The Internet is littered with millions of images that are easy to find through a variety of search engines, including Google. These files are regularly downloaded and used by people without permission. To address this, Pixsy is offering photographers a service to "fight and find image theft," which includes license demands and legal threats. A brilliant scheme according to some, while others brand it a 'scam'. Whether it’s for a school project, a funny meme, or a blog, many people use search engines to find fitting images. Some of these are free to use, but in most cases, permission from the creator is required to publish photos in public. The same is true for images that float around on news sites or social networks. It’s easy to make a copy of a photo and use it elsewhere on the web but more often than not, people are not supposed to do so without permission. This is a cause of frustration for many creators and some are now drawing the line. In the past, we have covered several lawsuits filed by photographers against major news outlets that use their work without permission, but there’s another development worth noting – Pixsy. Pixsy offers a dedicated product that helps creators to find where their images are being copied without permission. Optionally, they can then request to send a takedown notice, or take it up a notch and demand compensation from the infringer, via email. The artists see the images Pixsy finds and can ‘submit’ the infringing one for further action. The site will then take care of the rest and only gets paid if the artist gets paid too. “Once submitted our expert case managers handle everything. From preparation to evidence collection, negotiation, settlements, and payouts,” Pixsy notes. Fight image theft https://torrentfreak.com/images/pixsy.png Pixsy officially launched its services in 2014 and has already processed over 55,000 cases worldwide. The company doesn’t specify how many licensing demands have been sent, but they appear to be quite common. The Internet is littered with mentions of these emails with varying demands. In some instances they’re asking for $750, but we’ve also seen $575 and various other figures floating around, also in pounds. TorrentFreak spoke to a person who was recently targeted by a Pixsy license request. He prefers to remain anonymous, fearing more repercussions, but we’ll call him Frank. He was utterly surprised when the email came in. “I had no idea you could get in trouble for taking a picture off Google search results,” Frank told us. The trouble, in this case, refers to an email requesting hundreds of pounds in licensing fees. The email stresses that the creator of the image hasn’t given permission, and there’s an “evidence report” that summarizes the findings. The licensing request doesn’t come without a proper stick, however, as Pixsy warns that legal action may follow if the demands are not met within a set deadline. What’s next? https://torrentfreak.com/images/pixsy.jpg “In the event that resolution with a license fee is not possible, our next steps are to forward this matter to a legal partner in your local area to secure the highest fees recoverable for copyright infringement,” Pixsy writes. “These fees include actual damages or statutory damages, and can include legal costs, expenses, costs affiliated with filing a lawsuit, and ensuing litigation.” The image Frank used wasn’t an actual photograph but a mocked-up Photoshop image that appeared rather generic. When writing this article a reverse image search revealed that it appears on hundreds of sites. Interestingly, none of the sites credit the author, nor could we find any way to officially license the image. Despite the strong language, Frank tells us that he has no intention to pay. And he’s not the only one. The letters have been described as an “extortion scam” by some, and others note that the legal threat may not be as imminent as it seems. That said, it’s no surprise if many of the recipients choose to pay the license fee (as this woman did), if only to get rid of the looming threat of things getting worse. While not everyone agrees with the tactics, the scheme certainly is a wake-up call that people should not randomly use images they find online. Many creators who struggle dealing with copyright infringing also see it as a useful service. TorrentFreak also spoke to Pixsy which informs us that they “fight image theft” with the help of 26 different legal partners across the world. They stress that their service doesn’t target all websites randomly. They pick selected targets which seem to be professional businesses, major publications, or government agencies. In Frank’s case, the professional business was a blog that was set up a few months ago, offering a certain service. Not a typical company, but Pixsy presumably saw it as a legitimate target. Our source had no experience with creating websites and maintains that he had no clue that the image he used required a license. To avoid confusion, he urges search engines to make this more clear going forward. Most mention that images “may” be copyrighted, but a starker warning could be appropriate. While Frank doesn’t deny that creators of photos and other images should be able to protect their rights, he’s no fan of Pixsy’s model. “I think their email threats come across as a scam or extortion. Only after googling Pixsy I could see that other people have run into them and their methods, and most call them copyright trolls. “I’ve not replied to their emails as I’m hoping they’ll go away to catch bigger fish than little old me,” Frank adds. Talking about bigger fish – Pixsy recently offered help to catch one. The company reached out to photographer Sean Heavey who is currently suing Netflix for the infringing use of a photo. While Heavey didn’t use Pixsy to find the infringing use, the company referred him to a legal partner, and is helping him to track other infringers through their service. “I now believe all photographers need to have a service such as Pixsy as part of their normal business plan,” Heavey told Alpha Universe. “We have taken action on not only the Netflix case but others as well — some of which I knew about and others I discovered while using the Pixsy platform,” he adds. We’re pretty sure Netflix won’t be able to make that go away for $750… Whether any infringements found through Pixsy have ever resulted in full-blown lawsuits is unknown. The company informs us that it can’t provide exact numbers on licensing requests and legal cases. Source: Torrentfreak.com

