Russian media outlets are reporting that the volume of pirated content on the internet doubled between 2022 and 2023. That’s not exactly true, or indeed true at all.

The claims are based on data supplied by local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor. Speaking with Izvestia , the government agency said it blocked or deleted more than a million links to infringing content in 2023, more than double the amount blocked or deleted during the previous year.

While 1.1 million links is a notable uplift over the 485,000 reported in 2022, removal or blocking of links to allegedly-infringing content is just that. The infringing content itself, such as movies, TV shows, music, or indeed anything else, remains unaffected. New links to the same content may reappear and face deletion once again; that would increase the number of links being taken down, but in itself wouldn’t show that piracy volumes had increased.

Not that a small clarification makes the Russian piracy situation any easier to understand.

Western Companies Are to Blame

When good content is made available legally, conveniently, and at a fair price, studies have shown that legal sales tend to increase. When content isn’t made available at all in a particular market, whether that content is pirated by one person or 10 million, piracy rates immediately hit 100% for that product.

After Western entertainment companies withdrew from the Russian market following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, any new content became impossible to consume legally in Russia. So, by default, any consumption would increase piracy rates for restricted products. When approached by Izvestia to comment on Roscomnadzor’s latest takedown stats, Yuri Zlobin, president of the Russian Shield anti-piracy group, blamed Western companies.

Zlobin says that, if Western copyright holders continue to treat Russian consumers poorly, piracy will continue to grow unhindered due to the lack of Western rightsholder enforcement in Russia. If the rightsholders fail to protect their own content, no one else will do it for them, he said.

“If Western brands do not want to fight piracy in a particular country, it means that they are actually legalizing piracy of their content,” Zlobin added.

Blame the West First, Try to Make Things Fit Later

While there’s a chance that Zlobin meant ‘effectively’ rather than ‘actually’ legalizing piracy, lack of enforcement in its own right doesn’t legalize piracy of anything and, to our knowledge, that applies everywhere. That said, enforcement is important; if done in a way that resonates or is simply effective, piracy rates can indeed reduce.

However, a fundamental problem appears to undermine claims that Western companies are to blame here.

If we accept that pulling out of the Russian market increases piracy of products that are no longer available legally, and accept Zlobin’s comments that Western companies’ failure to enforce their rights increases piracy, that leads to a couple of important questions.

If the volume of takedown notices has indeed doubled in a year, and Western companies are to blame for alleged increases in piracy due to the reasons outlined above, who sent all of those notices and for whose content?

If Western companies sent the notices, that would be enforcing their rights, contrary to the claim stating otherwise. If the rise in takedown notices was due to non-Western rightsholders protecting their content, how does that relate to Western content becoming unavailable to buy legally?

Western Companies Taught Russians to Pirate…

Zlobin is obviously right when he says the situation in Russia has deteriorated over the last couple of years. After many, many years of hard work, many consumers were indeed becoming accustomed to obtaining content legally. And yes, the withdrawal from the legal market they championed in Russia means that Western majors have lost those consumers.

These arguments are pretty solid, but the next part, not so much.

“[Western companies] have actually taught Russian clients to obtain the necessary content for free,” Zlobin said, according to Izvestia. “This is a kind of response to sanctions and incorrect attitude.”

So have other market players in Russia drawn similar conclusions?

Russian Pirates Like Local Content Too

In comments to Izvestia, legal online streaming platform ‘Premier’ appears to confirm that Western companies aren’t responsible for the rise in takedown notices. The company said that since there’s no official party able to submit applications to Roscomnadzor, enforcing their rights in Russia is difficult. However, Western content isn’t the only content in town.

“[P]irates not only consume Western content, but also projects of Russian online cinemas, so last year we strengthened the protection of our filmography,” the online cinema told the publication.

A representative from START, a local subscription streaming service that’s reportedly showing growth, says enforcement systems are being streamlined to tackle the piracy threat in Russia.

