Tens of thousands of these downloads originate from Poland, where it can take weeks before the episodes air on local TV. This huge interest in unauthorized copies has created a high demand for “pirate subtitles,” a niche which the group Hatak has been serving for years.

Many copyright holders are not happy with these pirate subtitle releases and prefer to shut these sites down. But where others see a threat, the Polish book publisher Wydawnictwo Otwarte (Open Publishing) decided to use this unauthorized distribution channel to its advantage.

The publisher is selling the Polish translation of David Kaplan’s book “Homeland: Carrie’s Run,” which is a prequel to the popular TV-series. In a unique opportunity to appeal directly to thousands of Homeland “pirates,” the publisher teamed up with group Hatak to promote the book.

“We decided to advertise via subtitles because we wanted to show the book to all the fans of the Homeland series in Poland, no matter where they watch the show,” Maciej Migda, Managing Director at Wydawnictwo Otwarte told TorrentFreak.

The publisher explained that they wanted to plug the book in spots where people would see it as useful information instead of an ad. This means that the added text should not interfere with people’s viewing habits.

“We also wanted to inform them about the prequel book in a specific context. When they watch the credits and flashbacks from the Carrie’s past we catch them with the phrase ‘How did it all begin? Let’s read the prequel book,” Migda says.

Below is a screenshot of the subtitle file and how it appears on-screen. In this case during the opening credits the subtitles show the text “How did it start? You will learn from a book prequel “Homeland: Carrie’s Run.”

TorrentFreak spoke to Karol, the Hatak group member who translates Homeland for Polish viewers. He tells us that the cooperation with the publisher is not really an ad, his main motivation is to bring the book to the attention of Homeland fans.

“It’s just information for the ‘Homeland’ fans about the new book, based on Showtime’s hit series. Unfortunately, the book promotion in Poland was really poor, so I thought placing the mention about it in subtitles was in the fans’ best interest.”

The publisher gave Hatak several copies of the Homeland book in return for the promotion, which the group gave away via their Facebook page.

“The publisher gave us a few copies of the book, so we could organize the prize competition on Facebook. In addition, we received a few copies of ‘A Captain’s Duty’ for our Facebook fans, without running an ‘ad’ in the subtitles.”

“I think it’s a really good deal that makes everyone happy and so far I haven’t had any complaints from the users,” Karol notes.

The Polish Homeland subtitles are downloaded by roughly 4,000 people every week, which results in a lot of highly targeted promotion for the book. According to the publisher, Homeland fans appreciated the guerrilla advertising which resulted in at least a few extra sales.

“The responses we got so far tell us that people appreciated the fact that we informed them about the book, and some have bought it,” Migda informs TorrentFreak.

To our knowledge this is the first time that a copyright holder has teamed up with a subtitle group to promote related content. While we don’t expect this type of promotion to become mainstream anytime soon, it is a great example of how unauthorized distribution is able to add value for copyright holders.

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

Later this month the third season of Homeland will premiere, and this time the number of downloads may even be higher as pirates have access to the premiere four weeks in advance.

Homeland’s season premiere turned up online a few hours ago and already 100,000 people have grabbed an advance copy via one of the Internet’s many torrent sites. While other TV-shows have come out ahead of schedule in the past, the source of this Homeland leak is rather unique, as the copy is not completely finished.

The leak is a so-called workprint, an unfinished copy that lacks some final touches. In two instances some visual effects of bomb craters are still to be added and the opening credits are also missing. In addition, there’s one scene where the voice of the actor is dubbed.

Since it is a workprint, the source of the leak is likely connected to a post-production studio. Unlike promotional screeners which are sent out to the press in advance, not many people have access to unfinished production work.

Somehow a copy leaked outside official channels, which are generally well protected, and eventually made its way to the scene.

Unlike regular scene releases, however, it was shared by an unknown group called “HOMELAND,” which is unusual as scene groups often take pride in their work. Whoever leaked it didn’t live up to scene standards though as the release was quickly “NUKED” by peers on a technicality.

Showtime hasn’t officially responded to the leak thus far, but it could be that they’re not too bothered by the free publicity. In recent months several TV insiders have gone on the record stating that piracy may actually help TV-shows, because of word-of-mouth promotion it generates.

And with such a unique leak, there is bound to be plenty of attention during the days to come.

The last time a high-profile workprint leaked was in 2009 when an unfinished copy of the movie Wolverine leaked a month early. The leak made headlines all over the world and 20th Century Fox quickly involved the FBI to find the leaker.

After eight months the FBI eventually arrested New York resident Gilberto Sanchez. Although he was most likely not the original source of the leak, in 2011 the then 48-year old Sanchez pleaded guilty to uploading a copy of the movie to Megaupload. He was later sentenced to one year in jail.

Whether a 20th Century Fox-like manhunt or a more relaxed HBO attitude will be adopted should become apparent in the near future. In any case, the FBI will be watching.

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

The setting of the fictional book is a realistic scenario according to activists, and on a small scale the book itself has now become the center of a censorship row.

Published by Tor Books, Homeland is available for sale in most book stores, but because of its Creative Commons license people are also free to share the book online. After all, obscurity is a much bigger problem than piracy for most authors.

As a result copies of the novel are shared for free on hundreds of sites, and this attracted the attention of a Hollywood studio. For a few weeks none other than 20th Century Fox has been sending DMCA takedown requests to Google for Doctorow’s novel.

Fox’s idea is to make pirated copies of the TV-series Homeland harder to find, but as collateral damage they’re also taking down the novel. Shown below is an example of a typical notice ^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5} being sent out, and here’s an even bigger list.

TorrentFreak confronted Cory Doctorow with these dystopian findings and the author was outraged by the gross abuse of his rights. Without hesitation he called for drastic action to be taken against the head honcho of the content empire.

“I think you can safely say I’m incandescent with rage. BRING ME THE SEVERED HEAD OF RUPERT MURDOCH!” Doctorow says.

To make matters even worse, Fox is not the only party going after Doctorow’s books. His own publisher Tor Books has also sent DMCA takedown notices to Google, in this case for the book “The Rapture of Nerds”.

When we made this discovery back in February, Doctorow was more understanding. He told us that Tor Books sends out DMCA notices with his authorization, but only in instances where the book is wrapped in DRM, or when there’s another violation.

But, where DMCA notices are sent out mistakes happen.

“I think what I’d like is for Tor to be perfect in only sending out takedowns when there’s a genuine violation, but perfection is a pretty high bar. I’m sorta OK with settling for one mistake in 10 years, especially if it doesn’t happen again,” Doctorow said.

Around the same time Tor Books told TorrentFreak that the takedown was an honest mistake, and that they would tell Google to reinstate the links so that the books could be accessed again.

“Those takedown notices were simply a bureaucratic/administrative mistake. We’re withdrawing them as quickly as possible.,” Tor’s senior editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden said.

However, more than two months later the links in question remain censored on Google, and Tor Books have been unreachable since. All our follow-up questions remained unanswered, most likely swallowed by some overactive spam filter or intercepted by a local spy agency.

Get out the pitchforks!

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