The credit crunch has impacted the global financial market and many businesses are struggling to survive the economic downturn. Now, a rare academic publication on private BitTorrent trackers suggests that the same is happening in private BitTorrent communities.
In what must appear like a lifetime to his loyal fans, the popular DVD ripper aXXo hasn’t uploaded any torrents for three weeks. As always, rumors surface that claim to explain the hiatus. Has aXXo been arrested, or transferred to one of the MPAA’s covert detention facilities? Did BitTorrent’s favorite uploader fall off a cliff?
TV-shows are some of the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people sharing?
A new application has been created for the iPhone which is designed to not only get all the latest Apple apps free of charge, but to teach a commercial iPhone pirate a lesson by opening his servers to all.
Mininova, one of the largest BitTorrent sites on the Internet, will launch a new feature today that will help artists, labels and other content producers to generate revenue. The Dutch record label ‘Beep! Beep!’ is one of the first to try the new feature, which allows content producers to add ‘shopping links’ to their free torrents.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Yes Man’ tops the chart this week followed by ‘Bedtime Stories’.
This week’s hot topic is the reported collaboration between the RIAA, MPAA and your ISP. The aim of the music and movie industries is to reduce and deter illicit file-sharing by sending out warnings to alleged infringers. The big questions is this: How would you react if you received one of these warnings?
In a bid to conquer the web bit-by-bit, The Pirate Bay has launched a new feature to allow it to penetrate the social networking site Facebook. With only a single click Facebook users can add their favorite torrents to their profile to share them with friends. The IFPI is not pleased with the new feature, while FaceBook declined to comment.
This week several scary stories surfaced about how the MPAA and RIAA are negotiating with ISPs on how to deal with copyright infringers. Even though it was often presented as news, those who look deeper will realize that this is nothing new at all, just the same old threats dressed up in a new jacket.
A police IT forensics specialist has had some of his personal details leak via The Pirate Bay. Jim Keyzer, who led the investigation into the popular tracker, has just discovered that his girlfriend’s email account was compromised by hackers, who obtained several passwords and other personal documents.
The European Parliament has approved a report which goes against the French plan to implement a ’3 strikes’ regime for alleged P2P copyright infringers. The proposals to increase security and ensure freedom on the Internet were accepted, but disconnecting users from the Internet was ruled out.
After suffering humiliation at the hands of a hacker in 2007, the future of anti-piracy company MediaDefender is in serious doubt. The stock price of its parent company has plunged, and the two founders of MediaDefender have now left the sinking ship.
MCM, a writer and artist from Victoria, Canada, has released the first book of his TorrentBoy series. ‘TorrentBoy: Zombie World!’ deals with a kid named Wesley, who’s on a quest to save the world while battling zombies and giant leeches. The book can be downloaded for free.
A few weeks ago we introduced Torrent Droid, an application for Android-based phones that allows users to take a photo of a barcode and lookup torrents for the associated product. While Torrent Droid is still being developed, a similar app is now on the market and available for download.
The term ’3 strikes’ is well known in file-sharing circles – infringe on copyrights and face Internet disconnection. But every coin has two sides, day can eclipse night and evil can be countered by good. Free music service Jamendo continues the theme by shunning ’3 Strikes’ and embracing ’3 Thanks’ for downloaders.
Last year seven Hollywood studios teamed up to sue iiNet, Australia’s third largest ISP. iiNet is accused of authorizing its customers to infringe copyright, but in court today it refused to accept that was the case. iiNet has yet to decide if it will admit that its customers engaged in copyright infringement using BitTorrent.
Exactly a year ago one of the largest torrent sites shut down for good, and a month later the owner was ordered to pay a 110 million dollar fine. We catch up with TorrentSpy owner Justin Bunnell, who’s still in court fighting the MPAA, to see how he views the developments of the past year.
In the eyes of many artists and record labels, being heavily pirated is just about the worse thing that could happen. But what if there was a worse fate, one where people don’t feel the desire to pirate your music at all? What if you make your music available for free – but still no one is interested? Come back pirates, all is forgiven.
