Leading ISPs in the UK have confirmed they are being pressured by rightsholders to add two major file-sharing sites to their blocklists. EZTV is the leading public TV show-focused website online and YIFY-Torrents is a rapidly growing site and home of hundreds of popular YIFY video releases. The ISPs say that no further information will be released until a court order is received but it seems likely that Hollywood is behind the request.
The KAT.ph domain name is back in the hands of the KickassTorrents team after a temporary injunction ran its course. Meanwhile, the legal action initiated by the music industry continues and it’s doubtful whether the second largest torrent site on the Internet will return to its old domain. The dotPH registry, who were also named in the complaint, informs TorrentFreak that going after domains is an ineffective strategy, as the events of the past week have shown.
Megaupload’s former hosting provider Leaseweb has deleted all Megaupload user data from 690 servers without warning. Petabytes of data and backups, mostly from European users, are now lost forever. Kim Dotcom is outraged by the scandal and says this is what the U.S. Government was hoping would happen all along. “I’m furious about this betrayal, and extremely sad,” Dotcom tells TorrentFreak.
A brand new law designed to make it easier to chase down file-sharers and have sites blocked at the ISP level is set to be exploited to the full when it comes into effect in just a few days time. Rightsholders including IFPI and representatives from the music and publishing industries will team up to create a Norwegian anti-piracy group modeled on the infamous Antipiratbyran. Web blocking of all the major torrent sites, including The Pirate Bay, is high on the agenda.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
RSS feeds are a great tool for keeping up to date with the latest information across the web, whether that be plain news updates or other fresh content. Now a new website allows users to transform any RSS feed into a torrent-enabled RSS feed which can be imported into a torrent client for automated downloads of a limitless array of content.
New research commissioned by the Australasian Performing Right Association reveals that Australian file-sharers are more affluent and better educated than their non-downloading counterparts. One in three Aussie Internet pirates earn more than $100,000 and one in four enjoyed a university education. The results further confirm that pirates tend to be relatively young, with 44% of file-sharers under 30 years of age.
As revealed earlier this month, UK police have begun working with rightsholders on a campaign to shut down file-sharing sites. Many site operators have received warnings that their activities are not only breaching copyright law, but also the UK’s Serious Crime Act. With some sites considering closing but most remaining defiant, what do the police threats mean from a legal perspective? To find out, TorrentFreak spoke with intellectual property lawyer Darren Meale.
As the music and movie business continues to streamline and hone their processes on the back of the experiences of past experiences, blocking websites via the High Court is getting close to a formality in the UK and could soon be the same in Ireland. Groundwork done with zero opposition and a sympathetic court, large-scale blocking is only just around the corner – guaranteed.
After a mystery disappearance yesterday it has now been confirmed that KickassTorrents’ domain name has been seized by the Philippine authorities. The action was taken following a complaint from local record labels who argued that the second largest torrent site on the Internet was causing “irreparable damages” to the music industry. KickassTorrents, however, appears undeterred by the intervention and is continuing business as usual under a new domain name.
A few moments ago KickassTorrents disappeared from the Internet prompting the usual flurry of worried emails. While these instances of downtime are usually down to minor technical issues that tend to sort themselves out, there are signs that something a little more serious might be underway. Details are sketchy but at the moment it appears that the site’s KAT.ph domain is being replaced with a new one, KickAss.to.
France is seen as the pioneer of so-called “three strikes” anti-piracy legislation, in which repeated file-sharing offenders are disconnected from the Internet. This week, following the issuing of millions of warning notices, the law has finally resulted in the first disconnection. The news comes as somewhat of a surprise since the Hadopi regime is set to be scrapped after doing little to stop online piracy.
Following the high-profile raid on his New Zealand mansion in 2012, Kim Dotcom released dramatic film of the event taken from police helicopters. Now the Megaupload founder is back with new footage captured by his own in-house CCTV system. Among other events, the new material shows police carrying machine guns fitted with silencers, arrests of staff and the towing of his cars. Dotcom’s sense of humor still shines through though, with an ending fit for a Hollywood blockbuster.
Some of the world’s largest book publishers are going after two prolific Usenet uploaders. The publishers have obtained subpoenas from a federal court in the District of Columbia which require major Usenet providers to reveal their customers’ identities. Thus far legal action against Usenet users has been relatively rare, but the documents suggest that the publishers are preparing just that.
The High Court in Ireland has made its decision in a copyright infringement case brought by the major recording labels against several top ranking ISPs. The labels said that the service providers should be prohibited from facilitating subscriber access to The Pirate Bay and today the Court agreed. UPC, Imagine, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchison 3G and Telefonica O2 now have 30 days in which to block the infamous torrent site.
Considering the scale of the problem it comes as no surprise that dozens of organizations across the web have come out against the U.S. Government’s PRISM spying program this week. One of the latest additions is the team behind the Vuze torrent client. Condemning “stunning abuses and violations of our basic Constitutional rights” the team say that they fully support encryption tools such as VPNs for legitimate uses. In parallel, a major VPN provider is reporting a nice boost in business.
