Courts all around the world have ordered Internet providers to block subscriber access to the torrent site, and this list continues to expand.

This week a coalition of Portuguese copyright trade groups announced they will file for an injunction to prevent ISPs from providing access to The Pirate Bay and other infringing sites.

The groups, backed by the major movie studios, plan to file the necessary paperwork at the Intellectual Property Court in the coming months.

“We still have to solve some technical and legal issues, but we anticipate delivering the injunction to the Intellectual Property Court by the end of 2013,” confirmed Paulo Santos, the leader of the two groups in this matter.

Santos notes that website blocking has proven to be effective abroad, and also in Portugal where blocks are in place to filter out other offensive material.

“Telecom operators and ISPs already use similar filters today to prevent access to pedophile content, or sites that promote violence or racism,” the anti-piracy boss says.

The groups expect that the Internet providers may not be happy with the application, but they are convinced that the court will decide in their favor. This belief is undoubtedly strengthened by court orders against ISPs in other European countries such as the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Italy and Finland.

“I think the court will accept the injunction. Of course there can always be procedural issues, but we have reason and right on our side,” Santos says.

If the court agrees it will be the first time that Internet providers in Portugal are required to block a website on copyright grounds.

Whether such a blockade will be very successful remains to be seen though, as there are plenty of alternatives and circumvention tools available. This includes VPN services, the many proxies that make up 8% of The Pirate Bay’s total traffic, and TPB’s own PirateBrowser.

These tools appear to be widely used to circumvent censorship. Last month researchers from the University of Amsterdam released a report suggesting that the court-ordered Pirate Bay block has had no impact on piracy rates in the Netherlands.

“Blocking access to TPB has had no lasting net impact on the overall number of downloaders from illegal sources, as people learn to use alternatives to TPB,” the report concluded.

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

The “evidence” was handed over in two batches and the group demanded the authorities act against 2,000 alleged pirates.

“We are doing anything we can to alert the government to the very serious situation in the entertainment industry,” ACAPOR commented at the time, adding that “1000 complaints a month should be enough to embarrass the judiciary system.”

However, a year later it turns out that ACAPOR’s actions have backfired and the anti-piracy group is now facing the embarrassment.

The Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) looked into the complaints and the prosecutor came back with his order this week. Contrary to what the anti-piracy group had hoped for, the 2,000 IP-addresses will not be taken to court.

Worse for ACAPOR, the prosecutor goes even further by ruling that file-sharing for personal use is not against the law.

“From a legal point of view, while taking into account that users are both uploaders and downloaders in these file-sharing networks, we see this conduct as lawful, even when it’s considered that the users continue to share once the download is finished.”

The prosecutor adds that the right to education, culture, and freedom of expression on the Internet should not be restricted in cases where the copyright infringements are clearly non-commercial.

In addition, the order notes that an IP-address is not a person.

The ruling explains that the person connected to the IP-address “is not necessarily the user at the moment the infringement takes place, or the user that makes available the copyrighted work, but rather the individual who has the service registered in his name, independent of whether this person using it or not”

This means that the account holders connected to these 2,000 IPs are not necessarily all copyright infringers, similar to orders we’ve seen in the United States previously.

Finally, the prosecutor ruled that even if file-sharing for personal use would be seen as illegal, the artists themselves should explicitly declare that there are not authorizing copying for personal use.

ACAPOR boss Nuno Pereira is disappointed with the decision and he accuses the prosecutor of dropping the case because it’s the easy way out.

“Personally I think the prosecutors just found a way to adapt the law to their interest – and their interest is not having to send 2,000 letters, hear 2,000 people and investigate 2,000 computers,” Pereira says.

Another way to frame it is that the prosecutor adapted the law in the interest of the public at large, which is generally speaking not a bad idea.

While the decision is hopeful for Portuguese file-sharers, it is still a matter of how the law is interpreted. For now, however, it is save to assume that Portugal is spared from the mass-BitTorrent lawsuits we’ve seen in the United States, Germany and the UK.

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

Since 2006, the Portuguese Phonographic Association filed more than two dozen cases with the Attorney General’s Office. Only two bore any fruit at all – one in 2008 and another just over a week ago having dragged on for an epic six years.

The case was brought against a then 17-year-old teenager who allegedly shared hundreds of songs online without permission. However, for “technical and procedural reasons” (read: lack of evidence), those claims were reduced massively and in the end it was decided he shared just three, a pair from local artists and ‘Right Through You’ by Alanis Morrisette.

