Tag: anti-piracy

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New COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Makes Illegal Streaming A Felony

illegal streaming

The latest pandemic relief bill from Congress does more than help boost a declining economy, and we have the details.

The United States Congress has finally agreed on a second pandemic relief bill that will pump billions of dollars into the nation’s economy. These stimulus efforts include $600 checks to every citizen and billions to help independent venues. The package also includes a bevy of new laws and acts, including one plan to make illegal streaming a felony in the US.

Among the various proposal included in the latest relief deal is a proposal from Senator Thom Tillis (a Republican from North Carolina) that would make illegal streaming a felony, with penalties of up to 10 years of imprisonment.

When Tillis released a draft of his proposal earlier this month, the open internet/intellectual property nonprofit Public Knowledge released a statement arguing that there’s no need “for further criminal penalties for copyright infringement,” but also saying that the bill is “narrowly tailored and avoids criminalizing users” and “does not criminalize streamers who may include unlicensed works as part of their streams” — instead, it focuses on those who pirate for commercial gain.

In short, the bill proposes to amend US copyright law by adding a section that allows streaming piracy services to be targeted. It is tailored towards services that exploit streaming piracy for commercial gain, leaving individual streamers out of the crosshairs.

Commenting on the bill, Senator Tillis notes that pirate streaming services are costing the US economy billions of dollars every year. The new legislation should help to change this without criminalizing regular streamers.

“This commonsense legislation was drafted with the input of creators, user groups, and technology companies and is narrowly targeted so that only criminal organizations are punished and that no individual streamer has to worry about the fear of prosecution,” Tillis said.

Lawmakers received input from rightsholders as well as the CCIA, which includes prominent members such as Amazon, Cloudflare, Facebook, and Google. The CCIA has previously been critical of streaming felony bills, but it will now remain neutral.

The same applies to the civil rights group Public Knowledge, which also helped in shaping the new bill. While Public Knowledge isn’t in favor of adding criminal penalties for copyright infringement, it sees the new proposal as a reasonable solution.

“[T]his bill is narrowly tailored and avoids criminalizing users, who may do nothing more than click on a link, or upload a file. It also does not criminalize streamers who may include unlicensed works as part of their streams,” says Meredith Rose, Public Knowledge’s Senior Policy Counsel.

Senator Tillis’ bill will likely be a hot topic of conversation in the months ahead. Stay tuned for more.

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YouTube quietly begins blocking MP3 stream-ripping sites

The latest plague to hit the music industry has found itself in a losing battle with the world’s largest video platform.

Stream-ripping is the most popular way to pirate music in 2019. Fear of malware drove people away from torrents long ago, and file-sharing services such as Mediafire lost their luster after they began removing copyrighted material almost as fast as people could upload it, but for the last several years, stream-ripping has been largely untouched by the pressure of the music industry. Only a handful of sites have been taken offline, and far more have risen to replace them.

In virtually every report on piracy released since 2015, industry leaders and organizations alike have noted the need for tech giants to involve themselves in the war against digital theft. YouTube and Google, which are now owned by the same company, have largely remained silent on the matter. That lead the music business to feel as if these platforms didn’t care or that they believed fighting piracy was the industry’s responsibility alone, but this week, something changed.

According to a report from TorrentFreak, which has been confirmed by Haulix Daily, YouTube has recently began blocking stream-ripping sites from pirating music and other copyrighted materials. The number of sites included in the effort is unclear, but research by Haulix staff earlier today (July 11) found the top 10 Google results for ‘YouTube to MP3,’ ‘Youtube MP3,’ and ‘Free YouTube Conversion’ all impacted by the change.

“All my servers are blocked with error ‘HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests’,” the operator of Dlnowsoft.com informs TorrentFreak. As a result, the stream-ripping site currently displays a “service temporarily unavailable, we will come back soon” error message. 

Onlinevideoconverter.com, one of the top 200 most-visited sites on the internet, appears to be affected as well. While videos from sites such as Vimeo can still be converted, YouTube links now return the following error message. 

None of the websites impacted by the recent blocks were warned in advance of the changes.

Haulix Daily contacted YouTube for more information, but the company has not responded. YouTube has also made no public comments about the blocks, but the widespread impact makes it clear the company is sending a message regarding their views on piracy. We will bring you more information as it becomes available.

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United Nations Organization Launches A New, Global Anti-Piracy Database

Piracy is growing at an alarming rate, but a new database from the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hopes to change the trend through a global anti-piracy effort.