“To quickly search for unlicensed content, START has an anti-piracy department that searches for pirated links, protects content, and also conducts reconnaissance using open data,” the company told Izvestia. “We have created our own automated anti-piracy solution, thanks to which up to 80% of links are processed automatically.”

The Blame Game

This whole debate was launched on the basis that an increase in takedown notices means an actual increase in piracy. Yet, according to two of the people who commented, Western rightsholders aren’t enforcing their rights, including by not filing takedown notices.

More information would be useful, but this suggests that non-Western rightsholders not only managed to make up the deficit in takedown notices left behind by Western rightsholders, but then went on to send double that number in a year. Taking this scenario to its logical conclusion, the surge in notices likely relates to non-Western content , content that is both accessible in Russia and legally available to buy.

Maybe the real problems lie closer to home. Perhaps it’s always been that way, whoever gets the blame.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

When movies are recorded directly from cinema screens, the resulting pirate copy is known as a ‘cam’, regardless of the device used – camcorder or otherwise.

The terms camming, camcording, cammer, and other variations are not exclusive to movie piracy circles though; those paid to monitor and crack down on pirates use them a lot too.

In a report to the USTR in early 2022, the International Intellectual Property Alliance used similar terms more than 130 times when calling out China, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, and other countries for not doing enough to prevent in-cinema recording ( pdf ) .

While camming is clearly an ongoing problem for some countries, enhanced security and tough legislation in the United Kingdom should deter even the most determined pirates. In theory, at least.

Arrest in the UK

Early October, the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit announced the arrest of a man in Liverpool “in connection with an investigation into film piracy.” The involvement of the Film Content Protection Agency (FCPA), the Film Distributors’ Association anti-piracy group, left little doubt this was related to camming.

Over the weeks that followed, TorrentFreak was able to link the arrest with an industry report claiming that at least four movies, recorded in two UK cinemas during the summer, had appeared online.

Our report published late November provides more detail and last week an FDA/FCPA newsletter dated December 20 ( pdf ) confirmed events as reported.

Aside from being recorded in the UK, where an intent to distribute copies online can carry a 10-year prison sentence, the copies were notable for another reason – their extraordinary quality.

This isn’t mentioned by FCPA and we’re still unable to confirm which movies are linked to the case, but the period cited – June to August 2022 – coincides with surprisingly high-quality cam copies suddenly appearing online around mid-June before stopping around mid-August.

Double-whammy events like these aren’t exactly common in the UK, especially given the alleged quality and the obvious threat to the market. However, records show that camming ‘incidents’ in UK cinemas are extraordinarily common, yet receive almost no press.

Other Camming Incidents in 2022

Camming incidents appear to be covered more comprehensively in annual reports, meaning that overall data for 2022 won’t be available for another few months. In the meantime, the four movies cammed in Liverpool can be added to other incidents recorded elsewhere in 2022.

At Cineworld Dundee (Scotland) on an unspecified date, a staff member identified a customer camming a movie. The title hasn’t been published but in line with FCPA policy, the diligent staff member received an award for her anti-piracy work.

Along with staff in hundreds of other cinemas in the UK, she is likely to have received training and detailed instructions on how to respond to a camming event ( pdf ) .

In another incident earlier this year, a ‘cammed’ copy of Spider-Man: No Way Home appeared online soon after its theatrical release. Forensic investigators linked the copy to a cinema in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

The image below was circulated to cinemas in the UK following the arrest of a suspect. It later appeared in a FCPA newsletter in redacted form. We’ve concealed the suspect’s identity in the original but the text clearly shows that preventing any repeat behavior remained a priority for FCPA.

The image on the right appears to be a still from surveillance footage, one of the key weapons in the fight against camcorder piracy. Data from camming incidents in 2021 shows evidence can also be obtained from less obvious sources.

