To date, the operator(s) of the site have not responded to Lions Gate’s demands. Rather, as of the date of this filing links to the torrents allow users to access ‘swarms’ where the Stolen Film is being shared remain on the site, including in the fifth-ranked position for ‘Movie torrents’ on the site’s home page,” the lawyers write.

In the complaint, first reported by THR, the movie studio demands a wide range of measures. Lionsgate asks the court for a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction and a permanent injunction to stop the sites from further distributing the film.

This includes a request to suspend the sites’ domain names, or transfer them to Lionsgate. In addition, the movie studio also wants all financial institutions who do business with the sites to freeze their assets. If granted, Lionsgate could severely damage the sites in question even if the operators remain silent.

Finally, the movie company demands actual or statutory damages for the financial loss it has suffered. Since there is only one film at stake, the statutory damages are limited to $150,000 per site.

At this point it is unknown whether Lionsgate is also investigating the source of the leak, which isn’t related to any of the sites listed in the complaint. A third option would be to go after individual filesharers, which Nu Image did when they sued 23,322 alleged pirates who shared the first Expendables movies.

Thus far well over two million copies of The Expendables 3 have been shared via BitTorrent, so there are plenty of targets for sure.

Update August 2: It appears that the feds are also investigating the source of the leak, we’ll cover this in a seperate article if more information comes in.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

While FIFA has even gone as far as taking action against Twitter avatars, news today shows that its affiliates are also prepared to disrupt the activities of hundreds of sites and countless millions of Internet users if that means protecting their copyrights.

The development follows legal action initiated by Multi Screen Media PVT Ltd, a Sony Entertainment Television subsidiary in India. Earlier this year the company obtained a license from FIFA to broadcast the 2014 World Cup to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of course, content is now being made available elsewhere without permission, so the company has decided to do something about that.

In a statement to the High Court in Delhi, counsel for Multi Screen Media explained that “various websites are indulging in hosting, streaming, providing access to” infringing content causing substantial loss of revenue not just for the company, but also to the government due to lost tax on TV subscription fees.

The list of ‘infringing’ sites supplied to the High Court is huge – 479 sites in all – and contains well known sharing sites including The Pirate Bay, torrent storage site Torrage, 1337x, Demonoid, and dozens of file-hosting sites.

Quite amazingly, however, the list also contains entirely legitimate sites including Google Docs, Google Video, Google URL shortener Goo.gl, and Kim Dotcom’s Mega.co.nz. None escape the criticism of Sony or the High Court.

“Learned counsel for the plaintiff submits that many of the websites [in the list] are anonymous in nature and it is virtually impossible to locate the owners of such websites or contact details of such owners. It is further submitted that many of these Rogue Websites also hide behind domain privacy services offered by various domain name Registrars,” the judge wrote in his decision.

“[Websites] listed below, or any other website identified by the Plaintiff are restrained, from in any manner hosting, streaming, broadcasting, rebroadcasting, retransmitting, exhibiting, making available for viewing and downloading, providing access to and / or communicating to the public, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, updating and/or sharing (including to its subscribers and users), through the internet, in any manner whatsoever,” he continued.

With that Judge V. Kameswar Rao issued an order for the country’s ISPs to block the 479 sites in question – Google’s included – plus “such other websites that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be infringing of its exclusive rights.”

While the Judge granting a blocking order against Google is bad enough, one has to question how the company’s services ended up on the High Court application in the first place. That is the responsibility of local anti-piracy company Markscan, who compiled the list for Multi Screen Media. Markscan were featured in a TorrentFreak article last month when they sent dozens of erroneous takedown notices to Google, again on behalf of a Sony company.

“We want to assure you that we deploy technology, in addition to best efforts of our teams, to ensure that we do not impact legal content on yours, or any other website,” they told us at the time. Users of Google Docs, Goo.gl and Google Video may beg to differ.

While some local ISPs have already initiated blockades, Google told Indian news outlet Medianama that there had been “no interruption of our services mentioned in the order.”

The High Court order was issued June 23, alongside an instruction to distribute the summons to the defendant sites by July 22, 2014.

Update: MediaNama is reporting that it has obtained a copy of an updated court order that isn’t yet available on the Delhi High Court website. The update reveals blocking requests for 219 sites, down from the 472 in the original order. No Google websites are in the updated list but many torrent and other file-sharing sites remain.