Streaming was supposed to be the solution to piracy. Services like Spotify, we were told, would provide consumers with affordable means of accessing music online, thus eradicating the need for people to steal music. The notion made sense, which lead the industry to adopt streaming service as the new normal, but piracy persists. In fact, music piracy in the United States rose a startling 13% in the last year alone.

People don’t pirate music the way they did a decade ago, and anti-piracy have struggled to keep up with changing trends. Torrents gave way to an age of third-party download services such as MegaUpload and Mediafire, but even that approach to stealing music feels old fashioned in 2019. Today’s pirates are largely accessing music through stream-ripping services that steal audio from videos available on YouTube, Vimeo, and other streaming platforms.

The industry has been fighting stream-ripping for years, but progress has been slow. For every site that shuts down, another two or three sites appear, and the fact there is no cost rip music from videos only makes matters worse.

United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hopes to change the trend of rising piracy through a new, global anti-piracy database. Dubbed Building Respect for Intellectual Property (or BRIP, for short), UN Member States will promptly report “problematic sites.”  After looking at the database, advertisers may choose to block these “bad” websites.

Explaining the purpose of BRIP, WIPO wrote:

“The BRIP Database is now open for the acceptance of Authorized Contributors from WIPO Member States and Authorized Users from the advertising sector.

“It comprises a secure, access-controlled online platform, to which authorized agencies in WIPO Member States may upload lists of websites which deliberately facilitate the infringement of copyright.”

If the sites cannot host ads, the sites cannot make money.

WIPO believes that the presence of ads from legitimate brands may be creating confusion among consumers. For example, why would Amazon ads appear on a site that is promoting illegal activity? By creating a database of sites engaging in illegal behavior, WIPO hopes, brands will work to ensure their names and images do not appear on URLs that may be problematic.

The idea of the database is great, but WIPO admits success is far from guaranteed.

“Its success will, however, depend on the extent to which it is adopted by Member State agencies and the advertising sector.”

Eradicating piracy requires a level of teamwork and cross-country collaboration that would be unlike anything the industry has witnessed. Stamping out those who wish to profit off the illegal sharing of pirated materials is something every continent, industry group, and professional will need to work toward together for success to even be a realistic possibility. Whether or not that can happen remains to be seen, but many are hopeful (including us).

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With Convert2MP3 shut down, what’s next for the war on stream-ripping?

After years of legal battles, the global music industry found success in the war against piracy after forcing stream-ripping site Convert2MP3 to shutter operations.

The war against music piracy rages on in 2019. Despite significant growth for the streaming marketplace, millions of people continue to pirate music as a means of accessing materials for free. Torrents and file-sharing sites such as Mediafire have lost their appeal to pirates in recent years, but they have been replaced by stream-ripping services that allow consumers to steal audio from video clips and convert them into MP3 files. These sites, which often cost nothing to use, are a scourge on the entertainment business.

In 2016, the RIAA, IFPI, and BPI filed legal action against YouTube-MP3, the largest stream ripping site at the time. This case eventually resulted in a settlement in which the site agreed to shut down voluntarily.

Since that time, the music industry and the many groups around the world working to ensure its continued growth, have set their sights on a number of additional websites promoting free stream-ripping services. That included Convert2MP3, which was sued in Germany with backing from the music groups IFPI and BVMI.

Convert2MP3 has been considered one of the most popular stream-ripping destinations online. The site has previously seen tens of millions of people use its service monthly, and that popularity made it a prime target in the music industry’s war against piracy.

The court proceeding surrounding Convert2MP3 has rarely been in the headlines, but that changed earlier this week when Music group IFPI announced that in a combined effort with the German industry group BVMI, it has reached a settlement with the stream-ripping site. The settlement requires the site to shut down immediately and hand over its domain name to IFPI. 

The settlement also requires the unnamed person or persons behind Convert2MP3 to pay financial compensation. The amount owed has not been made public.

IFPI’s Chief Executive Frances Moore is pleased with the outcome and hopes that it will motivate other stream-rippers to follow suit.

“Stream ripping is a threat to the entire music ecosystem. Sites such as Convert2MP3 show complete disregard for the rights of artists and record companies and take money away from those creating and investing in music.

“The successful outcome of this case sends a clear signal to other stream ripping sites that they should stop their copyright infringing activities or face legal action,” Moore adds.

Not everyone agrees that these type of sites are by definition copyright-infringing. In a letter to the US Trade Representative, digital rights group EFF previously stressed that there are plenty of legal use cases as well.

