Launched by South Korean tech giant Naver Corporation in 2004, Webtoon gained popularity as a hosting platform for a specific type of short-form digital comic, known locally as ‘webtoons’

Almost two decades later, Webtoon Entertainment has over 85 million active users per month across more than 100 countries. In the United States, where the company now boasts 12.5 million active users, Webtoon seems destined for a public listing, potentially as soon as 2024 according to information shared by Naver during a recent earnings call.

In an August interview with Reuters, Webtoon Entertainment founder and CEO Kim Junkoo was certainly bullish on the company’s future. Rivals moving in on the short-form comic market, which include both Amazon and Apple, will struggle to build a viable business, Kim predicted.

Competitors Face Uphill Struggle

“To build a (webtoon) store, you need knowledge about serial services, user targeting, a fitting business model, educating users,” Kim told Reuters. “This takes time. But even if you put in time, you can’t recreate the creator economy we’ve built.”

Webtoon believes its artists and depth of content libraries will present significant challenges for potential Silicon Valley competitors. “If big tech is serious about this IP-creating business, they’d have to buy us out,” the company’s CEO explained.

Of course, online competition can take many forms. Unconventional market participants that have no interest in acquisition, respond differently to traditional market forces. As such, they present novel challenges that require a specialist approach.

Webtoon fully understands what it’s up against and is already considering a response. The sheer scale of the initial groundwork appears unprecedented.

The Calm Before the Storm

On an unspecified date in August 2023, in its capacity as agent for Webtoon Entertainment Inc., Texas-based anti-piracy company Remove Your Media, LLC, sent a complaint to CDN company Cloudflare.

DMCA notices can be unremarkable but here the undated document stands out as unusual. It begins with a “representative list” of copyrighted works owned by Webtoon, titles such as How To Tame My Beastly Husband, I Raised The Beast Well, Jungle Juice, and I’m Not That Kind Of Talent. However, it’s the overall number of allegedly infringed works that really catches the eye.

According to Remove Your Media, these titles and around 80 others like them were being made available for download by pirate sites, all of them utilizing Cloudflare’s services.

“The works primarily consist of animated motion pictures and digital comics published by WEBTOON,” Cloudflare was advised. “Please act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material.”

Each block in the image above represents one of the 390+ URLs listed in the Webtoon infringement notice. The blank spaces indicate URLs that no longer exist at the time of writing, wouldn’t load for unspecified reasons, or in some cases link to sites that appear to have shifted to new or alternative domains. The majority of those containing an image remain online; the question is for how long.

A Silent Trip to Texas

Over a decade ago, then-junior attorney Evan Stone made headlines when he used four-letter expletives to slam ISPs and the adult industry, while revealing his personal vendetta against pirates, or “smarmy entitled little brats” to use the attorney’s terminology.

While much has changed since then, the appearance of Stone’s name on a declaration in support of DMCA subpoena application filed at a district court in Texas, shows that his pirate-fighting days are not yet over.

With Stone representing Remove Your Media, and both acting as agents of Webtoon Entertainment, the DMCA subpoena application filed in August but only now being reported, is a strong indication that reducing illicit competition is a priority matter for the webtoon company.

Webtoon Demands Identities of Hundreds of Pirate Site Operators

The primary purpose of a DMCA subpoena is to compel a service provider, in this case Cloudflare, to hand over the personal details of an alleged infringer to allow copyright holders to enforce their rights. Here, the application demands the following:

Identifying information, including name, e-mail address, physical address, billing information and any other relevant contact information for the alleged infringer(s) who control the sites at the domains listed in Exhibit A, or control the domains themselves.

What separates this application from most is the scale of the request and the sheer volume of site operators that face being caught up in the dragnet. It’s inevitable that some domains in the list will share the same owner but over 350 domains in a single subpoena is still unprecedented, and would remain so even if reduced by half.

Strictly there’s no requirement for the clerk of the court to conduct a detailed examination of a DMCA application before issuing the stamp of approval. Given that the application was filed August 22, marked as terminated on August 22, and then issued two days later on August 24, it seems likely that no further examination took place.

The list of domains targeted in the subpoena, for which Cloudflare was required to hand over full operator details, is available below. What happens next is almost entirely down to the quality of information handed over by Cloudflare before the deadline expired on October 5. It’s likely that the information received is already undergoing evaluation.

Webtoon’s overall goal likely entails the removal of illicit competition from the market but the means remain unknown. In practical terms, not even the largest corporate entertainment giants see value in mass litigation. Even if Webtoon decided otherwise, balancing the books to make the exercise worthwhile would be complex and unpredictable at best; messy, unproductive, even counterproductive at worst.

Threats of possible litigation to encourage settlements may be considered a viable option, at least if any of the operators left any usable identifying information in Cloudflare’s hands, which most try to avoid.

______

The individual domains listed in the subpoena are shown below to illustrate scale. Due to the potential for errors following OCR and the extraction of domains from the full-content URLs in the subpoena, the list is not definitive. The DMCA takedown notice sent to Cloudflare, which contains full unedited URLs, is available here ( pdf )

