To counter this image a group of Ukrainian copyright holders has started the “Clear Sky” initiative. The coalition wants to emphasize that Ukraine is not the only country that has to take responsibility for piracy and says that U.S. companies must also do their part.

This week the group pointed the finger at Apple and Google, who are reportedly refusing to remove ‘infringing’ apps from their respective stores.

The copyright holders say that apps such as LazyEXua, EX.ua Cinema, Music.ex.ua, EX Plus, and Kartina TV give users access to a wide variety of copyrighted videos and music, without compensating the owners.

Music.ex.ua, for example, is available for free in the App Store. It lists millions of songs on the Ukrainian file-hosting site Ex.ua, which iOS users all over the world can stream for free.

In an attempt to get several infringing apps removed, the online video portal Divan TV recently complained to both Apple and Google. Divan TV owns distribution rights to a wide variety of titles which makes them a rightsholder much like the original creator, but reportedly both Apple and Google were reluctant to take action.

“We’ve got an automated answer that only rightholders, not services, are entitled to approach them,” Divan TV’s Katerina Diachenko said commenting on the issue.

Apple’s press center in Russia and Google Ukraine both noted that they have policies in place to deal with copyright infringement but refused to comment on individual cases. Why Divan TV was not seen as a rightsholder remains a mystery for now.

TorrentFreak searched for the apps Divan complained about and it appears that some have since been removed. However, the Clear Sky coalition notes that many other ‘pirate’ apps remain available.

Pavel Mykolyuk, director of the law firm Vindex and a key member of the Clear Sky coalition, finds it unacceptable that two of the biggest technology brands are refusing to take action.

“It is obvious that certain Apple and Android mobile apps available for download are publishing pirated content. While Apple and Google take a strong stance on content considered inappropriate such as porn, both brands are unwilling to expand their remit to include content that breaches copyrights,” Mykolyuk informs TorrentFreak.

In part, Mykolyuk believes it’s because Ukrainian rightsholders are taken less seriously than their counterparts in the United States.

“Here in Ukraine, we are being made the scapegoat for online piracy and while we recognize and are acting on the problem within our country, we are increasingly fighting policy shortsightedness of Google and Apple regarding piracy enabling within their own marketplaces,” Mykolyuk adds.

By addressing these issues in public the alliance hopes to show that piracy is not just a Ukrainian problem, and that all countries have to take their responsibilities. Thus far, however, many of the apps in question remain available.

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

The Eastern European country has been branded by the U.S. as one of the top piracy havens in the world and was placed on the USTR’s priority watchlist.

To counter this image a group of Ukrainian media outlets has started the “Clear Sky” initiative. The coalition’s goal is to find solutions to online piracy. However, with one of their first campaigns they appear to put the ball back in the court of international companies.

The group commissioned the research outfit InMind to take a closer look at the advertising revenues of two of the country’s major file-sharing websites, Ex.ua and FS.ua. Both sites have millions of visitors per week and generate a healthy revenue stream through their ads, some of which are paid by global companies.

According to the report about 10% of all ads on the two file-sharing sites are financed by well-known international brands. Nearly half of all those ads (4.2% of the total) come from Samsung as the bar chart below reveals.

A big chunk of Samsung’s advertising budget in Ukraine goes to the two file-sharing sites according to the report. “The research reveals that 15% of all Samsung`s ads in Ukraine are placed on the pirate websites Ex.ua and Fs.ua,” Clear Sky informed TorrentFreak.

Samsung is not the only international brand that advertises on pirate sites, the top 20 also lists other familiar names including Nokia, Canon, Carlsberg and Coca Cola.

Other international brands are better at avoiding these sites. For example, Kraft and Procter and Gamble advertize more on Ukrainian Internet than any other the other brands listed above, yet they are not listed among the top 20 advertisers on Ex.ua and FS.ua.

Clear Sky informed TorrentFreak that they have demanded an urgent audit of the global online advertising practices of several of the world’s largest brands in order to support its domestic anti-piracy efforts.

“Clear Sky believes that malpractice within global online advertising and the ambiguity surrounding the wider digital environment, are key factors currently enabling piracy to flourish while damaging anti-piracy initiatives,” the group added.

According to the research 40% of Ukrainian population is exposed to ads from these global brands on file-sharing sites, which gives the impression that these sites are legitimate entertainment portals.

Pavel Mykolyuk, director of the law firm Vindex and a key member of the Clear Sky coalition, calls on international partners to help address this issue.

