RLSLOG, one of the Internet's most prominent file-sharing "release blogs," has announced a significant change in the way it will operate in future. The site, which was recommended by the RIAA for inclusion on the USTR's "notorious markets" list, says it was contacted by the same law firm that took down NZBMatrix and is taking their threats seriously. This could lead to all 3rd-party links being withdrawn.

Due to the site’s clear format, attention to detail and longevity, millions of Internet users visit RLSLOG every month.

The site provides information on new content availability in the popular “release blog” format and covers all the main categories including movies, music, TV shows, games, eBooks and software.

Like all large file-sharing related domains RLSLOG has had its share of legal threats. It has been taken offline temporarily in the past due to complaints from outfits such as the Web Sheriff and record label Universal, and was reported to the USTR by the RIAA.

RLSLOG has always recovered, but this month the site has something apparently much bigger on its mind. According to the site’s operator, RLSLOG has received a threat of legal action from the same law firm that has just taken down NZBMatrix on behalf of the major Hollywood studios.

“I can tell you the company is called Wiggin LLC, the same that forced NZBmatrix to shutdown,” RLSLOG’s admin informs TorrentFreak. “Wiggin represent most movie studios. They asked us to remove all movie and TV shows represented by these companies.”

RLSLOG told us that the studios estimated that around 94% of all content listed by the site is material to which they own the copyright, an amount RLSLOG contests.

Although NZBMatrix have provided a few details on the threats made to them, largely they have remained quiet. However, it does appear that the threats they received are similar in nature to those now being received by RLSLOG.

“RLSLOG has always cooperated with DMCA requests, it’s just the fact we haven’t received so many of them in the past, lets say 10 or 15 per month, because we do not host the content, we just inform about it and post some links,” says the site’s admin.

“But Wiggin didn’t want us to remove particular posts/pages like its common with other DMCA requests but rather the whole thing. We are still in the process of negotiating.”

While discussions continue, RLSLOG have already taken the first step towards satisfying the studios.

Say, for example, RLSLOG announced that movie X or TV show Y was made available online today, they would post up an article including a link or two of their own to where they could be found. However, underneath the news article would be a section where site users could make their own comments, which in recent times mainly consisted of people posting dozens of links to the content on different file-hosting sites.

The site’s operator says he has taken the decision to remove these comments sections on every movie and TV show post to eliminate links to 3rd party sites hosting the content.

For now, the changes only affect the movie and TV show sections, but it is possible that the changes could spread to other parts or indeed all of the site, depending on how things pan out in the future.

“We started like that, not posting any download links, and it is possible we’ll return to this model,” the site’s admin concludes.