T411, France’s Most-Visited Torrent Site, Has Disappeared

As the number one torrent site among French speakers and one of the most popular sites in France, T411’s rise to stardom is the product of almost a decade of twists and turns.

After a prolonged battle against 31 Canadian media organizations including the CRIA, the administrator of a torrent site known as QuebecTorrent closed its doors in 2008 after the handing down of a permanent injunction.

“I just wanna say thanks to all the people who supported the cause and me all along,” admin Sebastian Doditz told TorrentFreak at the time.

Initially, it was believed that the 109,000 members of the site would be left homeless but shortly after another torrent site appeared. Called Torrent411 with the slogan The Torrent Yellow Pages (411 is Canada’s version), it launched with around 109,000 members – the number that QuebecTorrent closed with.

No surprise then that all QuebecTorrent user accounts had been transferred to T411, including ratios and even some content categories that were previously excluded due to copyright holder disputes.

“Welcome to one and all!” a notice on the site read. “It is with great pleasure that we launch the Torrent411.com site today. All the team of Torrent411.com wishes you the most cordial of welcomes! Here you will find all the torrents imaginable which will be for you for thousands of hours to come! Filled with surprises that await you!”

Even following its resurrection, pressure on the site continued to build. In 2011, it was forced to move to T411.me, to avoid problems with its .com domain, but against the odds, it continued to grow.

As shown in the image to the right (courtesy OpenTrackers), in 2013 the site had more than 5.3 million members, 336,000 torrents, and 4.7m seeders. That made it a significant site indeed.

In early 2015, the site decided to move again, from .me to .io, following action to have the site blocked in France.

But later in the year, there was yet more trouble when the site found itself reported to the United States Trade Representative, identified as a “rogue site” by the RIAA.

With a number of copyright holders on its back, it’s clear that T411’s troubles weren’t going away anytime soon, but there are now fears of another crisis.

On Sunday, T411 simply stopped responding on its latest T411.al domain. No warning and no useful messages have been forthcoming from its operators. For a site of this scale and resilience, that’s not something one expects.

Message greeting site visitors

Even though the site itself is down, there are some very basic signs of life. For example, the site’s Wiki remains operational which indicates the T411.al domain is intact, at least for now. Unfortunately, the Wiki contains no information surrounding the current status of the site.

However, the main site itself (or quite possibly a gateway to the platform) is not responding. Although the location of the servers is still obscured by Cloudflare, TF has learned they’re located not in France, but elsewhere in Western Europe.

Nevertheless, anti-piracy activity against torrent sites has been high in France during recent months. Last November, torrent icon What.cd shutdown following action by French authorities. Soon after, the cybercrime unit of the French military police targeted the country’s largest pirate site, Zone-Telechargement (1,2).

Members of the huge T411 community will be hoping that this downtime is little more than a technical problem that got out of hand. But, with speculation on the rise in a tough climate, people have a tendency to expect the worst.

TF is informed by two sources more information could become available today. We’ll update this article should that be the case.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

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Indie Game Developer Shares Free Keys on The Pirate Bay

Online piracy is an issue that affects many industries, and indie game developers are certainly no exception.

How people respond can vary from person to person. What’s right and what’s wrong largely depends on one’s individual beliefs, and some do better with pirates than others.

Jacob Janerka, developer of the indie adventure game ‘Paradigm,’ was faced with this issue recently. A few days after his game was released he spotted a cracked copy on The Pirate Bay.

But, instead of being filled with anger and rage while running to the nearest anti-piracy outfit, Janerka decided to reach out to the pirates. Not to school or scold them, but to offer a few free keys.

“Hey everyone, I’m Jacob the creator of Paradigm. I know some of you legitimately can’t afford the game and I’m glad you get to still play it :D,” Janerka’s comment on TPB reads.

Having downloaded many pirated games himself in the past, Janerka knows that some people simply don’t have the means to buy all the games they want to play. So he’s certainly not going to condemn others for doing the same now, although it would be nice if some bought it later.

“If you like the game, please tell your friends and maybe even consider buying it later,” he added.

Janerka’s comment

The response has gone relatively unnoticed for a while but was posted on Reddit recently, where many people applauded the developer for his refreshing approach.

We reached out to Janerka to find out what motivated him to share the free keys on The Pirate Bay. He says that it was mostly a matter of understanding that many pirates are actually huge game fans who don’t have the money to buy every game they want to play.

Allowing them to do so for free, might lead to a few paying customers down the road, something he experienced first hand.

“I did it because I understand that in some cases, some people legitimately cannot afford the game and would like to play it. So maybe HOPEFULLY for a lucky few, they got the official keys and got to play it and enjoy it.

“I know for sure that when I was a young kid, I was unable to buy all the games I wanted and played pirated games. And when I actually got that disposable income, I ended up buying sequels/merch/extra copies,” Janerka adds.

The developer doesn’t think that piracy hurts him much, as many people who pirate his games don’t have the money to buy them anyway. In addition, having non-paying fans of the game is more valuable than having no fans at all.

“Maybe I lost a few sales or whatever, but people liking your game can be just as valuable. Realistically, most people who pirated it, wouldn’t have played it anyway, so its neat that more people get to experience it, when they wouldn’t have otherwise,” he says.

