TorrentFreak

LatestNews

• Users ‘Encrypt’ Music Uploads As Copyright Holders Blitz Russia’s Facebook

  As Russia braces itself for the introduction of a tough new anti-piracy law, the major labels have begun blitzing Russia’s Facebook equivalent with copyright takedowns. The music of popular artists is currently being removed en masse by the huge social networking site causing outrage among its users who are now attempting to ‘encrypt’ their music uploads. While that’s unlikely to stop deletions, the labels appear to be in the mood to exchange their stick for a carrot.

• Pirate Bay Founder Will be Extradited to Denmark

  Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm will be extradited to Denmark where he faces several new hacking charges. In Denmark, Gottfrid is accused of downloading a large number of files, including police records, from the mainframe of IT company CSC. The timing of the extradition is still unknown since among other things the Pirate Bay founder has to await the verdict in his Swedish hacking trial which is due later this week.

• Google Opposes Russia’s ‘SOPA’ as Blocking Legislation Passes First Hurdle

  Tough new anti-piracy legislation that allows for sites to be quickly blocked by ISPs following allegations of copyright infringement has been passed by Russia’s State Duma. Opposition to the bill has been growing, not only from regular Internet users but tech giants including Google, who are alarmed that domains could be censored without the intervention of the courts.

• Six Strikes “Copyright Alert” Warns Subscribers For Dangerous P2P Software

  Together with four other internet providers in the United States, Time Warner Cable is sending copyright alerts to customers who use BitTorrent to pirate movies, TV-shows and music. The goal of the “six strikes” program is to inform subscribers that their connection are being used to infringe copyrights while pointing them towards legal alternatives. However, Time Warner Cable is going one step further by warning users about the dangers of P2P software including identity theft, spyware, viruses and unsolicited access to porn.

• Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week

  The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘The Hangover Part 3′ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Dead Man Down’. ‘Iron Man 3′ completes the top three.

• Hey Hadopi, You’re Breaking The Law. We Made “Three Strikes” Illegal Across All Europe.

  This week, the French authority Hadopi issued its first order of disconnecting the net for a person who shared culture and knowledge. Hadopi’s behavior is completely illegal. In 2009, the European Parliament made such disconnections unquestionably and explicitly illegal.

• New DRM Changes Text of eBooks to Catch Pirates

  A new form of DRM developed in Germany alters words, punctuation and other text elements so that every consumer receives a unique version of an eBook. By examining these “text watermarks”, copies that end up on the Internet can be traced back to the people who bought and allegedly pirated them. The project is a collaboration between researchers, the book industry and the Government and aims to be a consumer-friendly form of DRM.

NewsBits

Even more news...

• 404 Fail: Six Strikes’ Piracy Alternatives Go Missing

  After years of negotiating and planning the “six strikes” copyright alert system finally saw the light...

• Google Doesn’t Believe Kim Dotcom is Real

  Those who enter Kim Dotcom into Google’s search box will get millions of results. Still, Google...

• Nintendo’s Miyamoto: Piracy More Concerning Than Used Games Market

  In an interview with Computer and Video Games, Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto says that his company...

• Monitoring BitTorrent Activity on a Network Using WireShark

  As all readers should know by now, BitTorrent activity is public and can be easily logged...

• The Pirate Bay Suffers Downtime

  The Pirate Bay is not responding at the moment and most proxies appear to be down...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

• Movie2K Disappears Without Warning

  Comment Icon 474

• UK Police Launch Campaign to Shut Down Torrent Sites

  Comment Icon 425

• Three Strikes For File-Sharing Fails to Halt Music Sales Decline

  Comment Icon 414

• 87 Months in Prison for Copyright Infringement: Fair Sentence or Utter Madness?

  Comment Icon 362

• ARM Launches Hollywood Approved Anti-Piracy Processor

  Comment Icon 322

PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.

• VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition

  More than a year ago TorrentFreak took a look at a selection of the web’s VPN...

• Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2013

  Continuing a long-standing New Year's tradition, today we present an up-to-date list of the world's most-visited...

• Which VPN Service Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously?

  Last month it became apparent that not all VPN providers live up to their marketing after...

• What’s The Best VPN / Proxy for BitTorrent?

  Privacy is important on the Internet, and BitTorrent users are certainly not excluded. Already, hundreds of...

• BTGuard Review: How Does it Work?

  With the entertainment industries lobbying for increased powers to spy on BitTorrent users, many downloaders are...

• Optimize Your BitTorrent Download Speed

  BitTorrent can be fun, as long as you get decent speeds. Not satisfied with your current...