TV-shows are some of the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?
Another brand new episode of TorrentFreak TV. This week’s episode covers Mininova’s earnings, aXXo torrents, isoHunt’s court case and a whole lot more.
As the online battle against file-sharers heats up with governments and ISPs forced into the arena, those opposed to being monitored are investigating counter-measures. Soon the Pirate Bay team will introduce IPREDATOR, a service that promises to make global Internet users more anonymous than with existing VPN services.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Marley and Me’ tops the chart this week followed by ‘Inkheart’.
Vuze, the popular BitTorrent client formerly known as Azureus, has received a major update which allows users to automatically convert and play downloaded videos on the iPhone, iPod, Xbox 360 and the PS3. “Now playing, on all your screens” is Vuze’s new tagline.
Following a mountain of bad publicity and strong objections from just about everyone except the entertainment industries, New Zealand’s proposed ‘guilty upon accusation’ Section 92A anti-piracy law has been scrapped.
BitTorrent users are often referred to as pirates, even though there are plenty of legal uses for the most used file sharing protocol. Even for those who use BitTorrent to download copyrighted content, the motivation to do so varies. Through this poll we would like to discover why you use BitTorrent.
The entertainment industry managed to convince the French government to draft a law that will make it possible to disconnect people from the Internet, if they receive more than two copyright infringement warnings. Sadly, most of the politicians who plan to sign the law into action have no clue what they’re dealing with.
Today a brand new movie has premiered but this is not the usual Hollywood-style launch. ‘Blank’, described as an intense psycho-thriller by director Rick L. Winters, will debut on DVD but you can get it for free on BitTorrent too – with the blessing of the entire cast and crew.
Nine Inch Nails released their new tour sampler NIN/JA on their website a few hours ago. While the regular quality MP3s can be downloaded straight from their server, the band has set up their own BitTorrent tracker for the higher quality ‘lossless’ downloads.
The Pirate Bay has rolled out a new feature which allows users to bookmark torrents and download them remotely, simply by adding their personal RSS feed URL to their BitTorrent client. Why wait, when you can start your torrent downloads on the go?
The movie industry leaves no stone unturned in its quest to eliminate movie piracy, particularly illegal camcording in theaters. Unfortunately, it’s the public that has to deal with the negative consequences. In some parts of the world, it means that you’ll have to wait a few extra weeks or months before a movie premieres.
There are claims today that the Australian government’s top-secret blacklist of banned websites has been leaked onto the Internet. There are a number of strange entries on the list that leaked to Wikileaks, including a couple of torrent sites. However, Australian Minister Stephen Conroy claims the list is not the country’s official blacklist.
It’s been two weeks since the Pirate Bay trial came to an end – at least for now. While the judge reviews the arguments presented by both sides, TorrentFreak caught up with Peter Sunde to look forward to the decision and review the tumultuous events of the past weeks.
The controversial ‘Section 92a’ law is looking increasingly uncertain in New Zealand. Following a breakdown in talks it’s been revealed that one ISP has already implemented a version of it, and may have already threatened innocent customers after allegations from copyright holders.
TV-shows are some of the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?
A woman who went to the cinema to watch a movie says she was “treated like a criminal.” First of all cinema staff searched her looking for camming equipment, but found candy instead which they demanded she turn over. She refused and wouldn’t leave the building when told to either, despite the security guards.
A new law designed to make it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers will come into force April 1st in Sweden. The IPRED legislation will also increase penalties and ultimately criminalize large scale infringement but according to a new poll, the majority of Swedes are against it.
This year is an important one for the three largest BitTorrent sites. In common with The Pirate Bay and isoHunt, Mininova is also heading to court in a dispute with the entertainment industry. This May, the court will decide if the BitTorrent indexer has to actively filter content from the site.
