Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringement

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GVU - Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringements
(GVU)
logo
legal form registered association
founding February 27, 1985 in Hamburg
Seat Berlin , Germany
Chair Tobias hair
Managing directors Evelyn Ruttke
Employees 16
Website gvu.de

The Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringements ( GVU ) is a registered association based in Berlin . He worked on behalf of companies, associations and collecting societies in the creative industries with the aim of "protecting intellectual property and curbing the spread of illegal copies ."

The activities of the GVU concentrated on investigations against so-called organized, i.e. business-like operating, “ pirates ” who, for example, organize themselves in release groups or offer trackers and illegal streams . The association supported the law enforcement authorities in the relevant proceedings. In addition, the association carried out public relations work in order to take preventive action against copyright infringements and represented the interests of its members in relation to politics.

On May 29, 2020, the Charlottenburg District Court opened insolvency proceedings over the assets of GVU.

history

Office building of the association in Berlin-Mitte

VHS tape piracy

Against the background of the rapidly increasing demand for cinema films on VHS cassettes and the accompanying increase in “piracy”, representatives of the film industry agreed in the spring of 1984 to set up their own society to combat the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. The decision was primarily driven by the industry's motivation to break away from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI for short). The long-standing chairman of the Federal Audiovisual Media Association (BVV) and managing director of the German branch of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment , Bodo Schwartz , was in charge of the preparation of the GVU .

The foundation was announced in autumn 1984 at the HiFi Düsseldorf trade fair and the first statutes were adopted on December 17, 1984. The first entry in the register of associations of the city of Hamburg was made on February 27, 1985, so that the association was legally established on that day. In addition to Bodo Schwartz, members of the founding board were Paul Miller from Cinema International Corporation (CIC for short) and Manfred Goller from the Association of Film Distributors (VDF).

Piracy of entertainment software and computer games

After the association was supported exclusively by the film industry in the first few years of its existence, its range of tasks expanded in 1997 to include computer games . The reason for this was on the one hand the parallels between illegal copies of films and games - both in production and distribution - but on the other hand also the easier distribution of unauthorized material via the emerging Internet . After Sony Computer Entertainment, the first company that did not come from the film industry, joined GVU in 1997, the entire Association of Entertainment Software eV became a member of the association in the following year .

In 2000, Microsoft Germany became the first member of the software industry to join the association, which made a wider public aware of the association. At the same time, this expanded his range of tasks again. As early as 2001, GVU took over the administration of the organization SAFE , which was responsible for combating copyright violations in Switzerland . At this time, the cooperation with the Austrian Association for Anti-Piracy in the Film and Video Industry (VAP) intensified, so that the entire German-speaking area is comprehensively covered.

Copyright Infringement on the Internet

The unauthorized exploitation of creative content is now mainly taking place online, e. B. on portal pages and in forums, where countless films, TV series, music, e-books and games can be accessed, sometimes even before the official publication. The GVU therefore focuses on “digital fences”, i.e. the operators of illegal portals. The GVU identifies operators and their backers, with the aim of smashing the overall criminal structure and interrupting the flow of money through which these sites finance themselves and skim off illegal profits.

Managing directors

The statutes of the GVU stipulate that the board of the association consists of a chairman and at least three other people. The GVU is jointly represented by at least two board members. Currently (as of October 2019) Tobias Haar (chairman), Ronald Schild, Alexandra Bauermeister, and Nikolaus Sieveking belong to the committee. In addition to the board, the association has a full-time managing director who is responsible for day-to-day business and reports to the board. Evelyn Ruttke has been running GVU since April 1, 2018.

Bodo Schwartz , who had been a member of the board for over 20 years and headed it as chairman for a long time, shaped the work and structure . He also represented the GVU in relation to the media and shaped the association's image in public, including through various interviews. After Schwartz retired as Managing Director of 20th Century Fox in 2002 , he also resigned from GVU in October 2006.