1stkissmanga.me, 1stkissmanga.tv, adultwebtoon.com, agit571.xyz, agit572.xyz, agit573.xyz, agit574.xyz, agit575.xyz, agit576.xyz, agit577.xyz, allmanga.to, anzmangashd.com, aquamanga.com, astrascans.com, asura.gg, bacamanga.id, batotoo.net, beehentai.com, beetoon.net, beetoon.net, bestwebtoon.com, blacktoon250.com, blacktoon251.com, blacktoon252.com, blacktoon253.com, blacktoon254.com, blacktoon255.com, blogmanga.net, blogtruyen.vn, bonmanga.com, boosei.net, chapmanganato.com, cizgiromanarsivi.com, clover-manga.com, cn.baozimh.com, cn.kukuc.co, cn.webmota.com, coffeemanga.io, comedymanga.com, comicsxxx.org, cosmicscans.com, daonovel.com, dinnerku.com, dogemanga.com, doujins.me, elecedmanga.online, eleceed.net, eleceedmanga.com, elitemanga.org, esmangaoof.xyz, ethernalworld.com, fanfox.net, flamescans.org, freecomiconline.me, freenovel.me, freewebtooncoins.com, galaxymanga.org, gekkou.com.br, god-manga.com, goldenmanga.top, gudangkomik.com, h.mangabat.com, harimanga.com, hentaiwebtoon.com, iroha.blue, it.ninemanga.com, jaiminisbox.net, japscan.lol, jimanga.com, joji-manga.com, junglemanga.com, kaminotou.com, kazetori-manga.com, kiryuu.id, kissmanga.org, klikmanga.id, kmanga.com, komikav.com, komikindo.co, komikindo.info, komikindo.moe, komiklab.com, komikmoe.web.id, komikoma.co, komiku.com, komikuwu.com, kumascans.com, kumomanga.net, kunmanga.com, kuro-manga.com, lami-manga.com, lectortmo.com, leermangaway.com, leermanhwa.com, librarynovel.com, lolicon.mobi, lonenecromancer.com, lookism.rjoy, lookismmanga.com, lookismmanga.online, lovemanhwa18.com, m.fanfox.net, m.isekaiscan.to, mafia-manga.com, manga-1001.com, manga-bat.com, manga-fr.me, manga-kung.com, manga-lucky.com, manga-raw.info, manga-reader.org, manga-scan.org, manga-usa.com, manga1001.top, manga18.me, manga18fx.com, manga18hot.net, manga1s.com, manga2d.com, manga4life.com, manga68.com, mangabee.net, mangaboat.com, mangabt.com, mangabuddy.com, mangaclash.com, mangacrow.com, mangacv.com, mangadass.com, mangadex.tv, mangadino.top, mangadna.com, mangadop.net, mangaeffect.com, mangafire.to, mangaforest.me, mangafox.fun, mangafreak.net, mangafreak.to, mangafunny.net, mangagg.com, mangago.me, mangahasu.se, mangahentai.cc, mangahere.cc, mangaht.com, mangahub.io, mangaid.click, mangairo.com, mangak2.com, mangakakalot.fun, mangakakalot.io, mangakakalot.is, mangakakalot.so, mangakakalot.tv, mangakita.net, mangakitsu.com, mangakomi.io, mangalek.com, mangalek.org, mangalike.me, mangalogy.com, mangalove.top, mangamirror.com, manganato.so, manganato.su, manganelo.tv, manganelo.website, mangaonline.fun, mangaowl.io, mangaowl.to, mangapark.net, mangapill.com, mangaplaza.org, mangapuma.com, mangaqueen.net, mangaraw.pro, mangaread.org, mangareader.to, mangasehri.com, mangastarz.com, mangatale.co, mangatoday.fun, mangatone.com, mangatub.com, mangatx.com, mangayeh.com, manhuadex.com, manhuaes.com, manhuafull.com, manhuamanhwa.com, manhuascan.com, manhuascan.us, manhuasite.com, manhuastar.com, manhuazone.net, manhwa.info, manhwa18.cc, manhwa18.me, manhwa2read.com, manhwacity.com, manhwaclan.com, manhwafull.com, manhwago.com, manhwakool.com, manhwalist.xyz, manhwanew.com, manhwatop.com, manhwatop.net, manhwatube.com, manhwaworld.com, manhwaz.com, manycomic.com, manytoon.com, manytoon.me, manytoon.net, masterkomik.com, maturewebtoon.com, me-manga.com, mercimanga.com, mitoon.net, mojotoon.com, mundowebtoon.com, murim-manga.com, murimscan.run, mytoon.net, nanomachinemanga.com, nekomik.com, newtoki17.org, newtoki18.org, newtoki19.org, newtoki20.org, newtoki21.org, newtoki22.org, newtoki23.org, newtoki24.org, newtoki25.org, newtoki298.com, newtoki299.com, newtoki300.com, newtoki301.com, newtoki302.com, newtoki303.com, newtoki304.com, newtoki305.com, newtoki306.com, newtoki307.com, newtoki308.com, newtoki309.com, newtoki310.com, niadd.com, noblesse-manga.com, nocturnalscans.com, olympusscans.com, omniscient-readersviewpoint.com, omniscientreaders.online, on.co, onemanga.info, onmanga.com, ons.com, otakufr.co, painfulnightz.com, ped-manga.com, popsmanga.com, r2.leermanga.xyz, ranker-manga.com, ravenmanga.xyz, read-lookism.com, read-noblesse.com, readclub.cc, readfreecomics.com, readkomik.com, readm.org, readmangabat.com, readmanganow.com, readnoblesse.com, readnoblesse.com, readrealityquest.com, readsolomaxlevelnewbie.com, readtowerofgod.com, readwebtoon.co, readwebtoon.com, rose-manga.com, s2manga.com, scan-fr.org, scan-jap.co, scansraw.com, seoul-station-druid.com, seoulstationdruid.online, sexmanga.xyz, sheakomik.com, shieldmanga.net, simsimbox.com, situsmanga.com, solomaxlevelnewbie.online, solospellcaster.online, sonline.com, spy-manga.com, studygroup-manga.com, sweethomemanga.com, tanuki-manga.com, taurusfansub.com, teenmanhua.com, the-breaker.net, the-gamer-manga.com, the-gamer.net, the-god-ofhighschool.com, theboxerwebtoon.com, thegod-ofhighschool.com, thegodof-highschool.com, thereturnofthecrazydemon.com, thetowerofgod.com, thetowerofgod.me, toomtam-manga.com, toonily.me, toonitube.com, topmanhua.club, topmanhua.com, towerofgod.me, towerofgodkaminotou.com, treemanga.com, truemanga.com, tukangkomik.id, viralhitmanga.com, weakherochapters.com, webcomic.me, webcomics.top, webtoon.uk, webtoon.xyz, webtoonfull.com, webtoons.top, webtoonscan.com, webtoonx.net, weimanga.com, westmanga.info, wfwf280.com, wfwf281.com, wfwf282.com, wfwf283.com, wfwf284.com, wfwf285.com, wfwf286.com, windbreaker.online, windbreakermanga.com, yaoi.es, yugenmangas.net, zahard.xyz, zinmanga.com, zinmanhwa.com, zuttomanga.com

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

With over 60 million players every month, Genshin Impact is one of the greatest success stories in videogames.

