Clickonomics: Determining the Effect of Anti-Piracy Measures for One-Click Hosting Tobias Lauinger,∗ Martin Szydlowski,y Kaan Onarlioglu,∗ Gilbert Wondracek,y Engin Kirda∗ and Christopher Kruegelz ∗Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Email: ftoby, onarliog,
[email protected] yVienna University of Technology, Austria. Email: fmsz,
[email protected] zUC Santa Barbara, CA. Email:
[email protected] Abstract—Piracy is a mass phenomenon on the Internet The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) today. Various file sharing platforms offer free access to unau- grants OCHs immunity from liability for copyright in- thorised copies of copyrighted works such as media content fringements committed by their users if they fulfil certain and software. Copyright holders are using a range of legal and technical methods to protect their rights, and they are conditions. One of its provisions allows copyright holders lobbying for legislation that would give them additional ways to request that infringing links be taken down. According to of enforcing their copyright online. However, little is known the criminal indictment1 against Megaupload, in September about how effective current forms of copyright enforcement 2009, Warner Bros. had 2,500 infringing links removed from are and how enduring the effect of proposed new measures Megaupload on a daily basis. Furthermore, trade associations can be. In this paper, we report on the results of a large- scale measurement study of the piracy ecosystem that has such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), emerged around One-Click Hosters or “cyberlockers” such the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as Rapidshare, Megaupload, Mediafire, and Hotfile.