The leak of Piracy Shield’s source code has sent shockwaves through the anti-piracy community. Nine repositories have emerged, purportedly containing the platform’s inner workings, from its front end to its API and internal documentation.
Accompanying this leak is a manifesto, penned by the unknown leaker, characterizing Piracy Shield not merely as a failed anti-piracy tool, but as a perilous conduit to censorship. According to the manifesto, Piracy Shield represents a deceptive solution to piracy, concealing its true nature as a gateway to suppressive measures under the guise of combating online infringement.
The controversy surrounding Italy’s aggressive anti-piracy measures has reached a fever pitch with the recent leak of Piracy Shield’s source code. Allegations of overblocking and an unwillingness to acknowledge the system’s flaws have only fueled the fire.
The leak, comprising nine repositories of source code and documentation, is being touted as a potential crisis for Piracy Shield and its operators. Critics argue that Piracy Shield is not a solution to piracy but rather a tool for censorship masquerading as one.
The main ‘fuckpiracyshield’ repository on GitHub was created by a user of the same name; they appear to have joined the site for the purposes of leaking the code online and, after signing up at 15:55 on Tuesday, by 16:50 they were gone. Aside from the leaked material, a message was left behind.
“This is not the way to stop piracy. This is a gateway to censorship,” the bio message reads.
Content Allegedly Leaked
The apparently leaked collection spans nine repositories; they are named and described as follows:
frontend (The frontend of Piracy Shield), data (Guides for the ISPs and reporters that use Piracy Shield), variations (Some code that was probably used for testing for Piracy Shield?), service (Services and main logic of the Piracy Shield API), data-storage (Storage and filesystem management for the Piracy Shield API), data-model (Data models of objects used by the Piracy Shield code), component (Components needed by other Piracy Shield packages), api (This is the API for Piracy Shield)
The leaked source code of Piracy Shield contains valuable insights, particularly within the ‘data’ repository. Of particular interest are the operations manuals, including the ‘ISP TECHNICAL MANUAL – PIRACY SHIELD,’ which was last updated on February 2nd, coinciding with Piracy Shield’s full launch.
The manuals, presented in Italian, offer guidance for both those reporting domains and IP addresses for blocking and the ISPs responsible for carrying out the blocks. What’s unusual about the leak is the prominent presence of a contributor named Daniele Maglie throughout the code.
However, what sets this leak apart is an intriguing feature: the leaker’s bio includes an image of AGCOM’s president, with a mouse hover revealing additional text.#
The meaning behind the text, if any, will undoubtedly spark speculation in the days ahead. Meanwhile, AGCOM faces yet another blocking target, although a DMCA notice would likely prove more effective in this case.
