In order to stop the distribution of a copy of Robin Thicke’s album Blurred Lines, Universal Music had obtained an injunction against Key-Systems, a German-based registrar with whom H33T had registered its domain name. In order to comply with the court order, Key-Systems deleted H33T.com’s DNS entries which took the site down.

H33T eventually reappeared under a new domain, although as an indexer minus its long-standing tracker. But now, some months later, there is a new and worrying twist in the tale, one that could have serious implications for domain registrars.

A judgment just published by the Regional Court of Saarbrücken states that a domain registrar, in this case Key-Systems, can be held liable for the infringing actions of a site (in this case H33T) if it is “obvious” that it is committing offenses under copyright law.

Following complaints from Universal and its legal team, Key-Systems reportedly informed H33T about the alleged infringement of “Blurred Lines” but no action was taken to remove the content in question. This, alongside claims that H33T had disguised the owner of its domain by using a shell company in the Seychelles, meant that the registrar had no choice but to disable the domain or become liable itself.

In earlier cases the Federal Court found that DENIC, Germany’s central registry for domain names, was generally not liable for violations carried out by third parties, but in this case the Regional Court said that infringement was obviously being carried out by H33T so Key-Systems needed to act.

“With the current judgment, the Regional Court of Saarbrücken has for the first time clarified the responsibility of a registrar in respect of copyright infringements carried out via a domain registered by him,” says Dr. Florian Drücke of the Federal Music Industry Association (BVMI).

“For rights holders this offers a new protection option to take action against portals with illegal offers on the net, that hide their identities using front companies registered abroad,” he adds.

“If the registrar is informed about a clear violation of the law, it must examine the specific offer immediately and lock the domain. This is another important decision, which shows that the question of the responsibilities of all participants on the Internet must always be re-examined.”

With the Regional Court making it clear that should Key-Systems reactivate H33T’s domain they face a 250,000 euro fine, the stakes are high – and not only for this particular registrar either. With that in mind, Key-Systems lawyer Volker Greimann informs TorrentFreak that as far as they are concerned the battle is far from over.

“Let’s just say that this was not the final word in the matter. We are currently reviewing the judgment and our options for having this overturned in the next instance,” Greimann told TF.

“This judgment makes no legal sense and is full of errors. If this judgment stands, it will have dire consequences for the kind of services German registrars can provide.”

Rasch Legal, the company that initiated the action on behalf of Universal, has yet to respond to our request for comment.

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

A few days later TorrentFreak was able to confirm that the takedown was the result of legal action.

“We have indeed been served with a court order granting a temporary injunction requiring us to ensure certain content is not made available,” Key System’s Volker Greimann told TorrentFreak.

The injunction followed a complaint filed by Universal Music GMBH, a German division of Universal Music Group. It required Key-Systems to prevent the unauthorized distribution of Robin Thicke’s album Blurred Lines via the H33T website and tracker. Key-Systems achieved that by deleting the site’s DNS entries.

This blunt instrument approach by Key-Systems took down the entire site, something the registrar initially promised to fight by having the court order lifted. But for several months nothing more was heard and H33T remained offline.

This morning, however, H33T burst back to life, this time on the Tonga-based H33T.to domain.

“I have now given up ever regaining the .com domain,” H33T’s owner told TorrentFreak.

“I cannot keep the site off-line for any longer waiting for Key-Systems to make their promised appeal against the court order. The Internet moves at a living pace, websites die quickly if they are not on-line. Key-Systems is an Internet company so they know this.”

H33T says that he was initially “totally up for a game of whack-a-mole” and even considered appearing in person to fight the injunction, but that might not have been the best option long-term.

“I was about to make the worst decision of my life by volunteering to go to the court in person. The court would regard as contempt any action to put the site up on any domain especially if it was beyond their reach. There would have been a feeding frenzy and the plaintiffs would enjoy the additional benefits of having personally identified me as H33T’s operator.”

Deciding against that course of action, H33T opted to remain patient in the hope that Key-Systems would make good on their promise of appeal. But things didn’t go to plan.

“I was sincerely surprised to discover that there is a systemic prejudice against anything considered remotely ‘pirate’,” H33T explains.