Camming Incidents Break Records in 2021

The Film Distributors’ Association Yearbook 2022 notes that PIPCU, MPA, The Industry Trust, and the Alliance for Intellectual Property, all partner with FCPA in its fight against piracy. The level of camming incidents reported in 2021 shows that the FCPA needed all the help it could get.

“During 2021 the FCPA was directly involved in the professional investigation, intelligence gathering and research of 125 copyright theft incidents in cinemas,” the FDA publication reads ( pdf ) .

Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the 125 incidents actually occurred over just seven months, the highest number ever reported by the FDA.

“The majority of these incidents led to the offenders being confronted and excluded from screenings by the cinema management. However, the more serious occurrences required swift police assistance, and resulted in five people being arrested and a further seven receiving recorded police cautions for illegal in-cinema activity,” the report adds.

Detail on Specific Cases

Details on some individual cases can be found in a report published by the UK Cinema Association (UKCA). It notes that online global piracy release groups struggled to obtain content in early 2021 due to COVID-19-enforced closures of cinemas around the world. When cinemas began to open up, pirates picked up where they had left off – including in the UK.

“Two high-impact cases occurred in particular immediately as UK cinemas began re-opening in May [2021], with two publicly available copies of a new film traced via film forensics to two London cinemas only six miles apart,” the report reveals.

“Subsequent investigations revealed that the same offender was responsible in both instances, plus another case in December 2020. Having been identified and traced, he was arrested in July.”

Pirates Tracked and Traced, One Literally

When the UK came out of lockdown, visitors to cinemas and other venues such as pubs and clubs, were required to fill in so-called ‘track and trace’ documents. In the event of an infection, government ‘track and trace’ teams were then able to directly contact people who were in the vicinity and ask them to isolate to prevent the spread.

According to UKCA, the suspected cammer arrested in July completed one of these forms with his details and signed it.

From July 2021, another three cammed movies appeared online and were subsequently traced back to cinemas in London. All of the offenders were identified but efforts to locate them are reported as “ongoing”. Interestingly, the report claims that these cases were linked in some way, despite none of the individual offenders knowing each other.

“In one unusual case, film theft returned to an East London cinema which had experienced high-impact piracy in 2019, albeit this time through a different offender, something which serves as a reminder that this activity can happen at any cinema, no matter how unlikely a target site might seem,” the report concludes ( pdf ) .

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

For millions of different reasons, Christmas is special for roughly two billion people globally.

Traditions in the U.S. include a family outing to the cinema in search of the latest blockbuster and this year Avatar: The Way of Water will undoubtedly attract the crowds.

For increasingly depressing reasons, new U.S. movies like Avatar 2 can’t be enjoyed in Russian cinemas on Christmas day, or on any other for that matter. Or at least that’s the theory.

Due to sanctions, Russians officially have a choice between watching older movies or local movies, but a third option is also gaining traction. Pirate screenings of Western movies are now common, and with the local cinema industry edging towards collapse , they’re increasingly acceptable too.

Cinema Owners Plan Pirate Screenings

Russians traditionally prefer celebrations around the New Year, but if they can watch Avatar 2 in cinemas come December 25, everything will be according to plan. Officially released this week in the U.S., James Cameron’s three-hour science fiction epic is made for the big screen and Russian cinema owners don’t want to miss out.

News outlet IZ recently contacted cinema owners in several areas of the country and was informed that if a decent copy becomes available, Avatar 2 will feature in their line-ups. In common with all pirate releases, quality is one of the most important factors. Timing also plays a key role, and as things stand, nobody can predict a specific date.

Quality and Timing

There are many moving parts in the piracy machine. Early cammed copies are commonplace, as are high-quality releases later on, but when everything comes together, big things can happen.

Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was reportedly leaked on the day of its official worldwide release and was immediately screened in some Russian cinemas but not all. Early screenings were reportedly restricted to cinemas with the ability to cover the costs associated with a pirate copy, presumably one good enough to show on a big screen

What Cost Piracy?