The game stepped over the 60 million threshold in March 2022, and just over a year later hit a record 66.5 million. Since August, however, interest in the game has declined.

The situation is hardly catastrophic but from a second 66.5m peak two months ago, player numbers in September returned to levels last seen in March 2022 .

Whether this is a concern for developer Cognosphere is unclear but after taking legal action against both leakers ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) and in-game cheaters ( 4 ) , Cognosphere has a new target in its sights.

Private Servers Upset Business Model

On a base level, Genshin Impact is free-to-play but through so-called ‘gatcha game’ mechanics, players are encouraged to spend virtual currency earned in-game or purchased outside the digital realm using real money. For those in the know, however, unofficial private servers provide an attractive third option.

These servers have the ability to set their own rules, meaning a potential fast track to virtual riches for players short on time, patience, or money. The fact that the required software is easily obtained and mostly easy to set up, means there’s no shortage of servers. That’s not to say all can be used for free, but it’s not uncommon for donation models to thrive in a world where time and money are already at a premium.

Cognosphere Targets Private Server Developer

Last Friday, Cognosphere’s attorneys filed applications for three DMCA subpoenas at a district court in California. Each application claims that Cognosphere’s copyrights have been infringed by a third party and as a result, service providers are required to hand over the personal details of the alleged infringer.

The first application targets GitHub and claims that a user called “casksteven” infringed Cognosphere’s exclusive rights in Genshin Impact. In an email to GitHub dated October 6, Cognosphere’s attorneys advised GitHub that “without limitation” the infringing content included material posted to the ‘ Sweaty-Launcher ‘ repo.

Sweaty-Launcher is a piece of software that allows users to connect to two types of private servers, GrassCutter and Weedwacker .

“The Content infringes Cognosphere’s exclusive rights under copyright law. Specifically, it infringes Cognosphere’s rights in its popular video game Genshin Impact,” the DMCA application reads.

The repository URL receives a prominent mention in the application and the screenshot below shows what appears there. However, for reasons that will become clear, we’ve blurred out a section depicting a character from Genshin Impact.

Cognosphere is demanding “Information, including name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), e-mail address(es), and IP address(es), or other information within your possession, custody or control, sufficient to identify the user(s) responsible for making available for distribution and/or otherwise controlling the materials currently or formerly available at the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL’):”

Surprisingly, “the materials” do not relate to Sweaty-Launcher at all, but merely the image included in the ‘readme’ section of the free software.

The corresponding DMCA takedown notice sent to GitHub requests “expeditious action to remove or disable access to the Genshin Impact Artwork as referenced above. Furthermore, it is requested that GitHub take appropriate measures to prevent further infringements by the party responsible, including pursuant to any ‘repeat infringer’ policies maintained by GitHub.”

Second DMCA Subpoena Application

In a second DMCA subpoena application targeting web hosting company Spartan Host LLC, Cognosphere again outlines its exclusive rights in Genshin Impact before demanding the identity of an alleged infringer, including their name, address, telephone numbers, and email address. According to the filing, the user in question maintains the website www.casks.me. While that domain no longer exists, the service itself is operating from a new domain.

“Tianli China is one of the largest Genshin servers in China, and we have close to a million register player, with thousands online at anytime. We are experienced with Genshin and handling mass players,” the service’s promotional material reads.

This invitation to the 35,500-member TianLi Community on Discord arrives courtesy of casksteven himself while other connections to the casks.me website are easily found elsewhere. Surprisingly, Cognosphere shows no specific interest in the private server here either, despite some site announcements receiving over 780,000 views in their own right.

In common with the complaint and subsequent DMCA subpoena application at GitHub, the application targeting Spartan Host also concerns allegedly infringing images, four in total, most likely screenshots. By examining an archived copy of the website we managed to find one example; it features a login screen with a HoYoverse logo, within the frame of a mobile phone.

Since Cognosphere is prepared to spend significant sums protecting these images, it raises the question of why they’re so special. They represent a tiny piece of what is obviously a more logical target, one that probably uses other Genshin Impact assets without appropriate licensing, in much more significant ways.

Third DMCA Subpoena Application

In its third DMCA subpoena application, Cognosphere targets Google LLC, doing business as YouTube. This time the allegedly-infringing material is contained in a total of eight YouTube videos, but how they violated Cognosphere’s rights is unclear.

The application and DMCA notice sent to YouTube states that Cognosphere owns the rights to the “gameplay and audiovisual elements” of Genshin Impact but no specifics regarding infringing video content are mentioned. The videos have already been removed, not by YouTube itself, but by the channel owner – casksteven .

At the time of writing, GitHub is yet to take action against the image on the casksteven repo.

The DMCA subpoena applications are available here: Github ( 1 , 2 ), Spartan Host ( 1 ) and YouTube ( 1 , 2 ) – (all pdf)

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

There’s no denying the many victories of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment ( ACE ) over the past few years.

The anti-piracy group, which represents the major Hollywood studios and other prominent rightsholders such as Apple, BBC, and Netflix, systematically hunts down key piracy players.

A few weeks ago, ACE claimed one of the most significant successes this year by shutting down 2Embed following negotiations with its Hanoi, Vietnam-based operator.

2Embed was one of the key services that took the pirate streaming world by storm. The site offered access to a catalog of pirate streaming links for 300,000 movies and TV shows, which could easily be embedded in any website by simply using an IMDb ID for reference.

Zoro’s Last Minute Acquisition

Right around the time 2Embed went offline, Zoro.to came out with some surprising news. With over 200 million visits the anime streaming portal was one of the largest pirate sites until last June, when it was suddenly acquired by a new team , who redirected it to Aniwatch.to.

This sudden takeover likely wasn’t a coincidence. 2Embed and Zoro.to were reportedly operated by the same person who, after ACE paid a visit to Vietnam, struck a deal with the anti-piracy alliance. And indeed, both 2Embed and Zoro.to now redirect to ACE’s ‘ Watch Legally ’ page.