Now, the Lisbon Criminal Court has finally delivered its ruling in the case. For violating copyright, the now 23-year-old received a two month suspended jail sentence. The Court decided that since the man was just 17 at the time of the offense and has a completely clean record, the sentence should be changed to a fine of 880 euros – 640 euros plus 4 euros in lieu of each day not served in prison.

After having made 40 similar complaints against file-sharers since 2006, the Portuguese Phonographic Association says it will now give up on the strategy.

“At the time, it was believed that, in fact, through the application of existing law we could begin to control the problem of Internet piracy,” said Association president Eduardo Simoes.

Current legal framework, Simoes added, can not cope with online file-sharing. Inevitably he is calling on the government to introduce new laws that do away with prolonged prosecution periods that reduce the deterrent effects of bringing cases to trial. What the Association wants is a “3 strikes” style arrangement whereby file-sharers are sent escalating warnings and eventually punished.

As the local branch of IFPI, the Portuguese Phonographic Association controls 95% of recorded music in Portugal but it is currently facing a crisis. The Association reports that in the last decade profits have dropped by 80%, and in 2011 sales of physical products nose-dived 34.4%.

Interestingly, in addition to blaming the piracy bogeyman and the economic crisis for these reductions in sales, Simoes also cites an undeveloped digital offering and artists’ growing tendency to self-publish as additional factors compounding the problem.

Despite the apparent lack of legal support, Portugal’s movie industry say they are working hard to reduce piracy by other means. According the MPA-backed FEVIP, they shut down 302 local sites offering pirate material during 2011.

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

People have alleged that some of the pay-up-or-else lawsuits against BitTorrent users came in part from torrents that were uploaded or seeded by the copyright holders themselves, but this hasn’t been proven either.

This does not mean that honeypots are a myth. Indeed, in Portugal their existence is now confirmed, as a previously held back agreement between the Portuguese Phonographic Association (AFP) and the General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC) reveals. This agreement is of special interest, since the latter organization falls under the Ministry of Culture.

The protocol, which was announced a few weeks ago, was initially framed as an attempt to combat piracy under which AFP would provide ‘anti-piracy’ training to IGAC inspection officers. However, the fact that the actual text of the agreement was never publicized led the Portuguese Pirate Party to believe that something more was going on.

And they were right.

After filing a complaint with the authorities, the protocol was finally released by IGAC, as they are required to do by law. The Pirate Party believes that it was kept a secret for a reason, and after their analysis of the contents this suspicion was strengthened.

Among other things, the agreement promotes a honeypot scheme where the music industry will grant the Government organization the right to upload tracks to file-sharing networks. These ‘traps’ will then be used to collect the IP-addresses of Portuguese file-sharers.

The file-sharers who are caught by this honeypot scheme can expect a notification from their Internet provider, which may eventually lead to a disconnection due to a breach of the terms of service. The sad part about this, is that the evidence that the authorities gather is not very solid.

In the agreement it’s stated that IGAC will rely on screenshots to prove which unauthorized material people are sharing. A rather simplistic and easy to forge method of evidence collection, The Pirate Party commented in their analysis. To prove their point, the Pirates offer a simple PHP script that can generate forged evidence on the fly.

Towards the end of the agreement, it is revealed that the main purpose of the collaboration is to influence public opinion through the media.

“The IGAC and the AFP agreed that the results obtained under this Protocol shall be disseminated to the media, particularly on the enforcement actions taken, the number and type of complaints, the number of notifications sent to ISP’s and other important aspects to achieve the objectives of this Protocol,” it reads.

According to the Pirate Party the Ministry of Culture’s IGAC is acting undemocratically and possibly illegally too, while putting the interests of a few music labels before the rights of individual citizens.

That stings.

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

The group asked for The Pirate Bay to be censored in Portugal through an Internet filter, but instead their actions led to the uncensoring of their internal communications. As part of Anonymous’ Operation Payback, ACAPOR was shamed when their website was hacked, revealing hundreds of personal email messages in the process.

Despite this setback ACAPOR is continuing their quest undeterred. Two weeks ago the group announced that it would overload the judicial system with complaints against file-sharers in an attempt to raise awareness of the devastating effect they claim piracy has on their industry. And so it happened.

This week the group personally delivered several boxes of complaints to the Attorney General’s Office, wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Piracy is Illegal.” The movie industry group claims to have gathered 970 IP-addresses of ‘illegal’ file-sharers and is demanding action from the authorities.