Streaming sports indexes, event streamers and Flash players used for broadcasting have all been subjected to malicious attacks during the past 10 days. According to sources close to the situation, sites including FirstRowSports and WiziWig, plus sundry Flash broadcast tools have been hit by DDoS attacks. One prominent sports streamer says that there has been a constant daily effort to disrupt unauthorized sports streaming activities.
Several UK Internet providers have quietly added a list of new sites to their secretive anti-piracy blocklists. Following in the footsteps of Sky, the first ISP to initiate a proxy blockade, Virgin, BT and several other providers now restrict access to several torrent site proxies. The surprise isn’t really that proxies have been added to the blocklist, but that the music industry and ISPs are failing to disclose which sites are being banned.
The season finale of Game of Thrones has set a new BitTorrent record with more than 170,000 people sharing an episode simultaneously. In just one day more than a million people have downloaded a copy of the show, figures no other TV-show comes close to. Despite the invasion of pirates, HBO wants to keep the show as an exclusive and is not expected to put it on Netflix anytime soon.
When the original crew of The Pirate Bay were found guilty of copyright infringement following their 2009 trial, the trio plus former financier Carl Lundström were left with a hefty bills for damages. Interest on the amount has been accruing by the day ever since and all told the amount owed now exceeds $12m. But with Lundström about to go bankrupt, will Hollywood ever see a penny? Maybe not, but the studios aren’t giving up yet.
Former US prosecutor Larry Klayman and the parents of the killed Navy Seal Team VI member Michael Strange have filed a lawsuit against President Obama, the NSA and several other players connected to the PRISM scandal. Through the class action lawsuit they demand compensation for severe privacy abuses as well as violations of several other constitutional rights.
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’. ‘Jack The Giant Slayer’ completes the top three.
A man from Baltimore in the United States has just been sentenced to 87 months in prison for infringing copyrights on more than 1,000 software programs including Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Mac OSX and Windows XP. The man, a 32-year-old, could potentially lose his freedom until close to his 40th birthday. Is that fair for willful large scale pirating or have the authorities lost touch with how infringement compares to ‘real’ crimes?
The UK’s aggressive stance towards online piracy was taken to new heights this week through a combination of police threats and backroom deals between industry groups. One of the main targets identified were Pirate Bay proxy sites and TorrentFreak has been informed that the police and FACT recently turned up on the doorstep of one called PirateSniper in the UK. According to a report from the site’s owner he was handed a letter and ordered to shutter the site or face criminal action.
Aside from detecting intrusive and harmful software on people’s computers, the anti-malware application Malwarebytes is also able to detect which users are running a pirated version. While some software vendors might respond aggressively to unauthorized users, the San Jose company takes a more gently approach in the belief that every user contributes to the success of the software, pirates included.
Millions of Internet users every week are using websites that are hijacked, cloned or faked versions of one of the world’s most-visited streaming sites. In fact, the situation has gotten so bad for LetMeWatchThis that its owner is dumping the domain altogether in an effort to differentiate his site from more than a dozen imitators.
Customers of ISPs not involved in the so-called ‘Six Strikes’ anti-piracy scheme in the United States might be under the impression that warning notices are something they can avoid. However, TorrentFreak has learned that Warner Bros. are specifically targeting users of non-participating ISPs not only with warnings, but also with fines to settle the alleged copyright infringements.
This week two of the largest gaming oriented BitTorrent trackers pulled the plug to prevent legal trouble. GazelleGames shut down permanently while Underground Gamer is leaving the door open for a possible restart. At this point it’s unclear which industry group is behind the legal pressure, but it appears to go beyond the occasional DMCA notice. Thousands of members, meanwhile, are looking for alternatives to resume their torrenting habits.
This week the trial of Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm concluded in Sweden, but before the verdict is announced more trouble awaits the 28-year-old. Authorities have revealed that Denmark has requested the extradition of Svartholm, who is suspected of similar hacking-related crimes in the neighboring country. Gottfrid’s mother tells TorrentFreak that she is surprised by the new allegations.
The UK Minister for Culture plus representatives from the MPAA, BPI, Google and four major ISPs met for a roundtable discussion on the issue of online piracy last month. The minutes of the meeting suggest that not only are the parties keen for site blocking to continue, but are considering whether the same High Court mechanism could be used to provide Google with a legal basis on which to delist sites.
Kim Dotcom’s Mega has grown exponentially since its launch earlier this year. According to Dotcom, the bandwidth generated by the encryption-focused file-hosting platform has now exceeded that of the entire country of New Zealand. At the same time, the number of complaints by copyright holders remains remarkably low at 80 to 100 DMCA requests per day.
During her speech yesterday at the World Creators Summit in Washington D.C, United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator for the White House Victoria Espinel warned that there is no “silver bullet” for ending online piracy. The copyright czar said that a variety of tools and approaches will be needed to reduce infringement and that existing collaboration with ISPs, advertisers, credit card companies and domain registrars will continue into the future.
