{"id":52684,"date":"2020-11-30T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=52684"},"modified":"2020-11-30T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T09:00:38","slug":"streaming-site-shuts-down-offers-unique-perspective-on-anti-piracy-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=52684","title":{"rendered":"Streaming Site Shuts Down, Offers Unique Perspective on Anti-Piracy Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pirate<\/a>Back in March we reported on an order handed down by a Paris court. It required France\u2019s leading ISPs to prevent their customers from accessing around three dozen pirate sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to blocking internationally famous torrent sites YTS and EZTV, the order also covered many locally important streaming sites, among them Time2Watch, a site that was once one of France\u2019s top 300 sites, period. According to information made public by the site\u2019s operators, this resulted in delisting activity by Google at the request of French anti-piracy group ALPA. <\/p>\n

This prompted the site to switch domains but the mitigation action continued, with the site also losing two Twitter accounts. Interestingly, the site admits that although DNS blocks are often described as ineffective, when combined with domain issues the effect can be significant. In fact, through a combination of factors, Time2Watch decided to throw in the towel earlier this month, leaving some rather interesting information behind.<\/p>\n

DNS Blocking \u2013 More Effective Against New Users Than Existing<\/h2>\n

According to Time2Watch (T2W), when it was blocked by ISPs and delisted by Google, traffic dropped by 20%. Blocking in France isn\u2019t particularly tough, especially when compared to that deployed in the UK since it only targets DNS. However, T2W says that the mantra of \u201cjust change domain\u201d or \u201cchange to a new DNS\u201d doesn\u2019t provide a solution when site-blocking by DNS is dynamic, i.e updatable by rights holders to include new domains.<\/p>\n

When combined, these methods cause a site to die \u201clittle by little\u201d, since when organic traffic gets hit again and again, sites are forced to resort to more and more advertising, not to mention lower quality advertising and money-making schemes that can be detrimental to users. This can develop into a downwards spiral as the pressure mounts, something that isn\u2019t conducive to growth.<\/p>\n

Anonymity and Measures For Prospective Site Operators<\/h2>\n

Running any type of pirate site has its risks but according to T2W, some streaming and torrent site operators aren\u2019t taking the necessary precautions. Simply by using publicly available information, the site says it could\u2019ve easily closed several down due to carelessness, if it was that way inclined \u2013 which it is not.<\/p>\n

T2W doesn\u2019t name names, but it points to people being careless with their pasts \u2013 Facebook pages, names, addresses, and Twitter accounts, for example. It also highlights the dangers of using past nicknames or avatars (especially ones that are unique) that can be linked to more recent pirate activity. In contrast, the site recommends using nicknames that are very common so they don\u2019t stand out on Google.<\/p>\n

In addition to using a good VPN at a minimum, the site also cautions against spilling out personal details to those who know about operators\u2019 piracy activities. This friendliness may seem innocent enough at the time but could come back to haunt people.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t trust anyone. Do not go to Discord servers, do not try to be popular, do not brag to your friends or certain communities who know what you\u2019re doing. Keep a low profile, share your files, and don\u2019t commit an error that could fall on you even in the very distant future,\u201d the advice reads.<\/p>\n

The Myth that Cloudflare Protects Pirate Sites<\/h2>\n

Over the past couple of years, rightsholders have been complaining that CDN service Cloudflare helps to protect pirate sites, giving their operators anonymity. However, T2W says this is simply a lie.<\/p>\n

\u201cCloudflare will not protect you, NOT FOR A SECOND. They will hand over the name of your host, and otherwise the IP address of your server, to any authority which requests it. And even in some cases your connection IP address, your account data, means of payment, etc,\u201d T2W warns.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne type of silliness that we see a lot for people who get into the business is to buy a server with their PayPal or bank account, usually at OVH, thinking that they will be safe with Cloudflare in front. Run away poor fools, while there is still time!\u201d<\/p>\n

In summary, T2W says that users of Cloudflare must only connect their \u2018front-end\u2019 server to the company and this should be a reverse proxy to the rest of the infrastructure, one that can be changed at any time.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, T2W says that in choosing an actual host, the best advice comes from the MPA. Referencing a recent TorrentFreak article<\/a> detailing the MPA and RIAA\u2019s submissions to the USTR for its notorious markets list, T2W says that various hosts are nominated there for good reason.<\/p>\n

The same can be said for domain registrars. Again, pointing to the industry groups\u2019 complaints about Peter Sunde\u2019s Njalla, T2W notes that the company made it to the list by \u201cannoying them with their resistance.\u201d <\/p>\n

Time2Watch Disappears Into the Night<\/h2>\n

For those interesting in reading the entire \u2018goodbye\u2019 statement, it\u2019s available here<\/a> in French (pdf). However, those hoping for some kind of reincarnation will be disappointed, since that doesn\u2019t appear on the agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime2Watch has closed and will never reopen in any other form,\u201d T2W\u2019s statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe database was destroyed as well as the site\u2019s source code, and they were not transmitted to anybody, so impossible to see a Time2Watch return. All the sites you will see in the future resembling ours (with a domain name or a similar design) will only be clones that will hate your wallet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeware of scams,\u201d the team concludes.<\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in March we reported on an order handed down by a Paris court. It required France\u2019s leading ISPs to prevent their customers from accessing around three dozen pirate sites. In addition to blocking internationally famous torrent sites YTS and EZTV, the order also covered many locally important streaming sites, among them Time2Watch, a site […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}