In April 2022, several Hollywood studios and Netflix won an injunction to shut down PrimeWire, a long-standing illegal streaming site and continuous thorn in the side of the MPA.

The injunction was granted after the studios filed a massive copyright infringement lawsuit against PrimeWire in 2021. It aimed to close the platform down for a good after close to a decade of disruption activity against the site produced somewhat limited results. This time around the studios have the upper hand but not without some complications.

PrimeWire Inactive But Domains Mostly Intact

After the injunction was handed down the US, PrimeWire initially took no action but eventually modified its operations and pledged to offer a legitimate service .

The studios didn’t believe a single word and moved to seize new domain PrimeWire.tf, hoping to add it to a list of other PrimeWire domains already subject to disabling and seizure. On that front, PrimeWire.ag and .vc are non-operational but PrimeWire.li and PrimeWireStatus.org remain in use.

At the time of writing the same is true for PrimeWire.tf but last month a new domain entered the mix.

The Rapid Rise and Fall of HydraWire

At the end of May, the MPA’s anti-piracy team became of a new site called HydraWire. Its .tv domain had been registered a day after the MPA won its preliminary injunction in April and as far as the studios were concerned, this was just PrimeWire by another name.

Evidence presented in court made that assertion difficult to challenge but with the site gaining traffic, it needed to be stopped as soon as possible. The studios decided that HydraWire.tv should be added to the now permanent injunction but perhaps didn’t anticipate what came next.

On July 19 and on behalf of the studios, an attorney at law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP submitted a message via the contact form at HydraWire giving notice of their upcoming motion.

In common with the people behind PrimeWire, who haven’t appeared in court but have communicated anonymously with the plaintiffs, the alleged owner of HydraWire also responded anonymously two days later. The message was that the intentions of HydraWire’s operator had been misunderstood by the plaintiffs.

“The sender of this email claims to have launched HydraWire. They say they did so because they ‘saw an opportunity to have a website with lot[s] of visitors’ and ‘wanted to continue [PrimeWire’s] legacy’,” the studios informed the court this week.

“The emailer then said they had ‘shut down hydrawire for good’ and offered to ‘transfer the domain’ to Plaintiffs.”

HydraWire Throws in the Towel

Swift resolutions haven’t featured prominently in the case thus far so the MPA’s anti-piracy team wasted no time in seizing the opportunity.

“In an effort to put a temporary stop to this latest infringement of their rights, Plaintiffs accepted the transfer of the domain and took control of the domain, which is now offline,” the studios reveal.

Jan Van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection, reveals the process began quickly and was over in a week.

“On or about July 23, 2022, GCP investigators used the authorization code provided in correspondence from [email address] to initiate a transfer of the hydrawire.tv domain to the MPA’s control. On or about August 1, 2022, GCP investigators confirmed that hydrawire.tv has been transferred to the MPA,” his declaration reads.

MPA Still Wants HydraWire.tv Added to Injunction

While this domain takeover was comparatively easy, the studios are still taking time to keep the court informed of every new detail. They’re also building a pretty solid picture of the plaintiffs doing everything by the book and the defendants falling short in every possible way.

Aside from PrimeWire’s general failure to appear, the studios strongly suspect that by following the PrimeWire ‘playbook’ of apparent capitulation in the face of an injunction, those behind HydraWire betrayed their connections. The MPA’s anti-piracy team appear unable to prove they’ve been talking to the same people but for now at least, that doesn’t matter.

The plaintiffs say that HydraWire was inspired by PrimeWire and was designed to continue its legacy. Text from PrimeWire was duplicated on HydraWire and there was a feature for PrimeWire users to migrate their libraries across. The very appearance of HydraWire showed disrespect for the court injunction and at any minute it could reappear under a new domain to rinse and repeat, they add.

“For these reasons, as well as those stated in Plaintiffs’ motion, Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court grant their motion to modify the permanent injunction and extend the time for Defendants to take discovery in support of their damages claims,” the motion concludes.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of this and earlier motions is the determination of the MPA to punish any move designed to breathe new life into PrimeWire. It’s certainly possible that other ventures under different branding are already making headway but, given the pressure, the original PrimeWire seems unlikely to have a future in any obviously recognizable form.