Most BitTorrent sites operate in the shadows, with operators who rarely speak in public and guard their identities closely. Mininova is not one of those sites and in a new interview, company directors Erik Dubbelboer and Niek van der Maas reveal a little more about running one of the world’s biggest BitTorrent sites.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Twilight’ tops the chart for the second week in a row. ‘Quantum of Solace’ and ‘Bolt’ are in second and third place respectively.
A few hours ago, certain sections of The Pirate Bay were flagged by Google as containing malware and were subsequently blocked. Similar warnings are being shown by Firefox, which states that the world’s largest tracker is an “attack site”. The Pirate Bay team are working on the problem now.
The Internet and file-sharing networks like BitTorrent have shifted music promotion from the labels to the people. Increasingly, record labels are losing control over what music the masses are listening to, and according to some musicians this is is actually a good thing.
Uploading fakes to BitTorrent is a growing phenomenon, as unscrupulous individuals try to abuse the networks for their own ends. Just lately, some people have even been offering users money to post suspect torrents and this morning, a flood of hundreds of fake aXXo torrents were uploaded to Mininova.
While the entertainment industries push for harsher copyright laws, public opinion steers in the opposite direction. Two recent studies from Canada and Spain found that half of the Internet users use p2p networks to download music, software and films. Less than 5% of the respondents believe that people who download copyrighted content are engaging in criminal behavior.
The South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival is one of the largest and most popular in the United States. For the fifth year in a row, SXSW has released a DRM-free, RIAA-safe collection of songs totaling 6 GB, which can all be downloaded for free, thanks to BitTorrent.
MusicTank has released a report entitled “Let’s Sell Recorded Music”, based on a series of events held last autumn and the responses to the BERR report. The report is focused mainly on the music industry’s online shortcomings. However, it fails to even mention several major points, and glosses over others with barely a mention.
A new version of the P2P plug-in Littleshoot makes it possible to download torrents right from within your browser. The software runs on Macs and Windows PCs and works with IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. It even offers Gnutella and Youtube integration as an added bonus.
Just a week after the Pirate Bay trial ended, another site finds itself up against the music industry. IsoHunt, one of the leading BitTorrent sites, is fighting out a dispute with the CRIA in court today. Of course, everything can be followed through Twitter.
For years music industry lobbyists, headed by the RIAA, have gone after illegal file-sharers – supposedly in the best interests of the artists. Unexpectedly, a group of top musicians has started its very own lobby group to avoid being exploited by these very same record labels, who tend to abuse copyrights for their own sake.
TV-shows are some of the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?
You are standing in a store looking for a new DVD to buy. Rather than buying it, you photograph the barcode with your phone and press a couple of buttons. By the time you make it home, the movie is waiting for you in your torrent client. You can with Torrent Droid.
The name Discordia Ltd is connected to the neutering, hijacking, faking and commercialization of several P2P clients including iMesh, Bearshare and Shareaza.com. Following initial reports that the company had hijacked the Lphant client, it now seems that the business simply sold out to the music industry.
Two economists from Washington University have looked at current copyright and patent laws and concluded that they’re not good. The pair see current Intellectual property laws as similar to ‘medieval trade monopolies’ which were bad for the economy as a whole, and are calling for the system to be reformed.
The Pirate Party has gathered a huge following in Sweden. More than half of all men under 30 are considering voting for the party in the upcoming European Parliament elections. However, being affiliated with the party is not without risks – even in a democracy.
The 14 year old daughter of a city counselor in Spain is the source of a small political crisis in the city of Getafe. The girl used her mother’s work 3G modem to download some episodes of the popular TV-show ‘Lost’, resulting in a massive $40,000 bill.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Twilight’ tops the chart this week. ‘Role Models’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ are in second and third place respectively.
The proposed anti-filesharing legislation in New Zealand has got more than its fair share of press recently but unfortunately for the music industry, most of it has been bad. However, the head of New Zealand’s answer to the RIAA says everyone has it wrong, insisting Section 92A is a “reasonable” response.