“[M]any audio extractions qualify as non-infringing fair uses under copyright. Providing a service that is capable of extracting audio tracks for these lawful purposes is itself lawful, even if some users infringe,” EFF wrote.

EFF has a point. There are instances where stream-ripping does not infringe on a copyright, but those cases are few and far between. The vast majority of stream-ripping use does infringe on others’ intellectual property. Is the risk of losing millions to illegal piracy worth making services like that previously offered by Convert2MP3 free to the public?

Perhaps a better solution would be a third-party service that reviews stream-ripping requests. If not that, maybe consumers wishing to rip audio from videos should pay a fee to do so, thus ensuring any parties owed money have the means to collect.

Stream-ripping is far from being extinguished, and the war on piracy is not likely to end anytime soon. The battle for artists to be compensated for their work has raged for decades, but hopefully, the end of Convert2MP3 pushes a few more pirates toward a legitimate music consumption.
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Music piracy rose 13% in the US last year, and stream-ripping is to blame.

Despite reports claiming otherwise, a new study from a marketing research company reveals that the war on piracy far from over.

Despite reports claiming otherwise, a new study from a marketing research company reveals that the war on piracy far from over.

The music industry breathed a sigh of release last September after global piracy platform MUSO released a report claiming that piracy was on the decline. The streaming age, it seemed, had finally converted thieves into consumers.

This week, however, a new study published by marketing research company MusicWatch claims otherwise.

In a blog post focused mainly on stream-ripping services, MusicWatch claimed to have tracked 17 million users downloading their music on websites from video platforms, including YouTube.  That’s up from 15 million from the same period two years ago.

The top 30% of stream-rippers also downloaded an average of 112 music files, the equivalent of 10 full music albums, over the course of the year.

Thanks to Stream-Ripping, Music Piracy Still a Scourge

The company wrote:

“That may not seem a lot in a world where streaming services hold millions of songs, but ask any rights holder how they feel about someone copying their works.  For a more vivid picture, imagine someone shoplifting 11 albums from Walmart or Best Buy!”

MusicWatch Blog, 2019

The question of why the spike occurred remains unanswered, but MusicWatch points the blame at search platforms such as Google for not taking the matter seriously. The company believes it is easy for anyone to find a stream-ripping service in a matter of clicks, and that files ripped from sites such as YouTube are seen as a replacement to mainstream music streaming services such as Spotify.

A quick search by the Haulix team proved their theory to be true:

Google and other search platforms are under fire for not doing more to prevent access to stream-ripping services like the ones seen here.

Additionally, the study from MusicWatch revealed that stream-rippers are also more likely to participate in other forms of unsanctioned music sharing.  These include downloading songs from unlicensed music apps and sharing songs on digital lockers or file-sharing sites.

They’re also more likely to go to the movies, play video games, and subscribe to video streaming platforms, like Hulu and Netflix.  That, says the marketing research company, amplifies the risk of piracy in each category. If they’ll steal music they don’t own, why wouldn’t they do the same for films, tv, or video games?

Of the people surveyed by MusicWatch, 68% of stream-rippers in the U.S. are aged between 13 and 34.  A slightly higher number of males pirate when compared to women, 56% to 44%.  The average household income of stream-rippers is between $75,000 and $199,000.  Only 34% are full or part-time students, which strongly suggests that professionals are also downloading music for free.

As for solutions to these problems, MusicWatch concludes their study by reiterating the need to fight back against stream-ripping platforms.

“If [stream-rippers] pirate music, they’ll likely also take movies, TV shows, and other forms of intellectual property.  Discouraging stream-ripping isn’t just good for music; it’s good for the entire entertainment ecosystem.”

There have been several lawsuits filed against stream-ripping websites in recent years, while other stream-ripping platforms have received cease and desist letters. Until action is taken to block or otherwise remove stream-ripping sites as a whole, the entertainment industry will have to wage war against the services on a site-by-site basis.

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Hooray! Stream-Ripping is (finally) on the decline

The popularity of stream-ripping dropped 13% in 2018, according to a new report.

Piracy, not unlike entertainment, has seen the rise and fall of various trends as consumer behavior evolves. Early pirates relied on torrents and peer-to-peer services such as Napster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent to access materials they would otherwise have to pay to consume. Today’s pirates, however, often rely on services that rip existing content from streaming sites such as YouTube. Both methods work, and both methods are illegal.

Everyone knows piracy persists, but new information from the UK-based company MUSO shows signs of decline, at least where music is concerned.

