TorrentFreak

November2006

• Interview with the Founder of Opensubtitles

  Do you want a subtitle with that torrent? Then Opensubtitles.org is probably the place to be. The website is only a couple of months old, but already one of the most popular subtitle resources.

• TorrentPod Episode 15

  Another episode of the official TorrentFreak podcast!… Enjoy..

• BitTorrent Partners with TV and Movie Companies

  BitTorrent Inc just announced that they have teamed up with several TV and movie companies. The new list of partners includes 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, G4, Kadokawa Pictures USA, Lionsgate, MTV Networks (Comedy Central, MTV etc.), Palm Pictures and Starz Media.

• MPAA satire is just too realistic

  There are always people who find it hard to distinguish between sarcastic and real stories. And it is even harder if the story is about the MPAA. Why? Well, it’s just too realistic, they do crazy things all the time.

• Online TV on the Rise

  A recent study conducted for the BBC shows that watching TV “online” is on the rise, and threatening the popularity of old fashioned TV watching.

• How BitTorrent Could Help Microsoft

  Microsoft is a large corporation, and most large corporations distrust everything to do with filesharing. What they don’t realise is how much they stand to gain from from filesharing networks, in paticular, BitTorrent.

• Oversized Video Clips at BitTorrent.com

  We all know that BitTorrent is probably the best way to transfer large files, but this doesn’t mean that one should increase the filesize because they distribute something over BitTorrent.

• BitTorrent Movie Download Chart (wk47)

  This week’s most popular movie downloads on BitTorrent.

• The Last Man on Earth: Free and Legal on BitTorrent

  “The Last Man on Earth” is a true movie classic based on the famous novel “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. The movie was released back in 1964, and has fallen in the public domain, so you’re free to download and share it.

• Comparing Sharing Behavior in BitTorrent Communities

  Just as many social bookmarking sites are said to be run by a small group of active users, the same seems to hold for BitTorrent communities where 10% of the users upload as much as the rest of the 90% put together.

• Wikipedia CD Distributed over BitTorrent

  A “Wikipedia CD” has been made available for download on BitTorrent.com. The CD comprises of over 2500 hand-picked educational articles aimed at helping schools enhance their curriculum and children learn.

• TorrentPod Episode 14

  And yet another fresh episode of the official TorrentFreak podcast!… Enjoy..

• Unpack RAR Archives before you release a Torrent

  Here’s a great essay explaining why people shouldn’t put RAR archives in torrents. They are useless and they make “selective downloading” impossible.

• Brein Sues Provider for Hosting BitTorrent Site

  The Dutch anti-piracy organization Brein is suing the web hosting provider of the BitTorrent site extremepowertorrents.nl because they hosted the site, which is illegal according to Brein. Brein is demanding over $350,000 to cover the loss in expenses.

• Sundance Winner ‘The Corporation’ Released for Free on BitTorrent

  The award winning Canadian documentary ‘The Corporation’ has been released on BitTorrent for free. Filmmaker Mark Achbar just released an updated “official” torrent of it. Everyone is free to download, watch, discuss, and share it.

• FrostWire adds BitTorrent support

  FrostWire, the completely free alternative to LimeWire (Pro) has added BitTorrent support in its latest release. The release is Linux-only, but Windows and Mac installers are on the way.

• Downloading TV Shows leads to more TV watching

  A CBS poll shows that people who download TV shows actually watch more TV. People miss less shows because they can watch their favorite shows whenever they want, and this results in more fans.

• How to install LimeWire on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)

  Many Ubuntu users who have upgraded to the new Edgy Eft have been complaining that LimeWire and its 100% free counterpart, FrostWire don’t work anymore. New Ubuntu users are also having problems getting the two P2P apps to run. Here’s how to.

• BitTorrent Movie Download Chart (wk46)

  This week’s most popular movie downloads on BitTorrent.

• Wafeek: An MC using Pirated beats

  Some might say it’s theft to reuse use copyrighted work, others encourage it because it facilitates creativity. One way or another, the result can be great.

• MPAA sues company for selling pre-loaded iPods

  The MPAA has launched yet another “defensive attack”, this time on a small business that is pre-loading movie DVDs onto iPods and reselling them. The original DVDs of the movies that are loaded are also given to the customer.

• The Piratebay finally adds TV section

  It took a while, but The Piratebay finally decided to add a TV section. The Piratebay has never been the most innovative torrent site when it comes to implementing “user friendly” features, but the TV section is a great step forward.

• Fabchannel experiments with BitTorrent-powered concerts

  Fabchannel has successfully completed an experiment in which they used BitTorrent to stream a live concert. Fabchannel is an award winning music site where you can watch videos of live concerts.

• TorrentPod Episode 13

  Here’s a fresh episode of the official TorrentFreak podcast!… Enjoy..

• BitTorrent.com Delays Long Awaited Video Store

  The BitTorrent.com video store that was supposed to be launched late this year has been delayed a few months and won’t go live until sometime next year.

• MP3.com Offers Free Music Downloads

  MP3.com, the site that was once sued for millions of dollars by record labels for copyright infringement is back to distributing free mp3s, except this time it’s doing so legally.

• BitTorrent sites sell up

  Some of the largest BitTorrent sites on the web have decided to sell their sites to Searching Unlimited LTD. They will work together in an effort to monetize the BitTorrent search engines, and create more innovative projects.

• BitTorrent Movie Download Chart (wk45)

  This week’s most popular movie downloads on BitTorrent.