“The prejudice is so thick as to appear like collusion between the plaintiffs, the courts and Key-Systems. How else can it be explained that a domain is seized on the matter of two links? The explanation is that there is a deeply held belief amongst a select group of operators that a torrent site is an illegal operation regardless of legal due process.”

H33T says there is also a bigger picture, one in which an act in a single country – in this case Germany – can block global access to a site.

“The situation becomes absurd when we consider this is for a civil issue of rights to link to a work and not a criminal issue. The very act of making a complaint against a site is enough to destroy it,” H33T concludes.

So for now H33T is back online with the aim of regaining as much of its lost traffic as possible. Time will tell if it can move back into the list of top 10 most-visited torrent sites, a position it held earlier this year.

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

Earlier this month H33t.com’s nameservers had been wiped from the domain records its domain registrar Key-Systems.

The same now appears to be happening to the new .eu domain, as these nameservers have been deleted as well.

Key-Systems previously confirmed to TorrentFreak they were forced to take this action following a local court order obtained by Universal Music Group.

Since the German company is also listed as the registrar for the .eu domain, we assume that they have now been asked to “seize” H33t.eu as well.

TorrentFreak asked H33t’s owner about the latest domain troubles but we have yet to hear back from him.

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

TorrentFreak contacted H33t’s domain registrar, the German company Key-Systems, who confirmed that they were forced to take this action following a local court order obtained by Universal Music Group.

“We have indeed been served with a court order granting a temporary injunction requiring us to ensure certain content is not made available,” Key System’s Volker Greimann previously told us.

Recognizing that the case sets a dangerous precedent, the registrar is going to fight the injunction in court. One of the issues Key System plans to raise is that the site owner himself was never contacted by the music group.

The registrar asked H33t owner Shelby whether he is willing to testify to this in court, and he agreed to do so.

“I am ready to go in person. If they don’t already know my name then they truly are disorganized. It was never a secret,” Shelby informs TorrentFreak.

H33t’s owner has previously spoken out against the commonly adopted DMCA-style takedown procedure most copyright holders expect him to comply with.

H33t will take content offline, but only if copyright holders pay an administrative fee to cover some of the costs. Shelby believes that this is ultimately the issue that has to be tested in court.

“I don’t believe my identity is the issue, but the sharing of costs for takedowns. Given the opportunity, since this is a test of a takedown procedure, I will ensure my testimony and the court record contains my solution for equitable management of takedowns. The lawyer who said my takedown procedure was not serious is now going to find out how serious it actually is,” he says.

H33t has always been one of the most pro-sharing communities, and the site’s owner sees himself as a frontrunner in the battle against an old and outdated industry.

“The enemy is not a person. There is no hive mind conspiring against us to repress us in some Orwellian nightmare,” he says.

“The enemy is a dinosaur system which might have been good enough to manage an analogue industry of vinyl records and VHS cassettes, but if the Internet has taught us anything it is that the digital revolution is full of surprises and opportunities. The last thing we need is outdated systems and laws getting in the way, holding us back from basically doing what we do best, being social, making friends and improving ourselves by learning and developing new tools.”

H33t’s owner believes that the law is on his side. The DMCA doesn’t apply in Europe where there are no clearly defined notice and take-down procedures, and H33t believes their policy is reasonable.

By showing that Universal Music Group misrepresented the facts, he eventually hopes to get his domain back.

“If I win this appeal and win back my domain then it is because anti-p2p [companies] acted illegally and dishonestly by misleading the court and telling lies. To quote Plato: ‘The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.’

“This is as good today as it was two and half thousand years ago. That is why I stand for filesharing,” Shelby concludes.

The date for the testimony is yet to be scheduled and for now H33t’s .com domain remains unavailable to the public. The site is still available on its .eu domain for the time being.

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

After some initial confusion it became apparent that the site’s domain registrar had removed all nameservers, rendering H33t unreachable by the public. The reason for this drastic action was initially unclear but over the past week the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place.

TorrentFreak contacted H33t’s domain registrar, the German company Key-Systems, who confirmed that they were forced to take this action following a court order.

“We have indeed been served with a court order granting a temporary injunction requiring us to ensure certain content is not made available,” Key System’s Volker Greimann tells TorrentFreak.