This major success was tainted, however, as Zoro’s earlier redirect to Aniwatch.to was rather effective. This new streaming portal came out of nowhere and is now one of the largest piracy portals online with 277 million monthly visits in August.

ACE Goes After Aniwatch

With this new site pupping up right under the noses of MPA and ACE, it is no surprise that Aniwatch is now a priority target. And indeed, through two recent subpoenas, rightsholders are attempting try to discover who’s in charge.

Late last week, MPA requested several DMCA subpoenas at a federal court in California. These subpoenas are directed at Cloudflare and the Tonic domain registry, listing a variety of targets including Aniwatch.to.

The subpoenas were requested on behalf of ACE members with the aim of obtaining the personal details of the people who operate Aniwatch.to, Gogoanimehd.to, Myflixerz.to and several other domains.

Specifically, ACE seeks “names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates and account histories of the users” who operate the allegedly infringing websites.

More High Traffic Sites

Aniwatch is without a doubt the biggest target, but the other sites have massive traffic levels too. Gogoanimehd.to, for example, logged more than 90 million visits last month, while Myflixerz.to came close to 60 million.

In addition to the .to domain registry, ACE also seeks the same information from Cloudflare through a DMCA subpoena. These recent subpoena requests are part of a bigger push that targets dozens of domain names, which are listed at the bottom of this article.

All in all, it’s clear that, despite the major enforcement efforts this year, ACE still has plenty of ground to cover. While it sometimes seems like a perpetual game of whack-a-mole, rightsholders hope that their perseverance will eventually pay off.

—

Below is a list of all domains targeted by MPA/ACE in a recent DMCA subpoena wave ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ).

-cyberflix.me
-cuevanahd.net
-pelisflix2.team
-vizer.in
-pobretv.net
-aniwatch.to
-tugaflix.best
-diziwatch.net
-filma24.li
-filma24.gd
-kaido.to
-animez.org
-anix.to
-laroza.one
-gogoaninehd.to
-gogoanime3.net
-smashystream.com
-embed.smashystream.com
-bflix.to
-nuuuppp.store
-soap2day-online.com
-adjaranet.com
-myflixerz.to
-watchsomuch.to
-watchsomuch.tv
-noxx.to
-projectfreetv.space
-0123movie.net
-yugenanime.tv
-yugen.to
-123-movies.sb
-123-movies.zone
-primewire.li
-primewire.tf
-gowatchseries.tv
-movstreamhd.pro
-webtvguek.org
-guek.org
-privateiptvaccess.com
-iptvespana.online
-line.ottcst.org
-line.rs4ott.com
-rapidiptv.pro
-mujitv.com
-sportiumtv.com
-sixstartv.com
-upbaam.com
-vidroba.com
-vidspeeds.com
-anafasts.com
-v.aflam.news
-vod540.xyz
-sfntv.xyz
-tvhdonline.org

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

June 2022 marked the end of a legal battle that despite modest roots, went on to become one of the most interesting copyright cases in recent years.

After paying just $47, a shadowy business entity hoped to obtain a DMCA subpoena that would compel Twitter to hand over the personal details of an alleged copyright infringer. Pseudonymous Twitter user MrMoneyBags had previously posted controversial photographs on Twitter and, as a result, the alleged copyright holder sought to pull back the veil, ostensibly for the purposes of protecting copyrights.

After Twitter defended its user’s rights in court, a favorable ruling meant that MrMoneyBags retained their anonymity. More than a year later, a new DMCA subpoena application filed against Twitter finds itself on the cusp of similar controversy.

DMCA Subpoena Seeks to Identify Twitter Users

The background to this dispute is less than straightforward and for those fresh to the controversy, all but impenetrable. Since the allegations, counterclaims and shifting narratives only serve to distract, our tight focus here relates to part of the fallout; a single DMCA subpoena application seeking an extraordinary amount of personal data belonging to three Twitter users.

The DMCA subpoena application was filed on July 14, 2023, at a U.S. district court in California, San Francisco division. The applicant is Michael Williams who appears to be involved in the cryptocurrency/blockchain world. Williams has a Twitter account where participation is restricted. His targets, three Twitter accounts, are mostly wide open.

The first account mentioned in the subpoena is operated by Brooke Lacey , who describes herself as a technologist and Cybersecurity Masters Student. Twitter user ‘peabeeandjelly’, whose account no longer exists , and GIRL_SQUAD_OG, an account that remains open but is less easily categorized, complete the trio. Suffice to say, Williams and the Twitter users have not been seeing eye-to-eye lately.

Allegations in the Application

The application, filed by Williams himself, seeks to “identify one or more alleged infringers” said to have posted “copyrighted images” owned by Williams, on Twitter, without first obtaining his authorization.

Williams claims that on July 12, July 13, and July 14, notifications were submitted to Twitter via email which identified the content in question, as required under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A) .

Lacey’s recent retweet of an attorney’s tweet, suggests that at least some allegedly-infringing content was indeed removed.

The copyrighted material to which Williams claims to hold exclusive rights is listed in the DMCA notices sent to Twitter. Described in one notice as “my personal photo” and accompanied by a URL where it can be viewed for reference, various URLs are identified on Twitter where the users allegedly reproduced the image, in breach of Williams’ rights.

Another notice references additional images (MBW-2 to 9) publicly published on the same website, presumably in support of the DMCA takedown notices sent to Twitter.

Despite Williams appearing pro se , the takedown notices are clear and well-formatted. Whether the images were posted in breach of Williams’ rights largely depends on the context. Liability could be disputed under the doctrine of fair use but since that’s a defense in response to an actual lawsuit, any details would require scrutiny – at huge expense – under the supervision of a judge.

In the meantime, disclosure demands attached the DMCA subpoena application are of immediate interest. A court clerk usually signs off on DMCA subpoenas without a judge getting involved. In this exceptional application, the details suggest that this process is unlikely to be straightforward and also risks much broader controversy.

Proposed DMCA Subpoena

DMCA subpoena applications regularly seek significant levels of personal information held by service providers. A request typically aims to obtain names, email and physical addresses, IP addresses, login times, even details of financial transactions, such as payment of invoices or subscriptions, for example.