It’s no secret that copyright trolls will go to extremes in their efforts to nail accused BitTorrent pirates. Prenda Law provides the latest shining example and in a new filing the firm stands accused of running a honeypot to lure in potential porn pirates. Following this revelation The Pirate Bay has handed logs to TorrentFreak which reveal that a user called “Sharkmp4″ is indeed directly linked to the infamous anti-piracy law firm.
City of London Police inform TorrentFreak that they have begun targeting sites that provide access to unauthorized content for “criminal gain.” The initiative is part of a collaboration with Hollywood studios represented by FACT and the major recording labels of the BPI. In letters being sent out now, police accuse site operators of committing offenses under the Serious Crime Act. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau further warns that the crimes carry a jail sentence of 10 years.
The mystery surrounding the demise of Movie2K.to and the apparent reincarnation of the site at Movie4K.to has taken on yet another twist. Last week TorrentFreak informed the German Pirate Party (to their apparent surprise) that their DNS servers were being used by the old Movie2K. That redirection attracted the attention of the police but is now being used by the party to promote their political message to millions of former Movie2K users.
Chip manufacturer ARM has announced a Hollywood-approved video processor that enables content producers to prevent piracy on mobile platforms. The Mali-V500 video chip features hardware embedded anti-piracy capabilities which secure playback of high-definition video. According to ARM the new chip meets the toughest anti-piracy standards for mobile devices.
UK Internet provider Sky Broadband has quietly started to restrict access to a wide range of proxy sites through which subscribers could reach The Pirate Bay, Kat.ph, Movie2k and other blocked sites. The new blockades go beyond the initial court orders and appear to adjust automatically to IP-address changes. TorrentFreak talked to several proxy site operators who are determined to bypass the new measures.
One of the ISPs targeted by the major recording labels in the latest Pirate Bay blocking case says it will not voluntarily censor the website. Irish ISP UPC, the second largest in the country, says that service providers should not be the ones to decide what subscribers can and cannot consume. As a result, the so-called “Irish SOPA” legislation introduced last year will soon receive its first test at the Commercial Court.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Jack The Giant Slayer’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Iron Man 3′. ‘Hammer Of The Gods’ completes the top three.
When I was giving a presentation in Lisbon, Portugal this week, I called the copyright monopoly worship we see around us a “mass psychosis” and a “race to the bottom”. My opponents from WIPO and the Motion Picture Association were not amused. Still, it’s an accurate picture, if history is a judge.
One of the claims of anti-filesharing groups is that the people behind file-sharing sites and services only run them to make money. Those who believe in sharing for sharing’s sake believe that the opposite to be true. But in actual fact, and in common with so many facets of the piracy debate, the truth lies hidden behind many shades of gray, somewhere in the middle.
The homepage of the popular torrent search engine “H33t” has been removed from Google after cable network HBO sent a DMCA takedown request for the series Band of Brothers. Google honored the request and has de-listed h33t.com from its search results. H33t’s owner is not pleased with this latest censorship attempt and informs TorrentFreak that he will submit a counterclaim to get the homepage reinstated.
For years, France’s adoption of the so-called graduated response for dealing with illicit file-sharing has been trumpeted by entertainment companies as a success story to be replicated around the globe. The only true barometer of success, however, is the sound of cash leaving customers’ pockets and into those of the entertainment industry. Just-released figures from the French music industry show that three strikes has done nothing to halt the decline – sales in 2013 are already down 6.7%.
Today, exactly seven years have passed since The Pirate Bay was raided by the Swedish police. While the entertainment industries hoped that this would be the end of their troubles, in hindsight they’ve created one of the most resilient websites on the Internet. The Pirate Bay has declared the raid anniversary “Independence Day,” alongside a determination to continue an ongoing battle worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster script.
Earlier this week the hugely popular Movie2K streaming movie portal disappeared off the face of the Internet without a trace. No official explanation has been given for the site’s demise but following the trail of digital breadcrumbs reveals quite a few interesting developments over the past two weeks. Is the site gone for good, or about to make a huge comeback?
The New Zealand High Court has ordered the police to inspect all digital information illegally seized last year from Kim Dotcom’s mansion, and return everything not directly related to the ongoing prosecution. The judge further ruled that the FBI must ship back cloned drives that were sent to them, and destroy all copies the U.S. Government has archived.
As part of a criminal investigation by Italian authorities, 27 file-sharing related sites had their domains blocked by local ISPs last month. Rapidgator, one of the largest cyberlockers on the Internet, was among the targeted sites and chose to appeal the verdict. This week Rome’s Court of Appeal ruled that the Rapidgator blockade should be lifted as the site’s operators are not responsible for alleged copyright infringements carried out by their users.
Four mayors in Denmark now know what it’s like to become a target of an international recording label out for blood over copyright. The controversy stems from the publication of a YouTube video featuring the officials dancing to Gangnam Style. Universal Music, the company holding the copyright to the original track, have warned the mayors that unless they pay $42,000 by tomorrow, a copyright infringement battle will follow.
Over the past two days more than 175,000 people have pirated episodes of the revived cult series Arrested Development. While the numbers don’t come close to those of hit series Game of Thrones, it’s remarkable to see how many of the downloaders come from regions where the entire season is available on Netflix. Are these people really too cheap to buy a Netflix subscription or are they downloading via BitTorrent out of habit?