The injunction was obtained by Universal Music GMBH, a German division of Universal Music Group, and lists Robin Thicke’s album Blurred Lines as the infringed material. The order requires the registrar to prevent the files in question from being distributed through H33t’s search engine and tracker.

As a result, Key-Systems saw no other option than to delete the nameservers or remove the entire domain from its system. “The only way to comply with that court order was to either remove the DNS entries or delete the domain,” Greimann says.

This is the first time that a torrent site has been targeted by a copyright holder through a domain registrar. While the details of the injunction haven’t been made available to the public it sets a dangerous precedent. This is also one of the main reasons why Key-Systems is determined to fight the ruling.

“We regret that we cannot comment in detail on an ongoing legal matter that is yet to be finally decided by the court, however we are determined to get this court order lifted as soon as possible,” Greimann tells TorrentFreak.

One of the reasons H33t may have been targeted is its unique takedown policy. The site allows copyright holders to remove infringing files but charges an administration fee of $50 per takedown request. The site doesn’t comply with the DMCA, claiming that it falls outside US jurisdiction.

H33t’s owner hopes that the temporary injunction will eventually be reversed. He is surprised that it is so easy for a German court to target the property of a company that doesn’t operate under its jurisdiction.

“Quite frankly I cannot see how this decision will stand. The German court cannot have global jurisdiction to take down a site in other countries. It is an example of outdated courts making decisions in a cases where they demonstrate their high level of ignorance,” H33t’s Shelby tells TorrentFreak.

H33t meanwhile has lost nearly 25% of its traffic over the past week. The site quickly moved to the new H33t.eu domain but many visitors appear to have trouble finding the new home.

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

Without knowledge of the site owners, the nameservers had been wiped from the domain records. While some people were still able to access the site through cached DNS entries, more and more visitors reported issues as time passed.

TorrentFreak got in touch with the site’s owner, who initially thought that there was a DNS problem with the content distribution network. However, when he contacted Leaseweb, who manage the domain name registration, it turned out that the problem was more serious than that.

Leaseweb support informed H33t that the registrar had removed the nameservers after receiving a court order, which appears to be related to a copyright dispute.

“We asked our registrar why we cannot add the nameservers of LeaseWeb to your account. They informed us that they regretfully forced to temporarily disable the domain name due to receipt of a court order as the registrant had not reacted upon a request to remove certain files/entries from his service,” Leaseweb explained.

“They are currently analyzing the Court Order with the intent to have it lifted, but that may take a while. For more information, please contact the registrar who tried to contact you regarding this matter. LeaseWeb can not help you any further with this,” the company added.

The owner of H33t is surprised by the mysterious court order and told TorrentFreak that the site has received no correspondence regarding the matter.

“At this point we do not know who is making the complaint, neither do we know who the Leaseweb registrar is because they have not contacted us,” H33t’s Shelby explains.

H33t’s owner was contacted two weeks ago with a request to prove that the WHOIS data is real. H33t complied with this request by providing company documentation and certificates, but hasn’t heard back since.

The torrent site is also surprised that by the accusation that they failed to take allegedly infringing content down.

“H33t has a DMCA style takedown procedure linked on every page. we thought it was enough, apparently not. Today I learned that any site can be taken offline by a complaint without the need to contact the site,” Shelby says.

While H33t does indeed have a takedown policy, it has to be noted that they charge copyright holders an administration fee of $50 per takedown request. The site doesn’t comply with the DMCA, claiming that it falls outside US jurisdiction.

Whether the court order will do much to stop H33t from operating is doubtful. The site’s servers are still up and running and the admin is working hard on getting the site back up under a domain, H33t.eu.

“H33t.eu is firing up now and will be fully live within 24 hours as soon as the DNS changes propagate to your locale. The regular h33t tracker is also firing up on the new eu domain announce,” Shelby tells us.

While H33t is expected to make a swift return, the mysterious domain seizure does raise several questions. Is this a criminal matter or a civil case? Under what jurisdiction was the court order obtained?

In the past the U.S. Government has seized hundreds of domains related to copyright infringement and counterfeiting, but if this comes directly from a copyright holder then that’s certainly a game changer.

