{"id":62973,"date":"2022-03-16T09:02:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T09:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=62973"},"modified":"2022-03-16T09:02:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T09:02:57","slug":"primewire-removes-pirate-movies-tv-shows-to-frustrate-court-injunctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=62973","title":{"rendered":"PrimeWire Removes Pirate Movies & TV Shows To Frustrate Court Injunctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"primewire<\/a>Last December, Paramount, Universal, Warner, Columbia, Disney and Netflix sued<\/a> long-running pirate streaming site PrimeWire.<\/p>\n

The companies accused PrimeWire of encouraging users of the site to upload links to pirated content and facilitating access to those movies and TV shows via a curated index, in breach of copyright.<\/p>\n

According to the plaintiffs, VOD services such as Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, and Peacock have been damaged by PrimeWire\u2019s existence. As a result, they demanded millions in damages for copyright infringement and were later granted a preliminary injunction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The injunction ordered PrimeWire to cease its illegal activities and also required domain name registrars and registries to disable three PrimeWire domains. While primewire.ag was indeed suspended, the site continued its operations using two others after they were transferred to a new registrar that took no action. <\/p>\n

The studios then asked the court for a permanent injunction that would restrain the defendants and tackle the appearance of new domains. They also sought permission<\/a> to conduct discovery on third-party companies related to PrimeWire to formulate an accurate damages claim.<\/p>\n

PrimeWire Removes All Links to Pirated Content<\/h2>\n

While PrimeWire\u2019s operators havent appeared in court to defend, they are aware of the complaint. In January it appeared that the site was preparing for domain seizures<\/a> and taking measures to overcome them. Last week PrimeWire took further action by \u2018relaunching\u2019 via a new domain (primewire.tf) and revealing changes to the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to recent legal action, it is possible that the current domains will be frozen or seized. To prevent the new domain from being seized, some changes will be made to the site to comply with temporary and possible future permanent injunctions,\u201d an announcement on the site reads.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"primewire<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

PrimeWire doesn\u2019t implicitly state what the changes are but anyone browsing the site for content will quickly discover that all links to pirated movies and TV shows have been removed. This is an interesting move under the circumstances.<\/p>\n

If PrimeWire is set to continue without providing links to pirated content then it\u2019s unlikely that the site\u2019s users will stay around for a long. A pirate streaming site without any pirated content is effectively just a site, and most pirates expect quite a bit more than movie covers, IMDb ratings, and running times. <\/p>\n

The big question then is whether this move is permanent or simply designed to disrupt the awarding of a functional permanent injunction.<\/p>\n

Either way, the studios have been watching developments closely. In a notice filed with the court on Saturday, they insist that it doesn\u2019t matter whether or not there is any infringing content on the new domain, they are still entitled to an injunction, including against the new PrimeWire domain.<\/p>\n

Studios Believe PrimeWire is Playing Games<\/h2>\n

According to a statement from MPA anti-piracy chief Jan van Voorn, the new site operating from PrimeWire.tf is \u201clargely identical\u201d to previous incarnations of PrimeWire and on March 8, 2022, did carry at least some infringing content. However, tests carried out on March 9 revealed that the usual links to pirated content had been removed.<\/p>\n

The submission to the court goes on to suggest that \u201c[T]he removal of certain links to unauthorized streams does not necessarily mean that streams of that nature are not currently available through primewire.tf.\u201d To support that notion, the MPA highlights two buttons labeled \u2018Watch Now\u2019 and \u2018Download\u2019 on the PrimeWire site that lead to another site that requires credit card information for access.<\/p>\n

The MPA provides no evidence to say it checked for infringing content but it\u2019s pretty clear that the buttons actually lead to a highly questionable, affiliate-scheme-driven, third-party-operated, subscription-trap type platform. Links to these sites appear on many pirate platforms and for those who choose to sign up for them, only disappointment and regret lie ahead. Not least since they rarely offer the content they promise.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the MPA has stronger claims elsewhere, including the fact that PrimeWire is still operating its \u2018Submit a link\u2019 system which gathers the links to content that later appear in PrimeWire\u2019s indexes. Those links aren\u2019t being displayed right now but under the law, that doesn\u2019t necessarily matter.<\/p>\n

Cessation of Infringement Doesn\u2019t Prevent Injunctive Relief<\/h2>\n

As the MPA rightly points out, the removal of infringing links could be a ploy to undermine its request for a permanent injunction. Logic says that if there are no links, there\u2019s also no infringement, but that\u2019s not how things work. <\/p>\n

The US Supreme Court previously stated that when a defendant voluntarily ceases illegal activity, it is the defendant that faces the \u201cformidable burden\u201d of showing that the same type of illegal activity won\u2019t reoccur.<\/p>\n

In this case, PrimeWire\u2019s operators are choosing not to appear in court, so that\u2019s arguably the worst possible base for someone trying to convince the court of anything. Secondly, the MPA feels that the evasive action taken thus far (new domains etc) is a sign of bad faith, which includes an announcement from PrimeWire that the site \u201cwill continue to operate as normal\u201d after the domain switch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants do not merit the benefit of any doubt. If Defendants actually intend to keep links to Plaintiffs\u2019 Copyrighted Works off of their newest PrimeWire Website, Defendants can appear, make a showing, and seek relief from this Court,\u201d the MPA informs the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not their intent. Defendants have tried similar tactics of switching domains when their websites have been blocked in other countries. All evidence indicates they will do the same thing here if the www.primewire.tf domain is not included in the injunction. Defendants will be able to restore the links as quickly as they took them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amended Permanent Injunction and Partial Default<\/h2>\n

In closing, the MPA proposes an amended permanent injunction that covers the same ground as before but with the inclusion of primewire.tf. It basically prevents PrimeWire from infringing the studios\u2019 rights in any way moving forward and includes a proposed order that would require PrimeWire to hand over all of its domains to the plaintiffs. <\/p>\n

If PrimeWire fails to hand them over, the MPA wants the court to order the associated domain registrars (and if necessary, registries) to transfer them to the studios or disable them until they expire.<\/p>\n

The MPA\u2019s filings with the court can be found here (1<\/a>,2<\/a>,3<\/a>, pdf)<\/em><\/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":"

Last December, Paramount, Universal, Warner, Columbia, Disney and Netflix sued long-running pirate streaming site PrimeWire. The companies accused PrimeWire of encouraging users of the site to upload links to pirated content and facilitating access to those movies and TV shows via a curated index, in breach of copyright. According to the plaintiffs, VOD services such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62973","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\/62973","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=62973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}