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Trump Promises Copyright Crackdown as DoJ Takes Aim at Streaming Pirates


steven36

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President Trump says the US is "acting swiftly on intellectual property theft", noting that the country cannot "allow this to happen as it has for many years." Coincidentally, or not, a panel in Capitol Hill yesterday discussed the streaming box threat, with the MPAA revealing that the Department of Justice is looking at "a variety of candidates" for criminal action.

 

https://s7d8.turboimg.net/sp/49e93589b2a93437db64a9451bf1338c/donald-trump-1.jpg

 

 

For the past several years most of the world has been waking up to the streaming piracy phenomenon, with pre-configured set-top boxes making inroads into millions of homes.

While other countries, notably the UK, arrested many individuals while warning of a grave and looming danger, complaints from the United States remained relatively low-key. It was almost as if the stampede towards convenient yet illegal streaming had caught the MPAA and friends by surprise.

In October 2017, things quickly began to change. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment sued Georgia-based Tickbox TV, a company selling “fully-loaded” Kodi boxes. In January 2018, the same anti-piracy group targeted Dragon Media, a company in the same line of business.

With this growing type of piracy now firmly on the radar, momentum seems to be building. Yesterday, a panel discussion on the challenges associated with piracy from streaming media boxes took place on Capitol Hill.

Hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), ‘Unboxing the Piracy Threat of Streaming Media Boxes’ went ahead with some big name speakers in attendance, not least Neil Fried, Senior Vice President, Federal Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs at the MPAA.

ITIF and various industry groups tweeted many interesting comments throughout the event. Kevin Madigan from Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property told the panel that torrent-based content “is becoming obsolete” in an on-demand digital environment that’s switching to streaming-based piracy.

While there’s certainly a transition taking place, 150 million worldwide torrent users would probably argue against the term “obsolete”. Nevertheless, the same terms used to describe torrent sites are now being used to describe players in the streaming field.

“There’s a criminal enterprise going on here that’s stealing content and making a profit,” Fried told those in attendance.

“The piracy activity out there is bad, it’s hurting a lot of economic activity & creators aren’t being compensated for their work,” he added.

Tom Galvin, Executive Director at the Digital Citizens Alliance, was also on the panel. Unsurprisingly, given the organization’s focus on the supposed dangers of piracy, Galvin took the opportunity to underline that position.

“If you go down the piracy road, those boxes aren’t following proper security protocols, there are many malware risks,” he said. It’s a position shared by Fried, who told the panel that “video piracy is the leading source of malware.”

Similar claims were made recently on Safer Internet Day but the facts don’t seem to back up the scare stories. Still, with the “Piracy is Dangerous” strategy already out in the open, the claims aren’t really unexpected.

What might also not come as a surprise is that ACE’s lawsuits against Tickbox and Dragon Media could be just a warm-up for bigger things to come. In the tweet embedded below, Fried can be seen holding a hexagonal-shaped streaming box, warning that the Department of Justice is now looking for candidates for criminal action.

    Neil Fried of @MPAA with one of the streaming Kodi boxes leading to big piracy problems during Capitol Hill panel talk. Says DOJ looking at ‘variety of candidates’ for criminal action. @Comm_Daily pic.twitter.com/aYIRA4wgTC

    — Matt Daneman (@mdaneman) March 7, 2018

What form this action will take when it arrives isn’t clear but when the DoJ hits targets on home soil, it tends to cherry-pick the most blatant of infringers in order to set an example with reasonably cut-and-dried cases.

Of course, every case can be argued but with hundreds of so-called “Kodi box” sellers active all over the United States, many of them clearly breaking the law as they, in turn, invite their customers to break the law, picking a sitting duck shouldn’t be too difficult.

And then, of course, we come to President Trump. Not usually that vocal on matters of intellectual property and piracy, yesterday – perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not – he suddenly delivered one of his “something is coming” tweets.

    The U.S. is acting swiftly on Intellectual Property theft. We cannot allow this to happen as it has for many years!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2018

Given Trump’s tendency to focus on problems overseas causing issues for companies back home, a comment by Kevin Madigan during the panel yesterday immediately comes to mind.

“To combat piracy abroad, USTR needs to work with the creative industries to improve enforcement and target the source of pirated material,” Madigan said.

Interesting times and much turmoil in the streaming world ahead, it seems.

