Tag Archive: Cyberlockers


Book Publishers ‘Shut Down’ Library.nu and iFile-it

Filed Under: Interweb Newz, Peer2Peer News by Ernesto — Leave a comment
February 15, 2012

libraryDuring the past week users of the popular book downloading portal Library.nu started to notice that the site no longer carried links to files.

Today delivered another surprise when the site suddenly began redirecting to Google books.

Initially it was unclear what motivated the site’s owners to take these drastic actions, but a statement by a coalition of the world’s largest book publishers including Cambridge University Press, Harper Collins, Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons, seems to have cleared up the mystery.

The publishers obtained an injunction against Library.nu and the cyberlocker ifile.it from the regional court in Munich. They claimed that both sites were operating an unauthorized “internet library” that made available more than 400,000 high-quality e-books. In addition, the publishers said the sites made $11 million in revenue.

The court agreed with the publishers and the owners of the sites were served with an order to halt their infringing activities.

As a result, both sites have voluntarily pulled their services offline. Library.nu now redirects to Google books and ifile.it has put up a message stating “no upload servers currently available.”

However, this doesn’t mean that the picture painted by the book publishers is accurate. TorrentFreak spoke to the owner of ifile.it who told us that they can barely cover the server costs with the revenue they make.

“The site only had premium accounts since November 2011. It was free since 2006 and still is free for those who want to use it for free,” the owner told us.

The legal team of the publishers estimated the revenue based on page impressions as well as estimated income from premium accounts, but this figure is laughable according to the ifile.it owner, which makes sense considering the site’s modest size.

The owner further said they always try cooperate with publishers and that the site is still fully operational for registered users.

Responding to the news, the book publishers declared victory.

“This action reflects our commitment to protecting secure, safe, and legitimate use of the Internet,” said Stephen M. Smith, President and CEO of John Wiley & Sons.

“It is also evidence of the growing strength of the international community of content creators and providers taking all available legal measures against large illegal platforms,” he added.

Jens Bammel of the International Publishers Association, the umbrella organization responsible for tracking down the owners of the two sites, described the file-sharing sites as criminal outfits.

“The global publishing industry has once again shown that it can and will stand up against large-scale organised copyright crime,” Bammel says commenting on the news.

“We will not tolerate free-loaders who make unearned profits by depriving authors and publishers of their due compensation. This is an important step towards more transparent, honest, and fair trade of digital content on the Internet,” he added.

Despite the preliminary success, there are no guarantees that both sites will remain inactive. ifile.it, for example, is still working as usual for registered users.

Update: response added from the ifile.it owner, who noted that they only shut down anonymous uploads.

Source: Book Publishers ‘Shut Down’ Library.nu and iFile-it

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Megaupload Co-Founder Released On Bail

Filed Under: Peer2Peer News by enigmax — Leave a comment
February 15, 2012

Following his arrest almost a month ago, the co-founder of the now-defunct Megaupload file-hosting service has finally been granted bail.

Mathias Ortmann was expected to be freed following a January 26th hearing but that was delayed when information collected by the authorities on his finances fell short of Ortmann’s own estimates.

According to the FBI, Ortmann made around $14.5 million from Megaupload between 2005 and 2010, and an additional $3 million in 2011. His accounts, however, showed a total of $20.2 million, some $3.5 million more.

This morning, concerns over the 40-year-old, who was previously described as a serious flight risk by Prosecutor Anne Toohey, were overcome.

Ortmann, from Germany, was released earlier today and will now join his co-accused Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato at the former’s Auckland home. Bail conditions for all three are strict and include a complete ban on Internet access.

Of those arrested in New Zealand following the raids in January, only Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom remains behind bars. He is due to appear in court next week.

In the meantime it has been revealed that US authorities intend to rely on a United Nations treaty aimed at combating international organized crime to extradite all the NZ-based members of the so-called “Mega Conspiracy” to the US.

While a lawyer working on behalf of the United States government admitted that no copyright offenses are specifically listed in the extradition treaty, he said that certain offenses which involve trans-national crime are covered by the country’s Extradition Act.

In New Zealand, crimes must carry a four year prison sentence to be deemed extraditable. Under the country’s Copyright Act, distributing an infringing work carries a five year maximum sentence. Nevertheless, some observers are predicting that due to its groundbreaking status, the extradition battle for the Megaupload defendants will be both complex and prolonged, and could even go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Separately, according to a report citing the latest issue of New Zealand Police’s ‘Ten One’ magazine, US authorities have congratulated local police on the raids they carried out last month.

“Feedback on the New Zealand operation has been extremely positive from our international law enforcement partners including the FBI and the US Department of Justice,” said Detective Superintendent Mike Pannett, who reportedly monitored events from the FBI’s command center in Washington.

As revealed last week, dozens of heavily armed police – some from elite anti-terrorist divisions – were used to arrest the operators of Megaupload in January.

Source: Megaupload Co-Founder Released On Bail

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Megaupload Programmer Calls For Dignity In US Extradition Battle

Filed Under: Peer2Peer News by enigmax — Leave a comment
February 13, 2012

Following his arrest along with the rest of the Megaupload management team on January 19th, Bram van der Kolk endured three weeks in the custody of New Zealand authorities.

Der Kolk, a Dutch citizen who oversaw programming and network issues at the Hong Kong-based company, appeared in court several times in an attempt to obtain bail. Last week the 29-year-old was finally allowed to join his family on the outside, although Judge Pippa Sinclair imposed a number of restrictions including a complete Internet access ban.

Despite Der Kolk having his communication options reduced, at the weekend he managed to speak with the Sunday Star-Times from his home in Auckland.

