About a week ago, EZTV owner Novaking stumbled upon an Indiegogo campaign launched by a female director from Laos aiming to raise money for her next horror film “Nong Hak.”

EZTV is known as the most visited TV-torrent site, but in this case NovaKing figured that some of its TV-fanatics may also be interested in this independent film project.

To promote the crowdfunding campaign NovaKing added a banner to the top right corner of the site. Since the site has millions of visitors per week, this didn’t go unnoticed by the filmmakers.

Chris Larsen, the writer of the “Nong Hak” screenplay and husband of director Mattie Do, tells TorrentFreak that they noticed an immediate boost in both visitors and donations.

“Since the EZTV promotion went up, users from the site now account for about 25% of the total donations, about 80% of the traffic to the campaign, and about 80% of the Vimeo views of our campaign video.”

While crowdfunding projects aren’t really new, not even among BitTorrent users, the makers of the first Lao horror flick have a special surprise in store for the EZTV community. As a token of their appreciation they are now promising to make their first film open source if they reach their $30,000 goal.

The filmmakers reached out to EZTV’s NovaKing to discuss the plans, and all agreed that it would be a great idea to enter their previous film “Chanthaly” into the public domain. This weekend Do announced this community challenge in a special video message to EZTV users.

So in addition to some other perks, EZTV users and everyone else who donates to the production of “Nong Hak” have the option to make the first Lao horror film open source.

“If we reach our goal then we’ll release the copyright on her first film and we’ll put the film into the public domain. Nobody will own the film anymore, everybody will own it,” said Larsen confirming the plan.

For the filmmakers this is an exciting proposal, and something they had not previously considered. However, since they own all the rights and because the film has been paid for entirely, it’s an offer that makes sense.

“We’re in a unique position with Chanthaly. We own the film outright, everybody that worked on the film has been paid. The film has a bit of festival prestige, and honestly some historic value, since it is the first Lao horror film, and the first film directed by a Lao female director,” Larsen explains.

“And honestly, I’m sick of it sitting on my hard drive here collecting dust,” he adds.

NovaKing is happy with the offer. Releasing all raw film material will spur creativity, as anyone can then make their own edits, or turn it into something completely different.

“The beauty of releasing the first film to be Public Domain is the fact that hobbyist film makers can get everything from the project files and raw video stream of an existing movie and see how it all works, and tinker and even possibly re-edit and make a different version of the movie,” NovaKing tells TorrentFreak.

“The possibilities are quite endless!” he adds.

If you are interested in helping to fund “Nong Hak” and the open-sourcing Chanthaly, then head over to the Indiegogo campaign.

Update: The campaign goal was reached and the first Chanthaly files are already being uploaded.

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

Through its indexing of all popular TV shows, EZTV has become the go-to venue for torrent downloaders but behind the scenes the site has been wrestling with a copyright predicament. Instead of sending in takedown notices via email, in recent months several studios switched to sending theirs in via regular mail, overloading the site’s staff in the process.

“For the first few days UPS turned up with a couple of small boxes of notices, but it was soon several crates a day stacking several feet deep,” EZTV informs TorrentFreak.

In a bid to solve the crisis, EZTV decided to speak with the two studios responsible for sending the majority of the notices. The outcome of the discussions, which were facilitated by the MPAA, was unequivocal – EZTV would have to massively change the way it does business.

EZTV went back to the drawing board. Which model could they emulate to show that they were now a completely neutral, content agnostic platform? Which company, by virtue of the fact that it had never been sued by the studios over its indexing, could EZTV emulate?

It was obvious – GOOGLE.

Visitors to EZTV today can see the outcome. Instead of the layout users have become accustomed to over the past near-decade, EZTV now sports a minimal Google-style search engine beneath a new and rebranded EZTV logo.

All TV show categories have gone and all that remains are descriptions pulled from the Internet using algorithms licensed from Google. Completing the sterilization of the site, all torrents have been deleted and now only magnet hash values of content specifically searched for by the user are listed.

But EZTV’s operators wanted to do more. Realizing that Google’s Auto-Complete and Auto-Suggest features only serve to direct people to infringing content, EZTV now filters these from Google’s API and hence its own search results. Not suggesting stuff before people had even asked for it was a key MPAA-pleasing move.

Honing the business model that has enabled Google to avoid being sued by any Hollywood studio over its search results, EZTV went further still. Working closely with City of London Police’s new Operation Creative, EZTV has filtered out not only all major brands’ advertising, but all advertising entirely.