Staff Freeleech pick: here

November freeleech Freeleech until 2018 November 21. 23:59:59 UTC because why not?

Swedish Internet service provider Bahnhof issued a rather unusual press release on Thursday. Instead of regular company updates, it explained in detail how sites such as The Pirate Bay can be unblocked. While Bahnhof doesn't block the site itself, the guide does come in handy for its customers. Most Internet providers do their best to keep the peace with copyright holders. Swedish ISP Bahnhof is not one of them. The company has been a fierce opponent of copyright trolling, invasive data retention laws, and website blocking. At Bahnhof, user-privacy and unrestricted access to the Internet take priority. Still, when the company published a detailed unblocking guide in a press release on Thursday, we were caught by surprise. “There are Internet providers who have been ordered by the Patent and Market Court to block DNS, of The Pirate Bay site for example, and that means you can not access that page no matter how much you try,” Bahnhof begins. These blockades, such as the one ordered against Telia last month, prevent people from going to The Pirate Bay, FMovies, or any other restricted sites. Ideally, that should stop them from pirating ever again, but Bahnhof has its doubts. “This is how it’s supposed to work. Someone surfing to a blocked site thinks ‘damn, now I can’t access it, no more movie downloading for me’. But, of course, it does not work like that in real life. It’s easy to get around a blockade if you are using a VPN or change your DNS servers. Let’s explain.” The ISP goes into detail about how people can set up a VPN to avoid censorship, offering a step-by-step guide. In addition, it points out that changing one’s DNS servers may already be sufficient to bypass simple site blockades. Initially, we assumed that Bahnhof was only trying to be helpful, telling their competitors’ customers how they can access blocked sites. However, this perspective changed yesterday. As it turns out, Bahnhof has also been ordered to block several ‘pirate’ domains. Following a lawsuit from academic publisher Elsevier, it now has to ban Sci-Hub and Libgen, among others. As we reported previously, the company isn’t taking this lightly, to say the least. While the company can’t evade the blocking order itself, it can point out how its subscribers can do so. And that’s exactly what their press release does. Source: Torrentfreak.com

https://orpheus.network/login.php Site is live. Welcome Home! If you had an account on Apollo at the time of the backup (June 2017), please use the recovery page to restore your account. If you are unsure if you are in the backup or not, use the recovery page. If you had an account on Apollo but you signed up after the backup date, you can use either the Referral page (if you are on PTP, BTN, MTV, GGN, EMP or 32P) or the Recovery page. To save us work and to ensure immediate registration, please use the Referral page if you can. If you did not have an account on Apollo but you would like to join Orpheus, and you are on PTP, BTN, MTV, GGN, EMP or 32P, feel free to use the referral page and join! See you on the other side. Join Through Referral from a trusted tracker. External Tracker Referrals Here you are able to gain access to Orpheus by verifying that you are a member of another private tracker that we trust. The process is as follows: Choose a tracker from the list that you're a member of. Orpheus will generate a string of characters that you will place in the body of your profile at the tracker of your choice. Paste the character string anywhere in the body of your profile and save it. Enter your username and Orpheus will verify your membership and issue an invite code to you. Join Orpheus! Step :2 Step 2: Paste Your Code Copy and paste the code below into the profile of your (tracker) account. It can go anywhere in your profile body (commonly known as "Profile info 1") as long as it is in one piece. ********************************************* Enter the user id you use at (tracker) exactly as it appears on the site. This is critical in verifying your account. Recover Your Account Membership recovery Some people are in the recovered backup, some are not. If you had registered before 2017-06-18, you are in. You will need to supply only your username and email or announce key. If you signed up afterwards, or you have lost (or never received) your invite email, things are a little more complicated. We will consider any proof you may be able to supply, such as the complete signup email, or screenshots of your profile page. Staff has the final say in whether the proof is sufficient.