During a debate in London last night, Google’s UK policy manager said that he believes that blocking ‘pirate’ sites only leads to a game of whac-a-mole, whereas going after them as a business is more effective. The debate’s key theme was whether it would be possible to strangle advertising revenue to unauthorized sites but it’s no surprise that the BPI took the opportunity to criticize Google for still not doing enough to hold back piracy.
Appearing in court for a second week, Gottfrid Svartholm says he had no part in hacking Swedish IT company Logica. The Pirate Bay founder denies being the person behind chat logs presented as evidence by the prosecution and maintains that other individuals who he doesn’t want to name had access to his computers either physically or via remote access. Prosecutor Henrik Olin described the Swede’s statements as “not credible.”
Two major Hollywood studios have asked Google to remove the homepage of Kim Dotcom’s Mega from its search results. Warner Bros. and NBC Universal claim that their copyrighted content is hosted on the URL and want it taken down. Dotcom is disappointed by the news and points out that constant takedown abuse is restricting access to legitimate files. “This is in line with the unreasonable content industry behavior we have experienced for years,” he says in a response.
The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property has submitted a detailed report to Congress, asking for drastic anti-piracy measures to protect the U.S. economy. The report cites hundreds of billions of dollars in losses, and suggests a wide variety of measures to combat piracy and counterfeiting, including excessive Internet monitoring and Government-sanctioned ransomware.
After the ACS:Law file-sharing debacle sparked massive controversy across the UK it was decided that never again would entertainment companies be allowed to go down the same path. However, despite High Court intervention which placed limits on how alleged copyright infringers could be handled by rightsholders, there are signs that on the ground very little has changed. Pay up – or else.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Iron Man 3′ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Fast and Furious 6′. ‘Snitch’ completes the top three.
With a reputation of taking harsh measures against unauthorized file-sharing, the RIAA has made quite a few enemies over the years. How ironic is it then that the RIAA website now appears to be seeding more than a dozen pirated porn videos? Or could it be that someone is trying to nail the RIAA in a clever way?
In recent weeks a new Demonoid-inspired standalone tracker entered the BitTorrent ecosystem with a bang. Blessed by The Pirate Bay, Demonii has quickly become one of the most used BitTorrent trackers on the Internet. TorrentFreak decided to catch up with the admin to find out how it all came to be.
Police assisted by the Federation Against Copyright Theft showed up in large numbers to arrest an alleged movie pirate in the UK this week. Armed with an emergency search warrant issued out of hours by a judge, five undercover police vehicles containing detectives and FACT officers were deployed to arrest a 24-year-old said to have recorded the movie Fast and Furious 6.
This week a new “anonymous” BitTorrent client was released to the public. TrafficPrivacy allows users to hide their IP-address directly from within their client, at the price of a standard proxy or VPN service. The TrafficPrivacy team says its main goal is to provide an all-in-one anonymity solution for a less tech savvy audience.
A law firm hoping to secure the identities of Internet users who allegedly shared copyright material without permission is likely to find itself in a sticky situation today. The firm has reportedly approached ISPs in Australia with demands that they hand over subscribers’ details, but according to their own published literature the company has little faith in IP address-based evidence.
In a new lawsuit Voltage Pictures, the company behind The Hurt Locker, say they have not only tracked down a “prolific proponent” of widespread BitTorrent piracy, but have identified him as a practicing attorney based in Portland, Oregon. The defendant, who describes himself as an expert in two martial arts, is said to have infringed copyright in at least 66 different copyright works. The lawsuit is littered with controversial claims that attempt to paint the attorney in the worst possible light.
Kim Dotcom has announced that he is the inventor of the so-called two-step authentication system and has a patent to prove it. The Megaupload founder says the security mechanism, which has just been introduced by Twitter, is being used by U.S. companies more than a billion times every week without permission. Dotcom says he doesn’t want to sue, but might if the likes of Google and Facebook don’t help fund his legal battle with the U.S. Government.
To mark the occasion of 20 million URL takedown notices sent to Google by RIAA member companies, the organization has complained that search engines still aren’t doing enough to reduce the piracy problem. The RIAA says it is using a bucket to deal with “an ocean of illegal downloading”, one in which content is replaced and re-indexed in a never-ending loop. Notice and takedown procedures aren’t fit for today’s reality and must be revised, the music group argues.
New tax records reveal that the RIAA has made heavy employee cuts after revenue dropped to a new low. Over the past two years the major record labels have cut back their membership dues from $33.6 to $23.6 million. RIAA staff plunged from 107 to 60 workers in the same period. The IRS filing further shows that the music industry group paid $250,000 to the six strikes anti-piracy system.
The file-sharing activities of BitTorrent users have become the input mechanism powering an art installation currently underway in Canada. The Pirate Cinema, a control room featuring three large screens and viewing area, is displaying a mashup of content pulled from the top 100 torrent swarms indexed by The Pirate Bay. Its creators inform TorrentFreak that with a little help from an encrypted connection to Sweden, some intriguing images are being realized.
uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc. reports that the new advertising option in the popular BitTorrent client generates billions of ad impressions per month. Although users initially revolted against the idea of making uTorrent ad-supported, the new stats show that not too many of them turned the feature off. The next challenge for BitTorrent Inc. is to attract premium advertisers in addition to the lower tier poker and PC performance ads that are showing up now.