While most people now subscribe to Spotify and Apple Music, Christopher Elkins, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, explained that piracy “remains a significant challenge.”

The new data made available comes from 2018 piracy habits, and it includes a marked decrease in YouTube ‘stream-ripping,’ which was declared a piracy menace by groups like the RIAA in recent years.

MUSO counted over 189 million visits to piracy sites in 2018, which is over 100 million less than the number reported for activity 2017. TV remained the most popular content for piracy. Nearly half (49.4%) of all activity focused on pirating television programs. Film, music, and publishing had a respective share of 17.1%, 16%, and 11.2%. Software piracy came in the last place with around 6.2%.

That said, music saw the biggest decline in piracy, with a 34% drop overall compared the previous year.

The United States topped the list of countries with the most visits to piracy sites with 17 billion. Russia came in second with 14.5 billion, followed by Brazil, India, and France with 10.3 billion, 9.6 billion, and 7.4 billion visits, respectively. Turkey (7.3 billion), Ukraine (6.1 billion), Indonesia (6 billion), the United Kingdom (5.8 billion), and Germany (5.4 billion) rounded out the top ten.

Public torrent networks, such as ThePirateBay and 1337x, accounted for just 13% of all infringing activity.  Stream-ripping fell 13% between 2017 and 2018 – from 8.9 billion visits to 7.7 billion.  This was primarily due to YouTube-MP3.org’s closure in 2017, leading to a 16% drop in overall stream-ripper visits.

Speaking about the findings, Andy Chatterley, Muso’s Co-Founder and CEO, explained,

“In 2018, we’ve seen a 10% increase in people bypassing search engines and going directly to the piracy destination of their choice.

“Simply focusing on take-downs is clearly a whack-a-mole approach and, while an essential part of any content protection strategy, it needs to be paired with more progressive thinking.

“With the right mindsight, piracy audiences can offer huge value to rights holders.”

There is still a long ways to go before piracy is eradicated, but it appears that the proliferation of streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify may finally be making a difference.

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A new report reveals why piracy continues in the streaming age

The New Zealand based study finds piracy “isn’t driven by law-breakers” anymore.

Piracy was supposed to end with the dawn of streaming. Entertainment analysts predicted that having the vast majority of movies, music, and television a few clicks away at any moment would remove any need for digital piracy. After all, who doesn’t have a Netflix and Spotify (or similar subscription services) account in 2019?

The solution to piracy was never as simple as people like to believe. Studies show that streaming has changed consumer behaviors, but as more services become available with exclusive content from major stars, a new issue is emerging. Paying for Netflix and Spotify here in the United States will set people back about $25 a month. For some, that figure is not a problem, but others cannot afford it. Add to this, the rising popularity of Hulu ($10 a month), Amazon Prime Video ($8.99), HBOGo ($10), and DC Universe ($7.99), as well as upcoming streaming services from companies like Disney (likely to cost $10 or more per month), and the price associated with seeing everything is getting pretty high.

That figure is so high, in fact, that many consumers cannot afford to keep up. According to a new study commissioned by New Zealand telecoms group Vocus Group NZ and conducted in December 2018, while the enhanced availability streaming provides is having a positive effect overall, it’s also leading some consumer to pirate.

“In short, the reason people are moving away from piracy is that it’s simply more hassle than it’s worth,” says Taryn Hamilton, Consumer General Manager at Vocus Group.

“The research confirms something many internet pundits have long instinctively believed to be true: piracy isn’t driven by law-breakers, it’s driven by people who can’t easily or affordably get the content they want.”

Speaking strictly to film and television, the majority (75%) of those surveyed said that free-to-air TV services are their weapons of choice for viewing content, with 61% utilizing free on-demand channels offered by broadcasters. Around 58% of respondents said they visit the cinema, with paid streaming services such as Netflix utilized by 55%.

The results of the study are mostly positive. Piracy seems to be declining, but as competition for consumer dollars in streaming grows, illegal downloading may see a resurgence. That goes for film, television, and music alike. Access over exclusivity is best for everyone, but it often means less money for creators. Is there a solution that makes everyone happy AND lowers the likelihood of piracy? We don’t know.

“The big findings are that whilst about half of people have pirated some content in their lives, the vast majority no longer do so because of the amount of paid streaming sites that they have access to,” Hamilton added in a video interview with NZHerald.

