U.S. companies help piracy websites evade the law
U.S. based companies assist pirate websites by providing cover for their illegal piracy business while pocketing their own dirty money in the process.
U.S. companies help piracy websites evade the law
Web “security” provider Sucuri helps online pirates cloak criminal activities
As piracy has evolved and enforcement efforts increase, pirate entrepreneurs have been forced to set up shop in far offshore to avoid the long arm of U.S. law. What’s troubling is how U.S. companies help them evade the law by providing cover for their illegal piracy business while at the same time pocketing their own dirty profits in the process.
I previously wrote about U.S. based Cloudflare and its link to piracy websites. Unfortunately, Cloudflare is not alone in assisting online pirates.
Follow along as I take an obstacle course–the type creators face every day trying to protect their work–to see the way U.S. companies–in this case GoDaddy owned Sucuri–help criminals cloak their activities and keep their illegal sites operating smoothly.
Start the hunt with Google Search
While Google claims to have cleaned up its act, the reality is that with a single search I quickly found a website featuring a cache of pirated movies. It wasn’t difficult.
No surprise, the 2nd Google result led directly to a site offering a cornucopia of pirated popular lesbian-themed films and television shows, both Hollywood and indie fare.
I chose an indie feature and with a click began my journey through the maze to uncover where the stream for the stolen movie was actually hosted.
Finding the actual source code is a huge pain….I was forced to click through a series of popup ads–after all, that’s how these online pirates make money. Finally, I used Firefox’s web developer tools to scan through the source code as the movie streamed and eventually uncovered the pirate link I was looking for.
When I clicked that link, I ended up at the actual full stream for the film.
You find the source. Now what?
Turns out the file is hosted on site called “gounlimited.to” but isn’t much help. As I discovered, and Torrent Freak has previously noted, this particular pirate website brags that it ignores the DMCA. and uses that fact as a selling point. Per Torrent Freak, this isn’t the operators only rodeo either, “Faced with a lack of stable ‘takedown resistant’ hosting providers to stream videos from, Bader decided to start one of his own, GO Unlimited.”
Of course, like all piracy sites, this operation is in the business of making money off stolen goods so its content is populated thanks to minions worldwide enticed by a cash rewards with payouts based on the number of eyeballs each illegal upload attracts. It’s the typical cyberlocker scenario. For the record, I will also be contacting PayPal to ask why they remain affiliated with this criminal operation, but I digress….
Since Go Unlimited brags about ignoring the DMCA and offers no contact information, the next step is to investigate registrar and host. The .to domain is popular among shady sites for a reason and information isn’t listed in the typical WHOIS database. The .to domain offers its own search, but offers little in the way of actual information. The registrar cares little about criminal enterprises.
What next? Turns out a U.S. based company, GoDaddy’s Sucuri is listed as the IP provider. Sucuri does business with a pirate website, but explains that its not responsible in its disclaimer (poor spelling aside) this way:
The Sucuri Firewall is a passthrough proxy WAF & CDN service. Sites using our service will point their DNS records at Sucuri IP’s, but all content is actualy (sic) hosted outside of the Sucuri network.
The excuse that they don’t “host” the content is a bit weak considering that the pirated data does flow through Securi servers on their way to the end user. Essentially the excuse goes like this, “We only provide the ingredients used to bake the cake, not the finished cake.” Pretty lame excuse. While perhaps legal, it certainly doesn’t seem moral. The question is, WHY do we allow U.S. companies to do business with sites that ignore U.S. copyright law?
In a further insult, Sucuri lists publisher Harper Collins as one of its customers. Ironic that Sucuri PR folks see no conflict of interest in servicing a piracy operator aside one of its potential victims. (Note book publishers and authors are suffering mightily due to e-book piracy).
So what’s the solution? Once again the DMCA needs to be updated for the 21st century. I’ve written about this issue extensively in the past, and you can read those thoughts here. Clearly, third parties who are knowingly complicit providing infrastructure for criminal enterprises need to be held to greater account when a client ignores the law.
Once again a possible path forward can be found by looking at the European Union. Last month a court in Italy ruled against Cloudflare, ordering the company to cease doing business with an illicit website.
