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Porn Pirates Exploit Well-Known Loophole To Upload Raunchy Videos On YouTube (thenextweb.com) 91

Adult video websites appear to be exploiting a YouTube loophole to host explicit material on the platform. An anonymous reader shares a report on The Next Web: A number of adult streaming websites have begun using a known backdoor that ultimately makes it possible to store infringing material on Google's servers -- entirely free of charge. To pull this off, the pirates essentially take advantage of YouTube's option to upload content without sharing it publicly, which effectively allows them to embed the videos on their websites and bypass Google's Content-ID takedown system. This means the content remains unlisted on YouTube and is served directly from the GoogleVideo.com domain instead. While the move hasn't gone unnoticed by the porn industry, California-based adult content-maker Dreamroom Productions claims it has made it much harder for producers to hunt down and flag infringing material, since the videos are not shared publicly.
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Porn Pirates Exploit Well-Known Loophole To Upload Raunchy Videos On YouTube

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @05:23PM (#53684815)

    what do you mean? there is porn on the internet? when did this happen?

  • > California-based adult content-maker Dreamroom Productions claims it has made it much harder for producers to hunt down and flag infringing material, since the videos are not shared publicly.

    Of course it's harder to find infringers when they aren't advertising to you that they're doing it.

    • > California-based adult content-maker Dreamroom Productions claims it has made it much harder for producers to hunt down and flag infringing material, since the videos are not shared publicly.

      Of course it's harder to find infringers when they aren't advertising to you that they're doing it.

      Yeah, it's basically equivalent to using private trackers to share pirated movies, music and TV shows using the bittorrent protocol. You're much less likely to get an infringement notice that way.

  • Discarded (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @05:27PM (#53684851)

    >Write an article like this without links
    Shameful

  • by Anonymous Coward

    'bypass Google's Content-ID takedown system'

    Citation needed.

    I've had several videos uploaded to YouTube, and left private, never published (slideshows with music for family). They've had their audio flagged by the ContentID system and removed.

  • by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @05:41PM (#53684947)

    Can't beat two girls playing with a big snake.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpmZKwTu6pI [youtube.com]

  • by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @05:48PM (#53684987) Journal

    Links please, or it didn't happen.

  • I call bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by darthsilun ( 3993753 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @06:04PM (#53685085)

    ...harder for producers to hunt down and flag infringing material, since the videos are not shared publicly.

    I've uploaded video of a dance routine that contained edited music – used under the Fair Use provision of the law.

    It was not publicly shared.

    That didn't stop the music owner from having it taken down.

    I have to wonder how the music owner would otherwise have found it unless Google/Youtube themselves told the music owner about it.

    • by swb ( 14022 )

      My guess is that they have automated the ability to find audio content, but automation of sexual content is harder or less effective.

      • Unless maybe Google were to tell us it's harder. I'm sure they have top men working on it right now.
        Who?
        TOP. MEN.
    • by brit74 ( 831798 )
      You know how Shazam will tell you what song you're hearing? Music companies use that technology. It's possible that YouTube is running the Shazam-like algorithm to find infringing content.
      • Well, yeah. That's pretty much exactly what I said. The media owners can't find it without Google/Youtube's help.
    • Same here. Uploaded a choral concert, private link only, and it got flagged in less than an hour. I'm not sure whether I'm mad that it was flagged or pleased that the performance was good enough to produce a match. ;-) I believe they have a monetization agreement in place with the publishers, so the video stayed. I've had a couple of short clips I uploaded (which were clearly infinging, but just meant to show some examples of ideas to friends) flagged and taken down, while other, similar clips (clearly no

  • That a business can use google's services for free, isn't a loop-hole. That's google's business model.

    That google offers free hosting for your business's private web-site isn't a loop-hole. Again, that's google's business model.

    That google doesn't ID or take down private-yet-infringing content isn't a loop-hole. Again, that's google's business model.

    Looks like we've found the loop-hole after-all: google is allowed to provide free hosting of illegal content. I guess that's in-line with most pimps -- pay

  • MegaUpload (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zedaroca ( 3630525 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @06:19PM (#53685193)

    Isn't this exactly megaupload's case? They were a legitimate service for storing and sharing files publicly and privately, just like youtube. They had a takedown system and were compliant to the DMCA, just like youtube. But not enough for the content "owners" liking, like youtube. Their system was used for piracy some of the time, just like youtube (and the proportion BS people tell about torrent sites does not apply here, the legitimate use was huge).

    If the US had a decent prosecutor, he/she would go after Google with the same methods and arguments used in megaupload's case. To lose the case, of course, and set some precedents for the small people and the foreigners (Kim is anything but small).

    American imperialism sucks.

    • by brit74 ( 831798 )
      Google was playing nice with the music/film companies and was willing to take stuff down. Megaupload was being really shifty and trying to avoid taking down content. Case in point: "When a file is uploaded to Megaupload and another file with the same hash is already found to exist, the uploader is asked if they would like to link to the already existing file. Therefore, a single file may contain multiple links to it. This has caused some controversy, since when a DMCA takedown notice is issued only the link
      • I read the wikipedia page too, but the prosecution's side ignores the technical reason why they didn't necessarily delete the files. I read an example of the file deletion thing, it was on these lines:
        1. user1 makes a copy of the file for personal use (legal);
        2. user2 makes a copy for sharing in his blog (illegal according to American laws)
        3. user3, the rights holder, makes another copy of the file, for private use (legal).

        If they deleted the file because of a notice on user2's link, the other users that ha

      • by Anonymous Coward

        This has caused some controversy, since when a DMCA takedown notice is issued only the link that was provided is removed; not necessarily the file itself

        There has been cases of movie companies demanding movie trailers taking down, even though these are a form of advertising. The idea being that they only want you to watch the trailer on their official channel.

        Now imagine the fun the lawyers of a movie company would have, if they sent a DMCA request to take down unauthorized posts of a movie trailer, and MegaUpload takes down the trailer itself, rather than just the links posted by unauthorized uploaders. Remember that the "link to the existing hash" system

    • If you want to know whether Kim Dotcom is guilty, look at his license plate.

      Mega was designed for, and heavily advertised, unlawfully uploaded videos. The owners actually unlawfully uploaded copyright-protected content themselves, and discussed a reward system to get people to unlawfully upload more infringing material. Mega was a service designed and operated for illegal activity.

      Youtube is a place for cat videos.

      Someone *could* have used Mega for some legal activity, just as they *could* use a pipe bomb

      • US Military Members Had More than 15,600 Accounts on MegaUpload [siliconangle.com]. It's not someone could have used megaupload for some legal activity. Lots of people were using it, the above article points to just a small subset of Americans who were doing it (the whole world used megaupload). I know American soldiers are not known for legal activity, but in this case it seems it was mostly a means of communication with their families.

        Mega is one thing, Megaupload was another. I wouldn't bother with this shortening if the M

  • by iTrawl ( 4142459 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @07:24PM (#53685733)

    I once uploaded a self-captured 2 minute sequence from Doctor Who to Youtube. The video wasn't just unlisted, but it was private. The title was some random noise like "X". I had 2 or 3 views, because I uploaded it to show a friend the scene in the context of a chat we were having and then I totally forgot about it. Yet after a few months after uploading it I get an email from Youtube telling me that they found infringing content in my account.

    Surely they can find unlisted porn too?

  • by shanen ( 462549 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @10:42PM (#53686939) Homepage Journal

    Here's a simple trick. Search for some popular show on YouTube, such as "Bill Maher Real Time" and then select the filter for "Upload date". Your results will include lots of pseudo-pirate computer-pwning hits.

    These accounts are created constantly on YouTube and this has been going on for many years. A typical account will have lots of videos that are supposed to be the popular shows, but each video just says YouTube blocked the video and promises the suckers that they can get the actual videos by following the links and installing the software to pwn their computers into zombie networks. Generally annoying, but it especially bothers me that a lot of these videos are popular with children, and targeting innocent children strikes me as a higher level of EVIL, even for the monster that the google has become.

    There are some obvious countermeasures, but rather than implement any of them, YouTube has chosen to tolerate, perhaps even encourage, this situation for some years. My conclusion is that YouTube believes they are deriving profits from supporting these criminals. (Perhaps they're selling them bandwidth?) I don't think google employees are naive and innocent as the children who are getting victimized, and it would make me a bad person to hope that their own kids click on the links.

    Just reading Googled , another history of the google with emphasis on the "Don't be evil" thing. I think that google needs to hire a chief exorcist.

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