RedTube Smacks Down German Copyright Troll For Attempting To 'Blackmail' Its Viewers
from the barely-legal-trolls-stripped-bare-and-humiliated! dept
German copyright troll U+C (Urmann and Colleagues) recently upped its trolling game by sending out settlement letters to German Redtube viewers who had the misfortune of watching some rather generically-titled porn under its nominal control. U+C's previous trolling efforts had concentrated on P2P file sharing, so this new move, targeted at viewers of supposedly infringing streams raised several questions.
First and foremost: how did U+C acquire the names and addresses of those who had viewed the streams? Streaming viewers don't leave IP addresses exposed like P2P sharers do. Redtube denied turning over any user data. The theory arose that U+C had misled the courts by presenting Youtube as a "swap meet," i.e., a file sharing site. Obviously, Redtube is not in the business of file sharing and under German law, those viewing streams -- even if the streams themselves are infringing -- cannot be held liable for infringement. The other theory mooted was that U+C was utilizing some sort of malware to trap IP addresses, but no evidence has surfaced that this is the case. (Although, it should be pointed out that Google indicates Redtube "might be hacked.")
A few German lawyers stepped into the fray, offering their assistance and telling those served with letters to ignore them until further notice. Now, Redtube itself has weighed in on the matter via a press release, and it sounds thoroughly irritated by U+C's shady activities.
RedTube, the leading provider of adult content with 25 million daily users, refutes the matter in which thousands of RedTube users have received so-called "cease and desist letters". RedTube stands by its firm opinion that these letters are completely unfounded and that they violate the rights of those who received it in a very serious manner.So, Redtube's got your back, Einhänders. It remains to be seen what the court U+C misled will do once this information makes its way back to it. It may have very little effect on what's already been done, but it will (hopefully) guide its interactions with U+C in the future. In the meantime, those who have been sent letters asking them to pay up are probably safe just running them through the shredder. There doesn't seem to be any German law under which U+C can hold viewers accountable for streaming allegedly infringing material.
RedTube reaffirms its position that the Company takes all its customers personal data very seriously and applies the highest privacy standards for its visitors on an on-going basis.
The Company goes on to emphasize that RedTube certainly did not submit any personal data to any law firm or any authority or entity, and that it seems very likely that the data was obtained by using dishonest measures.
"Serious allegations have surfaced in the media recently," stated Vice President Alex Taylor, "rest assured that our counsel received an immediate mandate to pursue all necessary actions to make all related entities accountable for the damage that has been caused." Taylor continued, "In 2013, blackmailing and violating the privacy of German citizens' private domain should not and will not be tolerated."
Redtube would like to reach out to its viewers who have received one of the spamming letters, and ask they get in touch with Redtube immediately. If you have received one of these letters, please let us know by contacting us at media@redtube.com.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, copyright troll, germany, trolling
Companies: redtube
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I'm still sure they were ratted out by Google.
"So, Redtube's got your back, Einhänders." -- Ha, ha, minion. -- Anyhoo, that remains to be seen. May just be dodging liability or other ill effects by muddying up the waters.
Google wants you to know you're under our ever improving state-of-the-art personalized surveillance! We learn your interests, habits, and associations! All "free", courtesy of other corporations!
10:23:41[l-530-5]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm still sure they were ratted out by Google.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm still sure they were ratted out by Google.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
But, from what I heard, there is a host of criminal charges coming towards the scumbag lawyers responsible, ranging from hacking, over fraud to blackmail from quite a few of those who received the letters and their respective lawyers. will be interesting how that develops.
They might just have gone too far for a change.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: Anonymous Coward on Dec 13th, 2013 @ 2:56pm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That is the easiest scenario except for commenting. If a comment on a page can contain XML code that returns the IP of the viewer. Porn sites are, now counter-intuitively, some of the safest sites on the web from malware because the porn purveyors have learned how to restrict user input.
The 3rd alternative is for U+C to upload a honeypot video containing code that, again identifies viewer's IP addresses. That is riskiest, because if the courts find this out...
The fact that Google indicates the site is hacked is more likely coincidental. Google may have tagged one of their advertiser's as a source of spam or malware.
The hoodwinking of the court was not just being vague about the nature of Redtube. They are claiming that the software tool gladii 1.1.3 was used to identify the IP addresses. Since that software is particular to identifying IP addresses in a peer-to-peer files sharing context rather than a streaming video context, that claim seems to be a lie.