The motion and supporting documents can be found here ( 1 , 2 , 3 , pdf)

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

In the content protection arena, the term ‘whac-a-mole’ is known all too well. When pirates or their links appear in one place, they can quickly reappear in another.

Another term referencing a similar problem relates to piracy platforms. When a lawsuit directly attacks a site’s ability to operate using specific domains or branding, for example, the ‘hydra effect’ comes into play. Mimicking the creature of the same name in Greek mythology, when one head is chopped off, two more grow back to take its place.

In April 2022, several Hollywood studios and Netflix won an injunction to shut down PrimeWire, a long-standing illegal streaming site that had evaded ISP blocking injunctions all over the world.

The MPA should’ve been given control of all PrimeWire domains within days but the response from registrars ranged from slow to none, meaning that some PrimeWire domains are still operational. Further hindering MPA enforcement measures is the reported growth of a new head on the PrimeWire hydra.

HydraWire.tv is The New PrimeWire, MPA Says

While the MPA has a clear legal win over PrimeWire and its operator, the case thus far shows that when a defendant cannot be physically identified, nothing is straightforward, especially when there’s a determination to continue business as usual.

According to the MPA, a new streaming site called HydraWire.tv claims to be PrimeWire’s successor. The MPA’s anti-piracy team became aware of the site around May 31, 2022, and they’re convinced that PrimeWire’s operators are involved.

The site’s domain was registered on April 21, 2022, one day after the PrimeWire injunction was handed down, and the site’s visual aspects are strikingly similar to those seen on PrimeWire.

Of course, websites are easily copied so the MPA’s investigation went beyond graphics and text.

Too Many Coincidences

Like PrimeWire’s domains, HydraWire’s has hidden registration details and sits behind Cloudflare. Both platforms have the same domain registrar ( Sarek Oy ) and the same host ( FlokiNet ) For those out of the loop, these two companies have a reputation for not rolling over easily in response to information requests.

The MPA says that HydraWire mostly uses the same cyberlocker services as PrimeWire to source its video content. HydraWire also has a feature that allows former PrimeWire users to ‘restore’ their PrimeWire libraries on the new platform using CSV files.

The MPA’s investigators have also been monitoring the /r/primewireli sub-Reddit where posts advertising HydraWire as the PrimeWire alternative were left up and those referring to competing services were taken down.

In summary, the MPA believes that HydraWire is strongly connected to PrimeWire and therefore covered by the existing injunction. As a result, the HydraWire.tv domain should be added to the growing list of enjoined PrimeWire domains.

“Defendants’ choice to name this site ‘HydraWire’ mocks the Injunction and Plaintiffs’ diligent efforts to enforce it. Plaintiffs request that the Court modify the Injunction to add www.hydrawire.tv to the list of enjoined domains,” the MPA informs the court.

The Studios Are Still Entitled to Damages

While the injunction is a valuable tool for enforcement, the MPA also wants damages from the operator of PrimeWire.

The Hollywood group has been conducting damages discovery for some months with the goal of filing a motion for default judgment. It has served subpoenas on third parties to hand over information about PrimeWire’s business dealings, but more time is needed.

“Plaintiffs’ meet-and-confer efforts with subpoena recipients remain ongoing,” the MPA informed the court this week.

“Subpoena recipients have requested extensions in order to provide notice to third parties and to deal with the complexity of searching for advertising revenue associated with particular URLs, as online advertising often involves multiple levels of intermediaries or brokers.”

Efforts thus far haven’t been futile, however. The MPA says that information received suggests that PrimeWire may have been generating “at least five-figures in monthly advertising revenue”, a not insignificant amount – especially to those looking forward to reappropriation.

Finally, the MPA says that HydraWire.tv has at times gone down, only to come back up again. This shouldn’t fool the court into thinking it’s not operational. At the time of writing, the domain is indeed down.

Documents including the proposed amended injunction can be found here ( 1 , 2 , 3 , pdf)

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