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BitTorrent remains one of the most trafficked website in the world

Remember the promises made by executives promoting the debut of streaming services? Ten years ago can feel like a lifetime in the age of the internet, but if you try hard, you may recall people in power hailing the rise of streaming as the death of piracy. After all, why would someone steal an album or a movie when they can rent or buy one from the comfort of their own home? Why risk penalty when you can avoid illegal behavior for just a few dollars a month?

If we’ve learned anything in the last decade it’s that piracy won’t be eradicated anytime soon. In fact, since 2008, the amount of media pirated annually has more than doubled. Over hundreds of millions of people use services such as Spotify and Netflix around the world, yet piracy persists. Maybe it always will (we sure hope not).

Anyone claiming piracy is not an issue can now be shown further evidence that it is thanks to a new report from Canadian broadband management company Sandvine. The business, which tracks and studies internet usage, is known for releasing region-specific information regarding internet traffic. Their latest release focuses on the global internet community, and the results are quite surprising.

When all traffic from sources worldwide is combined, Netflix comes out as the clear winner with 13.75% of the total traffic share. The streaming giant is followed by HTTPS Media data (12.25%) and YouTube (10.51%) respectively.

BitTorrent comes in fifth place with 4.10% of all Internet traffic globally, which is mostly driven by the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions. BitTorrent is also responsible for roughly 22% of all upstream traffic. That’s nearly ¼ of the total information sent from computers to their network.

By comparison, Netflix accounts for just 15% of all downstream traffic (data received by computers).

“As expected, the top four applications are all video, and also not surprisingly, BitTorrent is fifth overall – strongly boosted by the utter dominance on the upstream in EMEA and APAC,” Sandvine’s Cam Cullen notes.

“This is a pretty significant number since downstream traffic is an order of magnitude larger than the upstream traffic totals worldwide.”

BitTorrent is not as popular in the United States as it once was, but global traffic for the service has been on the rise throughout 2018. There are ongoing arguments at the highest levels of entertainment over how to address the persistence of the service, as well as all other piracy outlets, but no meaningful solution has been found.

For musicians, the best way to prevent piracy is to protect their music with services such as Haulix, which provides secure and customizable digital promotion for talent at all levels of the business. For more information, as well as access to a one-month trial, visit haulix.com today.

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Another infamous leaker is going to prison

A California man has been sentenced to five years in prison for operating what prosecutors believe to be some of the most successful illegal music sharing sites in the world.

Artur Sargsyan, 30, owned and operated Sharebeast.com, AlbumJams, and other websites. Prosecutors say his file-sharing infrastructure allowed the illegal download of about a billion copyrighted musical works from at least 2012 through 2015.

Prosecutors say Sargsyan received more than one-hundred RIAA takedown requests for content hosted and promoted through his sites but chose to ignore the claims. Sargsyan pleaded guilty in September to criminal copyright infringement for private financial gain. In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered him to pay $458,200 in restitution and to forfeit nearly $185,000.

There was a period when the Haulix team would regularly catch pirates attempting to share leaked music through sites owned by Sargsyan. This story is further proof that MUSIC PIRACY DOES NOT PAY. In fact, it hurts everyone involved.

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One choice that will save your band thousands

Now is the best time in history to be a music fan. The era we live in is the first where music is available everywhere, all the time, for only a few bucks a month.  You can use YouTube and enjoy millions of songs for free and artists STILL get paid. It’s incredible.

Despite the rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, digital piracy has continued to be a thorn in the side of the entertainment industry. The amount of media pirated in 2016 was double the amount stolen in 2008, and it is expected to double again by 2020. We’re not talking gigabytes or terabytes worth of media, but petabytes.

The majority of albums that leak ahead of their release date find their way online due to careless promotional tactics on the part of the artist or their team. Dozens, possibly even hundreds of copies of a record are shared with members of the press, radio, and industry at large before an album is released to the public. Somewhere along the line, the album reaches someone who decides to share it with a third party, and that is all it takes for countless sales and streams to be lost forever.

In an age where artists can make money for every stream of their music across countless platforms, there is no reason to risk the loss of a single penny to piracy. Protect your music and easily share it with the industry at large by joining Haulix today.

Haulix is a digital distribution platform built specifically to enable the advance promotion of new and unreleased music without the fear of piracy. Their platform makes it incredibly easy to upload, watermark, distribute, and track your new release.

Within a matter of minutes, you can be sharing your music with fully customizable emails and promotional pages without having to worry whether or not someone will choose to leak your material online. You can try Haulix for free for the next 30 days by visiting their official website and choosing the subscription that best fits your needs.

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