Two days ago an email from a TorrentFreak reader contained information that suggested that famous Brazilian subtitle site Legendas.TV may have also been targeted as it was displaying the ICE ‘seized’ warning as pictured below.

However, within a short time the notice had gone and the site appeared to be operating as normal. Was it in trouble? Had it been targeted by the U.S. Government but survived the attack? It turns out the notice was put there as a hoax, but a hoax with a message.

On February 1st 2009, action by Brazil’s IFPI and MPA-affiliated Antipirataria Association Cinema and Música (APCM) caused the Legendas.TV site to be taken down. APCM, which represents the interests of Universal, Warner, SonyBMG, Disney, Paramount, Fox and others, forced the site offline by threatening SoftLayer, the datacenter where the site was hosted.

Just a few days ago APCM were in action again by assisting an operation to shut down Brazil-Series.com, a prominent Brazilian site which indexed TV shows on file-sharing networks and one-click hosters. Following an APCM investigation, police arrested ‘Cesar’, the 24 year-old Peruvian student owner of Brazil-Series, along with his girlfriend.

A police statement said the pair would be reported for breaking copyright law with an intention to profit from infringements. They argued that this is justified due to the site taking donations and displaying adverts.

When notifying the media, APCM made a number of claims. Some, such as the site had 800,000 users per month and offered links to shows such as House, Friends and Big Bang Theory, seemed nothing out of the ordinary. However, some of the reporting in the media annoyed Legendas who decided to do something about it.

“APCM told the news/media that they [owners of Brazil-Series] are criminals and got rich, contribute to drug traffic, and shit. Clearly this is a lie, and probably a way to intimidate other sites,” a Legendas spokesman told TorrentFreak.

“So we faked that we got taken down to show people that the media publishes everything without knowledge and with wrong and assymetric information, and if one day they try to catch us, people shouldn’t believe in what they will say.”

The story of the Legendas ‘takedown’ was duly reported in Brazilian media although some publications jumped to the wrong conclusion that it was the work of hackers rather than the U.S. authorities.

Since last year’s takedown, Legendas has been going strong and will soon launch its new site design.

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

On February 1st, after action by Brazil’s IFPI and MPA-affiliated Antipirataria Association Cinema and Música (APCM), the Legendas.TV site was taken down. APCM, which represents the interests of Universal, Warner, SonyBMG, Disney, Paramount, Fox and others, managed to force the site offline after threatening SoftLayer, the datacenter where the website was hosted.

According to Legendas.TV admins, although APCM issued a DMCA complaint, it was incorrectly formatted. APCM did not demand the removal of specific items (as is usual under the DMCA) but instead demanded that access to the entire server was terminated.

“In order to prevent misuse of our Terms of Service,” said SoftLayer in an email to Legendas.TV, “we have blocked access to the IP associated with the abuse report and request that this site be removed from our network.” The datacenter then blocked external access to the site.

“The APCM confirms that it requested withdrawal of the site Legendas TV network of computers worldwide,” said the group in a statement. “It is important to emphasize that the action was taken because its users were violating copyright. When a user makes the unauthorized copy of an audiovisual work available, it hurts everyone who worked in the production chain: producers, authors, actors, actresses, camera operators, scriptwriters, directors, marketing staff, production studio workers and translators etc.”

The reaction from angry fans was immediate. On Monday, hackers took over the APCM site and defaced it. Popups on the site said “Live For Downloads” – when clicked, visitors were redirected to downloads on Mininova.

APCM announced it was “taking all measures” to get its site back online, including “all other measures deemed appropriate,” but the site is still non-operational, four days after the attack.

The administrators of Legendas have created a temporary site where they explain why the site went down along with plans of a return online. After raising the necessary funds, the site will migrate to a new datacenter, maybe in The Netherlands or Sweden – and possibly with help from The Pirate Bay.

In contrast to the anti-piracy site which remains inoperable, already a new ‘lite’ version of Legendas.TV is back online, but it won’t stop there.

“We are returning with the full site this week, stronger than ever,” said a Legendas.TV administrator in a statement.

Earlier in 2009, APCM launched a campaign that claimed that subtitles from Legendas.TV were being used in commercially pirated DVDs, which were later sold on the streets. Legendas.TV vigorously denied this.

InSUBs, another Brazilian subtitling site, has also been taken offline.

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