Soon Diwali Dhamaka coming on DT - on 7th of November, 12 am IST, We will open DT gates for the people who wanted to join DT.

We can NOT afford to keep missing our goal. Please donate if you can - DH Staff

Poll about contributing to more security Please vote for more security, thank you: here

Sitewide freeleech is on.

Google Translation: Staff Picks November There is a small selection made by the staff and some collaborators. Until the end of the month you will have them as gold. To enjoy them according to the tastes of each one. STAFF PICKS NOVEMBER

Google Translation: THE SITE IS IN FREELEECH! Time remaining: >>> 1d 8h 49m

Search engines operating in Russia are obliged to connect to a centralized database to ensure that permanently blocked sites do not appear in search results. According to local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, Google has failed to connect with the blacklist as required, so must now face fines for non-compliance. After several years of legislative amendments and technical deployments, Russia now has a fairly sophisticated site-blocking system. It targets blatantly-infringing pirate sites, unregistered VPNs, plus extremist and other material considered dangerous by the state. While some sites are blocked temporarily, for not removing pirated content quickly enough, for example, others find themselves permanently blocked by local ISPs. Failing to remove pirate content after multiple complaints can trigger such a situation, with offending domains placed on a national blacklist of blatant infringers. Legislation passed last year expanded this regime. With the creation of a centralized database to which ISPs and search engines must connect, URLs of permanently blocked resources can be preemptively removed from search results. However, while other search companies are following the rules, it appears there is an issue with Google. According to local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, Google is in breach of federal law after the company failed to interface its systems with Russia’s ‘FGIS’ national blacklist. Roscomnadzor previously wrote to Google to request its compliance, noting that within three days the company should begin filtering its search results. However, for reasons that are not immediately apparent, Google failed to comply with the request, meaning that it could now be subject to an administrative fine of between 500,000 and 700,000 rubles (US$7,611 to US$10,656). Roscomnadzor deputy head Vadim Subbotin says that his organization is writing to Google and the company must respond with an explanation. “The decision was made on the basis of [a recent] inspection. We are now sending the act of verification to Google. They have certain deadlines to object to our verification activities and send us their objections. We will see what their response is,” Subbotin said. The final decision on the scale of the fine will sit with the courts and Roscomnadzor says it will decide on its next course of action after considering Google’s response. To date, no tech company has ever been fined for non-compliance. Even if the fine is at the top end it will be a drop in the ocean for the search giant. However, Russian authorities are taking their blocking efforts seriously so resistance could prove a considerable irritant. Last month it was revealed that following 17,000 complaints against pirate sites, 6,000 were eventually blocked by ISPs following orders form Roscomnadzor. This week, Russia’s most powerful tech companies including Yandex, Mail.ru Group, and Rambler signed a Memorandum of Cooperation designed to rid their platforms of infringing content, without having to go near a courtroom. In cooperation with major movie and TV companies, the agreement will see the formation of a central database of infringing sites within three weeks. This registry will be queried every five minutes by search engines and content platforms who will use the data to remove infringing content from search results and hosting services. Google has not yet signed but is being welcomed to do so. Source: Torrentfreak.com

Tomorrow/today (3 Nov) during the European morning (~09:00 CET / 4am EST), we will perform some quick maintenance. This means all our infrastructure will go down for approximately 15 to 30 minutes.

Until December Extra Bonus / Rewards for uploading Independent Horror Movies Korean Horror Movies Japanese Horror Movies (These are all exceptions to the date rule)

Google Translation: :: The Day of the Dead on 2 November, Friday The Day of the Dead is a Christian holiday for the deceased, but the salvation has not yet been won for the faithful in the fire. For Catholics is celebrated on November 2, ecclesiastical is the feast of the "suffering church", the feast of the All Saints on the 1st of November, when the struggling Church remembers the suffering church.