Original List of 472 Sites to Be Blocked

1. cdn.playwire.com

2. embedupload.com

3. 1fichier.com

4. crocko.com

5. multiupload.nl

6. uppit.com

7. solidfiles.com

8. bayfiles.net

9. tusfiles.net

10. bitshare.com

11. muchshare.net

12. mega.co.nz

13. share-online.biz

14. sendspace.com

15. real4download.com

16. telugump3.biz

17. wapkafiles.com

18. telugumasthi.wapka.me

19. telugustar.net

20. myteluguwap.net

21. s1.myteluguwap.net

22. s2.myteluguwap.net

23. filestube.to

24. ul.to

25. mightyupload.com

26. uploaded.net

27. freakshare.com

28. putlocker.com

29. uploadable.ch

30. safelinking.net

31. ultramegabit.com

32. terafile.co

33. fileom.com

34. d01.megashares.com

35. dizzcloud.com

36. lumfile.com

37. fileparadox.in

38. nitrobits.com

39. filemonkey.in

40. fastshare.cz

41. keep2share.cc

42. k2s.cc

43. sharerepo.com

44. depositfiles.com

45. rapidshare.com

46. filerio.com

47. goo.gl

48. fcore.eu

49. anonfiles.com

50. adf.ly

51. megafiles.se

52. exashare.com

53. primeshare.tv

54. uploadc.com

55. epicshare.net

56. dwn.so

57. uploadhero.com

58. dfiles.eu

59. thefile.me

60. nosupload.com

61. uploadsat.com

62. shareflare.net

63. letitbit.net

64. filesfrog.net

65. unlimitzone.com

66. uploadrocket.net

67. secureupload.eu

68. hulkfile.eu

69. tusfiles.co.nz

70. filehoot.com

71. jumbofiles.com

72. usefile.com

73. clicktoview.org

74. 180upload.nl

75. hitfile.net

76. easybytez.com

77. crisshare.com

78. vip-file.com

79. ufile.eu

80. jheberg.net

81. dl.free.fr

82. 2shared.com

83. sharebeast.com

84. cramit.in

85. ryushare.com

86. teluguworld.asia

87. twap.in

88. vshare.eu

89. 108.59.3.225:182

90. megafilesfactory.com

91. 199.91.152.94

92. 205.196.121.39

93. 199.91.152.86

94. 199.91.154.157

95. 205.196.123.194

96. 205.196.123.8

97. 205.196.123.182

98. mhnwap.wapka.me

99. mhnwap.wapka.mobi

100. realitytelevisionportal.eu

101. dorabuzz.in

102. foncity.in

103. toonvideos.in

104. bestcartoon.wapka.mobi

105. wap.dorabuzz.in

106. playpanda.net

107. play44.net

108. shared.sx

109. mega-vids.com

110. promptfile.com

111. 4upfiles.com

112. filemoney.com

113. lemuploads.com

114. anysend.com

115. luckyshare.net

116. filedap.com

117. junocloud.me

118. filevice.com

119. v-vids.com

120. quickyshare.net

121. tumi.tv

122. mp4star.com

123. sockshare.ws

124. uploadcrazy.net

125. uploadboy.com

126. putlocker.ws

127. filenuke.net

128. docs.google.com

129. dotsemper.com

130. upload.com

131. cloudyvideos.com

132. v.youku.com

133. movzap.com

134. googlevideo.com

135. vertor.eu

136. dramautubes.com

137. nosvideo.com

138. vreer.com

139. vidxden.com

140. divxstage.eu

141. rapidvideo.tv

142. vidspot.net

143. freshvideo.net

144. vidbux.com

145. vidplay.net

146. vidup.me

147. video.tt

148. modovideo.com

149. youwatch.org

150. magnovideo.com

151. videobam.com

152. sharexvid.com

153. videoslasher.com

154. nowvideo.ch

155. donevideo.com

156. videozed.net

157. vidhog.com

158. vidzi.tv

159. streamin.to

160. thevideo.me

161. vidzbeez.com

162. divxpress.com

163. nubestream.com

164. divxstream.net

165. videobb.com

166. divxden.com

167. mixturecloud.com

168. divxstage.net

169. videowood.tv

170. hostingbulk.com

171. playit.pk

172. movpod.net

173. daclips.com

174. slickvid.com

175. videofun.me

176. video44.net

177. yucache.net

178. moevideos.net

179. videomega.tv

180. vidpaid.com

181. sharevid.org

182. zuzvideo.com

183. video.vidcrazy.net

184. videovalley.net

185. videoboxone.com

186. vidcrazy.net

187. vodu.ch

188. watchfreeinhd.com

189. veehd.com

190. movdivx.com

191. blip.tv

192. animeuploads.com

193. videohub.ws

194. hdwide.co

195. stormvid.co

196. neovid.me

197. hawkhd.me

198. streamland.cc

199. vidshark.ws

200. vidspace.cc

201. vids.bz

202. play.flashx.tv

203. videoweed.es

204. torrenthound.com

205. nowvideo.sx

206. limetorrents.com

207. novamov.com

208. torrentfunk.com

209. torrents.net

210. wapkafile.com

211. thepiratebay.org

212. torlock.com

213. movshare.net

214. unblockedpiratebay-proxy.com

215. thetorrent.org

216. torrentz.sx