Members

Most recently, over 60 companies and organizations were members of the GVU. In the area of ​​film and video, these included BVV - Federal Association of Audiovisual Media , Concorde , Constantin Film Verleih GmbH , DCM Film Distribution , GÜFA , HDF Kino , Highlight Communications Germany , MPLC Deutschland GmbH , STUDIOCANAL , VdF - Association of Film Distributors and VG Media . Members such as Capcom - CEG Interactive Entertainment , game - Association of the German Games Industry eV came from the games industry . Sky Deutschland and the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga were members of the GVU from the TV industry and sports broadcasting . A total of 45 publishers were members, including Axel Springer SE , Suhrkamp and Verlag CH. Beck . In addition, the BVMI - Federal Association of the Music Industry and the DIN - German Institute for Standardization e. V. Members of the GVU.

activities

The activities of the association are generally focused on averting economic damage to its members, which is caused by unauthorized copies and their dissemination. The GVU puts the loss at several hundred million euros annually. In addition to the tasks defined in the statutes, the association primarily relies on the applicable copyright law in its work .

Investigative activity

The association spends a large part of its resources on the actual investigation of copyright infringements. Action is driven by the view that government agencies alone cannot oversee the entire market for pirated copies, which is why GVU is trying to fill this gap. The association's employees, which also include former police officers and especially commissioners , systematically scour the relevant sources for pirated copies, especially on the Internet . In contrast to other organizations, the GVU does not primarily target end users, but rather only pursues the “big fish” according to its own statement. In addition to those people who record a film in the cinema, for example, or who crack the copy protection of a computer game , this increasingly includes the operators of so-called trackers or portals with links to pirated copies.

The association concentrates above all on large and globally operating release groups in which pirated copies are produced and distributed based on a division of labor, especially with the intention of making a profit or against the background of an internal competition. As far as possible, the association also inspects public registers, for example in order to expose the real people behind a letterbox company . Due to its private law activities, GVU cannot directly query IP addresses; instead, it forwards them as evidence to the responsible authorities. This usually takes place within the framework of a criminal complaint , which then leads to investigations by the public prosecutor. If criminal proceedings are actually opened as a result, employees of the association often act as expert witnesses . Not every criminal complaint automatically leads to successful proceedings; for example, in the Kino.to case, GVU made a total of three applications.

As far as is known so far, the GVU is not making any claims for damages under civil law against "pirate copiers". Instead, the association leaves it to its members to assert possible claims, but clearly communicates its legal opinion in individual cases.

public relation

In addition to investigative activities, the GVU has carried out intensive public relations work since it was founded, with the aim of increasing awareness of copyright violations . In the years 2009 to 2011 alone, the association's employees took part in almost 100 events and reached around 2,000 participants through their presentations . In addition, the GVU has been offering seminars for police officers and public prosecutors since the late 1980s, in which they can find out about the consequences of pirated copies and especially about the activities of the association.

In 1990 the association launched a prevention program on the subject of holography , which makes it easier for retailers and consumers to identify unauthorized media. In addition, the association became known to a broader public through the campaign “ pirates are criminals ”. This was produced by a subsidiary of the Main Association of German Film Theaters , on whose advisory board the GVU sits. During the soccer world championship 2006 an action of the umbrella association MPAA with Pelé was supported.

From 2008–2011, GVU, together with VAP and SAFE, held the so-called DACH industry forum every year . At the event, lawyers , representatives of the game and film industry were brought together with associations and other stakeholders under the motto “Prevention and Education”. In 2011, the study on digital content usage (DCN study for short) received a great deal of attention because it was the first to provide information about the use of legal and illegal online offers. The study was carried out by GVU together with the Federal Association of the Music Industry and the German Book Trade Association and continued in 2012.

In the course of its educational activities, the GVU organizes annual training courses at the German Judicial Academy on topics of trademark and copyright law.

Procedure

The association's investigations have been significantly influenced by technical progress over the years : After actions were taken against illegally copied VHS cassettes in the early 1980s , many proceedings in the 1990s and following concerned the distribution of films and games via P2P -Nets. Streaming has been becoming increasingly popular since 2010.

