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DMCA Compliance

Over the 10 year period of Ace Stream's activity various models representing the interests of users and puzzled by the distribution of unlicensed broadcasts when using Ace Stream technologies, have thoroughly studied our products and everyone has come to the same conclusion that Ace Stream technologies and products are absolutely lawful and legal!

All official applications released as part of the Ace Stream project do not contain any video/audio content and therefore cannot violate anyone's copyright and DMCA terms. This means that users are only provided with tools (utilities, players and interfaces for their settings) without any content.

Basically Ace Stream products work on the same principle and model as for example the American company BitTorrent.inc (which created the BitTorrent protocol and the eponymous product) or the Opera or Brave web browser (https://brave.com) which has support for the BitTorrent protocol.

At the same time under the Ace Stream DAO project we took into account the requests of copyright holders and set ourselves a task/goal to find an effective solution to this problem as well as to help copyright owners and content providers develop a more expert approach to the problem of "piracy" that will help them increase revenues and reduce the dependence of Internet users on illegal streams in order to stop pouring water on the "pirates" mill.

As a result we have developed a unique solution and effective mechanisms to fight against the spread of unlicensed content in decentralised P2P networks, making Ace Network the only decentralised network in the world that takes into account the interests of copyright holders. (see the section Ace Stream DAO: A Unique and Effective Solution for Combating Pirated Content in P2P Networks)

If you have any questions, then check the FAQ and perhaps you will find all the information you need and the answers to your questions in order to make your own conclusion. We have formed the FAQ from popular and interesting in our opinion questions that have ever been addressed to us (both directly and indirectly) and our public and non-public answers.

FAQ

Is it legal to use Ace Stream?

First of all, Ace Stream is a network protocol for transmitting data on the Internet, based on BitTorrent technology and working in full accordance with its specification.

A network protocol is a set of rules that allows communication and data exchange between two or more computers on a network. In fact, different protocols often describe only different sides of one type of communication but if we take them together, they form what is called a protocol stack. The names "protocol" and "protocol stack" also indicate to the software that implements the protocol.

We provide a set of software that implements the protocol with an open API, which can be freely used by any app developer without any of our approval or participation. Such applications can be web browsers, video players and many other programs in which support for the BitTorrent/Ace Stream protocol can be enabled at the request of their developers and through the tools we provide, in the same way that support for any other network protocols is added to applications such like HTTP, FTP, RTMP, etc.

An example of a web browser that has BitTorrent support is Brave (https://brave.com). This is a new project from the creator of the Mozilla Firefox web browser which is actively gaining popularity. Also, support for the BitTorrent protocol has been introduced in the Opera web browser long time ago and in many other web browsers the BitTorrent protocol is supported by connecting plugins presented in their official markets.

Therefore, using Ace Stream and BitTorrent protocol is as legal as using HTTP, FTP, UTP, RTMP and other network protocols!

And only if is prohibited in your country at the legislative level to use the BitTorrent protocol and applications with its support, then the use of Ace Stream in your country will be illegal. Fortunately, we do not know a single country in the world where such a ban would be. Even the most authoritarian countries do not do this (they do not prohibit any network protocols), as most likely they are well aware that prohibiting one or another protocol will not give them anything but problems. Well, if you need to prevent the distribution of any materials via the Internet, then the only effective way is to turn off the Internet completely or to make limited access to it (only for the “chosen”), and unfortunately, in some countries there is such a practice.

If you know a country where the BitTorrent protocol is prohibited by law, then please inform us about it.

Is it possible to identify the Ace Stream protocol at the network layer, and in particular, on the ISP side?

Cisco identifies almost all existing protocols, including Ace Stream (look The P2P protocols currently supported by Cisco SCA BB)

Although Ace Stream is identified as an independent protocol, in fact it is a stack that combines the work of several network protocols such as BitTorrent, WebRTC, HTTP, etc.

P.S. We do not know for what purpose such a question was asked, but nevertheless we decided to answer it and publish it in this FAQ, as well as give some information and our comments that may be useful to you.

First of all, we want to inform that the identification of protocols is intended exceptionally for network providers of different levels, in order to optimise traffic in their networks, but not to try to block it at the request of a third party, for the sake of commercial or political interests. Thus, an attempt to block any of the network protocol on the initiative of a third party will be considered a crime in many civilised countries.

In countries where at the legislative level there is such a regulatory definition as "Net neutrality", even attempts to limit traffic by any protocol just in the interests of only the ISP itself and not something in the interests of third parties, can lead to negative consequences and as a result, such restrictions will be lifted anyway. A good example is the discussion of the conflict that arose over the blocking of BitTorrent traffic by the largest (ISP) provider in the United States Comcast.

To learn more and hear from an subject matter expert follow this link: Comcast, BitTorrent, and Network Neutrality

Does Ace Stream provide access to "pirate" content?

The context and meaning of this question for us still remains a mystery, as in our opinion, this question should be classified as some kind of philosophical and rhetorical. Thats why we will give no less “unambiguous”, but at the same time a very clear and affirmative answer, in which the person who asked such a question, regardless of what he meant will have to find an answer that is understandable for himself:

The Ace Stream protocol provides or does not provide access to "pirated" content just as the protocols HTTP, FTP, UTP, RTMP, BitTorrent, etc. provides or do not provides access to "pirate" content!

But if it is not clear for you whether HTTP, FTP, UTP, RTMP, BitTorrent, etc., provides or does not provide access to "pirate" content, then please contact qualified lawyers who understand the legal basis for the operation of network protocols and the Internet overall.

If we are talking about official applications released under the Ace Stream project, then here we will give additional explanations.

As we've mentioned before, Ace Stream applications do not contain video and audio content at all and no materials that violate anyone's copyright!

The official Ace Stream apps by themselves provide the same access to “pirate content” as the Chrome web browser provides access to “pirate content” when it is used to access The Pirate Bay website. So, the Ace Stream user can access any content only if it is published on some third-party site and/or on any third-party application. And everyone is well aware that ultimately Google is not responsible for the "pirate content" contained on this site and similarly Ace Stream is also not responsible for the "pirated content" published on third-party sites and / or through any or third-party applications, where the BitTorrent / AceStream network transport protocol serves as its delivery vehicle, and not just HTTP or some others.

What legal field (legislation) is the activity and products of Ace Stream focused on?

The Ace Stream project was originally (from the moment of its foundation) registered in Poland and focused on working in the legal field of the jurisdiction of the EU countries, having received recognition and financial support (grants) from EU government agencies and was also presented in the USA (in Chicago), with the support of the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and with full financial support from Google (Alphabet Inc.), which in 2013 assessed the Ace Stream project as one of the most innovative and promising projects in the European Union in the field of Internet technologies.

What products/applications are released under the Ace Stream project and what are their well-known analogues in the USA, the European Union and other countries in order to compare it in legal terms?

Under the Ace Stream project the following basic products (apps) are released:

  • Application "Ace Stream Engine" uses the bittorrent protocol and is an analog of the product bittorrent/utorrent, produced by the American company of the same name BitTorrent Inc. which operates and releases its products in full compliance with US legislation. A corresponding analogue of the Ace Stream project is also the Tribler project which is being developed by three leading world universities (two European Delft University of Technology and VU University Amsterdam, and one American Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences). Also, the development of p2p clients from Akamai and many others can be considered a direct analogue. The only difference is that our implementation is more efficient for real-time data transmission compared to others and therefore is a very popular and frequently used P2P solution for online streaming, and not the only one, but one of many (including those we gave as an example as analogs and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2PTV) where the products belonging to the largest corporations from China such as Alibaba and Baidu are marked. That's all the difference!

    Thus, if you are not yet very familiar with Ace Stream products and the activities and products of the designated companies and universities do not raise doubts about their legitimacy, as well as the US and EU legislation regarding copyright, within the framework of which they operate and release their products (applications) are lawful for you and do not contradict the laws of your state, then, accordingly, the activities and products of Ace Stream, which are identical to the above, also should not be doubtful and fully comply with all legislative norms of your state.

    But in case of the legislation of the United States and the European Union regarding copyright contradicts the legislation of your country and the products produced by the above companies and universities are prohibited for use in your country, then please officially provide us with such a public explanation so that we and others can study in detail and notify our users in your country about such a ban.

  • The "Ace Stream Player" application is a complete analogue of the VLC player from VideoLAN (both in structure and technologically, using the libvlc library as its basis) and is also an open source project. This application is intended for the user to playback personal (owned and/or at his disposal) content, as well as to playback other legal content, including content that is freely available on the Internet.