217. thepiratebay.se.unblock.to

218. nowdownload.ch

219. sockshare.com

220. bittorrent.pm

221. uptobox.com

222. torrage.com

223. vidbux.com

224. muchshare.net

225. sumotorrent.sx

226. torrentdownload.ws

227. vidup.me

228. btmon.com

229. ryushare.com

230. uploadable.ch

231. thepiratebay.se

232. 1337x.to

233. video.tt

234. bthunter.org

235. tusfiles.net

236. 1337x.org

237. swankshare.com

238. 1337xproxy.in

239. torrentz.dj

240. torrentcrazy.ee

241. filesbomb.in

242. torrentz.is

243. torrentz.am

244. kickassunblock.net

245. torrent.tm

246. uploadboy.com

247. oc.o2.vc

248. ineedtorrent.net

249. torrenthoundproxy.com

250. torcache.kickassunblock.net

251. kickasstor.net

252. streamupload.org

253. arabloads.net

254. torrentsnet.come.in

255. torrentz.to

256. filesfrog.net

257. 3gparena.in

258. dl.free.fr

259. divxstage.eu

260. play.flashx.tv

261. download-abc.com

262. filmsmaza.com

263. glotorrents.com

264. coolmoviez.com

265. 62.210.201.55:81

266. fuckyourcrew.org

267. mimti1.moviesmobile.net

268. sandy1.moviesmobile.net

269. sandy3.moviesmobile.net

270. sandy4.moviesmobile.net

271. thepiratebay.mk

272. dev.torrentz.pro

273. uploaded.net

274. torrentmoviemafia.com

275. 1337x.pw

276. share1.moviesmobile.net

277. share2.moviesmobile.net

278. share3.moviesmobile.net

279. share4.moviesmobile.net

280. bayproxy.me

281. sarthaktv.in

282. p2p4ever.com

283. tny.cz

284. torrent-loco.com.ar

285. piraattilahti.org

286. punjabwap.com

287. torrent.ee

288. torrentz.asia

289. fromplay.org

290. proxybay.pw

291. vertor.com

292. katshore.org

293. nl.malaysiabay.org

294. demonoid.ph

295. kickasstorrents.come.in

296. putlocker.cz

297. proxybay.eu

298. vertor.eu

299. 3gparina.in

300. 89.248.162.148

301. fromplay.com

302. etorrent.co.kr

303. fun4buddy.com

304. livetvindian.com

305. ontohinbd.com

306. pc.rdxhd.com

307. seedpeer.me

308. ukcast.tv

309. ezcast.tv

310. xuscacamusca.se

311. crichd.in

312. 122.155.203.9

313. http://www.0dian8.com/

314. http://www.114nba.com/

315. http://360bo.com/

316. http://51live.com/

317. http://www.52waha.com/

318. http://bf.5xzb.com/

319. http://allsport-live.net/

320. http://www.antibookers.ru/

321. http://www.assistirtvonlineaovivo.tv/

322. http://atdhe.eu/

323. http://atdhe.so/

324. http://atdhe.xxx/

325. http://www.atdhe24.net/

326. http://www.azhibo.com/

327. http://barcelonastream.com/

328. http://www.coolsport.tv/schedule-coolsport-tv.html

329. http://www.tvole.com/

330. http://www.drakulastream.eu/

331. http://esportesaovivo.com/

332. http://www.feed2all.eu/type/football.html

333. http://gofirstrowuk.eu/

334. http://www.footballstreaming.info/

335. http://www.frombar.com/

336. http://www.futebolaovivo.net/inicio.php

337. http://www.online.futebolaovivogratis.org/

338. http://gooool.org/

339. http://www.rajangan.me/

340. http://www.hahasport.com/

341. http://hdzhibo.com/

342. http://neolive.net/

343. http://www.kanqiu.tv/

344. http://livesport4u.com/

345. http://livetv.sx/

346. http://meczelive.tv/

347. http://www.megatvonline.co/

348. http://tvonline.megavertvonline.net/live/

349. http://myp2p.pw/

350. http://nogomya.ch/

351. http://www.p2p-hd.com/

352. http://qmzhibo.com/

353. http://rntplayer.com/

354. http://www.rojadirecta.me/

355. http://www.seezb.net/

356. http://www.sport.net/

357. http://sport5online.com/

358. http://sportlemon.ge/

359. http://sportlemontv.eu/

360. http://sportlive.lt/

361. http://www.sportlv.info/

362. http://www.sportp2p.com/

363. http://www.stopstream.tv/

364. http://thefirstrow.biz/

365. http://www.feed4u.net/

366. http://www.time4tv.com/

367. http://torrent-tv.ru/

368. http://tvaovivogratis.net/

369. http://tvonlinexat.com/

370. http://www.usagoals.tv/

371. http://vipbox.net/

372. http://www.vipboxuk.co/

373. http://www.wasu.cn/

374. http://www.wiziwig.tv/

375. http://wszhibo.com/

376. http://www.look-tvs.com/

377. http://www.yaomtv.com.cn/

378. http://www.zhiboche.com/

379. http://zqnow.com/

380. http://www.24livestreamtv.com/brazil-2014-fifa-world-cup-football-
live-streaming-online-tv/