“We’ve never had any advertising on EZTV but noticed how little trouble Google has had monetizing links to potentially infringing content. With that in mind, we decided nearly a decade ago to go much further, but we’re only really shouting about it now,” EZTV told TF.

Unsurprisingly, the MPAA are pleased with the results.

“By working with the industry, EZTV has successfully removed all financial incentives for it to exist by cutting off its own revenues for the last nine years,” the MPAA said in a statement. “This is just the kind of action that will save jobs and fuel innovation.”

The changes, which were phased in during the past month but visible over the past few hours, were expected to solve all of EZTV’s problems, but this morning at the site’s spacious New York offices a different picture was emerging.

“Becoming just like Google is proving to be a nightmare. Just like them we’re now receiving millions of notices every hour,” EZTV told TF in phone call a few minutes ago.

“UPS just turned up with a convoy of trucks. We’re scanning the notices as quickly as we can but the folks at Chilling Effects have already run out of space.”

Whether EZTV will continue to emulate Google into the future is unclear, but at this point it seems that going back to the way they were might be the best option.

Update: Yes this this was an April Fools prank. EZTV is back to normal now.

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

Pretty much all sites of a respectable size are targeted on occasion by unknown sources, and today several large sites appear to be hit.

TV-torrent group EZTV told TF that they are dealing with a serious flood of unwanted connections, which renders the site unavailable.

EZTV has currently no indication when the site will return, but they will do all they can to solve the issues as soon as possible.

Around the same time as EZTV’s problems started, KickassTorrents went down too. TorrentFreak asked the Kickass.to team for more information on the outage, but we have yet to hear back.

Whether KickassTorrents’ problems are also DDoS related is unsure at the moment. At the time of writing the site’s DNS servers are not resolving to an IP-address either.

As if that’s not enough, Extratorrent ran into trouble as well. Earlier today the site had some downtime, but a cached version is currently being served through Cloudflare.

We will update this article when more information becomes available.

Update: EZTV has returned, KickassTorrents is still having problems.

Update: Extratorrent is having issues again and released the following statement.

Update: Kickass.to appears to be coming back slowly. The KickassTorrent’s team confirmed to TorrentFreak that they have been dealing with a series of DDoS attacks.

Update: EZTV is down again.

“Extratorrent servers are under strong DDOS attack right now… We are trying to resolve issues. Sorry for inconvenience. Your support is highly appreciated.”

Kickass.to unreachable

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

TorrentFreak reached out to the site admin, who informed us that they are suffering from a DDoS attack.

EZTV has currently no indication when the site will return, but they will do all they can to solve the issues as soon as possible.

The downtime doesn’t mean that there are no new releases coming out. As always, the leading TV-torrent distribution group continues to post torrents on The Pirate Bay and various other sites.

This is not the first site that was taken down by a DDoS attack this week. Several private trackers suffered the same fate.

Update: EZTV is back

Update: January 12, EZTV is down again

Update: January 14, EZTV is up again

Update: February 6, EZTV is hit by a major DDoS attack again.

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

The latest torrent was added on Thursday, and no updates are posted to Twitter or other sites either.

EZTV’s NovaKing told TorrentFreak that they are looking into the problem, and that new content is expected to appear again later this weekend.

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

The actions EZTV faces are not the first taken against a torrent site in the UK. The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents and several other “pirate” sites have been blocked by previous court orders and remain inaccessible by conventional means.

However, over the past couple of days Sky subscribers noticed that the blocklist had been quietly expanded with a new site that’s certainly not covered by any court order – TorrentFreak.com.

Our site first became inaccessible on Wednesday night, only to be unblocked 14 hours later. However, about an hour ago it was again added to the blocklist.

The recent blocking spree is causing confusion among Sky subscribers who have no idea why TorrentFreak is longer accessible. However, we can confirm that the problem lies with Sky’s filtering software that is supposed to enforce the court-ordered torrent site blockades.

The owner of EZTV informed TorrentFreak that he used Geo DNS to point UK visitors to TorrentFreak’s IP-address. Soon after there were reports that our website had become inaccessible to Sky users.

Yesterday afternoon EZTV updated the DNS entries again, now pointing the UK public to some of Facebook’s IP-addresses. The idea was to add Facebook to the piracy blocklist, but nothing happened, perhaps because the DNS pointed to a wide range of IP-addresses.