“Clear Sky is calling for international collaboration to ensure anti-piracy efforts are optimized by changing the status quo, a situation that sees brands – sometimes unwittingly – fueling the illicit revenue of these sites and consequently exacerbating the global problem,” Mykolyuk explains.

How much these international brands indirectly pay to file-sharing sites remains unclear. Some experts estimate that Ex.ua and FS.ua alone already generate millions of dollars in revenue.

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

After being present on the standard ‘Watch List’ in 2011, Ukraine found itself upgraded to the Priority Watch List in 2012. The United States complained that Ukraine had done little to address counterfeiting and piracy and in some cases had actually taken steps backwards, such as when it took down large file-hosting site EX.ua and then allowed it to reopen days later. The U.S. said that Ukraine had also failed to introduce a formal notice-and-takedown regime.

By 2013 things had failed to improve, in fact so much so that in May Ukraine was designated a Priority Foreign Country by the USTR, meaning that the United States government could impose trade sanctions.

“This designation is the culmination of several years of growing concern over widespread
IP theft, including the growing entrenchment of IPR infringement that is facilitated by government actors,” the damning report read.

Amid an extremely long list of criticisms, the USTR said Ukraine needed to establish a “predictable and transparent system” to combat online piracy, including consultation with rightsholders, legal reform, and deterrent-level sentences for infringement.

Now, three months after its 301 disaster, the Ukranian government says it’s prepared to address its online piracy issues.

“Today, all countries have to solve a complex dilemma between the free dissemination of information and the violation of intellectual property rights. Many are forced to take legislative measures against piracy on the Internet,” says Volodymyr Seminozhenko, head of Ukraine’s State Agency on Science, Innovations and Information.

“It is logical, because with more rapid development of information technology general Internet users are able to share any audio visual material, texts or computer programs online. It is clear that among the array of information available will be pirated content, which naturally causes concern to rightsholders.”

Seminozhenko, a former Vice Premier Minister of Ukraine and current head of the Association of Ukrainian Scientists, says that a similar law to the one just implemented by Russia is being prepared by the State Intellectual Property Service.

However, having seen the backlash over Russia’s site and content blocking provisions (and a failure to properly engage the information technology sector when preparing legislation) it seems likely that Ukraine will tread more cautiously.

“The status quo on this complex issue can only be achieved when taking into account all stakeholders – that includes rightsholders, representatives of the IT community, and users of the network. The fact that such a compromise is necessary is confirmed by the recent events surrounding the Russian anti-piracy law,” the minister adds.

Semynozhenko has worked hard for more than a decade promoting innovation and a thriving business environment in Ukraine and says that in any regime the interests of citizens should be paramount, including their right to freely access information.

“Fighting Internet piracy should not create artificial conditions for blocking of Internet resources that are fully transparent and legitimate, and even more so should not restrict the freedom of citizens to access information,” Seminozhenko says.

The exact system Ukraine has mind is still not finalized, but there are suggestions that current law will be amended to allow rightsholders to file complaints against pirate sites with the State Intellectual Property Service. Within 10 days of receipt of the complaint an investigation will be launched to determine if content is indeed online illegally.

In the final step – and one likely to cause controversy if it’s pushed through – there are suggestions that those putting content online illegally will be required to pay some kind of fee for the items listed in copyright complaints, with the money raised being transferred directly into state coffers.

Since the USTR has already criticized the Ukranian government for allowing “rogue” music collection societies to operate freely in the country (even going as far as stating that one such outfit has “strong ties” to government officials), further enrichment of the state at the expense of copyright holders isn’t likely to be well received.

Only time will tell if the reforms will be enough to downgrade Ukraine in the 2014 Special 301 report, or if they will be viewed by the U.S. as a day late and a dollar short.

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

The police confiscated 200 servers which stored 6,000 terabytes of data, and the site’s domain was taken over as well.

Usually, such aggressive actions mean the end of a site, but not in this case. Out of nowhere Ex.ua reappeared today.

“Dear customers! Some of the information is temporarily unavailable. We are working to restore full operation of the resource,” reads a message on the site’s homepage.

It turns out that the authorities had to return the domain because it couldn’t be seized based on alleged copyright infringements.

The authorities denied that ‘Anonymous’ attacks on several government websites had anything to do with the swift return.