In most cases these alleged infringers are intentionally anonymous and since the point of a DMCA subpoena is to enable rightsholders to identify anonymous infringers, any grain of information has the potential to progress an investigation. In the Twitter matter discussed here, at least one of the alleged infringers, Brooke Lacey, is well known online so it’s very unlikely that a DMCA subpoena is the only means of identifying her.

As for the rest of the disclosure demands, ‘comprehensive’ may lack suitable scope. Our summary of those demands are listed as follows:

– All direct messages exchanged between @brookejlacey, @peabeeandjelly since May 1, 2023
– Full names, email/physical addresses, dates of birth, gender, occupations, and photographs
– All past and current usernames, including dates when usernames changed
– Dates and times when profiles were created and the associated IP addresses
– All IP address-containing logs along with dates, times and users’ physical locations
– All direct messages, both sent and received, by the users, since May 1, 2023
– Details of websites or other links in the users’ biographies
– Every Tweet and copies of all photographic images the users have ever posted
– All IMEI (unique cell phone identifier) numbers collected from the users’ phones
– All user data collected from any website posted to the users’ biographies
– Information of accounts (open/closed) linked to the users’ IP addresses or IMEIs
– The users’ billing information
– Details of other apps the users’ downloaded to their mobile phones

Several aspects of these requests are not unusual; after all, disclosure of personally identifying information is the clear purpose of DMCA subpoena applications.

Among other things, the key issues here relate to the scope of the information being sought, whether that information is purely for the purpose of protecting copyright, and how such disclosures might affect innocent third parties.

Privacy Risks, Irrelevant Disclosure

While disclosure of dates of birth may have relevance when dealing with a minor, the relevance of someone’s gender or occupation to what appears to be a relatively minor copyright claim, seems minimal. Obtaining copies of the users’ personal photographs seems overly personal, not to mention ironic given the circumstances.

In general, overly broad requests for information predating alleged infringements and even those more current, raise questions of strict relevance to the matter in hand. Information obtained via a DMCA subpoena process cannot be used for any other purpose beyond protecting copyright but since enforcement is almost non-existence, limited but sufficient disclosure is essential.

Open-ended requests for disclosure of all IP addresses logs, physical locations, and the actual content of all direct messages, have enormous privacy implications for the Twitter users and any number of entirely innocent people. When taken as a whole, the entire package of demands seems more suited to a process overseen by a judge as part of a properly filed lawsuit. A $47 administrative matter seems an entirely unsuitable venue given the issues at stake.

One final thought relates to the impact this type of request may have on Twitter itself. It raises the prospect of any Twitter user posting a single picture without permission, having almost every detail of their online and private lives even remotely connected to Twitter, being disclosed to any third party, based on a simple allegation. Copyright disputes have a tendency to favor rightsholders but as last year’s case shows, opportunities to push back definitely exist.

For these and related reasons it seems highly unlikely that Twitter will comply to the extent demanded in the application. Unfortunately, surprises happen all the time, often at the worst possible time.

The DMCA subpoena application can be found here ( 1 , 2 , pdf)

Image credit: Geralt /Pixabay

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

It’s no secret that the majority of mainstream movies appear on pirate sites soon after their release. In that respect, not much has changed since the early 2000s. Pirate site aesthetics, on the other hand, have undergone a transformation.

Today’s pirate movie and TV show sites are considerably more polished, often carrying official poster images and metadata to give that Netflix-style feel. Pirate sites offering Japanese cartoons (anime) often look so good they could easily pass for legitimate platforms.

These glossy sites receive hundreds of millions of visits every month from extraordinarily enthusiastic fans who happily soak up every available detail but mostly pay nothing for the privilege.

Japanese rightsholders are making progress against anime piracy, even in challenging overseas territories such as Brazil . But having spotted the pots of gold at the end of the anime rainbow, companies like Disney also have content to protect. With decades of experience doing just that, there’s little doubt that the pressure is building.

DMCA Subpoenas, Visit to Vietnam

During the last week of June, high-level executives from the Motion Picture Association visited Vietnam, a hotbed of some of the most polished and popular pirate sites to ever exist. The visit coincided with the takedown of Vietnam-based 2Embed, a site that supplied hundreds of other sites with video content.

Authorities in Vietnam welcomed enhanced cooperation with ACE to tackle other pirate sites moving forward, but a visit to court in the United States and a routine application for a DMCA subpoena against Cloudflare was also delivering results.

In the wake of our initial report on the subpoena early July, one of the targeted sites ‘Anime Kaizoku’ indicated it had thrown in the towel . Now a considerably larger platform claims to have done the same.

Animedao.to Announces Shutdown

Recent data published by SimilarWeb indicate that AnimeDao received over 54 million visits in three recent months. In April, the pirate anime site welcomed around 19.1 million visitors, and in May, around 18.1 million.

June’s figures were lower at 16.9 million visits, but with the majority of visitors arriving from the United States, it was inevitable that anti-piracy group ACE would eventually take action.

The DMCA subpoena provided fairly clear evidence that the site was under some type of investigation but what lies ahead after more recent developments is unclear.

As the image below shows, AnimeDao has now decided that for financial, technical, and legal reasons, its days of servicing millions of visitors each month are over.

The comment about content no longer being available without popup ads is interesting. While situations vary, it may suggest that at least some content arrives as a package and is intended to be consumed in a particular way, i.e. while being monetized.

The statement about CORS relates to cross-origin resource sharing, a browser mechanism that controls access to resources located outside of a given domain. This suggests that content that may otherwise have been accessible from other platforms is being restricted .

The final comment about ‘being targeted’ is self-explanatory but how that will play out, especially given recent events, is open for debate.

Problematic Resurrections

Following MPA/ACE’s visit to Vietnam, Zoro.to – until recently the world’s most popular pirate site – suddenly shut itself down and handed its domains over to the MPA .

Had that been the end of the matter, Hollywood would’ve probably mentioned it via a press release. What actually happened is that within hours of Zoro.to’s closure, it reemerged under a new domain (aniwatch.to) with all-new branding.

