Netflix offers a great selection of movies and TV-shows and dozens of millions of people can’t go a week without it. Netflix is seen as an alternative to piracy. However, since Netflix’s priorities are shifting more to the production of original content, piracy is also a problem.
The streaming service now has its own anti-piracy unit and works with third-party vendors to remove unauthorized content from the Internet. This includes links to their shows in Google’s search results. While most requests are legitimate, a targeting “Stranger Things,” was a bit off. Tucked in between various pirate sites, we spotted articles from news sites Express and The Wrap. (Update: The notice in question appears to be fake/fraudulent, see update below. This is potentially an even problematic.) Strange? The Express article has an obvious clickbait title aimed to attract freeloaders: “Stranger Things season 2 streaming – How to watch Stranger Things online for FREE in UK.” While there are no references to infringing content in the piece, it’s at least understandable that Netflix’ anti-piracy partner confused by it.
Stranger Things S02 watch online WARNING: Torrents could land you 10 YEARS in PRISON STRANGER THINGS returns to Netflix today – with all nine episodes of the hotly-anticipated second season.
The Wrap article, however, doesn’t even hint at anything piracy related. That’s not all though. Netflix’s takedown request also lists the “” subreddit.
This community page has nearly a quarter million followers and explicitly forbids any pirated content. Still, Netflix wanted it removed from Google’s search results. Stranger Things subreddit To give Netflix the benefit of doubt, it’s always possible that a link to pirated content slipped through at the time the notice was sent. But, if that was the case they should have at least targeted the link to the full Reddit post as well. The more likely scenario is that there was some sort of hiccup in the automated takedown software, or perhaps a human error of some kind. Stanger things have happened.
The good news is that Google came to the rescue. After reviewing the takedown notice, the three mentioned links were discarded. This means that the subreddit is still available in Google’s search results. Reddit itself is also quite skilled at spotting faulty takedown requests. While it’s unknown whether they were contacted directly by Netflix’s anti-piracy partner, the company rejects of all DMCA takedown requests it receives. Update: A spokesman from IP Arrow, who are listed as the sender, they have nothing to do with the takedown notice.
This suggests that some third party not related to IP Arrow or Netflix may have submitted it. IP Arrow will ask Google to look into it. Strange things are clearly happening here.
Stranger Things is back. The hotly-anticipated science fiction series has returned to Netflix, with all nine episodes now available to binge-watch on the video on-demand service. Currently offers a free one-month trial to new subscribers, which should be plenty of time to binge your way through the latest episodes. Netflix subscriptions start from £5.99 for a basic plan, which doesn’t even include High Definition, and max-out at £9.99 for a plan that includes Ultra HD 4K content. Subscribers can cancel at any time during the month. Netflix is available on a dizzying array of Smart TVs and HDMI streaming dongles, as well iOS and Android devices, video game consoles, and via your web browser.
Stranger Things has also proved popular with online pirates, looking to download or stream the season for free. Let’s be clear – this is illegal.
Watching paid-for content for free without permission from the rights holders is a crime. There have been a number of high-profile changes in UK law since the last season of Stranger Things aired back in October 2016. Some of these have drastically increased penalties for those who decided to infringe copyright.
In March 2017, the UK High Court of Justice ruled that Internet Service Providers were to block access to illegal live streams of English Premier League football. As part of the judgment, Mr Justice Arnold clarified that an end user accessing streams via illicit streaming devices – like so-called Kodi Boxes – carry out an act of copying which is not authorised is infringing copyright, meaning those viewing illegal streams are breaking the law. One month later, in April 2017, the EU Court of Justice judgement in the Filmspeler case included confirmation that streaming by end users constitutes an infringement of copyright. The new which came into effect on October 1st 2017, has extended criminal penalties for online copyright infringement to match those of physical copyright infringement – maximum sentences have increased from two years to 10 years.
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