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Powerful French film industry groups have filed a lawsuit against several major ISPs. The action has the ultimate goal of blocking access to a quartet of file hosting platforms: Fembed, Uqload, Upvid and Uvideo. This is the first attempt to block so-called cyberlockers in France, but if successful, it could undermine operations at dozens of other sites.
As widely reported for most of this year, the French anti-piracy agency MY FACE and numerous rights holders have been using all available tools to reduce availability from pirate sites.
Questionable reports of unprecedented success aside, there is no doubt that France is stopping piracy as promised. Football, Formula 1tennis and dozens of other sportsthey take advantage of the blocking measures available in various processes.
In September, the National Publishers Union, an industry group representing more than 700 members of the publishing industry, announced that a Paris court (Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris) had ordered the country's ISPs to implement blocking measures against more than 200 Z-Library domains.
Those domains were later attorney by the FBI but abandoned Z-Library about intact. However, by disabling access to Z-Library domains, it is now much more difficult to access the source of the infringing content.
The new legal actions underway in France may have a similar goal in mind. It targets only four sites, but when looking for content sources that are trusted by other sites, the overall impact could be much higher.
Giants of the film industry vs. ISP
According to journalist marc rees (pay wall)the applicants are numerous and show a clear and united front.
The National Federation of Film Editors (FNEF), the Union of Video Editors (SEVN), the Association of Independent Producers (API), the Union of Film Producers (UPC) and the Union of Independent Producers (SPI) are the most powerful groups in the video industry sector.
The targets of the complaint are local Internet service providers (Orange, Bouygues, SFR and Free) and the demands are relatively straightforward. Video groups want service providers to block access to just four sites: Fembed, Uqload, Upvid and Uvideo. Together these sites are good for millions of hits each month, but the content delivery mechanism is key.
Sources feed the supply chain
If casual pirates were asked where they stream the latest movies and TV shows for free, well-presented sites that feature movie art and organized categories would likely top the list. There are exceptions, but most of these sites don't actually stream anything.
Like embedded YouTube videos on countless websites, content delivery is handled by remote servers that serve videos directly to users, often via an embedded player. Some are dedicated to providing pirated content and never download anything. Others present themselves as responsible actors in full compliance with the law.
Movie industry groups suggest this is a front. They claim that Fembed, Uqload, Upvid, and Uvideo mainly stream pirated content that feeds third-party sites. These often provide a Netflix-like experience, but rights holders don't see a dime.
The complaint also alleges the existence of payment schemes. Upvid reportedly pays affiliates $22 for 10,000 video views, though reports on webmaster forums suggest getting paid may be a problem. A message that appeared on the Upvid.co domain in October offered some sort of explanation.
Traffic to Upvid's .co domain has been crashing for some time, but it has many more domains, some with no traffic. Others show millions of views per month, and it appears to be open to the public, at least for now.
Fembed also has many domains stored, unlike Uqload which can only have two. However, the latter still attracts at least a few million visits per month, with most of its traffic generated by users in France.
These file hosting sites are not the only sources of content available to streaming portals and blocking them will not immediately end their business. However, this is the first blocking action against file hosting platforms in France and once rights holders get past the first hurdle, they tend to come back for more.