The network expert said that although he was “flabbergasted” by the raids, he remains in love with New Zealand. Der Kolk hopes, however, that the country maintains its poise and self-respect in dealing with the United States and their extradition requirements.

“I really hope New Zealand will keep its dignity and can show that it is a sovereign state that has its own justice system,” he said.

While authorities in New Zealand insist the raids and arrests last month were carried out by the book, questions have been raised over the massive show of force. As revealed last week, the New Zealand government sent in heavily armed anti-terrorist police to detain the management team of Megaupload, none of which have any history of violence.

Der Kolk told the Star-Times that he’d never even been in trouble with the police before and that being held in prison for 3 weeks was a new and harsh experience, fortunately made easier with help from sympathetic guards.

Previously, Finn Batato, a citizen of Germany and Mega’s chief marketing officer, was granted bail but his release was delayed due to technical issues surrounding his bail monitoring. Those were eventually overcome and the 38-year-old, who also has no criminal record, was released today to live at the same location as der Kolk.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and co-founder and director of Mathias Ortmann remain in custody.

Source: Megaupload Programmer Calls For Dignity In US Extradition Battle

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MPAA Demands Hotfile Data From Google, Search Engine Refuses

Filed Under: Peer2Peer News by enigmax — Leave a comment
February 10, 2012

In February 2011, the MPAA announced that it would be suing Hotfile, one of the Internet’s most popular cyberlocker services.

“In less than two years, Hotfile has become one of the 100 most trafficked sites in the world. That is a direct result of the massive digital theft that Hotfile promotes,” the movie industry group said.

Since then there have been dozens of court filings and Hotfile even sued MPAA member Warner Bros. right back for allegedly abusing its copyright takedown tools.

The MPAA wants to prove that Hotfile had a business model centered around piracy and one in which the file-hoster encouraged users of its service to upload copyrighted motion pictures and TV shows to Hotfile servers and then link back to them using third-party sites.

In recent weeks, more and more court filings in the case have been marked restricted/sealed but this week an interesting one was made available. According to Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Columbia and Warner, an urgent discovery hearing is required to cut through what is described by them as “a procedural morass that is prejudicing Plaintiffs’ ability to complete important discovery in this matter.”

The problem has its roots in August 2011 when Hotfile was ordered to hand the MPAA mountains of data including information it holds on the files it hosts, the company’s users and its many affiliates.

But the MPAA didn’t receive all of the data it was expecting. While Hotfile said it had no objection to producing any of the data it holds, it claimed that handing over everything requested was impossible since it did not carry some of the information.

Determined to obtain the data anyway, on December 6th 2011 the MPAA served a subpoena on Google to obtain access to Hotfile’s Google Analytics account which can show the sites driving traffic to Hotfile and the host’s most popular pages.

But Google said that absent Hotfile’s consent, it would not supply the data to the MPAA. In turn, Hotfile refused to give consent or hand over the data now since the discovery date deadline, December 23rd 2011, has now passed.

The MPAA insists that the information could be made available via a simple “push of a button” and is now asking the court to order Hotfile to either produce it, or authorize Google to do so urgently. The MPAA are in a rush because at the end of next week they will file for summary judgment against Hotfile and to do that effectively they need the traffic data in advance.

According to court documents, a mediation meeting that took place January 11th 2012 between the studios and Hotfile’s owners ended without the parties reaching settlement.

Source: MPAA Demands Hotfile Data From Google, Search Engine Refuses

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Megaupload Founder’s Home Seized, Co-Defendant Bailed

Filed Under: Peer2Peer News by enigmax — Leave a comment
February 9, 2012

Bram van der Kolk, the lead programmer of the now-defunct Megaupload cyberlocker, last appeared in court on January 26th. Judge David McNaughton agreed to give the Dutch national bail but his release was delayed for a week while his home was assessed for surveillance equipment suitability.

Today, van der Kolk was back in the North Shore District Court before Judge Pippa Sinclair who considered what bail conditions should be set before finally releasing the 29-year-old.

Prosecutor Anne Toohey, the lawyer representing the US government, argued that as the site’s lead programmer, der Kolk was the most likely to try and set up a Megaupload replacement.

Lawyer for der Kolk, Guy Foley, said that was ridiculous, especially given the heavy surveillance his client would be subjected to by the FBI on his release.

Toohey said there was a risk that der Kolk would get in contact with his co-accused in the so-called “Mega Conspiracy” of which there are seven in total. Four are currently in New Zealand and three are in other countries – two of those are still at large.

Foley argued that der Kolk must be at least granted permission to speak with two of his co-accused in New Zealand since they all share the same lawyer and need to communicate in order to mount a defense.

Judge Sinclair decided that the networking expert could indeed be released but under strict conditions. First, der Kolk would be denied Internet access which means that his bail location and anyone living there may not have any devices with online access. Additionally, police were authorized to continuously monitor der Kolk’s ability to get online.

Der Kolk was also banned from speaking with any of his co-accused overseas, although he was given permission to speak with those currently held in New Zealand for the reasons outlined by Foley.

Finn Batato, the 38-year-old from Germany whose bail was granted in principle during January but delayed pending an assessment of his bail address, was also in court today.

The address given by Batato was the residence of Kim Dotcom’s wife, Mona, but she had not yet submitted the required paperwork due to illness. Batato’s hearing will now take place tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a smaller house located alongside ‘Dotcom Mansion’ was seized today by authorities. Dotcom’s heavily pregnant wife and their three children will be allowed to stay in the £3.6m property, at least for now.

Kim Dotcom is scheduled to appear in court February 22nd.

Source: Megaupload Founder’s Home Seized, Co-Defendant Bailed

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