The positive news is that the unnamed domain registrar intend to fight the court order according to Leaseweb. To be continued.

Update: H33t is back under H33t.eu

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

The site’s domain records have been updated yesterday and after that the nameservers were completely gone.

TorrentFreak has reached out to the H33T admin using an alternative email address but we have yet to hear back.

It is unlikely that H33T removed the nameservers themselves.

Aside from legal trouble, it could be that the registrar has decided to take action because the Whois data is inaccurate.

Some people may still be able to access the site because the DNS is cached, but if the problems persist that will change soon.

We will update this article when we learn more.

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

As a result more that 100 million links to copyright-infringing content are no longer available through Google’s search results. One of the latest additions to this growing list is the homepage of H33t, one of the top 10 most visited torrent sites.

Those who type “h33t” into the Google search box will see that the homepage listing for the site has disappeared. At the bottom of the page Google explains that the listing was removed following a DMCA notice, which came from the cable network HBO.

In the notice HBO asks Google to remove thousands of links pointing (in)directly to their shows. The H33t homepage is listed under “Band of Brothers,” which was probably listed there at one point, but has since been replaced by other links.

TorrentFreak caught up with H33t’s owner, who is not happy with the de-listing by Google. However, he also tells us that H33t is not being harmed too much by the homepage removal, as only a tiny fraction of his visitors use Google to access his site.

“Considering possible damage to the site, historically H33t has not been driven by search traffic. About 1 out of 10 people use Google in a search that ultimately brings them to H33t. These are not random searches, people are searching for specific content and clicking a link that brings them directly to the details page of that content,” H33t’s owner says.

“These people are not interested in the homepage. If you know the name H33t then you already know the site, you don’t just accidentally type “h33t” then discover the site’s homepage. You also cannot discover H33t by searching for “torrents downloads whatever” because we were never high ranked for those terms,” he adds.

That doesn’t mean that H33t is going to let this pass. The site’s owner plans to take a stand, if only to defend his principles and to voice his growing concerns over how the DMCA notification system operates.

“I cannot ignore this latest censorship just because it doesn’t particularly make much of a difference to me and my site. The inversion of the burden of proof, H33t is guilty before trial, is a serious issue, and it is so easily done as Daniel Nazer of EFF said this year: ‘The takedown procedure of the DMCA provides a quick, cheap, extra-judicial way to get speech removed from the internet’,” he tells TorrentFreak.

In addition to freedom of speech issues the takedown procedures have also become quite costly for site owners, who have to employ personnel to go over them. Therefore H33t charges $50 per takedown on its own site.

“Freedom of information, free speech, human rights are wonderful concepts but have little meaning until they are no longer there. Money is like that, money doesn’t matter until you don’t have any. For the anti-sharing lobby it is all about the money,” H33t’s owner explains.

“The matter of costs is central, with the DMCA the costs are all ours, we pay the ultimate price as a society, we pay for their broken business model that needs propping up by censorship and our loss of rights.”

For the HBO notice H33t will send a counter-notification, but whether that will be successful has yet to be seen. There are still other infringing links present on the homepage and Google has previously refused to reinstate sites in a similar position.

Whatever Google decides, H33t’s owner doesn’t seem particularly worried.

“We shall see what happens but I am not going to get upset if the homepage isn’t reinstated. As John Gilmore said way back in 1993, ‘The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it’.”

“H33t is not in the race to be the biggest baddest torrent site, it is just me and a bunch of like-minded friends with attitude. Millions and millions of friends. You know what? Getting knocked off Google might just be our passing grade in relevance.”

“We are relevant! Fukin Awesome,” H33t’s owner concludes.

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

October 2012 and the labels were back for more, this time asking six ISPs (BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk) to begin blocking three more leading BitTorrent sites under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

None of the ISPs offered to voluntarily block the sites without a court order, but none of them expressed a willingness to contest the industry’s demands either. This meant that the inevitable court hearing would be a streamlined affair resulting in success for the music industry. A little while ago that came to pass.

This morning the High Court in London ordered the country’s leading Internet service providers to begin blocking Kickass Torrents, H33T and Fenopy, a decision welcomed by the BPI.