381. http://acefootball.eu/

382. http://al3ablive.info/

383. http://atdhe.ru/

384. http://atdhe.ge/

385. http://atdhe.sx/

386. http://atdhe.ws/

387. http://bongdatructuyen.info/

388. http://www.bongdatructuyen.vn/

389. http://bongdatv.net/

390. http://bongdaup.com/

391. http://www.majika.biz/

392. http://btvsports.com/

393. http://canalesdetv.com/

394. http://capodeportes.net/

395. http://www.catedralhd.tk/

396. http://www.cv55.eu/

397. http://desistreams.tv/

398. http://desportogratis.com/

399. http://dinozap.com/

400. http://drhtv.com.pl/

401. http://epctv.com/

402. http://zonasports.to/

403. http://fancylive.com/

404. http://feed2all.eu/

405. http://www.firstrows.eu/

406. http://firstrows.biz/

407. http://firstrowsports.ge/

408. http://footballhd.ru/

409. http://footdirect24.com/

410. http://freefootball.ws/

411. http://freehdspor.com/

412. http://freelivefussball.de/

413. http://freelivesport.eu/

414. http://fsicrew.info/

415. http://fussball-live-streams.com/

416. http://futbolarg.tv/

417. http://www.futbol-envivo.com/

418. http://futbolsinlimites.pw/

419. http://futebolaovivogratis.org/

420. http://goatd.net/

421. http://hdembed.com/

422. http://funkeysports.com/

423. http://hdsports.me/

424. http://www.hdstreams.tv/index.php

425. http://iraqgoals.in/

426. http://jokerplanete.com/

427. http://lesoleildelanuit.wf/

428. http://life-sport.org/

429. http://livesportv.com/

430. http://max-deportv.com/

431. http://megaviptv.net/

432. http://milloxtv.me/

433. http://myp2p.cm/

434. http://myp2p.ec/

435. http://newsoccertv.com/

436. http://nowwatchtvlive.com/

437. http://onlinemoviesportsandtv.com/

438. http://online–soccer.eu/

439. http://portugaldesportivo.com/

440. http://premier-league-live.net/

441. http://qxzhibo.com/

442. http://realtvsport.com/

443. http://real-tv-sport.com/

444. http://www.redzer.tv/

445. http://s247.tv/

446. http://sambasoccer.pw/

447. http://skysport.tv/

448. http://soccerembed.com/

449. http://soccertoall.net/

450. http://softsportstv.eu/

451. http://www.sportsbeech.tv/

452. http://sports-x.net/

453. http://sportz-hd.eu/

454. http://stadium-live.com/

455. http://stream-foot.tv/

456. http://streamhd.eu/

457. http://streamking.org/

458. http://todaytv.me/

459. http://www.tvonlinepc.eu/

460. http://totbet.net/

461. http://tructiepbongda.com/

462. http://tvembed.com/

463. http://tvembed.eu/

464. http://tv-link.in/

465. http://tv-porinternet.com/

466. http://tvsport24.info/

467. http://u-peak.me/

468. http://vipbox.co/

469. http://vipracing.co.in/

470. http://vtv4u.eu/

471. http://whoopwhoop.tv/

472. http://wiziwigfootball.com/

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The RIAA and other rightsholders compile this list every year and not without success. The music group credits the Government’s efforts as contributing to the demise of BTJunkie, Demonoid, Megaupload and other ‘pirate’ sites.

“We want to take a moment to reflect on the fact that thanks in large part to the efforts of the US Government in highlighting illicit practices, some of the notorious markets that we identified in last year’s submission no longer feature in this filing,” the RIAA’s Neil Turkewitz begins.

But despite these successes, the piracy problem isn’t going away.

The record labels have therefore compiled a new list of “notorious” websites which they say profit from direct or indirect copyright infringement. The list zooms in on several file-sharing portals including BitTorrent sites described as “high priority pirate markets.”

The RIAA admits that many of the popular BitTorrent sites do take links down when they are asked to, but these takedown requests don’t have the desired effect as the content can simply be re-uploaded by the site’s users.