That could suggest that if any agreement was in place with the operator of Zoro, it might not have taken the form of a cast-iron legal contract usually associated with ACE activity. Whether that indicates one of the parties not taking things particularly seriously is open to speculation but the recent reemergence of former fan-favorite Aniwatch.me (not to be confused with Aniwatch.to) may be a sign of things going in the wrong direction.

Then finally, there was the demise of Anime Kaizoku, a much smaller site, but a significant closure nonetheless. After disappearing online in response to ACE pressure, a few days ago the animekaizoku.com domain suddenly found new life and now redirects to another anime site called Simkl.com, which is now scooping up all of the shuttered site’s traffic.

Only time will tell how this difficult anime landscape will change over the next few months, but it seems unlikely it will be allowed to continue in the manner it does today. The anime piracy scene seems to be extremely well organized, with both centralized and somewhat sophisticated independent systems ensuring that content reaches the widest possible audience via any number of supplied sites.

That raises interesting questions concerning the diversity of original (pirated) content sources and how that might affect the stability of the anime piracy ecosystem.

Relatively few sites offer large volumes of anime content that they both host and control, perhaps fewer than 10 and maybe less than that. One of those sites, GogoAnime, is relied upon by dozens of sites for their content so they may be especially vulnerable to being substantially wiped out overnight.

One domain that won’t be offering anime content anytime soon is BUNNYCDNN.RU. It was previously known for its connections with high-traffic anime platforms but today, after being transferred to a new owner, is now notable for being under the control of MPA/ACE.

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

Dozens of times each year, global anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment files DMCA subpoena applications at a court in California.

Once obtained, these are served on service providers, mostly Cloudflare, requesting personal information on pirate site operators. While the quality of supplied information varies, the number of applications suggests that the world’s largest entertainment companies do indeed obtain valuable intelligence from the process.

Under the banner of Hollywood’s MPA, ACE returned to court again this week, seeking information on a number of platforms, mostly dealing in movies and TV shows. The presence of yet more anime piracy platforms is probably a sign of things to come, with ACE members Disney and Paramount gaining a firmer foothold in the anime market.

Anime Sites in the Crosshairs

New Target: Animedao.to
Recent Traffic: Apr 19.1m / May 18.1m / June 16.9m

When sites like Zoro.to (which rebranded to Animewatch.to this week due to copyright issues) receive more than 200 million visits per month, it’s tempting to describe sites with tens of millions as ‘small’. We’ll refrain from doing that, especially when yearly visits to Animedao.to exceed the quarter-billion mark.

While the site’s traffic is in a slight decline, Animedao remains popular, especially in the United States. More than a third of the platform’s overall traffic hails from the U.S., the Philippines, and the United Kingdom.

Animedao.to is just one of many hundreds of sites that exist through the use of a site template. These sites are easy to identify using a number of methods but one of the most straightforward is a Google search for the term “anime” and the text of the standard disclaimer that appears at the bottom of most homepages.

In case anyone still believes that pirate site disclaimers are kryptonite to entertainment industry attorneys, they aren’t. The remaining pair of sites on the ACE list, along with summary details, are as follows:

New Target: animekaizoku.com
Recent Traffic: Apr 837k / May 637k / June 599k
Most Popular: India, Philippines, Japan

New Target: Animet.site
Recent Traffic: Apr 2.3k / May 2.2k / June 3.3k
Feature: Members Only, must sign in with Google/Discord account
Fun fact: Domain records state: “DNS points to prohibited IP stream server”

Latin American Targets

Working with local anti-piracy groups, ACE continues to take a keen interest in sites popular in Brazil and neighboring countries. Legal action to obtain site operators’ identities may take place in the United States, but any information obtained has the potential to be useful anywhere.

New Target: baixarseriesmp4.eu (baixar is ‘download’ in Portuguese)
Content: Movies, TV Shows, Anime
Recent Traffic: Apr 0k / May 1.4m / June 4m

Around 80% of Baixarseriesmp4’s traffic comes from Brazil, with Portugal following in a distant second place. The SimilarWeb figures listed above show the site’s traffic on a rapid upwards trend, which is probably one of the reasons ACE wants to take action before things get out of hand.

With that in mind, how does a site grow from nothing to four million visits in three months? The answer is simple: they don’t start from nothing.

Baixarseriesmp4.eu is a domain-hopping site that already had traction. Its current .eu domain is just the latest in use after having burned through baixarseriesmp4.xyz, .club, and .top. A message on those domains warns that they will be “decommissioned soon.”

It’s possible that ISPs may have blocked Baixarseries at some point. The main page provides instructions on how to unblock the platform by changing DNS settings in popular browsers.

New Target: 2now.tv
Content: Movies, TV Shows
Recent Traffic: Apr 13k / May 35k / June 233k

The request for information relating to 2now.tv is interesting. This is a new platform that did indeed launch from a standing start; information received by TorrentFreak suggests that 2now.tv is intended to be the English language version of Latin American streaming giant, Cuevana.

We haven’t been able to confirm that claim but attempts to boost the site’s traffic are very evident on social media. Around 75% of the site’s traffic (up 550% in the United States compared to the previous month) comes from social media referrals, 92% of that from links on Reddit.

There’s even a 2now.tv promotional video floating around, but since it uses clips from Hollywood movies – to promote piracy of Hollywood movies – we won’t link to it here.

The DMCA subpoena application can be found here ( pdf )

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

Under U.S. copyright law, Internet providers must terminate the accounts of repeat infringers “in appropriate circumstances.”

Many ISPs have been reluctant to take such drastic measures, which triggered a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits in recent years.

The driving force behind a series of these lawsuits is a group of independent film companies, including the makers of the movies The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, London Has Fallen, Rambo V, and Hellboy. Represented by attorney Kerry Culpepper they sued several Internet providers including RCN and Grande .

The movie companies claim that the providers haven’t done enough to stop subscribers from pirating on their networks. Instead of terminating the accounts of persistent pirates, the Internet providers looked away, the complaints alleged.

Reddit Users as Evidence

Earlier this year, the filmmakers turned to Reddit after they found public comments by site users that could help their case. As part of the RCN lawsuit, they identified several potentially relevant comments and requested a DMCA subpoena, ordering Reddit to identify the anonymous users.