The courts used the EU’s Electronic Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC, to justify its judgement against Cloudflare. The law cited provides a legal “framework” for electronic commerce. It’s time for U.S. lawmakers to enact similar safeguards for U.S. creators. Participating as a for profit player in the piracy ecosystem should not be a legal business model in the United States.
Kim Dotcom may be going to jail, but MEGA piracy still going strong
U.S. based companies assist these efforts by literally providing cover for their illegal piracy business while pocketing their own dirty money in the process.
Kim Dotcom may be going to jail, but MEGA piracy still going strong
It’s been more than 7 years since cyberlocker piracy king Kim Dotcom was indicted for copyright infringement by U.S. authorities. He’s fought extradition from New Zealand tooth and nail, but earlier this month his final appeal was denied. Whether he ends up in a U.S. jail will apparently be determined by New Zealand’s Minister of Justice.
In the meantime, MEGA, founded in in 2013 to replace his shuttered Megaupload.com, is till in business and continues to host infringing conent uploaded by online pirates everywhere. The company is supposedly worth $210 million and, while Dotcom himself claims no direct involvement, conveniently his wife remains a primary shareholder. It’s a murky and twisted enterprise–but is that really a surprise?
In June, the site averaged 12 million visitors per day and it’s a safe bet most weren’t there for legit reasons. Aside from piracy, much of the traffic appears porn related. Visitors from Brazil, Mexico and the United States lead the pack.
Easy to find, watch and download pirated movies, music and books on MEGA
From the start, Kim Dotcom has claimed MEGA is perfectly legal. Supposedly, since the files are encrypted end to end, operators can claim ignorance as to what exactly is being shared. However, it’s not the truth. I easily found, and was able to view, pirated movies without a so-called encryption key. No account required.
If one does want to actually download the files all that’s required is a free account and installing an app….easy as setting up an account on Netflix.
Google, YouTube, Facebook & Twitter help spread pirated content
In order draw traffic to the site, MEGA users depend on the usual intermediaries like Google, YouTube and Facebook to spread (illegal) links. Today, in the process of writing this post, I did a quick search for the recent hit Captain Marvel. Within seconds–thanks to Google and Facebook–I found a pirated copy hosted by Mega.
Viewing other content, like HBO’s hit “Big, Little Lies” or, as mentioned above, Netflix’s “Bird Box” (thanks Twitter), were also only a couple clicks away.
In addition, I quickly discovered episodes of the BBC/HBO production “Gentleman Jack” (via YouTube) and historian Anne Choma’s audible companion book (which I reported publisher and thankfully it’s been removed).
The full episode of Gentleman Jack can be screened simply by clicking the MEGA link found in the YouTube description. Piracy made easy.
In yet another example, thanks to Twitter I found a link that offered me season one of the subscription TV series “Vida” streaming on MEGA without any key required. No matter what anyone says, MEGA seamlessly offers tons of pirated content.
Of course, per usual, it’s not just Hollywood blockbusters and HBO fare that continue to be victimized. Independent creators, particularly those without deep pockets for anti-piracy defenses, also lose precious income to online thieves enabled by MEGA.
Why do people bother to pirate? As always, the incentive is the money they earn from ads. Pirates upload content to MEGA, post links on places like Twitter or Facebook and cash in when users click through ads on an intermediary site in order to get to view the actual link. I’ve been writing about this business model for nearly a decade and sadly, little seems to have changed.
It remains to be seen whether Kim Dotcom ends up behind bars in the U.S.–but no matter his fate, there’s little doubt that the online piracy eco-system he helped build continues to flourish, creators rights be damned. The role played by intermediaries like Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in the U.S. cannot be ignored either.
Google tricks search users to redirect Amazon Smile charity donations
Amazon.com offers its users a small way to give back to a favorite charity by using the Amazon Smile portal instead of the regular site. When I make purchase via Amazon, I’m happy to know that .5% of my purchase goes to a charity of a my choice. The key to remember, to have a donation made, is to login through the Smile portal.
EU Moves Copyright into 21st Century while USA prefers to remain in the 20th
Unlike their counterparts in the U.S. who seem content with a creaky DMCA law more than 2 decades old, members of the European Council passed a directive to move copyright law into the digital age:
