BitTorrent Traffic Booms Due to “Licensing Challenges”

In the U.S., BitTorrent’s share of total Internet traffic is falling sharply and the aggregate share of all P2P sharing applications is now at an all-time low of 12.7 percent. In other parts of the world, however, this trend is noticeably absent. In Europe and the Asia-Pacific region BitTorrent continues…

Italian Court Orders All ISPs To Block KickAssTorrents

KickAssTorrents, one of the most popular BitTorrent websites on the Internet today, is facing a total blackout in Italy. Following an investigation by the country's cybercrime police, an ISP blocking order has now been granted against a site which authorities say is run by criminals generating millions of dollars. The…

ISPs Refuse to Block New Pirate Bay IP-Address

In recent days The Pirate Bay announced the addition of a new proxy-friendly version of their site supported by a new IP address. This means that customers of ISPs that had previously implemented a court-ordered blockade could now access the site again. In the Netherlands, anti-piracy group BREIN is already…

Rickroll Meme Destroyed By Copyright Takedown

It's possibly one of the most popular ever memes in the history of the Internet but today it lies in tatters. The Rickroll phenomenon, whereby people are promised one thing but given "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley instead, has been ended by a copyright takedown request by…

TorrentFreak Censored by Orange’s Child Protection Filter

The Internet is a scary place for kids, but luckily there’s censorship. In the UK mobile networks have so-called “child protection filters” to deal with shady content, and in many cases these are turned on by default. The filters block all sorts of nasty and offensive content, including TorrentFreak. While…

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom Refuses to Give Up Passwords

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is demanding access to 135 computers and hard drives that were seized from his home in January, so the data can be used for his defense. Until then, he refuses to give up passwords to encrypted data stored on the machines. Dotcom's legal team is challenging…

Pirate Bay Simplifies Circumvention of ISP Blockades

In their ongoing effort to circumvent the court mandated blockades in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, The Pirate Bay has added a new website. The site in question is operating from a new IP-address which makes it available directly to blocked subscribers. In addition, the new site is…

“How We Stopped SOPA”

After the historic protests in January SOPA and PIPA were ‘shelved’. In a keynote speech at Freedom 2 Connect, Demand Progress founder Aaron Swartz looks back at what happened. Swartz explains how SOPA was effectively stopped, and why this was so crucially important. The battle over the Internet…