10:55:36[l-530-5]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I will enjoy watching this
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Should this resolve down to ads with malware, as lots of sites have had in the past, Google included, who can blame the surfers for using ad block software? I already do that because of seeing some of the folk get hit with infected iFrames. Don't get me wrong here, I hate a commercial but this blocking of ads is more about security and increasing the speed of the net than about ad hating. Since the industry doesn't want to police the net for it's own benefit, don't blame the users for blocking ads in self protection. I suspect with the way things are going, more and more people will turn to blocking ads.
I refuse to open noscript to sites that demand it to show you content. Again it boils down to security aspect. I'll leave and go on before I will open it up to see their content. There is always another site with pretty much the same info without having to open yourself up to vulnerabilities.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Historical is the keyword here as this is no longer true. I wish I could remember where I read the article that said that church websites are now more risky for malware than other websites while porn websites are some of the safest now. Porn purveyors were early adopters of the web. They were also some of the first targeted by malware. They learned quickly that user input can be messy and dangerous so it's the porn sites that were some of the first to ramp up security by restricting user input (not the semi-liquid kind, but XML scripts sneaking past simplistic text barriers).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/05/malware_and_computer_viruses_they_ve_ left_porn_sites_for_religious_sites_.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Shouldn't that be "RedTube", instead of Youtube?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I think you just read the part I quoted instead of my comment
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
As for how U + C got the IPs, it's pretty certain by now they did it by paying Trafficholder.com to re-direct internet users via intermediary URLs to the supposedly infringing content. I don't know, is this really a "honeypot" if users never even wanted to go there and their browsers are rather hi-jacked, so to speak?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I think it is a definite possibility that someone used trafficholder.com to cause redirection to infringing content on redtube. I would expect MindGeek to clarify very soon whether they ever use trafficholder at all and, in particular, whether they are responsible for the particular example of redirecting traffic to one of the infringing videos on Redtube. Two of the videos on that list are no longer there, however one is, albeit with a different title. That video is cited in a demand letter as "Miriam's Adventures". Its original title in the heise.de link posted below is "My Black Stepdad 1" which was released by "Combat Zone". The video that now resides at that redtube link appears to be the same video but with yet a different title: "Kendra's stepdad takes care of her". The earliest comment for that video was posted 3 years ago. Registered users can upload their own videos. I did not register, so it is not obvious to me if such uploaded videos can be seen by unregistered visitors. If they can be seen they are not distinguishable from all the other videos. Anyway a video that has been there for 3 years is not likely to be a honeypot. Also, MindGeek shouldn't tolerate its continued presence once the demand letters start going out. Yet, it is still there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Porno-Abmahnungen-Indizienkette-zur-IP-Adressen-Ermittlun g-verdichtet-sich-2065879.html (in german)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The other odd thing is that article show increased traffic to what was titled "Miriam's adventures". The graphic shows the Redtube file number. That file still exists on Redtube. Although it does not have the same title it is clearly the same video. That video has been sitting there for at least 3 years. If there was a real copyright infringement concern why was Redtube not notified and why do the copyright holder's not complain about the video still being available on Redtube? As the evidence comes out it is becoming more clear this whole U+C scheme is not about copyright but an extortion scam.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Filthy rats. The purported owner of the collection agency also had quite the trail of similar fraud and extortion projects of his own.
At any rate, those subscription fraud tactics have been very explicitly judged fraudulent and void, and laws to curb them from the get-go have been also made afterwards, so I'd have expected him to be serving time by now. Apparently no such luck.
Very disappointing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
movfile.net
retdube.net (notice not redtube.net but a typo domain)
were registered on July 22, 2013. The first date for the supposed stream infringement was July 24th. The redirect is for a particular file (video) which strikes me as odd if one accepts that MindGeek, the owner of Redtube, is using trafficholder.com to increase traffic to its redtube.com site. I would expect that they would redirect you to a whole page of video listings.
What is equally suspicious in timing, and is not noted in the article you linked to, is that on July 25th Mindgeek, who used the name Manwin at that time, started its acquisition of Redtube from Bright Imperial Limited. Perhaps some disgruntled employee is responsible for registering these two domains and generating traffic to one of the few posted videos that violated copyright. If that is true, perhaps the same disgruntled employee gave IP addresses of users of those infringing files to U+C.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
redtube perhaps infringing
Redtube is part of a group that was called Manwin (now called Mindgeek, trying to hide) who's previous leader is facing heavy tax evasion charges in Germany. The porn tube business has been built on infringing other people's content for profit, under the guise of "user submitted", while it is rumored that many sites use in house staff to harvest content from others.
Painting Redtube as snow while innocent is a pretty ignorant place to start a discussion.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fucking
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
gh frog g
[ link to this | view in chronology ]