The “six strikes” copyright alert system has claimed its first victory today. Tipped off by a copyright alert, a father found out that his kid was secretly sharing pirated material. The deviant behavior did not go unpunished and the parent in question ordered the teen to write a “note of apology” to the copyright holder, or else.
Internet service providers in the UK have today begun blocking one of the world’s largest streaming movie portals. In a follow up to similar actions, the MPAA obtained a High Court order which compels all major ISPs to begin blocking Movie2K, a massive site with millions of visitors each month. However, in a ridiculously fast show of defiance, one of the largest Pirate Bay proxy operators has already deployed a brand new site to beat the censorship.
A teacher received a huge shock last week after uploading a copy of a book to his website that offers free educational resources for students. The Latvian publisher behind the work, a $4.00 history book, complained to the authorities which resulted in the teacher being raided by the police. During interrogation the teacher learned that his mistake could cost him dearly – two years in jail, forced labor, or a fine.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Iron Man 3′ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’. ‘Warm Bodies’ completes the top three.
It is no secret that Hollywood is trying to take down as many pirated movies as they can, but their targeting of a Creative Commons Pirate Bay documentary is something new. Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate have all asked Google to take down links pointing to the Pirate Bay documentary TPB-AFK. But is it a secret plot to silence the voices of the Pirate Bay’s founders, or just another screw up of automated DMCA takedowns?
RapidShare is fighting through a crisis after a massive downturn in business forced it to fire three-quarters of its workforce, an insider has revealed. After being labeled a “rogue site” by the U.S. Government, in 2011 the file-hosting service reportedly burned through half a million euros lobbying in the United States to save its reputation. The company is now struggling to find a new path after severing ties with millions of former users.
With several movie studios gearing up to sue thousands of ‘pirating’ Internet subscribers in Canada, the local Pirate Party decided to take a look at the downloading habits of the Canadian police and Government. As it turns out, there are plenty of downloaders to be found on the law’s side. However, unlike individual citizens it is doubtful that the guardians of the law will get in trouble for their alleged defiance.
Earlier this week TorrentFreak received information to suggest that the recording industry is planning a fresh trip to the UK High Court to have even more torrent sites blocked at the ISP level. If they’re successful there will only be one torrent site from the current world top ten not censored in the region. However, news travels fast and according to the leading Pirate Bay and KAT proxy operators, preparations are already under way to circumvent the blockades.
New data published by the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that BitTorrent can be credited for one third of all North American upload traffic during peak hours. BitTorrent usage also remains strong in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The report further confirms that SSL traffic has more than doubled in a year, partly due to an increase in VPN use.
Grooveshark’s lengthy legal battle with several of the world’s major recording labels, who accused the popular music streaming service of mass-copyright infringement, may soon come to an end. Several of the company’s (former) employees have agreed to a “consent judgment” which prohibits them from infringing the major labels’ copyrights or working with similar services in future. No settlement has been reached with the parent company yet, but the recent developments cast doubt over Grooveshark’s future.
In its quest to identify the owner of a file-sharing site, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN pressured one of the largest banks in the Netherlands to hand over his or her personal details. In a decision this morning the Amsterdam Court said that while BREIN has a responsibility to enforce copyright on behalf of its members, the bank has a greater responsibility to protect its customers’ privacy.
In March, the Ninth Circuit declared that Canada-based BitTorrent search engine isoHunt is not entitled to protection under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA due to its conduct many years ago. IsoHunt filed a petition for a rehearing before a jury, but yesterday a Ninth Circuit panel unanimously rejected it. Isohunt lawyer Ira Rothken informs TorrentFreak that the right to a jury trial is protected by the constitution and isoHunt is now in the process of requesting a Supreme Court review.
The organization responsible for Sweden’s top-level domain is facing court action after refusing to disable or seize two domains operated by The Pirate Bay. The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, the body that administers the .SE TLD and engages in projects to better the Internet, now faces a court showdown. The prosecution office is claiming that the foundation is guilty of assisting those who assist others to engage in copyright infringement.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and his alleged co-conspirators have been thrown a lifeline in their ongoing extradition battle in New Zealand. Previously it was decided that Dotcom could not examine the mountains of evidence being withheld by U.S. authorities, but the Supreme Court has now granted an appeal, so the matter can be settled at the country’s highest court.
The Center for Copyright Information, a partnership between the RIAA, MPAA and several major Internet providers, has had its company status revoked. The CCI, who are leading the “six strikes” anti-piracy scheme in the US, has violated state laws and is unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States. In addition the outfit faces civil penalties and risks losing its name to a third-party company.
