Over the years, due to their popularity and endurance, various pirate sites have become household names. The Pirate Bay is perhaps the most obvious example in the torrent space alongside competitors RARBG and 1337x.
In pirate streaming, in part due to the way sites tend to copy each other's branding, long-standing obvious players are less easy to identify. However, one platform that has stood the test of time is PrimeWire, which in one form or another has been around for perhaps eight years, even longer if your former brand 1channel.ch is taken into account.
PrimeWire domains are blocked by court order in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and Portugaland the site has been repeatedly marked a 'notorious market' by the MPA.
MPA and ACE prepare legal action against PrimeWire
Despite all this negative attention, PrimeWire has managed to stay in business, but last month there were fresh signs that the MPA and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment had not given up the fight.
As part of a series of DMCA subpoenas filed during November in the United States, PrimeWire once again found itself under pressure after the MPA / ACE. got permission to force Cloudflare to release any details it has about the PrimeWire operator.
A new lawsuit filed in the United States this week reveals that while that particular effort did not achieve its key goal (other than identifying an IP address in Texas), it has not deterred the MPA from moving forward with a new lawsuit designed to Bring PrimeWire to its knees.
Hollywood and Netflix file copyright infringement lawsuit
Filed by companies operated by Paramount, Universal, Warner, Columbia, Disney and Netflix, the lawsuit targets 10 "John Doe" defendants who do business together as PrimeWire. Three domains are listed: PrimeWire.li, PrimeWire.ag, and PrimeWire.vc, which together offer access to a vast library of thousands of TV shows and movies, including recent theatrical releases. Ghostbusters: Another Life and Disney Charm.
โThe scale of the defendants' infringement is staggering. The defendants have attracted approximately 20 million monthly visits to PrimeWire websites in the United States, a number that has been increasing, โthe complaint reads.
โMore than half of the world's traffic comes from users in the United States. Unsurprisingly, PrimeWire is one of the most popular websites for finding pirated content in the United States. "
PrimeWire makes it easy to access pirated content
Like countless similar portals, PrimeWire does not directly host pirated content, but acts as an index to movies and TV shows hosted elsewhere. Streams are embedded on the PrimeWire site or delivered to users through third-party sites and repositories to which PrimeWire selects links.
โDefendants encourage and induce the supply and consumption of infringing content through the PrimeWire service. Defendants use the Copyrighted Works as bait to attract the widest possible audience, so that Defendants benefit from the advertisements displayed to their users.
"By their conduct, Defendants intentionally induce and knowingly contribute to unauthorized reproductions, public performances, and display of Copyrighted Works on a massive scale," the lawsuit reads.
In 2013 we posted an interview with a person who at the time was providing movies and TV shows to sites like PrimeWire. According to the complaint, this type of activity continues on PrimeWire, and the site operators submit the submitted links through a moderation process. This shows that they know that the content is infringing.
โOnce users start using PrimeWire, Defendants continue to urge them to post links to infringing content. Defendants tell users which 'approved' sites they can use as sources for infringing broadcasts, and Defendants emphasize sites that pay users to upload infringing content, โthey add.
Advertising and referral schemes
The complaint states that the purpose of PrimeWire is to make money from the illegal exploitation of copyrighted content. This is allegedly accomplished in a number of ways, including through the use of third-party ad networks, such as Clickadu.
โAd networks link advertisers to the PrimeWire service. Advertisers pay the networks, and the networks then give PrimeWire a portion of that revenue when users open the ads on the PrimeWire site, โthe complaint notes, adding that PrimeWire also generates revenue from company referral schemes. of VPN.
The defendants "know" that their activities are illegal
In an effort to show that the infringement on the site is intentional, studies say that the conduct of PrimeWire operators includes measures to conceal their identities. For example, some of the site's moderators use aliases (Dev_Team, Silverrain, Fugitive, and drodman250) while the domains are registered with false information. Comments posted on the spot are also cited.
โThe defendants openly scoff at the idea of โโbeing bound by legal rules. The defendants '' Legal Stuff 'web page tells users that the' governing law 'for the use of the site' will be that of the Klingon Empire, the country where primewire.ag is located and from which They provide all the services, 'โsays the complaint. adds.
PrimeWire is illegal and unfair competition
According to the lawsuit, the PrimeWire service is not only illegal, but also acts as unfair competition for VOD services, including Disney +, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount +, and Peacock. The complaint also indicates why site users may prefer it to those legitimate services.
In addition to being free, PrimeWire offers access to a library of titles "not available on any licensed VOD service." This, of course, is because PrimeWire doesn't care about the complexities of licensing content, something that puts it at an unfair competitive advantage that undermines the business models of demanding studios.
โIf left unchecked, the offending behavior of the accused will continue to increase. The defendants' user base will continue to expand. All of this conduct is causing immediate and irreparable harm to Plaintiffs, and that harm will continue until Defendants are prohibited from engaging in their illegal conduct, โthe studies add.
Claims for copyright infringement
The plaintiffs allege that PrimeWire intentionally infringes copyrighted works by providing links to outside sources. This violates the studies' exclusive right of public interpretation, they say.
The complaint adds that the defendants further infringe their exclusive rights of reproduction and public performance by encouraging users to provide infringing links to movies and television shows.
โFor a link to provide access to an infringing transmission, a third party must make an infringing reproduction of the Copyrighted Work to serve as the original copy of the transmission. Transmissions of those infringing copies to Defendants' users are infringing public interpretations of the underlying works, โthe complaint states.
As a result, the plaintiffs say they are entitled to damages and gains from the defendants (to be determined at trial) or, alternatively, legal damages up to a maximum of $ 150,000 per work infringed. The sample of content allegedly infringed on PrimeWire and listed in the complaint reaches 138 movies and television shows.
The second cause of action of the studies alleges a contributory copyright infringement.
"Defendants systematically accumulate from third parties thousands of links to Copyrighted Works that were necessarily reproduced before being hosted by third-party websites and cyberlockers (that is, third-party server repositories that store infringing copies of movies and shows television) from which end users can transmit the content directly, โthe complaint reads.
โThe defendants materially contribute to the infringement of third parties. Defendants configure and promote the use of PrimeWire to connect users to unauthorized online sources that transmit Plaintiffs' Copyrighted Works.
"By operating PrimeWire, Defendants facilitate, encourage and enable direct infringement of Plaintiffs' Copyrighted Works."
On the basis that the infringement is intentional, the studios again demand $ 150,000 in legal damages for each job infringed plus attorneys' fees and total costs.
Demands for precautionary measures
Finally, the plaintiffs request a court order that will prevent the defendants from hosting, linking, making available and / or indexing any of their copyrighted works, or taking any action that would allow a third party to do so.
They are also asking the court to issue an order to disable the site's domain names and IP addresses.
The complaint and the list of infringed works can be found here and here (pdf)