This morning EZTV switched the DNS entries back to TorrentFreak’s IP-address and soon after our site became unavailable to Sky subscribers, as the Twitter reports below clearly confirm.

From the above it appears that Sky’s filtering system blocks any and all IP-addresses that EZTV adds to their DNS. This essentially means that EZTV, or any other blocked site, has the power to render entire websites inaccessible to Sky subscribers. Luckily we were the target and not Google.

From what we can tell, other UK Internet providers are using different systems as TorrentFreak is still accessible.

Interestingly enough, Virgin users reported an hour long blackout of Facebook yesterday evening. Whether this is related to EZTV’s DNS entries is unknown at the point, but it’s not common for Facebook to go “down” on a single UK provider.

EZTV’s owner tells TorrentFreak that he just wanted to see how the various blocking procedures work at UK ISPs. He never imagined that simply adding a few IP-addresses to EZTV’s DNS zone would take out TorrentFreak. He stresses that there was absolutely no “hacking” involved and alerted us about the plan.

It’s expected that after realizing how vulnerable to exploits their blocking system is, Sky will soon correct their mistake. While this may bring TorrentFreak back, this blunder is likely to be used by blocking opponents to show how easily things can go wrong.

In the meantime, Sky subscribers will have to use a proxy to access TorrentFreak.

Update: Sky isn’t in a hurry to fix the flaw, but EZTV said it will remove the TorrentFreak IP address from its DNS so the site should be accessible again soon.

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

The blockade follows a High Court order obtained by the major movie studios, and blacks out the RSS service ezRSS as well.

The actions EZTV faces are not the first taken against a torrent site in the UK. The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, Fenopy and H33T have been blocked by previous court orders and remain inaccessible by conventional means. The TV-torrent site won’t be the last either, as both the movie and music industries have promised that more sites will be targeted in future.

What makes EZTV unique though, is that unlike many of the other site owners they have taken steps to circumvent the blockades. The EZTV crew told TorrentFreak that they re using Geo DNS to point UK visitors to a new IP-address which loads just fine on the ISPs we checked.

“You are seeing this site as you have been recently blocked in your country,” declares the message on the special UK landing page.

Although EZTV have successfully bypassed the ISP blockade they are not presenting UK visitors with torrent files or similar content. The EZTV crew informs TorrentFreak that they would rather inform visitors on how to bypass the blockade in the future. This is the best long term solution, as new IP-addresses may simply be added to the blocklist.

On the special landing page the TV-torrent site lists several reverse proxy sites through which users can still access EZTV. In addition, they inform visitors about VPNs as an effective tool to bypass Internet censorship.

“You can use these to get around silly things like court mandated ISP blocks,” EZTV writes.

On a more political note EZTV has slammed Hollywood’s efforts, suggesting to visitors that they should consider voting for a political party that takes a stand against censorship.

“Hollywood has convinced the courts in the United Kingdom that they can control the internet and that censorship works. They are, of course, wrong. You might want to vote in some people who understand this – the Pirate Party UK (PPUK) would be a good choice. They believe in making culture sharing a legal activity.”

But even without political change, it’s doubtful that the blockade will be very effective. As we’ve seen in the past with The Pirate Bay, many visitors simply move to proxy sites, which can become quite large on their own. And with EZTV pointing visitors to these alternatives it’s all the more likely that many will circumvent the blockade.

It will be interesting to see how the movie studios will respond to the special landing page. EZTV is certainly putting the movie studios in a difficult position, as the new page doesn’t link to infringing content and is purely an informational resource.

The studios could probably argue that site revealing how a blockade can be circumvented are obstructing the court order, but that’s bound to stir up the censorship debate even further. Secretly blocking proxies is one thing, but blocking sites that discuss them is a few more feet down the slippery slope.

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

Earlier this week TorrentFreak revealed that the Motion Picture Association (MPA), together with FACT, had obtained a court order to block access to the TV torrent site EZTV.

The movie industry group had previously asked the site’s owner to cease operating, but when no reply was received they asked the High Court to instruct ISPs to block the site.

The providers did not fight the case and on June 25 an order was granted by a High Court judge. Yesterday, a month later, all major ISPs began blocking access to EZTV.

Since the order has not been made public it’s not known which IP-addresses and domain names are covered by the blockade, but EZTV’s sister site ezRSS appears to be covered as well. Whether this is intentional or the result of over-blocking is unknown at this point.