The government-owned Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) has set up its very own BitTorrent tracker to distribute their TV-shows. After a successful test last year they plan to release more DRM-free TV-shows via BitTorrent, using the same tracker software currently in use at The Pirate Bay.
After a two month break, TorrentFreak TV returns with a brand new episode and a new host. This week’s episode includes a recap of of the Pirate Bay trial, Vuze’s secret and some BitTorrent speed tips.
Mininova, one of the leading BitTorrent sites, has been suffering from a massive DDoS attack over the past few days. Originating from a botnet spanning three continents, the attacks vary in strength and are causing the site to be completely inaccessible at times. The Mininova team is working on a solution.
Last month the Legendas fansub site was taken down by anti-piracy action, only to return a short time later. Now, another prominent subbing community has closed its doors – and has launched a campaign to show the movie industry that they are not thieves, but avid consumers.
Swedish police have busted a server belonging to one of the largest topsites in the country. It was part of a ring of servers totaling 65 terabytes of pirated material data. Several well known ‘scene’ groups used the site. The Swedish anti-piracy bureau assisted in the investigation and says that their war on piracy will continue.
TV-shows are some of the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?
It’s been nearly nine years since Lars Ulrich became one of the most vocal opponents of Napster and the generation of file-sharers it spawned. Not one to speak about something he has no experience of, Ulrich has just admitted downloading his own album, Death Magnetic, and it was “bizarre”.
Camcording pirates pose a serious threat to the profits of Hollywood, according to the MPAA at least. In order to stop the cammers in their tracks, theater owners have been equipped with night-vision goggles. That’s not all though, the latest Hollywood blockbusters may soon come with watermarked audio that can pinpoint a pirate’s seat number.
A new study by the RAND corporation has attempted to put the focus on ‘movie piracy’ squarely on the shoulders of terrorist groups and criminal gangs. The report, which claims to have been ‘peer reviewed’, seems to show that no matter which gang, thug, or terrorist – they all pirate movies.
After two weeks of live broadcasted hearings on the Internet, the ‘Spectrial’ is coming to an end. This week both parties presented their closing statements to the court. Time for us to weigh up developments so far and look forward to the verdict.
Today, The Pirate Bay trial will probably come to an end, but not before the defendants’ lawyers have their final say. All four lawyers call for their clients to be acquitted on various grounds, while offering caution to the court to ignore the politic aspects of the trial.
Two weeks ago the music industry, headed by the IFPI, gave Norway’s largest Internet provider ‘Telenor’ an ultimatum; block access to The Pirate Bay within 14 days or we will take you to court. The ISP has now announced that it wont give in to IFPI’s demands, lawsuit or not.
With eight Oscars, including Best Motion Picture, Slumdog Millionaire was the absolute winner of last week’s Academy Awards show. As was to be expected, Hollywood’s praise bumped up the download numbers of the film on BitTorrent. Hundreds and thousands of people have downloaded the film this week.
A few hours ago The Pirate Bay website started to slow down, and eventually it became completely unresponsive. With the trial going on at the moment, the downtime instantly led to all kinds of rumors. However, there is nothing to worry about, the downtime is not related to the trial and people are on their way to bring the site back up.
As we enter the final days of The Pirate Bay trial, today the prosecution has been giving the court its closing arguments. Håkan Roswall, Peter Danowsky, Henrik Pontén and Monique Wadsted all appeared, with Roswall calling on the judge to jail all four of the defendants.
Once thought to be operating well under the radar, recent months have seen fresh efforts to silence sites that provide fan-created translations of movies and TV shows for their home countries. The latest targets for shutdown – Israel and France.
It’s been a rough week for the RIAA as massive layoffs are about to cost many employees their job. On top of that, the anti-piracy outfit is being sued for abusing the legal system for its war on piracy, civil conspiracy, deceptive trade practices, trespassing and computer fraud.
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Left Quote“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
Peter Sunde Left Quote
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