The Redditors in question discussed issues such as RCN’s handling of copyright infringement emails. The filmmakers could use this information to their advantage, but only if they could obtain the identities of the commenters first.

Reddit was unhappy with the subpoena, characterizing it as overbroad and more akin to a fishing expedition than regular evidence gathering. Reddit only handed over the details of one user whose comment mentioned RCN, denying other ‘less relevant’ ones, while citing the users’ First Amendment right to anonymous speech.

The court eventually agreed with this defense, concluding that Redditors’ First Amendment right to anonymous speech outweighs the interest of rightsholders. According to U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler, the filmmakers have other options to obtain this type of information., including through RCN itself.

Filmmakers Subpoena Reddit Again

The court’s denial was a setback for the film companies, but they are not letting all Redditors off the hook. As part of their evidence gathering in the related Grande lawsuit, they filed a motion to compel Reddit to comply with a subpoena that again targets a group of anonymous users.

The comments in question are several years old and were posted by “robowiener”, “SquirtyBottoms”, “Aikidi”, “kelsoATX”, “xBROKEx”, and “Schadenfreude_Taco”. The Grande references appear in the images below.

The subpoena was filed in late April, a week before the court denied the previous motion to compel. On May 8th, Reddit responded, again refusing to hand over the requested information, citing the right to anonymous speech.

While this places the camps back in their previous positions, this time around the filmmakers believe they have a stronger case supporting their motion to compel.

Other Ways to Get Information Failed

In its objection, Reddit pointed out that the anonymous speech rights of its users shouldn’t be violated, as long as the filmmakers have other ways to obtain the information. This was also highlighted by the court as a reason to deny the earlier motion to compel.

Responding to this critique, the new motion mentions that the documents provided by Grande during discovery haven’t resulted in any usable documents that discuss the motivation of its subscribers to use its service for piracy.

Also, following an earlier legal procedure, the plaintiffs were able to contact several Grande subscribers whose IP-addresses were frequently showing up in piracy-related BitTorrent swarms. However, they don’t believe this will result in any “substantive response” that can be used as evidence.

“Plaintiffs have sent letters to most of the subscribers of the 118 IP addresses but have had limited success establishing dialogue with most of them due to time constraints and refusals to respond to Plaintiffs’ counsel’s communications,” the motion reads.

Directly and Materially Relevant

In the earlier dispute, the court found that most comments from the targeted Redditors were not directly and materially relevant to the underlying lawsuit. This was particularly true because they didn’t always mention which Internet provider they referred to.

In this case, the comments respond to “Grande” threads and repeatedly mention the ISP by name. As such, the filmmakers believe that the balance tips in their favor.

“[T]here is no question that the comments are referring to Defendant as they directly mention Defendant’s name and are comments to a thread discussing Defendant,” the motion to compel reads.

The filmmakers say the comments are relevant to the Grande lawsuit because they show that the ISP failed to implement a proper repeat infringer policy. In addition, the apparent lack of piracy repercussions acted as a draw to potential subscribers.

“Reddit commentators ‘Aikidi’; ‘kelsoATX’; ‘xBROKEx’; and ‘Schadenfreude_Taco’ make comments emphatically stating that they prefer Defendant because they can use Defendant’s service to pirate copyright protected content without any consequences.

“‘Schadenfreude_Taco’ admits to having ‘downloaded about 1tb…from torrents and uploaded just under 2tb…’. Aikido states that ‘I have torrented like a motherf*cker all over grande and never seen anything’,” the filing adds.

Piracy Admission?

Adding to these arguments, the motion also highlights a 12-year-old comment from the user “xBROKEx”, who specifically mentions that they pirated the movie Expendables. This admission is valuable in itself, the filmmakers argue.

“Plaintiffs do not have any other reasonable way to prove that Defendant’s subscriber pirated Expendables because the data provider that provided the evidence did not track this film,” the motion reads.

The fact that this activity took place more than a decade ago may explain why it wasn’t tracked. In any case, it’s quite unique to see that comments on Reddit can come back to haunt people, even after all these years.

Whether the filmmakers will have their way has yet to be seen. It is ultimately up to the court to decide whether these arguments are sufficient to unmask the anonymous Redditors, or if their right to anonymous speech remains protected.

—

A copy of the motion to compel, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is available here (pdf)

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

Japanese manga comics have always been popular on pirate sites but, where other categories have seen stalled growth, manga piracy boomed .

This unauthorized activity has not gone unnoticed by publishers, who’ve made it clear that piracy will not be tolerated, wherever it takes place in the world.

Japan’s largest publisher Shueisha finds itself at the frontline of this battle. The company has taken a variety of legal actions, also in a U.S. court, where it hoped to find evidence against the operators of Manganato.com; thus far without result.

With more than 122 million monthly visits, Manganato is one of the largest piracy sites of its kind. In Japan, however, there are other sites that take the top spots. Several of these local favorites were targeted by a legal request filed at a U.S. court last week.

Shueisha Target ‘Pirate’ Sites

Shueisha obtained a DMCA subpoena at a California federal court which requires CDN provider Cloudflare to share all personal information it holds on the people who maintain the accounts of 13dl.to, takefile.link, novafile.org, wupfile.com, hexupload.net, and manga-zip.is.

These sites are all most popular in Japan and they have millions of monthly visitors. Earlier this month the publisher already asked Cloudflare to disable infringing copies of the Grand Jump magazine made available through these sites.

“We demand that you immediately disable access to the Infringing Work and cease any use, reproduction, and distribution of the Original Work. Specifically, we request that you remove or disable the Infringing Work from [the sites] or any of your system or services.”

Cloudflare typically doesn’t remove cached CDN content and that didn’t happen here either. Instead, Shueisha is now trying to identify the sites’ operators directly through the DMCA subpoena, which was swiftly signed off by a court clerk.

Cloudflare Must Share Customer Details

The subpoena requires Cloudflare to share the personal details of customers associated with these domains. This includes addresses, phone numbers, emails, payment details, hosting providers, IP-addresses, and various related activity timestamps.