In their ongoing battle against websites said to infringe music copyrights, record labels have initiated a fresh wave of actions aimed at forcing UK ISPs to carry out domain blocking. This third wave is set to be the biggest so far, affecting as many as 25 domains and including some of the world’s largest torrent sites and file-hosting search engines. Furthermore, the BPI – the entity coordinating the action – will ask courts to block US-based music streaming operation, Grooveshark.
Canadian anti-piracy company Canipre has been teaming up with film studios to hunt down and sue alleged BitTorrent pirates. They want to change people’s attitudes toward piracy and make a few bucks in the process. However, it appears that the attitude change should start closer to home, as their own website blatantly uses photos that have been ripped-off from independent photographers.
Peter Sunde has announced he will run in the European Parliament elections next year. Sunde, the former spokesman for The Pirate Bay, will participate for the Finnish branch of the Pirate Party. Sunde has yet to sit out a prison sentence for his previous involvement with the infamous BitTorrent site but hopes to emulate the Swedish Pirate Party’s previous successes when they claimed seats for two MEPs.
A Swedish Pirate Bay user who was accidentally caught sharing 57 movies during a friend’s house search will face prison time if the authorities get their way. The man was previously ordered to pay a fine, but the prosecutor has now submitted the case to the Supreme Court, hoping to get the man jailed. The prosecutor’s office says a prison sentence is needed so the police can legitimately raid the homes of file-sharers.
Mired in controversy since its inception but held up as an example by entertainment companies looking to spread the model worldwide, France’s Hadopi anti-piracy law now looks set to be scrapped. A just-published government-commissioned report recommends that the graduated response system, which promised fines and disconnections for errant file-sharers, should be shelved and replaced with 60 euro per time automated fines.
It is no secret that copyright trolls tend to use rather threatening language as they try to convince defendants to pay settlement fees, but the recent actions of the Prenda law reincarnation “Anti-Piracy Law Group” have reached a new low. In a letter sent to people accused of pirating pornographic material, the lawyers threaten to inform neighbors about the illegal conduct, and inspect defendants’ work computers.
Robbie Williams blatantly advertised Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload in the video to a new track last Friday. In the Dizzee Rascal song ‘Goin Crazy’, Robbie walks around in a jacket with Megaupload splashed across the back but then, just 72 hours later, another music giant seemed like they might be pushing the same message. Last night on UK prime-time TV, on the BBC where advertising in any form is officially disallowed, Wil.i.am held his fist up to the camera adorned with gold ring made up of four letters – MEGA.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Iron Man 3′. ‘Parker’ completes the top three.
The discussion around people’s banished right to unlock their own cellphones has been framed as an unexpected and unanticipated effect of the copyright monopoly. To the contrary, it shows the heart of the monopoly’s philosophy: killing ownership as a concept.
Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and Cox are appealing a district court decision ordering them to reveal the identities of 1,058 subscribers accused of pirating movies on BitTorrent. The ISPs point out that their subscribers may not be the individuals who downloaded the copyrighted files in question, and warn that the decision creates a “great potential for coercive and unjust ‘settlements’.”
Private torrent sites have a much lower profile than say, The Pirate Bay, but there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of them online, going about their business behind closed, invite-only walls. However, when it comes to providing access to content, private trackers are quite different from their public counterparts. Instead of a Pirate Bay-style free-for-all, access to pirate content is held back by site admins and only unlocked when members contribute to the health of the community.
File-hosting service FileServe has been sued by the production company behind the independent movie American Cowslip. In a lawsuit filed at a federal court in California the movie producers accuse FileServe of several copyright infringement related charges and are demanding more than a million dollars in damages.
Rapper Dizzee Rascal and all-round pop powerhouse Robbie Williams have unveiled the music video for their new song ‘Goin Crazy’ and for file-sharing fans there is something very interesting to report. At the beginning of the video Robbie walks into shot carrying two plastics bags and wearing a coat. Nothing too amazing there of course, but painted across the back are two rather familiar words – MEGA and UPLOAD. Is this some kind of teaser for Kim Dotcom’s Megabox?
Telecoms regulator Ofcom has just published a study into the state of online copyright infringement in the UK, with some very interesting conclusions. The researchers found that 10% of the country’s most prolific infringers are responsible for almost 80% of all infringements carried out online, but with a bonus. These plus an additional 10% of infringers spend 300% more than ‘honest’ consumers who don’t infringe copyright at all.
A few days after the blueprints for the world’s first printable gun were published online, Defense Distributed has been asked by the State Department to pull them down, citing possible arms trafficking violations. The blueprints, however, are still available on The Pirate Bay and many other file-sharing sites, which adds a 3D chapter to the IP enforcement debate.The Pirate Bay says it welcomes the blueprints and has no intention of taking the files down.
Megaupload has strengthened its demand to have the criminal indictment against the company thrown out by the court, thus ending the case. The United States Government told the court last week that it fears the end of the Megaupload prosecution if the judge makes the ‘wrong’ decision, and these words are now being used against it. In a new brief submitted to the Virginia District Court, Megaupload’s lawyers argue that the Government admits that it may not have a case.