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

Founded in 2009, the file-hosting site allowed users to share files up to 50 gigabytes. Unlike similar services, Ex.ua was completely free to use. The site made money from advertisements and didn’t offer a paid subscription.

Because the site was widely used to share copyrighted files, several international companies including Microsoft, Graphisoft and Adobe filed complaints against the service. After a six month criminal investigation, this resulted in the shutdown of Ex.ua today.

A spokesperson for the authorities confirmed that the service was targeted and said that 200 servers were taken, holding a massive 6,000 terabytes of data.

In addition, sixteen employees were taken in for questioning. At the time of writing it is unclear how many arrests have been made, if any. The authorities did confirm that the site was run by a Latvian citizen.

While Ex.ua has some similarities to MegaUpload and other file-hosting sites, it was also crucially different in several aspects. Ex.ua allowed users to search for files and browse categories such as “MP3″ and “Video,” which is quite uncommon for a cyberlocker.

In 2010, the RIAA reported Ex.ua to the Office of the US Trade Representative, branding it a “pirate haven.” Among other things the RIAA highlighted that users of the site could not only upload, but also search for files on the site.

“This is the largest service in Ukraine and the vast majority of the Internet users in Ukraine use the site to download music and film content. None of the content made available on the site has been authorised by the copyright owners and the site operators are unresponsive to takedown notices as a result there are thousands of music titles available on the site,” the music group wrote at the time.

If found guilty, the operators of the site face up to five years in prison.

Breaking story.

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

The ISP had little choice but to comply or face large fines, but TPB was quick to react and quickly partnered with a new host.

That short honeymoon was quickly over.

“It took just 20 minutes before the Hollywood companies telephoned the new host who took over operation of The Pirate Bay,” commented Patrik from the ISP which had been indirectly supplying bandwidth to TPB.

Despite initially putting on a brave face and standing strong, Patrik’s company continued to feel the heat. It is not a large outfit and doesn’t have the resources to fight the entertainment industry and its threats.

Last night, Patrik could hold off no longer after receiving mounting threats from the entertainment industries, which culminated in threats of a court summons. Having come this far, there is little doubt that IFPI and the MPAA would litigate if necessary.

“I was threatened by the movie and music companies,” Patrik said today. He had no choice but to stop servicing TPB. His company cut off the site’s bandwidth last night but The Pirate Bay is fully operational, so they must’ve found another host. It’s likely that they already had one prepared.

With Sweden seemingly out of bounds, the site needed to move overseas. The Netherlands is not really an option anymore and the same goes for most of Western Europe – the solution lies in the east.

On the heels of several rumors today, Patrik said he could confirm news of the move, saying that he believes The Pirate Bay is now hosted in Ukraine.

There have been signs that this Eastern European nation is becoming an attractive location for torrent site hosting, with several large sites and services showing interest.

However, as illustrated by the on-going problems at Demonoid, TorrentFreak is told that the reliability can leave a lot to be desired, with sites having to take measures to ensure that when their Ukrainian hosting becomes unavailable, backup resources kick in.

The standard of Pirate Bay’s new home (if it is indeed in Ukraine) isn’t likely to reflect the comparative luxury of Sweden, but that door seems to be all but closed now. Whether the site stays in Ukraine is another question, but that aside, a simple one remains;

Would you host The Pirate Bay in Sweden? The answer will likely match the response to “Do you like lawsuits?”

Maybe the Swedish government’s nightmare is finally over.

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

In the past 24 hours, TorrentFreak received a flurry of reports that users of Demonoid in Russia could no longer access the site. After checking with some of our own Russian contacts and testing via a server located in St Petersburg, we are able to confirm that at least so far, accessing Demonoid is impossible from Russia. Reports suggest the problem started a day ago.

Traceroutes carried out from several locations across the country to Demonoid’s IP at 62.149.24.66 show that they are all terminating at ColoCall, the biggest data center in Ukraine – just one step away from Demonoid’s servers.

TorrentFreak’s tests from both European and Russian IP addresses both routed through the ColoCall IP 62.149.2.108 – the Russian test was blocked at that point while the European one completed perfectly. Tests by a Russian BitTorrent user on our behalf confirmed it was necessary to use a proxy for both the site and the the tracker to gain access.

It’s hoped that the blockage is temporary and a technical issue but of course, Demonoid has blocked countries before. TorrentFreak has contacted ColoCall but thus far, we’ve received no response.

We’ll update this post when more information comes in.

Update: Several reports coming in that Ukranian IP addresses may also be blocked.

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