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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the making-progress dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Following a high-profile order at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this summer, copyright holders are facing a roadblock in their quest to demand settlements from alleged file-sharers. Referencing the August order, federal courts in districts across the US are demanding more evidence than an IP-address alone.

[...] In recent weeks, however, more and more judges have begun to ask questions.

This started after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reached a verdict in Cobbler Nevada v. Gonzales. The Court ruled that identifying the registered subscriber of an IP-address by itself is not enough to argue that this person is also the infringer.

"Because multiple devices and individuals may be able to connect via an IP address, simply identifying the IP subscriber solves only part of the puzzle. A plaintiff must allege something more to create a reasonable inference that a subscriber is also an infringer," the verdict read.

[...] What's clear though is that the Appeals Court ruling is being used by courts across the country to demand "something more" than an IP-address alone.

While this is not the end of so-called "copyright trolling" practices just yet, it does make it harder for rightsholders to convince the courts.

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/courts-want-something-more-than-an-ip-address-to-catch-pirates-181217/


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Friday December 21 2018, @12:33AM (6 children)

    by edIII (791) on Friday December 21 2018, @12:33AM (#777026)

    I must be really old, but I don't know where any of these illicit streaming sites ARE. That, and it seems like a good way to get an infection. I don't even stream porn anymore, but just download full titles. Not worth the possible infection.

    I find private trackers that provide "scene" files direct from the piracy groups to be preferable. Usually, there is a trusted courier that is receiving these files and then posting it on the private tracker. That's after it has gone through a series of private dumps with SFTP before arriving at a large dedicated seedbox. In my "youth" (as far as networking is concerned), I had access to several large scene dumps for a time and could retrieve whatever I wanted at will. That was simply an evolution from BBS and then IRC. The groups have a fair amount of pride (honor amongst thieves and all), and private sites are greatly motivated to keep out bad content. I've never received a copyright notice because I've never torrented publicly, or from my home address. Considering the costs of bandwidth and home connections in general, it's not that much of an added burden to get a seedbox outside of your country, and then use that.

    Pretty sure I'm not alone given the size of the private seedbox industry, so perhaps, there is a large amount of piracy that is simply hidden from Big Media. You allude to it being all over with streaming, and that's because the youth can't be bothered to deal with anything more complicated than Netflix or Youtube as an application. The illicit streaming sites are too much of a bother, with a few exceptions for the anime sites. I'm not sure that is illegal though.

    I don't see how it would be all over if they don't make it illicit. It's already unlawful, and my gut tells me that it is primarily about sports. If ESPN got it's head out its ass, along with the sports owners, they would sell their own cheap streaming packages. That convenience alone would shut down the illicit sites.

    It's not about making something illegal or legal, but making it convenient and giving the customer what they want. That's why Big Media faces a huge problem. They're experts are not giving the customer what they want.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday December 21 2018, @01:05AM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday December 21 2018, @01:05AM (#777036) Journal

    Just use a dedicated web browser, slap an ad blocker on it, and load up something like solarmoviez [solarmoviez.ru]. You can also try HDO [hdo.to]. You're not going to get any infection.

    As for Kodi, you can install that on an HDMI streaming stick. I got a 2-pack of Amazon Fire TV 4K sticks for $60. Load Kodi on it. Load an addon repository with the "Yoda" addon in it. Install that addon. Google for instructions as needed. Boom, good to go. There are other addons for live TV and such.

    It's highly unlikely the stick is going to get pwned, since it is doing an end run around streaming sources in order to grab the video and not display ads or anything else. But if it did, you could just factory reset the thing or get a new one. In 2 years or so, even the entry-level sticks on the market will probably be quad-core ARMs with hardware-accelerated 4K and HDR support.

    If you don't want to use an Amazon or Google product, you could try using a single-board computer such as the Raspberry Pi 3+. Though it would be nice to see a new RasPi revision double the RAM to 2 GB.

    Quality and reliability of the streaming will vary, but you don't need to store anything and you'll quickly learn what sources are the most reliable (e.g. Gowatchseries | Streamango).

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 21 2018, @08:24PM (1 child)

      by edIII (791) on Friday December 21 2018, @08:24PM (#777307)

      Isn't the problem with Kodi is that it uses public trackers and runs a local torrent client? That's the number one reason I never adopted it. I didn't want that traffic on my local network, and then be added to some MAFIAA list of infringers to try and go after.

      It does sound like it makes using streaming sources a lot easier and safer.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 21 2018, @11:40PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday December 21 2018, @11:40PM (#777362) Journal

        Kodi [wikipedia.org] doesn't endorse criminal activity whatsoever. A clean install is just a media player and file organizer.

        You need to add third-party addons in order to get the "illicit" stuff. Even then, one of the main sites associated with addons, TVAddons.co, does not host the actual addons but simply publishes a tongue-in-cheek transparency report [tvaddons.co] that tells you their names and gives you a clue about where to get them. Some are on GitHub, others are in various repositories that you manually add to Kodi using the URL.

        This guide explains how most addons work [koditips.com] (excuse any bad English). In a nutshell, most addons scrape metadata from centralized websites in order to show you what's available, popular, etc., and then handle the process of "resolving" the content, which entails grabbing the video directly while cutting through ads, redirects, and other crap.

        Some sources, such as Openload, have gotten hip to Kodi users and require you to solve a captcha on an advertisement page at your IP address. Then you can look at the content for X hours.

        There are some addons that don't use the scrape/resolve model, including torrent-based addons, but they are rare:

        Once again, giant media conglomerates would have you believe that each Kodi addon is a cesspool of illegal content and media. Kodi addons are all using the same scraper websites for links. This is the case for 95% of addons. In fact, the only addons that don’t use this framework are:

        1. Torrent addons such as Elementum – Rather than using traditional scrapers and resolvers, torrent-based addons scan peer-to-peer torrent trackers for content. Torrent content is stored quickly among users and is generally safe if you are , which makes it a popular alternative for content in Kodi.
        2. Usenet addons such as Easynews – Premium usenet servers have been around since before scraper sites and torrent files. They are servers stored anonymously around that world that require a custom username and password in order to access. Usenet servers store everything indefinitely and due to their encryption, links are hardly ever removed. This means that Easynews has some old and more obscure content in them as long as one person has uploaded it to the server at one point in time.
        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 21 2018, @05:52AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 21 2018, @05:52AM (#777096)

    Really? Full titles? Where from?
    Redtube is great but limited

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 21 2018, @07:19AM (1 child)

      by edIII (791) on Friday December 21 2018, @07:19AM (#777114)

      Sorry, you got to know a guy, and you don't know a guy :) That and the first rule of a private tracker is that you don't talk about the private tracker...

      Look for some private trackers that occassionally open up membership. A lot of torrent blogs and similar sites talk about them, and every so often, some will open up for membership. Otherwise, the way it works is by invitation only. That also means the person doing the inviting is on the hook for the behavior of the invited.

      Once you do get into a site, and past probation, it's a private tracker with literally hundreds of TB of porn titles at any one moment. They release just as much content in the porno group scenes as the gaming, software, tv, and movie scenes. Probably more.

      Private tracker I am on is like TV title, software, big titty porn, freak porn, teen porn, software, porn, tv, movie, porn, porn, porn, tv. That was me summarizing the list in another tab :)

      There are some porn only trackers too, and they'll often deal in whatever porn they can get their hands on.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 21 2018, @02:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 21 2018, @02:54PM (#777207)

        Oh those. Geez I haven't been on a private network for years. Not since DC was cool.
        No problem. I know how to knock on this door.