It’s a refreshing approach to see. While pirates should be under no illusion that any major developer will follow suit, they are probably happy that someone from the industry views piracy from a different perspective.

For Janerka, there’s probably something positive in this as well. He wins the sympathy of many game pirates, and as the news spreads, this could even generate some additional sales for the Paradigm game.

Paradigm trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

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Cybercrime Officials Shutdown Large eBook Portal, Three Arrested

Back in February 2015, German anti-piracy outfit GVU filed a complaint against the operators of large eBook portal Lul.to.

Targeted mainly at the German audience, the site carried around 160,000 eBooks, 28,000 audiobooks, plus newspapers and periodicals. Its motto was “Read and Listen” and claimed to be both the largest German eBook portal and the largest DRM-free platform in the world.

Unlike most file-sharing sites, Lul.to charged around 30,000 customers a small fee to access content, around $0.23 per download. However, all that came to end last week when authorities moved to shut the platform down.

According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, searches in several locations led to the discovery of around 55,000 euros in bitcoin, 100,000 euros in bank deposits, 10,000 euros in cash, plus a “high-quality” motorcycle.

As is often the case following significant action, the site has been completely taken down and now displays the following seizure notice.

Lul.to seized (translated from German)

Authorities report that three people were arrested and are being detained while investigations continue.

It is not yet clear how many times the site’s books were downloaded by users but investigators believe that the retail value of the content offered on the site was around 392,000 euros. By volume, investigators seized more than 11 terabytes of data.

The German Publishers & Booksellers Association welcomed the shutdown of the platform.

“Intervening against lul.to is an important success in the fight against Internet piracy. By blocking one of the largest illegal providers for e-books and audiobooks, many publishers and retailers can breathe,” said CEO Alexander Skipis.

“Piracy is not an excusable offense, it’s the theft of intellectual property, which is the basis for the work of authors, publishers, and bookshops. Portals like lul.to harm the media market massively. The success of the investigation is another example of the fact that such illegal models ultimately can not hold up.”

Last week in a separate case in Denmark, three men aged between 26 and 71-years-old were handed suspended sentences for offering subscription access to around 198 pirate textbooks.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

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Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 06/26/17

This week we have two newcomers in our chart.

Kong: Skull Island is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

This week’s most downloaded movies are:

Movie Rank	Rank last week	Movie name	IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrents
1	(…)	Kong: Skull Island	6.9 / trailer
2	(…)	King Arthur: Legend of the Sword	7.2 / trailer
3	(1)	Wonder Woman (TC)	8.2 / trailer
4	(3)	The Fate of the Furious	6.7 / trailer
5	(8)	The Mummy 2017 (HDTS)	5.8 / trailer
6	(2)	Power Rangers	6.5 / trailer
7	(5)	The Boss Baby	6.5 / trailer
8	(4)	Chips	5.8 / trailer
9	(6)	John Wick: Chapter 2	8.0 / trailer
10	(9)	Logan	8.6 / trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

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Sorry, the “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” Anti-Piracy Ad Wasn’t ‘Pirated’

In recent years millions of people have seen the Piracy It’s a Crime anti-piracy video.

According to popular belief and reputable news sources, the music used in the “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” clip was itself pirated.

Oh the irony…

While the case in question dates back to the beginning of the decade, the alleged “theft” is still cited regularly. People regularly mention it on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and also while commenting on various memes, as recently as a few days ago.

Amusing, for sure, but there’s one problem. It’s not true.

The sources for this remarkable story refer to the case of Dutch musician Melchior Rietveldt. In 2006 he was asked to compose a piece of music to be used in an anti-piracy advert. This was supposed to be used exclusively at a local film festival.

However, it turned out that the anti-piracy ad was recycled for various other purposes without the composer’s permission. The clip had been used on dozens of DVDs both in the Netherlands and overseas. This means that Rietveldt’s music was used without his permission, or pirated, as some would say.

Piracy. It’s a Crime

The above is true, as we reported in the past. And the composer was eventually compensated for missed royalties. However, the whole case has nothing to do with the Piracy It’s a Crime clip. It’s about an entirely different ad.

The actual Rietveldt commercial is unknown to the wider public, and there are no online copies that we know of. What we do know is that the “Piracy. It’s a Crime” clip was produced in 2004, not 2006, and also not for a Dutch film festival.

The Piracy It’s a Crime ad was part of a joint initiative by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). The original announcement is still available online.

A source close to the Dutch film industry confirmed that the Rietveldt case has nothing to do with the frequently mentioned clip, which means that it’s all a massive misunderstanding. One that is now deeply ingrained in Internet history, it seems.

It made its way into the Who Sampled database, for example, ABC Science did a feature on it, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

So where does this fable originate from?

When covering the story, several news outlets used an image from the Piracy It’s a Crime video, since that’s the classic example of an anti-piracy ad. Somewhere along the line, however, other reporters started to identify that clip as Rietveldt’s work, without properly checking. Fast forward a few years and many now assume it’s an established fact.

Pirated or not, the Piracy it’s a Crime campaign remains a popular source for memes. Whether this is what the MPA and IPOS intended is doubtful, but at least they got the message out.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

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