The number of proceedings initiated fell from 576 to 204 between 2007 and 2011. The decrease is mainly due to the fact that numerous public prosecutor's offices have been concentrating since 2008 on proceedings in which more than 200 copies of a work were produced. According to its own statements, the GVU is following this trend and directing its investigative activities more and more towards significant cases.

In addition to the proceedings that go back directly to GVU investigations, the association also participates in proceedings initiated by the authorities. In addition, several procedures are officially identified each year, which are initiated jointly by the law enforcement authorities and the GVU. About a quarter of all processed cases lead to a judgment or penalty order .

Significant cases

In recent years, GVU has uncovered numerous release groups and other networks, some of which stand out due to their size or importance:

  • In September 2007, 50 objects in Germany , Holland , France and Belgium were searched simultaneously . The aim of the campaign, which was brought into being by the GVU project Herbstgewitter , was primarily to secure evidence. According to media reports, a total of 60 PCs and 15 hard drives were confiscated. The GVU itself rates the campaign as a success, as, for example, no unauthorized copy of Keinohrhasen was in circulation until the end of 2007.
  • In addition, in the same year a person was found who was responsible as a so-called first seeder for the distribution of the first illegal version of Spider-Man 3 . She was also a high-ranking member of a release group that is responsible for numerous other pirated copies.
  • In March 2008, a request from the MPAA umbrella association led to GVU's investigations into the operator of a portal page that primarily offered the latest films such as Rush Hour 3 . In the course of the procedure it became clear that behind the offer there was an extensive network with connections as far as the USA and Australia . After a criminal complaint by the GVU, the criminal police in Frankfurt am Main confiscated a total of ten of the group's servers, which were hosted in a data center there.
  • In the spring of 2009, after house searches in Lüneburg , Wolfenbüttel and Braunschweig, three men were arrested who were running a tracker with 24,500 copied films, TV series, games, audio books, e-books , music and software. This was particularly characterized by the fact that each user had to pay a fee to access the tracker. In addition, extensive instructions have been made available to make retrieving the pirated copies as easy as possible, even for less experienced people.
  • The Swiss organization SAFE had already received a notification in 2005 that provided information about a large payserver ring. Since the physical location was in Germany , the persecution was handed over to the local association. The GVU finally filed a criminal complaint against the head of the server in 2009.

In the following years the association wants to tackle the financing of pirated copies in particular. This is intended to prevent the professional operation of advertising-financed portals with illegally copied works.

Kino.to platform

Notice from the authorities to Kino.to

Kino.to was one of the 50 most visited websites in Germany . According to the film industry , over 96 percent of all visitors came from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Tens of thousands of videos could be viewed as a so-called stream on Kino.to , including numerous high-quality films and TV series .

Since the availability of Kino.to in March 2008, the GVU has been investigating the backers. According to their own statements, the process turned out to be difficult because they had deliberately concealed their identity . For example, the top-level domain .to was chosen, whose registry in Tonga does not publish any information about the respective owner. Only the third criminal complaint by the association, which was filed with the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office on April 28, 2011 , brought the desired success: At the beginning of June, people who were significantly involved in Kino.to were arrested during raids in several European countries - including the owner Dirk B.

The Integrated Investigation Unit of Saxony (INES) was in charge of the campaign. In the course of the proceedings, she officially shut down the platform itself on suspicion of the formation of a criminal organization and copyright infringement on a commercial scale, a corresponding reference can be seen on Kino.to. What is considered a great success in the film industry is viewed critically by a majority of users.

As a direct result of the closure of Kino.to, the Anonymous collective launched an attack on the GVU's web server , which ultimately led to its overload and a failure of the website. In addition, a portal was created under the name KinoX.to , which is classified as the direct successor to Kino.to and which GVU is already taking action against. In addition, the association and authorities are investigating the advertising marketers of Kino.to and KinoX.to.

