Kino.to users face trouble
Kino.to
A similarly grey zone in copyright infringement fall on
movie and TV streaming portals, in which movies and TV shows can be watched,
sometimes even before it reaches local theaters. We take our observations to
Kino.to, the most popular video streaming portal in Europe, which was shut down
in June 2011, ending with the operator's arrest. In this case, criminal charges
were laid down by the GVU; it was their third attempt after two unsuccessful
claims in the previous years. And they already have their sights on 292 other
web portals, 128 of which are still active. Among them are 38 streaming
services such as Movie2k and Kin.to’s successor, Kinox.to, as well as 64 file
hosting sites (RapidShare including).
After Kino.to's death, the legal situation of its users
changed gradually. While the proclamation of sentence against the operator
swings between 21 months on probation and 41 months of imprisonment, Judge
Mathias Winderlich of the Leipzig district court has also raised the question
on whether the act of viewing the stream should also be punishable. On his
point of view, the temporary copy saved during streaming is also an
infringement of copyright, which basically agrees to the GVU's own opinion on
the matter - since the movies linked on Kino.to are already illegal copies,
viewing their streams should also be considered illegal. "A copy that was
once illegal cannot turn into a legal one", said. Judge Marion Janke.
There are judges with differing opinions, citing section 44a of the German
Copyright Act that allows temporary distribution for the purpose of viewing.
But this act is only applicable if the source is legal -- for Kino.to, this is
not even remotely close.
The judges are still at odds about the question on whether
other courts would give a ruling similar to the Leipzig district court's.
Attorney Thomas Stadler writes in his blog, Internet- Law, that the opinion of
one district court judge gives very limited decisive value for the juristic
discussion, especially since no reasons were given for the judgment against a
user, but just a verbal comment within the scope of a completely different
juristic process. Marion Janke, on the other hand, proposes that a few judges
would consider these arguments. In her opinion, judges had been pronouncing
sentences directly to users who had received the cease-and-desist orders. In
their eyes, every Internet user should know that the latest films cannot be
available free of cost in the Internet by legal means. And one who is unsure
must simply stay away from such sites.
After Leipzig's interpretation, Dresden's district
attorney’s office announced the implementation of criminal procedure against
premium users of Kino.to, who could be identified by their payments through
PayPal. The result could be charges amount to hundreds of Euros.
Movie2k
So what does this all mean to us? It's really the fact that
there is a way for people to find out what we've seen, and that what we've seen
may really be an illegal copy. In the case of Kino.to, anonymous users may be
able to get away scot free, because the IP could not be traced as effectively.
But people are already putting their eyes on streaming sites such as Movie2k
and Kinox.to, and improved IP tracking tools may be introduced as early as the
coming months (according to Christine Ehlers of the GVU). It's perhaps better
to simply avoid this side, because - while this is still essentially a grey
area — it might turn dark closer and easier, as evident by the German court's
interpretation. It may be hard to know just WHAT and WHICH exact content may be
a copyright-infringed copy; you can't tell if a YouTube video is legally
uploaded or not, for instance, but knowing the legality of the whole site and
the general understanding of its content's source is important. That will help
you avoid sites that may possibly land you a lawsuit.
Piracy in numbers
Despite the innumerable illegal & free offers on the
web, the Isfyf Rooming - but with big differences
As compared to 2005, the revenues from entertainment mediums
has increased - the better the digital sales, the bigger the increase
Sources: PWC, IFPI; worldwide increase from 2005 to 2010
Contents with file-hosts
Movies form the predominant part of file-hosting contents -
not surprising, since they are hardly available legally in digital form
Sources:
Envisional 2011
Pecentage of illegal content for each media
File hosters always advertise themselves as digital storage
space for legal data. A random sample analysis shows that it's truly just
wishful thinking.
Pecentage of illegal content for each media
Security against cease& desist letters
How can i avoid
unwarranted cease-&- desists letters?
Since errors can arise during tracking and allocation of IP
addresses, you should save your IP addresses in a log file. Activate the log
push in the router for this (in FritzBox, it's under "System
settings"). This function saves your IP, the usage times, the data volumes
as well as devices reported in the WLAN. Thus you can later refute false
accusations. You should additionally secure your WLAN by changing the password
in the router settings. Thus you are protected from unauthorised usage, like by
the neighbors. If your router is not secured, you can be arrested as a WLAN
operator.
How
do i respond to cease-&-desist?
If the cease-&-desist is unauthorised due to the IP data
of the router, you must contest the claim in due time with evidence to that
effect. To ensure that the phrasing is crystal-clear, you should employ a
specialised attorney to write the letter. In the case that the
cease-&-desist is warranted, you also need him to rephrase the most often
formulated declaration of cease-&-desist in such away that you do not
suffer from any incalculable juristic consequences. For example, if it only
concerns one song, this only should be the subject matter of the cease &
desist, but not the entire album.