Cloudflare typically complies with these types of requests but whether that will help Shueisha address its piracy problem depends on how useful the information is. After all, many pirate site operators do all they can to conceal their personal information.

These efforts can provide results, however. Three years ago, popular pirate site Mangastream disappeared after being targeted by a DMCA subpoena obtained by Shueisha.

At the time of writing all of the targeted sites remain online. That said, some progress has been made, as the infringing Grand Jump copies are no longer available on wupfile.com, hexupload.net, and manga-zip.is.

—

A copy of the subpoena request and all associated information, as filed by Shueisha, is available here (pdf)

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

In the United States, consumer ISPs have been handing over the identities of suspected BitTorrent pirates for years, mostly because a court has compelled them to as part of a copyright infringement lawsuit. It’s not particularly difficult for rightsholders to take this route, but it can be expensive.

In the early 2000s, the RIAA hoped to cut costs by obtaining the details of Verizon customers via the DMCA subpoena process. That ultimately failed in 2005 when a court found that subpoenas under section 512(h) only apply to ISPs that directly store, cache, or provide links to infringing material.

That decision settled the waters for years but didn’t prevent BMG and anti-piracy partner Rightscorp from trying to identify 30,000 subscribers of ISP CBeyond in 2014. A year later, a court sided with the ISP and rejected calls for a more progressive reading of the law.

“It is the province of Congress, not the courts, to decide whether to rewrite the DMCA in order to make it fit a new and unforeseen internet architecture and accommodate fully the varied permutations of competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new technology,” the judge wrote .

Congress Not Needed

Even though Congress still hasn’t rewritten the DMCA, movie studios known for tracking down alleged BitTorrent pirates in pursuit of cash settlements are increasingly using the DMCA subpoena system anyway. During 2022 and early 2023, Voltage Pictures, Millenium Funding, LHF Productions, and Capstone Studios obtained DMCA subpoenas targeting customers of CenturyLink (now Lumen).

The first request of 2022 targeted ‘just’ 13 subscribers , the next sought to unmask 63 .

Last month a court clerk’s signature approved the pursuit of another 150 CenturyLink customers and soon after another ISP’s subscribers would begin feeling the heat.

Billion Dollar Headache

Like competitor CenturyLink, Cox Communications declined to take part in the ‘ Six Strikes ‘ anti-piracy initiative in the United States back in 2013. Eventually a more traditional piracy reduction method would resurface.

In 2019, the major recording labels of the RIAA successfully argued that Cox could be held liable for copyright infringements carried out by its customers. A Virginia federal jury found the ISP contributorily and vicariously liable and awarded the labels $1 billion in damages .

One billion dollars is a huge amount but Cox was also concerned about other things ; being forced to disconnect subscribers “based on a few isolated and potentially inaccurate allegations” and concerns that the interests of rightsholders were being elevated above those of “ordinary, and often blameless, people who depend on the internet.”

To this background of liability for subscribers’ infringements, while defending the public against potentially baseless claims, Cox Communications now finds itself in the middle of another piracy dilemma.

Another Controversial DMCA Subpoena

The same movie studios that have been targeting CenturyLink subscribers for more than a year have decided that Cox subscribers should receive similar treatment.

Last month, Voltage Holdings, Millennium Funding, and Capstone Studios, filed an application for a DMCA subpoena to compel Cox Communications and CoxCom LLC to hand over the details of allegedly infringing customers.

Court documents list 41 IP addresses (four of which are duplcates) alleging that corresponding subscribers can be found in Virginia, Louisiana, Nevada, Arizona, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, California, Connecticut and Kansas. The majority stand accused of downloading and/or sharing the 2022 movie, ‘Fall.’

Most of the alleged pirates are linked with copies of the movie labeled [YTS.MX], a reference to YTS, the most popular torrent site on the planet . Millenium Media was one of the companies behind a lawsuit and subsequent $1m settlement with YTS back in 2020, which didn’t require the site to shut down.

Sign on the Line

Filed in a Hawaii district court, the application for DMCA subpoena follows a now-familiar format. The application notes that since all required paperwork is in order, it’s the clerk’s responsibility alone to act as the law requires.

“512(h)(4) provides that the Clerk, not a Judge should issue and sign the proposed subpoena,” it reads.

In common with the subpoenas against CenturyLink, the Cox application describes in detail how courts have ruled that DMCA subpoenas don’t apply to conduit ISPs. However, the application says that given developments in recent years (specifically, a lawsuit BMG filed against Cox itself ), there’s a belief that the Tenth Circuit will eventually find that 512(h) does apply to conduit ISPs after all.

“For these reasons, the undersigned request that the Clerk of the Court expeditiously issue and sign the proposed subpoena and return it to the undersigned…to be served on the service provider,” it concludes.

The DMCA subpoena application was signed by the clerk the very same day so, in all likelihood, Cox has already been served. Cox hasn’t filed a motion to quash as far as we know, which may suggest it intends to recognize the validity of the subpoena by handing over its subscribers’ details to the movie studios.

512(h) is Ambiguous, Concentrate on the Clerk

In a 2021 submission to the Copyright Office on the CASE Act, the powerful Copyright Alliance noted a submission by Verizon which called for the Office to “create guidance for its Claims Attorneys that any Section 512 (h) subpoenas directed to a Section 512 (a) mere conduit service provider must be issued by a federal judge and not by a clerk of a court.”

Describing the issue as “highly contested” and 512(h) itself as “ambiguous” according to the Copyright Office, the Copyright Alliance pointed out that it isn’t the Copyright Claims Board’s job to get involved.

“In any event, it is the clerk of a federal district court – not the CCB – who will determine whether to issue a subpoena under Section 512(h),” the Alliance advised.

Presumably this is exactly what Congress intended, or maybe not. Either way, ISPs with repeat infringer lawsuits pending seem unlikely to rock the boat in a rush to find out.

ISPs on firmer footing probably won’t find themselves targeted in future applications but that won’t stop them being filed, most likely in increasing numbers.

The DMCA subpoena application and IP list can be found here ( 1 , 2 , pdf)

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