ELEVEN DOMAINS and subdomains operated by YTS have been issued site-blocking requests for alleged piracy and copyright infringement by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).
In a statement sent over the weekend, the intellectual property (IP) rights watchdog said that the 11 sites associated with YTS have violated Section 216 of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines and Memorandum Circular 23-025, or the Rules on Voluntary Administrative Site Blocking.
“A thorough examination reveals that all of the aforementioned websites are hosting pirated versions of movies or TV shows, allowing users to access these illegal copies by downloading them through links on the same website or by streaming them online,” according to the IPOPHL IP Rights Enforcement Office ruling.
The 11 sites — yts.mx, yts.rs, yts.do, ytsuproxy.to, yts.dirproxy.com, yts.unblocked.love, ytssss.jamsbase.com, yts.lt, yts.ag, yts.am, and torrents.yts.rs. — were found to have been using various methods to distribute copyrighted material.
“The websites under complaint are also listed in WIPO Alert, a data-sharing platform on piracy of the World Intellectual Property Organization,” IPOPHL said.
YTS is the official home of YIFY, “one of the world’s most prolific sites involved in the illegal replication and distribution of copyright content.”
“Millions of netizens visit this website, so this is a major win for the creative industry. We encourage more stakeholders to come forward, file a complaint, and further disrupt access to piracy websites,” IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said.
According to IPOPHL, the issuance stemmed from a complaint filed by the Motion Picture Association, which reported the site in 2015 to house 4,500 infringing motion picture titles.
“This site blocking order and forthcoming blocking actions will have a substantial impact on the Philippine piracy landscape. We will continue to work closely with the Philippines’ government and creative industry in the fight against the scourge of digital piracy,” the MPA said in a statement.
IPOPHL said that it has given the administrators of the sites five days to protest the decision as they could not be contacted before it served the site-blocking request to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and internet service providers (ISPs) on May 14.
On May 16, the NTC issued a memorandum order directing all ISPs to immediately block the websites and report the actions they have taken within five days.
As of Saturday, the IPOPHL said that almost all signatories to the site-blocking memorandum of understanding (MoU) have cut access to the sites.
In September, IPOPHL signed an MoU with Globe Telecom, Inc., Smart Communications, Inc., PLDT Inc., Sky Cable Corp., and DITO Telecommunity Corp., which asks the ISPs to voluntarily block sites upon IPOPHL’s request. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