“One of the principal problems with the use of take down notices for BitTorrent indexing sites is that the same infringing material can easily be, and usually is, very quickly reposted to the site,” RIAA writes.

This issue is complicated further by the existence of many similar files under different URLs. The RIAA wants to end this ongoing “cat and mouse” game and would like BitTorrent sites to take proactive measures to ensure that infringing files are not added to their service to begin with.

“As a result, copyright owners are forced into an endless ‘cat and mouse’ game, which requires considerable resources to be devoted to chasing infringing content, only for that same infringing content to continually reappear.”

“For that reason, BitTorrent site operators should take proactive measures to stop indexing torrents,” RIAA writes, hinting at automatic filters of infringing files.

The worst offending BitTorrent sites according to the RIAA are The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, Torrentz, KickassTorrents, BitSnoop, SumoTorrent, Torrenthound, BTMon, ExtraTorrent, Fenopy, LimeTorrents and TorrentReactor.

The Pirate Bay is reported as particularly problematic, and it’s one of the few sites that does not respond to take down requests from copyright holders. The RIAA further informs the Government that the site continues to operate despite criminal convictions against its former operators.

“Despite the final criminal convictions and successful civil litigation in Sweden, the site is still active and thought to be the most popular BitTorrent site in the world, with nearly 6 million registered users uploading and making content available to over 26 million users. The world’s most popular films and music can be instantly downloaded via the service,” the RIAA writes.

Interestingly, the RIAA also says that it’s monitoring the use of a free VPN service that was supposedly launched by The Pirate Bay earlier this year, not realizing that it was merely an advertisement.

“In August 2012, it was reported that The Pirate Bay had launched a new ad-supported VPN service, PrivitizeVPN, the purpose of which is to enable users to ‘cloak’ their IP address when using file sharing services to make enforcement more difficult. This service is in its early stage and usage is being monitored.”

Besides BitTorrent sites the RIAA also lists several linking sites and cyberlockers as piracy havens. The appearance of RapidShare is most surprising as the Swiss cyberlocker has undertaken tremendous efforts to curb piracy in recent months.

The RIAA suggests that the owners of cyberlockers should proactively filter infringing files as well, in addition to responding to take down requests. The group points out that some services do this already, naming Hulkshare as an example.

“To a limited extent, rights holders can begin to tackle these infringements through take down notices sent to the locker service provider. However, rights holders cannot locate content stored on a locker service unless and until it is made available to the public – which is done via a third-party link,” RIAA writes.

“The locker service itself would clearly be better placed to locate infringing content on its own servers (there are technologies available that would assist) and to take appropriate action,” they add.

While not stated specifically, it appears that the RIAA views all file-hosting and sharing sites as piracy havens unless they employ a proactive filtering mechanism. This is in line with the music industry’s global anti-piracy strategy which leaked a few months ago.

In the coming month the Office of the US Trade Representative is expected to publish its own overview of notorious markets. This review is expected to include many of the sites mentioned above.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“I should write a book about doing business in Hong Kong, that’s how good it is. People there leave you alone and they are happy for your success,” he added.