The exact cost of a pirate copy in Russia depends on a number of factors, IZ reports. It mentions none specifically but quality and timing are obviously important. In the end, however, nothing trumps availability. Access to pirate copies in Russia can cost as little as 50,000 rubles (US$790) but at the other end of the scale, 1,000,000 rubles (US$15,800) can sometimes be the going rate.

Some cinemas say they are prepared to screen Avatar 2 using a ‘экранку,’ better known in the West as a ‘cam’ or ‘camrip’. A more significant proposition is outlined too – access to the audio, image and data streams that together become a Digital Cinema Package (DCP).

“Large cinemas, primarily network ones, receive copies of perfect quality, DCP with unique ‘keys’. Moreover, these copies not only come with professional Russian dubbing, but also comply with modern Russian legislation,” IZ reports.

“Where and how copies get into Russian cinemas is kept secret, but Izvestia’s sources say that there is no single supply line and each case is negotiated separately.”

Draft Law Wants The Above Made Legal

A perfect copy of Avatar 2 hitting Russian cinemas via a DCP source seems unlikely but crazier things have happened recently, including a global pandemic and a major war in Europe. In the end, however, even cammed copies are illegal in Russia but, with no access to big movies, the country’s cinema industry is in a downward spiral.

With revenues down by up to 70%, the Association of Theater Owners begged the government for financial support to get them through a crisis the government caused. Support still hasn’t arrived and an announcement this week offered no specifics on when it might.

Facing what appears to be an existential crisis, the Association of Theater Owners is now supporting Russian senators and a draft law that would allow Russian cinemas to show unlicensed movies without legal consequences.

The text obtained by RIA Novosti (below) proposes extending special powers to the government so that it can temporarily limit rightsholders’ ability to enforce their rights. Translations of legal texts always carry risks of misinterpretation but exclusive rights aren’t called that for no reason, even if rightsholders receive an undetermined sum in compensation.

Establishment of the procedure for the fulfillment by residents to foreign right holders of monetary obligations related to the use of certain results of intellectual activity, including cases of using such results of intellectual activity without the consent of the right holders, but with the payment of remuneration to them, a list of results of intellectual activity in respect of which certain results of intellectual activity cannot be applied provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Translated from Russian)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

UK broadcaster Sky has never been particularly fond of people pirating its content.

It’s a battle that’s raged for more than 30 years, and despite there being no apparent end in sight, Sky keeps slugging it out, putting in the rounds, and hoping for a win on points.

From its roots as Sky Television through its teenage years as BSkyB, Sky has battled everything from box and smartcard hacking through to smartcard blocking and smartcard emulation . Not even cardsharing dented Sky’s enthusiasm for a piracy brawl.

Sky’s latest arch-nemesis is the commercial IPTV provider. Utilizing captured satellite and cable streams or even its own streaming service NowTV, today’s Sky faces the most organized pirates the company has ever seen, and in greater numbers too. But as that war rages in the background, Sky is careful to ensure that other aspects of internet-based piracy are taken care of too..

Small Apps, Major Irritation

Over the past decade, Android-based piracy apps have given Sky a migraine along with the rest of the entertainment industries. Popcorn Time , Showbox , Mobdro and Terrarium TV all played their part – at least before every last one succumbed to legal pressure.

The problem for Sky is that it’s easier than ever for today’s competent programmers to come up with an alternative. Despite anti-piracy groups claiming to have taken hundreds down , new apps or resurrections of old ones are never in short supply.

Indeed, despite several attempts by Sky to wipe out the same few apps, they always have a tendency to bounce back in one way or another.

Sky, MPA and ACE vs. TeaTV: Seconds Out, Round 6

Back in 2020, the Motion Picture Association decided to disrupt popular streaming app TeaTV. The app had featured in a widely-read article published by CNBC before disappearing offline , but a grand return was always on the cards.