Yesterday the torrent world lit up with news that Demonoid had somehow been resurrected under the new domain D2.vu. However, the site was quickly taken offline by its host in the U.S. who claimed that it was serving up malware. With the site now back online with a new host, TorrentFreak caught up with its admins who tell us they have no malicious intent and simply want to bring a community back to together. While there is still uncertainty, one thing is absolutely clear – they do have the old Demonoid database.
For more than a year artists have successfully teamed up with BitTorrent Inc. to promote their works to around 170 million users of the uTorrent and BitTorrent clients. Evolving this program the San-Francisco company now offers artists the option to put content behind a paywall, or require another action. There’s no DRM involved but the “walled” torrents can’t be shared freely on other sites anymore. “We expect people to do the right thing,” BitTorrent Inc. informs TorrentFreak.
During the past few hours TorrentFreak has been absolutely overwhelmed with hundreds of emails asking about the possible resurrection of the infamous Demonoid BitTorrent tracker. After tracking down the owner of the new domain but being met with silence, we have now been informed by the site’s host that at the very least the site was hosting some kind of malware. The site has now been suspended, pending full shutdown.
Following the release of their white paper earlier today, Megaupload lawyer Robert Amsterdam considers the current political situation in the United States, one in which the interests of powerful corporations are deemed to be of greater importance than the rights of individuals. The U.S. government’s attack on Megaupload bears all the hallmarks of a “Digital Gitmo”, Amsterdam argues, one which shares an absence of rule of law with its physical, Cuba-based namesake.
Megaupload’s legal team are not restricting their fight with the U.S. Government only to the courts. Today they published a detailed white paper accusing the White House of selling out to corporate interests, particularly Hollywood. “The message is clear. The White House is for sale. More and more of our rights are eroding away to protect the interests of large corporations and their billionaire shareholders,” Dotcom summarizes.
A month ago a Los Angeles courtroom played host to some of the most stunning and incredible action ever seen in a copyright case. Seat swaps, judges enraged, lawyers silenced, and all within 12 minutes. Since then, many have keenly anticipated the outcome of the hearing and yesterday Judge Wright delivered an order worth waiting for.
As BitTorrent Inc. convinces the world that they offer a great distribution platform, they’re also going the extra mile to state that it doesn’t pair well with a VPN or proxy advertiser. The company behind the popular file-sharing client uTorrent is rejecting ads from VPN provider TorGuard, stating that the service is considered “high risk”. In a rather ironic plot twist, the VPN provider would be welcomed as long as it changes its name and logo, and remove all references to “BitTorrent,” “torrent” and uTorrent from its website.
Just under two years ago authorities in the United States busted one of the most important movie piracy release groups on the planet. In recent months its members have been handed some of the harshest copyright-related sentences on record but immediately after the raids something interesting happened. Instead of running for cover, pirates regrouped and the piracy situation actually got worse.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Parker’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Iron Man 3′. ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ completes the top three.
As anti-piracy activity and subsequent court rulings attempt to cut off users from The Pirate Bay, those affected by the blockades are taking the setback in their stride. There are hundreds of proxy-type services facilitating access to the supposedly blocked site and have become so popular that according to the operators of The Pirate Bay they’re currently providing at least 8% of the site’s traffic.
The U.S. Government has just submitted its objections to Megaupload’s motion to dismiss the case against the company. Megaupload’s lawyers have pointed out that the Department of Justice is trying to change the law to legitimize the destruction of Megaupload. However, the Government refutes this assertion and asks the court to deny Megaupload’s motion, fearing that otherwise the entire case may fall apart.
It’s been revealed that one of the computer accounts used regularly by the alleged hackers in the ongoing Gottfrid Svartholm case belonged to Monique Wadsted, a lawyer who represented the entertainment companies in the original Pirate Bay trial. Accounts including Wadsted’s were allegedly manipulated to gain deeper access to IT systems. In the meantime, suspects say they are reluctant to speak for fear of Hells Angels reprisals.
Video streaming giant Netflix believes that making content available is the best way to beat online piracy, and the company has data to back this up. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos reveals that ISPs are noticing a drop in BitTorrent traffic every time they launch in a new territory. “The best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options,” Sarandos says.
The Government of Antigua will soon start accepting bids for their WTO authorized pirate site, to punish the United States for refusing to lift a trade blockade. The new service will offer the public access to pirated movies, music and software without paying U.S. copyright holders. A source close to the Antigua Government has suggested The Pirate Bay as an excellent partner, and the world’s largest file-sharing site says it would love to get involved.
U.S. Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey L. Bleich is back once again with a new Internet piracy missive. The long-time friend of Barack Obama caused controversy by getting involved in the Game of Thrones download debate last month, but now believes that he hasn’t got involved enough. Quoting the earlier words of HBO, Bleich says that if online piracy is a compliment to Game of Thrones, then the same holds true for illegal immigration or someone hitting on your partner.
A Comcast subscriber from Washington State has been sued in three different lawsuits for downloading the animated kids movie Zambezia. In other words, the same IP-address is being sued thrice for the same alleged offense. Are the makers of the film trying to beat the odds by filing multiple cases for the same offense, or is it just another example of shameful sloppiness?