 

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1 hour ago, KRS said:

trump and his things

What caused  all this was  they made it to easy for grandpa  and grandma to go out and buy a fully loaded  box , Most people who use Kodi are noobs  who need  spoon fed  and don't have no business pirating  movies and tv shows no way on kodi   . Addons break down  and everything changes around  very often and it's  full  time job for a experienced pirate to keep up and keep everything in working order . The DEVs that make the addons don't have good sense  they stay in the spotlight on Twitter  and Youtube  and wonder why ACE comes knocking at there door.  Real  scene groups have been disturbing every kind of warez there is since the 1970s  with very little or no trouble  . So  they bring  it on themselves trying be a hero and  this don't mix very well with piracy .Then you have the blogs  and  Youtubers cashing in drawing attention to the devs who are easy to find anyways,   spoon feeding the masses for ad revenue . It's a big mess.  :blink: 

 

Most need  to  just buy  Netfilx  and a legit  IPTV service  because  they seemed to be confused about what piracy is vs what's is legit  and it's these box sellers  and  people like Adam who runs TVA pimping addons for cash  who been getting away with it for awhile tell last year are  they ones that caused  confusion . Now Adam  is snitching on every one because once you sign that paper it's required .

 

 

 

 

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The letter includes promises to ensure that specified addons and indeed any developed in the future can no longer infringe copyright. For those that scrape third-party sources, this could prove impossible to absolutely guarantee. This could effectively put developers out of the addon game – legitimate or otherwise – for good. TF is also informed that ACE demanded a high-level of cooperation, including that the developers should supply what amounts to a full confession, detailing all the projects they’ve been involved in, past and present. Furthermore, the ACE agreement reportedly requires developers to inform on their colleagues by providing personal information such as identities and contact details. There’s also a requirement to indicate whether and how developers been making money from their activities.

https://torrentfreak.com/ace-warns-kodi-addon-developer-to-sign-settlement-agreement-or-else-180306/

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I don't get it, the whole intellectual property shit, you made a thing and you profit of it that i get it, but how putting in jail people who wasn't interested in buying your stuff and get it just because it is free is helping raise your profit. The entertainment industry is more profitable that ever, movies and music and concerts and games are popular as never before so why this whole circus. 

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8 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I don't get it, the whole intellectual property shit, you made a thing and you profit of it that i get it, but how putting in jail people who wasn't interested in buying your stuff and get it just because it is free is helping raise your profit. The entertainment industry is more profitable that ever, movies and music and concerts and games are popular as never before so why this whole circus. 

In the USA I never knew of no one who went to jail for this yet  this is  a new forum of piracy , The  worst they ever done to a downloder  was fine them since the days of napster  it's just a civil  matter . Now some p2p rls groups  went to Jail  during the Obama era but all of them were caught  taking money . One group was  busted for selling  videos to the Chinese underground even.  The other was  taking donations  via PayPal  for releasing sports videos he was making a living from it,    Now days  they want to go after the big guys mostly . Most  Kodi users that know anything  can't stand box sellers witch are the ones making money off open source  software and addons  , they should  throw the book at them for taking advantage of noobs .  Even big  uploaders like Yify  they didn't do nothing  to them  they just gave them a Cease and Desist and they  took them up on it .  9 times out of 10 when they go after someone  to put them in jail money laundering  is involved . They get more out of  getting some group to stop releasing or some site shunting down  than they would taking them to court even. to them its just one less place the pirate can find there fix and look at it as a win win. :tooth:   

 

Now in UK it's a whole other story they give uploaders  up to 10 years regardless  and are hard on box sellers.Also  the fake news  in the UK tabloids are cashing in on kodi posting lots of fake news  about it , they just as bad as the box sellers and  others who  make a profit from Kodi.   :s

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7 hours ago, Al_Fh said:

Who in their right mind voted for this guy?!

The Americans :rolleyes: now they are stuck with him  :wub:

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9 hours ago, BioHazard said:

The Americans :rolleyes: now they are stuck with him  :wub:

Sad  thing is  you're country has to live with  him  too and you guys didn't  even get a vote and if you're  government don't kiss up and do what he says  hes going to cut out you're trade. Hes going  to  exempt Canada  and Mexico  for redoing NAFTA  the way he wants  it,  at least were not the ones being blackmailed .. The world is not that big when someone takes high office in any country it effects everyone  be it good or bad  and everybody  knows  that 42% of American voters didn't even bother to vote this time  because they was just  a crazy person  and  a crook to chose from. 95 million voters chose not to vote for any candidate .  :tooth:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/14/us-election-2016-voter-turnout-fell-to-58-per-cent-this-year-est/

 

 

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