“The growth of digital music in the UK is held back by a raft of illegal businesses commercially exploiting music online without permission,” said chief executive Geoff Taylor.

“Blocking illegal sites helps ensure that the legal digital market can grow and labels can continue to sign and develop new talent.”

The Open Rights Group, who noted that the interests of Internet users and the general public were absent from today’s ruling, said that site censorship is not the solution to the issue of piracy.

“Blocking is an extreme response, which will encourage new forms of distributed infringement. The BPI and others should be mindful that their tactics may have the opposite effect to their intention, by legitimizing and promoting resistance to their actions,” said ORG’s Jim Killock.

“We are concerned that these orders are not protecting speech, are overblocking forums and discussion, and are prone to error as the actual block lists are private.”

The UK Pirate Party, who were recently forced by the BPI to close down their Pirate Bay proxy service, said that the UK had “handed power over what we see on the internet to corporate lobbyists.”

Speaking with TorrentFreak at the weekend, the owner of H33T described the BPI as “dishonest, capitalism at its most cynical,” and predicted that this blocking demand won’t be the last.

“We can expect this and more evil from the BPI, who are still rich on the wealth plundered over decades from exploited artists,” he said.

New information suggests that this prediction may indeed prove to be accurate.

Earlier this month we reported that RLSlog, one of the web’s largest ‘release blog’ sites, had withdrawn links to movies following threats from Hollywood. We have since learned that the law firm handling the case for the studios told RLSlog that they had already reported the site to the High Court with a view to having it blocked by the country’s largest ISPs.

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

On the back of this success, in October 2012 music industry group BPI tried its hand again, this time asking six ISPs (BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk) to begin blocking three more leading BitTorrent sites.

According to the Open Rights Group, next week the music industry will get a hearing in the High Court during which they will ask for a blockade on Kickass Torrents, H33t and Fenopy.

ORG describe website blocking as “an extreme response” and say the hearings between a judge, ISPs and rightsholders do not sufficiently represent the needs of the Internet user.

Speaking with TorrentFreak the admin of one of the affected sites goes much further, slamming both the censorship approach and business ethic of the BPI.

“All anyone needs to know about the BPI is their 80′s slogan: ‘Home Taping Is Killing Music’. The BPI are dishonest, capitalism at its most cynical, most hated by music fans and artists alike,” the admin of H33T says.

“We can expect this and more evil from the BPI, who are still rich on the wealth plundered over decades from exploited artists. To call the BPI arrogant when they claim to represent artists does not fully describe the depth of their corruption, they represent only themselves, a zombie remuneration vehicle for executive salaries to maximize the gold they extract from music production. Same situation as with the bankers, the BPI stinks the whole place up,” he adds.

The admin says that an attack on H33T, currently the 10th most popular torrent site in the world, is designed to maintain control for the BPI.

“Attacking H33T is an attack on sharers, that is the real BPI agenda. The BPI and their MAFIAA masters are playing for control of consumption of digital media in the UK. Independent networks of people freely sharing content is a challenge to their broken business model.

“This latest court action is well described by the Roman senator and historian Tacitus: ‘The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws’. We are fighting for freedom, not independence, we want autonomy to make our own decisions, we want freedom of choice,” he adds.

H33T’s owner also questions whether this time around the court will be so quick to rubber stamp the BPI’s demands. In both of the UK’s previous blocking cases against Newzbin2 and The Pirate Bay there had been previous rulings that deemed the sites to be illegal. That is not the case with H33T, KickassTorrents or Fenopy.

Also muddying the waters is that unlike The Pirate Bay the sites in question all respond to DMCA-style takedown notices, although H33T does place certain conditions on cooperation.

Its owner says that a High Court summary judgment in favor of the BPI and without third party input would also deny a debate on notice and takedown processes.

“A summary judgment against the sites to enact a ban would deny any argument based upon the validity of DMCA style takedown procedures outside of the USA and the issue of the attribution of costs.

“In the absence of a proven complaint against the sites of facilitation or other involvement in the breach of copyright regulation, a ban on sites amounts to a judgement that a reasonable takedown procedure is no protection against a complainant and the matter of attribution of costs is ultimately to be borne by the network service provider. This summary judgment would have far reaching implications for the industry as a whole,” he concludes.

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