Adding to the confusion, FACT previously informed TorrentFreak that YIFY-Torrents is also covered by the court action, but this site is still accessible to most people in the UK. TorrentFreak reached out to FACT to clarify the position and we will update the article when we receive a response.

In any case, the blockade of EZTV certainly won’t be the last of its kind in the UK. The music industry has announced plans to request court orders for a dozen more websites and the movie industry will do the same.

“We have made it clear that we will seek action against sites that continue to provide unremitting mass access to infringing content following due legal process,” FACT told TorrentFreak earlier this week.

Whether the blockade will be very effective remains to be seen. People are still able to access the site though proxies or VPNs and the first proxy sites dedicated to EZTV are already online.

Update: FACT told TorrentFreak that YIFY-Torrents isn’t covered by the same order as the group stated earlier. Instead it is part of a separate case that is still pending in court.

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

The major UK Internet providers have stopped defending themselves against entertainment industry requests, making it a mere formality for copyright holders to have a torrent or similar site blocked by order of the High Court.

The popular TV-torrent site EZTV is one of the latest casualties of the blocking spree. Last month the Motion Picture Association, together with FACT, asked the site’s owner to cease operating or face legal action.

“The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and FACT wrote to EZTV last month asking it to stop infringing creative content. This site provides access to copyrighted material on a large-scale with no permission from the copyright owners,” a FACT spokesman told TorrentFreak.

“No response was received, so further action has been taken against EZTV through the courts,” the movie industry group added.

Legal action initiated by FACT then took place behind the scenes and late last month the High Court ordered the UK’s major Internet providers to block EZTV. FACT confirms that in addition to the popular TV-torrent site, movie torrent site YIFY-Torrents is also covered.

The court order hasn’t been made public, but it is expected to be similar to previous ones against sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents. This means that EZTV and YIFY-Torrents will be rendered inaccessible by the Internet providers, possibly during the course of this week.

Although the effectiveness of the blockades remains unclear, the movie studios are determined to keep adding new sites to the ban list during the months to come.

“We have made it clear that we will seek action against sites that continue to provide unremitting mass access to infringing content following due legal process,” FACT tells TorrentFreak.

At the same time the music industry is also preparing another major round of blocks. The BPI recently made a “hit list” including the popular torrent sites isoHunt, Extratorrent and Torrentz, as well as several cyberlockers and the music streaming service Grooveshark.

And so it continues.

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

Last month it was discovered that the BPI had begun planning another wave of web blockades and now it appears that the movie industry is doing the same.

Yesterday, TorrentFreak received a tip that rightsholders had approached some of the leading ISPs in the UK with a request to block a further two sites – EZTV.it and YIFY-Torrents. An email from Mark Jackson of ISPreview that came in soon after revealed that ISPs had confirmed the news.

EZTV

EZTV is one of the most-loved torrent sites around. It first appeared during 2005 in the wake of legal threats made by the MPAA against several torrent sites offering TV shows. EZTV made it to #7 in our Top Torrent Sites list of 2013 and was the only site to do so by indexing one type of content.

As can be seen from the image below, EZTV’s traffic fluctuates throughout the year in line with TV show release schedules.

EZTV is currently the 578th most-popular site in the UK according to Alexa. Interestingly its Australian rank is 167, a sign that Aussies are being left hungry for TV shows when compared to the rest of the world.

YIFY-Torrents

This lesser known site was launched in 2011 and has a relatively low profile when compared to many of the bigger sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents. However, this site is somewhat of a street-sleeper.

Although it didn’t make our Top 10 list for 2013 it did receive a mention as an important newcomer and as illustrated by the chart below, the site has been growing rapidly ever since. In terms of traffic it’s closing in on EZTV and is currently ranked the 876th most popular site in the UK.

Attractive layout aside, the site has gained popularity due to the distribution of its own video rips (and re-rips), hundreds of which can be found indexed on dedicated user accounts on The Pirate Bay and KickAssTorrents.

Due to the desirability of these torrents among those looking for ‘aXXo’-style branding but at arguably higher quality, the term ‘YIFY’ is currently riding high at #17 in KickAssTorrent’s June 2013 Trends list.

Although there’s no solid evidence at this stage, it’s fairly safe to say that due to the content indexed by the sites the MPA is probably behind the blocking request. The ISPs have said in every previous instance that they won’t block sites without a court order but these days getting one of those is becoming somewhat of a formality.

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