• Ares Includes BitTorrent Support

  First Limewire integrated BitTorrent, now Ares has also updated its P2P client to support BitTorrent downloads. It’s all still very basic, but it’s good to see that more and more P2P clients are starting to support BitTorrent.

• P2P lawsuits cost German taxpayers millions

  German taxpayers pay millions of Euros a year to ISPs in order to identify alleged copyright-infringing filesharers.

• Download Classic Popeye Cartoons for Free

  Popeye’s classic Arabian Nights “trilogy” is now freely available on BitTorrent. Free to download, and free to share.

• LimeWire to filter out Adobe products

  LimeWire today announced on the company blog that from now on they will be filtering out Adobe products like Photoshop that are distributed illegally over P2P networks that LimeWire hooks into.

• Vista RTM Leaked on BitTorrent

  Not a big surprise perhaps, but Microsoft’s Windows Vista RTM has been leaked on BitTorrent and several other P2P networks. The Vista RTM (Build 6000) is the result of a rather lengthy development process.

• RIAA’s outrageous fines questioned in court

  Earlier this year, a victim of a RIAA lawsuit questioned how constitutional the organisation’s $750 per-song-uploaded claim was. A judge has now ruled that this is worth looking into and will be included in the case.

• Torrentspy passes the 2 million registered users mark

  Torrentspy.com passed the 2.000.000 registered users mark today. This is less than a year after the millionth user signed up at Torrentspy. Yet another milestone for the popular BitTorrent search engine that keeps on growing.

• TorrentPod Episode 12

  Here’s Episode 12 of the official TorrentFreak podcast!… Enjoy..

• Australian govt draft says piracy stats are made up

  A private draft prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology for the Attorney-General’s Department says that piracy stats aren’t backed up by fact and that copyright holders “failed to explain” how they came up with financial loss figures.

• Software Piracy in 1985

  I found an interesting episode of the computer chronicles about software piracy back in 1985. A true classic!

• Privacy Prevails: German ISP Forced To Delete IP Logs

  The highest appeal court in Germany has decided that T-Online, one of the largest German ISPs has to delete all IP logs to guarantee the privacy of their customers. This ruling makes it impossible for anti-piracy organizations to trace an infringing IP-address back to a customer of T-Online, once their dynamic IP address has changed.

• Asia ‘pirates’ out of necessity, not choice

  The content industries, specifically those in the US, accuse Asia of being the polestar of all piracy. Is this really the case? Or do otherwise law-abiding Asians have no other choice, no other legal alternatives?

• Danish ISP forced to censor the Internet

  A Danish court ruled against the Danish ISP Tele2 and ordered to block all access to the site Allofmp3.com. According to the ruling, the ISP is willingly infringing copyright if their customers use AllofMP3 to download music.

• Google Torrents

  I stumbled upon this BitTorrent search engine that uses Google’s search technology to find torrents. It is not very user friendly though, because it does not return info like the size of the torrent, or seeds and peers.

• MPAA’s Propaganda Contest

  The MPAA announced their second annual anti-piracy propaganda contest. The goal is to create the most effective anti-piracy public service announcement (PSA).

• Classic Superman Cartoons, Free and Legal on BitTorrent

  This cartoon collection is definitely a must-see for all Superman fans and cartoon enthusiasts. Free to download, and free to share.

• RIAA Targets University

  The University of Maryland is confronted with a wave of copyright infringement claims by the RIAA. In one month they received 130 letters, almost a tenfold of what they receive on average.

• Spanish judge: Non-commercial filesharing is legal

  A judge in Spain has dismissed a case against a man who downloaded and shared copyrighted music on the Internet. It was dismissed on the grounds that the man’s intent wasn’t to make money.

• Creative Commons launches video sharing fundraising campaign

  Creative Commons is using Revver’s video sharing platform for their latest fundraising campaign.

• TorrentPod Episode 1.1

  Here’s Episode 1.1 of the official TorrentFreak podcast!…

• LOST: The Most Popular TV-Show on BitTorrent

  An average episode of the hit series LOST is downloaded more than 500,000 times on BitTorrent, making it by far the most popular TV-show shared over the Internet, and one with approximately 5% of all its viewers watching via BitTorrent.

• Limewire now supports BitTorrent downloads

  The latest version (4.13) of Limewire now includes BitTorrent support. Although the tweaking options are limited at this point, it is good to see that it is all working fine. BitTorrent support will be extended to the free version in the near future.

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NewsBits

The latest news from around the web, not covered on the frontpage

• RIAA: “Misinformation May Be a Dirty Trick, But It Works.”

  For years the RIAA has tried to convince the world that piracy is killing musicians. Supported...

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  RUTracker, Russia’s largest BitTorrent tracker, has been dealing with the effects of a DDoS attack over...

• Reddit and WordPress Urge Congress to Shelve SOPA/PIPA

  A coalition of 70 groups, including Reddit and WordPress, are asking Congress to stop working on...

• Turbobit.net Blocks US Visitors After MegaUpload Shutdown

  In the aftermath of the MegaUpload shutdown, file-hosting sites continue to change their services. After Uploaded.to,...

• QuickSilverScreen Streaming Links Site Calls It Quits

  In the wake of the Megaupload raids and attacks on domains in the US and elsewhere,...

MostDiscussed

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

• Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action

  Comment Icon 832

• Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests

  Comment Icon 612

• BitTorrent Giant BTjunkie Shuts Down For Good

  Comment Icon 581

• MegaUpload Loses Top Lawyer After ‘Outside’ Pressure

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• Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship

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