But leaving him alone wasn’t on the agenda of the Hong Kong authorities. In a triumphant January statement they revealed how they had worked with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to “smash a transnational cyberlocker syndicate” – aka Megaupload.

The commitment from Hong Kong Customs was significant. Not only did they invest a year’s worth of investigative manpower, but also supplied 100 officers from their various copyright enforcement divisions to carry out raids on the company.

According to an FT report, authorities there are set to go even further. Later this year, Hong Kong Customs will set up an “electronic crime investigation” center after being called on by media companies to pay closer attention to other cyberlocker-type services operating locally.

The announcement is likely to further unsettle several other file-hosting services that have a presence in the territory such as Filesonic.com, Uploading.com, Uploaded.to, zshare.net, Filepost.com and Hulkshare.com.

Just a couple of days after the Megaupload raids, Filesonic – one of the top 10 file-sharing sites on the Internet – reacted by disabling all 3rd party sharing.

Like Megaupload before it, Filesonic blocks all local IP addresses, presumably in an attempt to avoid local difficulties. But although there is no suggestion that Filesonic has done anything wrong, this type of blockade alone will not ensure it has a quiet life.

Hong Kong authorities described the motivation behind Megaupload’s IP block as “a bid to hinder investigation by law enforcement agencies.” Filesonic told FT that they have “a zero tolerance” approach to piracy.

Uploaded.to, another site with Hong Kong links, reacted to the Megaupload raids by blocking all visitors from the United States. Others have disabled their affiliate programs or taken other measures.

“Targeting the organized and transnational nature of IP infringing activities in the wake of technology development, the Hong Kong Customs will continue to monitor the situation and co-operate with the IPR industry and overseas law enforcement agencies so as to suppress infringing activities effectively,” HK Customs said in a statement.

Whether Customs will follow-up with further action remains to be seen, but in the meantime an Eastern chill is certainly blowing through cyberlocker land.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Last week the feds shut down the popular site accusing its founder and six others of money-laundering and several copyright related crimes. The site’s former users, meanwhile, are left without their files and forced to find a new place to share.

The big question is, where do these millions of people go now?

The RIAA hopes that the people who used MegaUpload to share copyrighted music are turning to iTunes, but this is not the case for everyone. A look at the traffic of some of the MegaUpload alternatives shows that millions have simply migrated to other file-hosting sites.

The graph below shows a sharp increase in traffic for four popular MegaUpload ‘replacements’ since last week. Based on data from various traffic measurement sites, Depositfiles, Uploaded.to, Hotfile and Rapidshare welcomed hundreds of thousands of extra visitors.

The example above is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many other sites that experienced a surge in traffic including Filepost, Hulkshare, Netload.in, Uploading, zShare.net and many others. Whether the newcomers will remain on board has yet to be seen, but it is clear that millions of former MegaUpload users are migrating to other sites.

As the cyberlocker landscape stands now, 4shared.com remains by far the largest site on the Internet. With an estimated 2.5 billion page views, 4Shared is more than twice the size of MegaUpload before it was shut down.

Needless to say, 4Shared is deeply concerned about the recent developments, but the company also told TorrentFreak that they have nothing to worry about themselves.

“This case has a great negative impact on file storage services and the Internet overall,” a spokesman said, adding that “4shared has some of the most strict house rules among all other file storage services and there’s no need for any changes.”

With many sites still in a state of shock, it might take a few weeks to see what the precise effect of the MegaUpload shutdown is. One thing is for sure though, many of MegaUpload’s former users haven’t given up downloading and sharing just yet.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

For nearly half a decade we have compiled weekly and yearly lists of the most popular downloads, and following on from Netflix’s publication of the most rented movies of all time, we today present the equivalent for BitTorrent downloads.

With an estimated 21 million downloads, Avatar is the most pirated movie of all time, followed by The Dark Knight and Transformers with about 19 million downloads each. Interestingly enough, none of the above films were present in Netflix’s list.

The BitTorrent and Netflix lists do show some overlap, as Inception and The Departed make an appearance in both.

Despite the massive piracy, the films below have not done too shabbily at the box-office. Avatar is the best grossing movie of all time and The Dark Knight is third, right before Star Trek.

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The list below is based on statistics is gathered from public BitTorrent trackers, dating back to early 2006. As BitTorrent’s usage was only a fraction of what it is today in the years before, we expect the list below to cover all the most downloaded movies on BitTorrent.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.