Kinox.to platform

On October 25, 2014, the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office carried out a total of six house searches in four federal states, apparently as a result of investigations by a criminal complaint by the GVU. The main suspects evaded the execution of the arrest warrants, two other heads of the platform were taken into custody.

Platform boerse.bz

Shortly after the raids against the alleged operators of the illegal platform kinox.to, a total of 121 apartments in 14 federal states were searched on November 4, 2014 based on a complaint by the GVU and the Waldorf Frommer law firm after investigations by the Cologne Public Prosecutor's Office. The raid was aimed at the supposed operators and people who illegally made films, music and other content available free of charge and published them on the Internet platform boerse.bz .

Share-online.biz platform

On October 16, 2019, cybercrime specialists from the Cologne Public Prosecutor's Office and the Aachen Police Headquarters switched off the Share-Online.biz Internet service. , Share-Online.biz was one of the largest file hosting services aimed at the German-speaking market. The GVU had already filed a criminal complaint against the operator of the service in 2017 and has supported the law enforcement authorities since then. According to FAZ, it is a blow "against the probably biggest player on the scene since Kim" Dotcom "Schmitz and his portal" Megaupload ", which was closed in 2012. According to current knowledge, writes the Cologne public prosecutor, it is" the biggest in Germany operated filehoster "."

Trojans

A Trojan that was discovered for the first time on March 20, 2012, uses the club's logo without authorization. He only infects PCs with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system or newer and claims to have blocked the computer on behalf of the GVU, as pirated copies were discovered on it. In fact, not a single file on the hard drive is checked; the user is merely asked to pay a fee in order to regain access to his PC. Usually the requested amount is between 50 and 100 euros and should be paid by Paysafe card or Ukash .

In the meantime, numerous variants of the GVU Trojan are in circulation, some of which are presented as programs of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) or GEMA . Due to the high prevalence of the Trojan, the GVU commented directly on the malware for the first time in August 2012 , especially on its authors. In the course of this, assumptions were made that the Trojan was written by operators of illegal streaming portals in order to tap a new source of funding. The KinoX.to page , which is very similar to Kino.to , was used for the mass distribution of new variants of the malware, according to GVU.

criticism

In January 2006, the GVU itself was the subject of an investigation. The public prosecutor's office in Ellwangen accused the association of having itself promoted the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. The association paid an administrator of the so-called IOH server , through which numerous release groups collected and distributed copied media. In addition, the association was accused of having directly provided hardware to operate the server. In the course of the investigation , the business premises of GVU in Hamburg and the apartment of a high-ranking employee were also searched. The GVU officially confirmed the search and, according to its own statements, made all the necessary information available to the authorities. Due to the particularly explosive nature of the case, the action received greater media attention, but the suspicion against the association was subsequently not substantiated - the investigation was discontinued. The public prosecutor's office in Ellwangen subsequently made it clear that the GVU had not committed any copyright infringements and was searched not as a suspect but as a witness.

The role of the GVU was also viewed critically in another proceeding: In the course of proceedings against a suspected “ pirate ”, the Great Criminal Chamber of the Kiel Regional Court declared that the independence of police investigations must be guaranteed. Specifically, it was criticized that an employee of the GVU acted as an expert in the procedure and had a free hand in evaluating confiscated computers . The requirement of impartiality, which applies not only to judges , but also to public prosecutors and the police , was not fully guaranteed. The investigative authorities were expressly prohibited from privatizing their work.

The GVU's strategy of attracting pirates through a so-called honeypot is also repeatedly criticized. So it was, for example in the frame, the GVU and other organizations have targeted open suspect a raid in autumn 2007 FTP server connected to the grid so that they are used by release groups and thus their members based on their IP address can be determined . So far, however, the association has not been able to prove the procedure beyond doubt, but experts unanimously agree that it would not be legally objectionable either.

The proximity of the GVU to lawyers , public prosecutors , police officers and internet service providers is judged negatively by individual media . In the course of the association's annual industry forum in particular, criticism of the close cooperation between the various organizations is repeatedly voiced.