    If you believe that this product, which developer is in the jurisdiction of the European Union and carries out its activities in full compliance with the laws of the European Union, violates the laws of your country, then also give us such information and we will immediately analyse it, and if your claims correspond to reality, we will also notify our users in your country of restrictions on the use of this product.

Can Ace Stream service block users from downloading and playing unlicensed content??

No.

The Ace Stream service is not a centralised service like YouTube, where users share content and play it through central servers owned by YouTube. The Ace Stream service (its centralised services) serves solely for information support of application users and the provision of additional services (for example, disabling ads in applications, data synchronisation between user applications, etc.), which are optional and not in any way influence on the main functions of the released applications which include data transfer and content playback.

And once again we remind you that the Ace Stream service does not publish (distribute) content and all applications released within the project do not contain any materials that violate anyone's copyright, and serve exceptionally for decentralised, peer-to-peer (P2P) data exchange between its users, using the BitTorrent protocol and in full accordance with its specification.

Ace Stream applications do not have access to materials (content) that users share with each other and also do not monitor (supervise) the actions of users and do not violate privacy rights.

In case you are interested in the technological aspects of this issue, then please read carefully the work of the BitTorrent protocol/technology, especially regarding the work of DHT, magnet links and hash codes, so that you can clearly understand for yourself what can be done and what cannot be done within the framework of this protocol and the bittorrent network as a whole.

Also, taking into account that the BitTorrent protocol has a very long history, most likely similar questions have been raised to the developers of BitTorrent clients more than once, and accordingly there should already be a lot of qualified answers from various industry specialists. Use an internet search to find this information.

Well, in order to get maximum clarity on this issue, we recommend that you rephrase this question, replacing "Ace Stream" with any other service that provides users with software that does not contain content, but allows users to download content from the Internet and play it. For example, let's rephrase this question like this - Can Microsoft or Google or Adobe or BitTorrent Inc. or "VideoLAN" block its users from downloading and playing unlicensed content?

Basically this will be an equivalent question with the only difference that for Microsoft or Google or Apple companies that produce hardware systems (devices), as well as OS (operating systems), web browsers and players, it is much easier to implement than on the side of "Ace Stream", "Adobe", "BitTorrent Inc." or "VideoLAN" and any others that do not have such technical capabilities.

And if you want to hear a qualified opinion on this issue from leading corporations of the world, such as Microsoft or Google or Apple, then be sure to address them this question, since more than 95% of all existing unlicensed content is downloaded and reproduced while using software products produced by these three companies!

But if you are not interested in anyone else opinion on this issue and you are sure that all software products that give their users the ability to download and play content must block the ability to download and play unlicensed content, and you have all the necessary legal justifications and appropriate legal technical procedures, then you just need to immediately address this requirement to Microsoft, Google and Apple, and the "piracy" will come to an end! And when at the level of the OS and web browsers such blocking occurs, then no other application regardless of the protocols they use will be able to bypass such technical restrictions! Bingo! (B.I.N.G.O.)

What is "Content ID" "acestream://**" and how to "fight" against it?

The "Content ID" is the hash code used in the Ace Stream protocol according to the BitTorrent (BTIH) specification and serves as an identifier for the distributed hash table (DHT). The only difference with the “BitTorrent Info Hash” is that a different hash function is used to generate this hash code.

«acestream://**» - it is a URI scheme analogous to Magnet URI scheme, where "acestream:" is the transport protocol identifier, and "// ****" is the hash code.

If you have found on any sites or in any applications materials that you think are published in violation of your copyright, with links like "acestream: // **" or indicating the content hash code, type "Content ID", then act the same as what you found on some sites or in some applications similar materials, indicating links like "http: // *", or magnet: * *** or just hash codes.

In this case, if you are sure that the published materials violate your copyrights, then in accordance with the existing legal procedures (DMCA) and the laws of all civilised countries, you should contact neither us, nor other developers of network protocols, nor developers client applications that do not contain copyrighted materials, but directly to the owners of sites, applications, and server hosting where such materials are published, and if they do not remove such materials from their resources, then contact ICANN (organisation, which registers/delegates domains for such services) with the corresponding requirements to take measures to stop the distribution of unlicensed content, bringing to responsibility directly those who are engaged in illegal publication of materials, regardless on what network data transfer protocol (HTTP, TCP, UDP, BitTorrent, WebRTC, etc.) are used by them.