“The operators of these sites tend to make great efforts to hide themselves and also will locate the operations in countries where, if they are identified, it’s hard to take any action”.
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Among its list of illegally downloaded New Zealand films, vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows had been picked up almost 300,000 times, while other local hits such as Turbo Kid, Boy and Whale Rider also prominently featured.
At around the same time, MPAA representatives “targeted the operator of YTS/YIFY who’s a New Zealand resident”, the report added.
MPAA said the two sites “enabled acts of copyright infringement worldwide on a massive scale”.
The Motion Picture Association of America is hailing a success in the ongoing fight against piracy with word that the trade association has won the shutdown of the “official” Popcorn Time fork as well as torrent outfit YTS. The studios obtained an injunction on October 16 ordering the shutdown of the site.
The MPAA statement said YTS was in the top 600 most popular sites in the world “and had over 3.4-million unique visitors in August 2015 alone, according to comScore”.
“This coordinated legal action is part of a larger comprehensive approach being taken by the MPAA and its global affiliates to combat content theft”, said Chris Dodd, chairman and chief executive of the MPAA, in a statement. “Development of high-quality entertainment requires significant investment of time and resources, and creators rely on a fair and lawful ecosystem that minimizes the significant impact of piracy”.
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“We will do whatever we can to try to stop that”. “The actions announced today will help ensure that we’re able to continue this mission”, he asserted. It’s possible that other developers will bring the most popular version Popcorn Time back, but it’s clear that anybody who works on it will be making themselves a target for the movie industry’s lawyers. But the bigger question: Will the remaining alternative for torrent fans, The Pirate Bay, go down next?
