KODI Crackdown ramps up as ’bounty hunters’ tracking piracy law breakers

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KODI users have been warned ‘bounty hunters’ are tracking down people who break piracy laws in return for a Bitcoin reward.

Kodi fans have been put on alert about ‘bounty hunters’ who are being rewarded with Bitcoin to hunt down those who break strict piracy laws.

The Kodi surge continues without any sign of stopping, as users continue to ditch paid TV services for the online player.

Research has suggested Kodi - which offers access to thousands of channels - is being used in more than five million UK homes.

Kodi software is not illegal, but developers can produce third-party add-ons that provide free access to pirated and illegal content. 

The illegal add-ons are being targeted by ISPs, government agencies, broadcasters and rights holders.

And now content producers are enlisting a novel way to tackle the growing problem of online piracy.

‘Bitcoin bounties’ are being offered in exchange for assistance tracking down online pirates.

TorrentFreak revealed the new way anti-piracy organisations are trying to entice the public to help them stop those who break piracy laws.

The way it works is content producers can create unique, identifying watermarks.

These are then added to movies, eBooks or other digital files before they are circulated.

When these get leaked to the public, bounty hunters can use the watermark to claim their Bitcoin reward and alert the copyright owner.

This helps spot leaks early and also identify the source of the leak, according to TorrentFreak.

The technology for these watermarks is owned by South African firm Custos, who are already working with a number of copyright holders.

They have recently announced a new partnership with book publisher Erudition Digital.

Unique watermarks are added to their eBooks, and if the copyrighted material gets leaked it will be up to bounty hunters to spot these identifying marks.

Custos and Erudition Digital are being helped in their efforts by anti-piracy outfit Digimarc. 

The companies said: “The Custos approach is revolutionary in that it attacks the economy of piracy by targeting uploaders rather than downloaders, turning downloaders into an early detection network.

“The result is pirates turn to one another, sowing seeds of distrust amongst their communities.”

Only a selection number of bounty hunters are involved currently, but the reward scheme will be opened up to the general public in the near future.

The Bitcoin bounties vary in size - for an advanced copy of a movie it can be anything between $10 (£7.40) and $50 (£37).

For more sensitive content though the bounty can be $100 (£74) or more.

Custos COO Fred Lutz said: “We can also adjust the bounty over time based on the customer’s needs.

“A low quality screener that was very sensitive prior to cinematic release dies bit require as large a bounty after cam-rips become available.”

Once the bounty system becomes available to the public, it will pose a serious obstacle to online pirates.

A number of torrent websites have already closed up shop this year amid harsher penalties for online piracy and other damaging external factors.

Just a few months ago, one popular torrent site - TorrentHound - shut down citing a lack in revenue as one of the main reasons.

While other popular torrent websites like Kickass Torrents, ExtraTorrent and Torrentz.eu have all shut down.

The penalties for online piracy have also become more severe this year thanks to the Digital Economy Act becoming law.

The new law raised the maximum possible sentence for online copyright infringement offences from two to 10 years.

The maximum sentence will only apply to people who commit serious copyright crimes, such as distributing content.

Torrent websites will also have to deal with the upcoming ad blocker that is coming to Google Chrome, the world’s most popular browser.

Adverts that will be affected are those which don’t fall within the “better ads standards” including pop-up ads.

The upcoming Google Chrome ad blocker is expected to have a big effect on torrent sites and the revenue they bring in.

The owner of one torrent site, who did not want to be named, told TorrentFreak that the Google Chrome ad blocker could signal the end of torrents.

They said: “The torrent site economy is in a bad state. Profits are very low. Profits are f***** compared to previous years.

“Chrome’s ad-blocker will kill torrent sites. If they don’t at least cover their costs, no one is going to use money out of his pocket to keep them alive.

“I won’t be able to do so at least.”

The ‘Bitcoin bounty hunters’ just add to the growing list of threats torrent websites and online pirates are having to face.

Whether they can continue to operate in the face of so many external pressures remains to be seen.