In August 2010, GVU was suspected of having unauthorized deletion of several posts on the Vimeo video platform , although they were published under a Creative Commons license and are therefore freely available to everyone. The contents affected included you are a terrorist and the electrical reporter . In the course of the discussion about the case, it turned out that it was not the association but the company OpSec Security , based in Munich, who was responsible for removing the videos . The authors Alexander Lehmann and Mario Sixtus have obtained a declaration of cease and desist against the company and GVU has expressly distanced itself from him. According to its own information, the GVU had never commissioned OpSec Security to delete videos from Vimeo on its behalf.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Register court of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Hamburg District Court , accessed on November 5, 2012 (VR 10576).
  2. ↑ Markus Franz: Interview with GVU press officer. In: Netzwelt. July 10, 2011, accessed October 31, 2012 .
  3. ↑ a b c d https://gvu.de/wer-wir-sind/ueber-uns. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  4. ↑ https://gvu.de/. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Charlottenburg District Court: Decision of 05.29.2020, 36g IN 1933/20 . 3rd June 2020.
  6. ^ Register court of the city of Berlin. District Court Charlottenburg , accessed on November 4, 2012 (VR 28888).
  7. ↑ Milestones of the GVU work. (PDF; 393 kB) GVU, April 3, 2007, archived from the original on August 7, 2007 ; Retrieved November 5, 2012 .
  8. ↑ General information about the organization. In: Official website. SAFE, archived from the original on May 26, 2012 ; Retrieved November 5, 2012 .
  9. ↑ https://gvu.de/was-wir-tun/aufklaeren. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  10. ↑ https://gvu.de/was-wir-tun/handeln. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  11. ↑ https://gvu.de/wer-wir-sind/ueber-uns. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Change in the executive suite: Jan Scharringhausen is retiring. In: GVU. Accessed December 10, 2019 (German).
  13. ↑ Volker Zota: (In) guilt consciousness - exchange traders versus film industry. In: Heise Online. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 (article from c't 06/2002).
  14. ↑ Christian Sommer new chairman of the board. GVU, October 13, 2006, archived from the original on November 2, 2012 ; accessed on November 1, 2012 (press release).
  15. ↑ https://gvu.de/wer-wir-sind/ueber-uns. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  16. ↑ https://gvu.de/wer-wir-sind/ueber-uns. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Mission Statement. In: Official website of the association. GVU, archived from the original on October 19, 2012 ; Retrieved November 2, 2012 .
  18. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Instrumentalization of the public prosecutor's offices criticized by the music industry. In: Heise Online. September 12, 2007, accessed November 6, 2012 .
  19. ↑ a b Annual Report 2007. (PDF) GVU, June 17, 2008, archived from the original on August 12, 2011 ; Retrieved October 30, 2012 (1.4 MB in size).
  20. ↑ Kino.to: GVU wants to prosecute and punish users. In: Chip Online. June 12, 2011, archived from the original on October 18, 2012 ; Retrieved November 6, 2012 .
  21. ↑ Annual Report 2011. (PDF) GVU, April 24, 2012, archived from the original on September 7, 2012 ; Retrieved October 30, 2012 (3.6 MB in size).
  22. ↑ Trailer shows the 'King' on the subject of pirated copies. GVU, July 4, 2006, archived from the original on November 3, 2012 ; accessed on November 6, 2012 (press release).
  23. ↑ Flyer for the 1st DACH industry forum ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  24. ↑ Achim Sawall: Legal film streaming platforms in front of Kino.to. In: Golem. August 30, 2011, accessed November 6, 2012 .
  25. ↑ Study on digital content usage 2012. (PDF) August 29, 2012, archived from the original on January 24, 2013 ; Retrieved November 24, 2012 (318 KB size).
  26. ↑ EDUCATE. In: GVU. Accessed December 10, 2019 (German).