In addition, 30 complaints were ‘filed’ containing the IP-addresses that republished the emails that leaked after the Operation Payback hack.

“We are doing anything we can to alert the government for the very serious situation in the entertainment industry,” ACAPOR commented on their actions, adding that “1000 complaints a month should be enough to embarrass the judiciary system.”

However, as with their previous revolt against The Pirate Bay, it may be that ACAPOR are the ones that will be embarrassed. Shortly after the group delivered the boxes to the Attorney General’s Office, Portugal’s Pirate Party came out with a statement claiming that ACAPOR’s actions are illegal.

The Pirate Party says that ACAPOR is not authorized by the National Data Protection Authority to collect IP-addresses as evidence, and has decided to file several individual complaints. In addition the Pirates have filed a criminal complaint for gaining improper access to the Attorney General’s Office.

The Pirate Party argues that ACAPOR’s actions violated the privacy of 1000 ordinary Portuguese citizens and hopes that the responsible authorities will take the necessary actions to prevent this from happening again in the future. ACAPOR was quick to deny the allegations and its President believes that no laws were broken.

Time will tell who’s right.

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

According to the movie rental association, The Pirate Bay is directly responsible for about 15 million illegal downloads in Portugal every year. By installing a Pirate Bay block at all ISPs, ACAPOR hopes to decrease the financial damage they claim it causes.

A similar nationwide block was previously ordered in Italy. In a lengthy legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court, it was ruled that BitTorrent sites that host torrent files are playing a significant role in the downloading and uploading process of their users.

Aside from the complaint against The Pirate Bay, ACAPOR has also announced a separate case against Piratatuga.net, a site that links to various movie, game and music titles hosted on third party sites. With approximately 50,000 Portugese visitors a day this site is as popular in Portugal as The Pirate Bay, ACAPOR claims.

Aside from requesting a block for both sites, ACAPOR has asked the prosecutor to identify the owners of Piratatuga.net and start a criminal investigation.

Whatever the outcome of ACAPOR’s actions, it is doubtful that the Portuguese movie rental companies will establish the desired outcome. The free publicity will only bring in more visitors to the site. As we’ve seen before in Italy and Denmark, people will come up with workarounds to regain access to the site and the total number of visitors will only grow.

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

As we reported earlier on our sideblog FreakBits, the Portuguese Cultural Activities Inspection ordered one of the most prominent ISPs to remove or block subscriber access to 28 ‘pirate websites’.

The complaint originated from the local anti-piracy outfit MAPiNET and today, as is often the case, they are the subject of reprisals by hackers.

Several hours ago hackers took control of the MAPiNET website and added code to redirect visitors to several of the word’s biggest torrent sites. At the time of writing the site is unavailable and showing “Offline. Regressa brevemente.” (Offline. Back soon)

However, there is still a way to test the hack for yourself. By doing a search on Google for ‘MAPiNET Pirate Bay‘ and clicking any MAPiNET link that goes within the site and not the homepage, hey presto. A cycling of diversions to The Pirate Bay, isoHunt and Demonoid, quite the opposite of what the anti-piracy outfit tried to accomplish.

Update: The site is now back online and the Google route no longer works.

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

Another day sees another country’s interpretation of the law when it comes to dealing with file-sharers, this time from sunny Portugal. Following a complaint from the Portuguese version of the RIAA, a court in Portimão has handed down a severe sentence in the country’s first ever case involving a file-sharer. One incredibly unlucky individual has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for uploading music on P2P networks, with the severity of punishment decided upon “to set an example”.

The individual was investigated after a complaint from the Portuguese Phonographic Association (AFP), which was confirmed by João Teixeira, an association member and director-general of EMI in Portugal. News reports suggest the conviction was related to ‘downloading’ music but this is a common mistake. The individual was accused and found guilty of ‘uploading’ or distribution of copyright works and is just one of more than a hundred other complaints under investigation right now.

Mr Teixeira said that although he was pleased with the sentence (calling it a “necessary evil”) he noted that there are other methods that can be employed to stop file-sharers, such as the recent “3 strikes” law in France. However, it seems he will settle for a jail sentence sending the message to the masses: “The problem is people know they are doing something illegal, but they also know there are no consequences, at least until this week,” he said.

Fortunately, it seems that the jail sentence handed down can be replaced by the individual paying fines to the court plus some compensation, although there is no indication of the amounts involved at this stage.

Taking the same stance as some of his associates in the UK, João Teixeira lays the blame for file-sharing at the door of the ISPs, claiming that they encourage people to do so.

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