The MPA tried to have TeaTV’s operator permanently banned from Github and since the MPA is behind anti-piracy group ACE (and Sky is a member of that coalition), the broadcaster would’ve given its full support. But despite four sets of correspondence with Github, the ultimate goal of killing the app remained elusive.

TeaTV turned out to be a pretty strong brew, despite the suspension of its Twitter account. Through strong branding it has managed to stay in the game, but whether today’s variant (of which there are several) is/are the same and/or operated by the original developer is a question for people with an abundance of spare time.

The key thing is that still exists and Sky still isn’t giving up. In a fresh move against TeaTV, an anti-piracy company representing Sky Group’s Sky Italia follows the familiar pattern of demanding the app’s removal from Github.

“We are writing in the name and on behalf of Sky Italia Srl, the exclusive owner of distribution and exploitation rights of the Sky IT channels. This IPTV App (TeaTV) includes illegal and unauthorized Pay Tv Sky IT tv series: Gomorra,” Kopjra S.R.L. writes.

In an effort to help Github understand the problem, Kopjra provides a tutorial detailing where to find the app, how to download and install it, and ultimately how to carry out a search to find the infringing content before watching it.

Whether Github took them up on the offer isn’t clear but Sky’s DMCA takedown notification was a success. The locations referenced in the takedown notice were either deleted or suspended by Github in response.

Sky vs. CucoTV: The Rematch

If TeaTV is an irritant to Sky, movie and TV show streaming app CucoTV certainly won’t be viewed any more positively. Anti-piracy group Kopjra S.R.L. asked Github to take down a TeaTV website and repository in May 2021, but even that required an additional complaint weeks later to hopefully finish off the task .

Somewhat predictably, ten months after that the job still wasn’t done, so yet another complaint was fired off to Github. Featuring a customary piracy tutorial, it prompted Github to respond with the necessary action.

Five months later, after a user called CucoTV switched to CucoTV2 and then to CucoappTV, a CucoTV-branded app appeared once again on Github. This time it was Sky UK’s turn to spoil the piracy party with another tutorial and yet another demand for the persistent piracy app to be taken down.

Spoiler Alert: CucoTV Reappeared

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, a user called ‘cucotv2022’ recently signed up to Github and proceeded to upload a CucoTV-branded streaming app to a similarly named repository.

Whoever it was also created a new website to promote the free software but the fun was short-lived. Another DMCA complaint filed on behalf of Sky UK successfully requested the elimination of both.

CucoTV doesn’t appear to have much of an offical presence on Github right now but its Twitter account suggests that Discord may have become the latest hot location. In the meantime, Sky maintains its search engine delisting campaign against dozens of sites claiming to offer CucoTV for download.

Organized Piracy Meets Disorganized Piracy

Whether Sky will follow up on Discord remains to be seen but the company remains vigilant as it identifies new threats on the back of existing ones.

Two days after the latest successful CucoTV takedown, a follow-up DMCA notice from Sky took down what appears to be the official repo of popular free streaming app CinemaHD, an app that also has links to similar services. In common with CinemaHD, they also have clones and copycats muddying the waters.

Saying that the piracy app ‘marketplace’ has become more complicated over the years is a bit of an understatement. If users put in enough effort and have enough patience, it’s possible to track specific apps over time. But factor in the disruption caused by takedowns, which sometimes results in developers ‘going dark’ and coming back with a similar app under a new name, not much is straightforward for long.

Opportunists deliberately sowing confusion to draw attention to their own tools is also a problem, especially for people who click on the first thing they find. Sky takedown notices sent to Google reveal dozens of sites claiming to offer CucoTV, albeit in a range of suspiciously broad filesizes.

Sky undoubtedly faces additional headaches due to this chaos, but if it’s any consolation at all, it’s not alone when it reaches for the painkillers.

Image Credits: Pixabay / meineresterampe

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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