  27. ↑ a b Annual Report 2008. (PDF) November 16, 2009, archived from the original on December 30, 2009 ; Retrieved on November 7, 2012 (1.6 MB in size).
  28. ↑ a b GVU: Proceedings against digital stolen goods and dealers. In: ComputerBild. November 3, 2010, accessed November 7, 2012 .
  29. ^ House searches simultaneously in 50 properties nationwide and in Holland, Belgium, France ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  30. ↑ Sascha Hottes: File sharing: Frankfurt Criminal Police Office confiscates ten Warez servers. In: Netzwelt. March 22, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2012 .
  31. ↑ File sharing: GVU has trackers picked up ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  32. ↑ Drying up of financial sources of digital stolen goods in 2013 a main topic. GVU, December 3, 2012, archived from the original on February 6, 2013 ; Retrieved December 6, 2012 .
  33. ↑ n-tv NEWS: What threatens Kinox.to users? Retrieved October 19, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Interview with an administrator of Kino.to ( memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  35. ↑ Ole Reissmann: Investigators arrest suspected operators of pirated copies. In: Spiegel Online. June 8, 2011, accessed November 9, 2012 .
  36. ↑ Mark Perseke: Sunday Question: What do you think of the closure of kino.to? In: Netzwelt. June 12, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2012 .
  37. ↑ Werne Pluta: Anonymous attacks GVU side. In: Golem. June 10, 2011, accessed November 9, 2012 .
  38. ^ Christian Kahle: Kinox.to: GVU plans criminal complaint against operator. In: WinFuture. January 16, 2012, accessed November 9, 2012 .
  39. ↑ Searches at advertising marketers from Kino.to. In: ComputerBase. July 18, 2012, accessed November 9, 2012 .
  40. ↑ http://spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/a-999250.html
  41. ↑ https://www.berliner-kurier.de/news/schlag-gegen--boerse-bz--mega-razzia-gegen-raubkopierer--auch-nutzern-droht-diesmal-aerger-576578
  42. ↑ GVU brings down Germany's largest filehoster Share-Online.biz. In: GVU. Retrieved October 29, 2019 (German).
  43. ↑ POL-AC: Joint use against the operator of a file sharing platform. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  44. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: Fileshoster blocked: The data pirates are going under . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed October 29, 2019]).
  45. ↑ BSI Trojans blackmail Internet users. In: T-Online . July 13, 2012, accessed November 4, 2012 .
  46. ↑ Christine Ehlers: http://www.gvu-blog.de/?p=427. In: Official Blog. GVU, August 14, 2012, archived from the original on August 17, 2012 ; Retrieved November 4, 2012 .
  47. ↑ Nico Ernst: The GVU explains the GVU Trojan. In: Golem. August 14, 2012, accessed November 4, 2012 .
  48. ↑ Holger Bleich: GVU is said to have sponsored pirates. In: Heise Online. January 24, 2006, accessed November 4, 2012 .
  49. ^ Raid: Investigations against the GVU. In: onlinekosten.de. January 24, 2006, accessed November 4, 2012 .
  50. ^ GVU: allegations of piracy rejected. In: TecChannel. January 27, 2006, accessed November 9, 2012 .
  51. ↑ Decision in the preliminary investigation. (PDF; 63 kB) Kiel Regional Court , August 14, 2006, accessed on November 4, 2012 (AZ 37 Qs 54/06).
  52. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Public prosecutor's office is not allowed to involve GVU in copyright investigations. In: Heise Online. October 31, 2006, accessed November 4, 2012 .
  53. ↑ The GVU's methods of investigation are slowly coming to light ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  54. ↑ Die Wellenmacher: The DACH industry forum of GVU ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  55. ↑ Markus Beckedahl : GVU runs amok and has unauthorized videos deleted. In: netzpolitik.org . August 9, 2010, accessed November 3, 2012 .
  56. ↑ Udo Vetter: Raublöscher issue a declaration of discontinuance. In: lawblog . August 12, 2010, accessed November 4, 2012 .
  57. ↑ Andreas Sebayang: The GVU is innocent. In: Golem. August 13, 2012, accessed November 3, 2012 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 26.3 "  N , 13 ° 19 ′ 41.2"  E