Hollywood and Netflix point to “Piracy as a Service” (PaaS) as a New Threat Vector * TorrentFreak

In its quest to combat online piracy, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) keeps a close eye on the latest and greatest piracy threats.

The organization, which represents major Hollywood studios and Netflix, calls the foreign sites and services most problematic for providing “notorious markets” to USTR each year.

The last deposit came in a few days. According to the Film Industry Group, piracy as a whole is the single biggest threat to its members.

“Criminals who profit from the worst markets threaten the heart of our industry and, in doing so, threaten the livelihoods of the people who give it life.

“These markets represent a direct threat to legitimate commerce, harming the capacity of legitimate markets and reducing the competitiveness of the United States,” the MPA notes.

The usual suspects

The latest MPA report provides a detailed overview of the piracy landscape. It mentions many of the usual previously reported targets. This includes torrent sites, streaming portals, IPTV services, Cyberlockers, and hacking apps.

The Pirate Bay gets a notable mention and the same goes for other torrent sites like YTS and RARBG. Other familiar names are Uploaded, Fmovies, CDA.pl, Cuevana3, BS.to and Egy.best.

The MPA notes that its overview is not exhaustive. For the torrent site category, for example, the focus is on “high-quality” sites and sites that offer recently released content.

Hacking as a Service

Traditionally, Notorious Markets shows a lot of overlap with previous years. However, the MPA has a notable new addition.

“This year, for the first time, our dossier includes ‘piracy as a service’ as a notoriously new category of market,” the MPA wrote, adding that such services illustrate “the scale, sophistication, and profitability of the modern online commerce of copyright infringement.”

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a very popular term nowadays, but Hacking as a Service (PaaS) is new to us. Refers to tools and services that make it easier for potential hackers to set up and run a hacking operation.

“PaaS offerings constitute a set of ready-made services that make it easy for potential hackers to set up, run, and monetize a fully functional hacking operation. PaaS providers lower barriers to entry into commercial piracy,” explains the MPA.

Although this threat class is new, these “PaaS” sites and services have been around for years or even decades.

According to the MPA, the category includes streaming site templates, content management systems that provide access to pirated content, IPTV dashboards, bulletproof hosting providers, video hosting services that hide infringing links, and more.

In its introduction, MPA highlights several PaaS offerings including XFileSharing scripts, Njalla domain registrar, IPTV Smarters management suite, and Fembed.com video embedding service.

Billion dollar goals

Obviously, the “Notorious Markets” label is not limited to shady businesses and anonymous operations. Publicly traded companies such as Mail.ru, VK.com and Baidu are also flagged as problematic.

Baidu is the dominant search engine in China, and according to the MPA, it should do more to make sure that piracy-related content is harder to find. In addition, the Baidu Pan cloud hosting service should deploy filtering technology and remove infringing content more quickly.

“Baidu should implement strict filtering technology to identify infringing content, and take more effective measures to suspend or terminate repeat offenders,” the MPA notes.

The instant messaging platform Telegram also got a notable mention because removal tools and service efficiency are not available in the MPA’s view.

Registries, advertisers and hosting providers

MPA filing also refers to domain registries, including those managing .IS and .IS files. to and. TV. domains. These cTLDs are commonly used by pirate websites.

Like many other registries, including those based in the United States, these organizations typically do not take action against domain owners without a court order. According to the MPA, they should.

“The registry has the ability, directly or through its contractual relationship with its registrars, to withdraw or disable domain names used by websites implicated in serious copyright infringement,” the MPA wrote.

Finally, the MPA also highlights the problematic role that advertisers, advertising agencies, and hosting companies can play. These include AdsKeeper, Propeller Ads, 1XBET, BlueAngelHost, Ddos-Guard, and many more.

The full overview of the MPA lists dozens of sites and services that facilitate piracy, profit from it, or both. By calling these things out, the MPA hopes the United States will encourage foreign governments to take action.

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Below can be found a list of all sites and services featured and ranked in serving popular markets for MPA (pdf)

Linking and streaming websites

– video
– tadphenesone
-BSto
– CB01
– Cda.pl
– Chomikuj.pl
Cuevana3.io
– Dytt8.net, Dy2018.com, Dygod.net, Ygdy8.com
– Iggy Beast
– Fmovies.to
– Gimy. app
– Gnula.se/Gnula.nu
– MrPiracy. top
– pelisplushd.net
– Vimoy
– Rezka.ag
– Topflix.vc website
– Zone-telechargement.com

Direct Download Cyberlockers and Video Streaming Hosting Services

– 1fichier.com
– Baidu Ban
– Mixdrop.co
– PowVideo.net
– Streamtape.com
– Telegram
– Uploaded.net
– Uptobox.com
– Vivo.sx
– VK.com

Illegal IPTV services

– BIPTV.best and BestBuyIPTV.store
– GenIPTV
– IPTVForest.net
– TheKing365tv.org
– King-IPTV.net
– SatCon Africa

Hacking devices and applications

– EVPAD
– PopcornTime
– PopcornTime.one (for kids)
– my network
– SVI Cloud
– TVTap
– Unblock Tech (unlocktech.com)

Peer-to-peer networks and BitTorrent portals

– 1337x.to
– Gimmepeers.com (officially Bitsoup.org)
– Rarbg.to
– Rutracker.org
– ThePirateBay.org
– Yts.mx

hosting providers

– Amaretto / Code Dos
– BlueAngelHost
– Ddos-Guard.net
Host-palace.com
– Mnogobyte

records

CH record
IS record
– .ru log
– Register
Record TV

Payment processors

– VoguePay

Ad networks and online advertisers

– 1XBET
– AdsKeeper
– GetB8.com
PopAds and PopCash
– Fan ads
– RefinoHits

Hacking as a Service (PaaS)

– 2embed.ru
– Abyss.to
– Collaps.org
– Embedforfree.co
Fembed.com
– GDrivePlayer
– IPTV Smarters
– Son
– pelisplus.icu
– XFileSharing / XVideoSharing