German Court Pulls Orders Granted To Copyright Troll U+C; Grants Injunction Against Future Demand Letters

from the undoing-the-damage dept

Tue, Dec 24th 2013 3:05pm — Tim Cushing

Urmann+Colleagues (U+C) is having a hell of a month. It looked to be briefly on the path to the sort of financial success copyright trolls like Prenda and Mailbu Media can only dream about. U+C sent out at least 10,000 settlement letters earlier this month asking for €250 ($344) from viewers who had streamed certain pornographic titles on RedTube.

The problems inherent in U+C's "business model" swiftly became apparent. First off, it appeared the agency had misled a German court by presenting RedTube as a file-sharing site, rather than a streaming site. In addition, U+C had somehow acquired subscriber info and IP addresses, data not easily obtained from the streaming sites. (RedTube has denied multiple times that it provided this info to U+C). German lawyers stepped up and informed the public that the demand letters were problematic to say the least and that there was little chance the demands were enforceable under German law (thanks to streaming of infringing content not being illegal).

Now it's not just lawyers standing in the way of U+C's easy money. The court has stepped in, admitting its mistake in approving U+C's requests and revoking court orders compelling Deutsche Telekom to hand over subscriber info on nearly 50,000 IP addresses.

The question still remains as to how U+C acquired these IP addresses. Ars Technica reports that some German internet users who received demand letters found the following redirect in their internet history.

http://hit.trafficholder.com/transfer.php?http://49655.movfile.net

http://49655.movfile.net/

http://49655.retdube.net/

Which then finally resolves to Redtube.com.

According to German tech site heise.de, these harvested IP addresses can be acquired for a certain amount of cash. Ars Technica was unable to secure a comment from TrafficHolder, despite its website's promise of "round the clock customer service." TrafficHolder also failed to respond to emailed queries.

This development gives U+C's efforts the appearance of a small-time honeypot, something that could generate further legal problems for the company. But as German lawyer Christian Solmecke points out, attempting to recover fines or costs from U+C (and its benefactor, The Archive AG) would be a long, drawn-out process that could last as long as 18 months. For most of those targeted by U+C's shady tactics, simply not paying a $344 fine will be victory enough.

The Archive AG (supposedly the rights holder for the porn titles in question) hasn't completely dodged the fallout from this ham-fisted collection attempt. RedTube has been granted an injunction against the company that prevents it from hassling its viewers about alleged copyright infringement. From the press release:

The District Court of Hamburg has granted an injunction in reaction to Cease and Desist letters sent to RedTube users by law firm Urmann Collegen on behalf of the Archive AG. RedTube, the leading provider of adult content filed an injunction earlier this week to prevent further harassing RedTube users with threatening Cease and Desist letters and alleging copyright infringement.

As ruled by the court, The Archive AG is no longer allowed to send out warning letters to Redtube users claiming that the users violated the copyright of The Archive AG -- not only with regard to the videos mentioned by Urmann Collegen in the warning letters, but in regards to any specific videos. The claims by the Archive AG have been deemed unfounded and users of streaming websites, including RedTube, are once again free to access and enjoy videos with peace of mind.

RedTube again reiterated its claim that it never exposed any user data, nor did it turn over any info to U+C or The Archive AG, either of its own free will or via a court order.

U+C isn't shy about using shady tactics to boost collections. As has been covered here in the past, U+C has attempted to shame file sharers into paying fees by threatening to expose their porn habits to the public. This latest attempt is just as legally questionable. Of course, nothing happening now will mean a thing if, in the future, U+C is able to deploy nefarious tactics with the blessing of the confused German court.

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Filed Under: copyright, copyright trolling, germany
Companies: redtube, the archive ag, u+c, urmann + colleagues

12 Comments

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Just Sayin', 24 Dec 2013 @ 3:15pm

Manwin mindgeek trafficholder
They are all the same group. When you understand that, you will understand the issues. A big split over tax problems for their former "owner" is your first clue as to what is really going on.

It actually smells like a setup to try to get a favorable ruling in the courts, to make their business bulletproof.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Dec 2013 @ 3:25pm

its unlikely that redtube controls all of the servers that host the ads. That is all it takes. You hit a streaming site, connect, ads load from other servers which are usually not fully controlled by the site you are connecting to and they simply record the referral as coming from a redtube addy and which one.

Then companies like this buy that info. That's my guess.
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out_of_the_blue, 24 Dec 2013 @ 3:51pm

Redtube denials not true: has a deal with Trafficholder.
The only way one gets to Trafficholder from there is that it's an intermediary on clicks. Just like Google's doubleclick. Doesn't do a man-in-the-middle attack by itself, the code is placed on Redtube pages by Redtube so Redtube IS responsible for leaking those IP addresses. -- As ALWAYS happens, it's just one bunch of monetizing criminals attempting to evade responsibility. After all, Redtube's responsibility would only emerge at trial, by which time it'd be done for, and so if lying now can prevent that later, they'd lie deine kopfs auf.

That, of course, is IF the scenario above is true. I still favor Google do the ratting, as it too pays for the necessary code to be placed on pages. It certainly could! -- So, WE DON'T KNOW, but are plenty of suspects! That's teh internets for you: crooks selling your privacy everywhere you turn. Especially Google.
When you think surveillance or spying or snooping or censoring or pushing propaganda, think Google!

11:50:02[m-501-2]
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Dec 2013 @ 4:06pm
  
  Re: Redtube denials not true: has a deal with Trafficholder.
  Dear wandering idiot,
  
  That redirection could have been added to any website anywhere in the world, you could be visiting Techdirt and be pulling a Redtube page on the background on an invisible iFrame, since it would use a proxy(the honey pot) to make that request they would be able to log the IP from where it came from.
  
  I trust I don't need to explain it to you why this is bad.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Dec 2013 @ 4:21pm
  
  Re: Redtube denials not true: has a deal with Trafficholder.
  "That, of course, is IF the scenario above is true"
  
  And there the BS meter hit the danger zone.
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  - Just Sayin', 24 Dec 2013 @ 7:11pm
    
    Re: Re: Redtube denials not true: has a deal with Trafficholder.
    They don't have a deal, they OWN them. How hard is that to figure out?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Dec 2013 @ 5:17pm

Phew dodged that one I did not want to be sued for watching teh pron, oh wait, nvm I use a VPN.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Dec 2013 @ 7:18pm

out_of_the_blue just hates it when due process is enforced.
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Pawn to d4, 24 Dec 2013 @ 9:04pm

Charges filed against U+C in Hamburg
A Berlin law firm, MMR M�ller M�ller R��ner, has filed criminal charges against U+C alleging fraud (Betrug) and blackmail (Erpressung). The article linked to below links to the brief filed by MMR.

http://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2013-12/redtube-porno-klage-rechtsanwalt-betrug
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dyde, 26 Dec 2013 @ 5:51pm

trafficholder = manwin = redtube� now all the same company. can you smell the setup?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Dec 2013 @ 5:12pm

out_of_the_blue just hates it when due process is enforced.
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DyslexicAtheist, 31 Dec 2013 @ 4:01am

RedTube actually found a solution now.
RedTube pixelates all content by default and becomes #1 provider in Japan: http://thequickword.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/redtube-pixelates-all-content-by-default-and-becomes-1- provider-in-japan/
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