In a continuation of the website blocking phenomenon, an anti-piracy group fresh to the action has applied to have several major torrent sites blocked at the ISP level in Greece. AEPI, the Greek Society for the Protection of Intellectual Property, has filed at court to have KickAssTorrents, isoHunt, 1337x and H33T all rendered inaccessible to subscribers. Sources inform TorrentFreak that The Pirate Bay will also be targeted later this month.
Last week The Pirate Bay began accepting BitCoin donations and it’s been a successful move so far. In just seven days the site has received 174 donations via BitCoin with a dollar value of $2,063. Keep that up for a year and BitCoin exchange rates aside, the site could be adding around $107,000 to its coffers. Adding to the options to donate anonymously, The Pirate Bay is now supporting a second cypto-currency called LiteCoin.
Belgian music rights group SABAM is continuing its efforts to make Internet providers responsible for copyright-infringing material passing through their networks . This week the group sued three Internet providers alongside demands for a 3.4 percent cut of all subscriber fees. SABAM claims it is entitled to this compensation based on existing copyright law, but the Internet providers disagree.
Norway has moved an important – some say unstoppable – step towards legislative change that will enable the aggressive tackling of online copyright infringement. Proposed amendments to the Copyright Act, which will make it easier for rightsholders to monitor file-sharers and have sites such as The Pirate Bay blocked at the ISP level, received broad support in parliament this week and look almost certain to be passed into law.
Swedish authorities have filed a motion at the District Court of Stockholm on behalf of the entertainment industries, demanding the seizure of two Pirate Bay domain names. In addition to the Swedish-based .se domain the motion also includes the new Icelandic .is TLD. In a rapid response, The Pirate Bay has just switched to a fresh domain, ThePirateBay.sx, registered in the northeastern Caribbean island of Sint Maarten.
Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm was visited in prison last week by police questioning him as part of a new criminal investigation into The Pirate Bay. The case is said to involve several publishing houses as well as Swedish anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån. According to information received by TorrentFreak the authorities are focusing on events from 2011 and 2012, when Gottfrid was no longer working on the BitTorrent site.
After being charged with instances of hacking earlier this month, Gottfrid Svartholm will now go on trial in May. The Pirate Bay co-founder denies the charges and says that evidence found on his computer was placed there remotely via the Internet. In the meantime Gottfrid’s mother Kristina is questioning why authorities are placing so much emphasis on the effect the claimed hacking has had on allegedly vulnerable people.
The indie game makers of Greenheart Games have just pulled the ultimate prank on game pirates. When they released their Game Dev Tycoon yesterday, they also uploaded a “cracked” copy of the simulator on a well-known BitTorrent site. Soon after thousands of people downloaded the cracked copy, not knowing that it was modified to present them with a rather ironic piracy challenge.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Jack Reacher’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘The Last Stand’. ‘Iron Man 3′ completes the top three.
They say that politics takes time. Yet, history doesn’t show any political movement spreading and succeeding as fast as the Pirate Party movement. Will it maintain its accelerated speed, or slow down to follow the tracks of history?
As bandwidth gets more plentiful, the thirst for better quality video increases alongside. By now most people are aware that screen resolutions are important in terms of image definition, but there are important issues surrounding how that pixel density is presented as a moving image. Frame rates help to make a video nice and smooth and a recent development has the seen some of the smoothest video around hitting BitTorrent networks.
The Pirate Party in Iceland seem to have booked a major victory in Iceland’s parliamentary election today, scoring 5.1% of the total vote. It’s a truly remarkable achievement for a party that’s only a few months old, and also the first time that a Pirate party anywhere in the world has been democratically chosen in a national parliament. One of the main goals of the Pirates will be to fight increased censorship and protect freedom of speech.
After banning several of the largest file-hosting sites and Usenet providers, PayPal is now taking aim at a VPN/proxy service. The payment processor has just cut off the BitTorrent proxy provider GT Guard and frozen the company’s funds. In an email PayPal’s Brand Risk Management department explains that GT Guard’s affiliation with BitTorrent is the reason for the drastic actions.
Earlier this month Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case ended with four men being found guilty of copyright infringement and two being exonerated. The case involved a so-called ‘topsite’ called Angel Falls and had an interesting twist. During the trial it was revealed that evidence gathered by a local anti-piracy group and the IFPI was also handed to a “senior MPAA executive” who tampered with the evidence before handing it to the police.
Several countries including the US and France have implemented so-called “strikes” systems to warn and punish P2P file-sharers. The goal of these programs is to reduce piracy, but do they have any effect on people’s download habits? Music group IFPI believes so, and has some numbers to back up its claims. The group further notes that piracy through ripping software and cyberlockers continues to rise.
Just when the Game of Thrones file-sharing controversy had begun settling into the background, the most senior figure yet has weighed in on the debate. Marking UN World Book and Copyright Day and citing TorrentFreak stats to on how many times the show has been downloaded, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia has pleaded with Aussies to stop making excuses and “do the right thing” by paying for Game of Thrones.
Describing entirely legitimate, tax-paying technology pioneers as “the devil” is not something you hear happening every day, especially at the highest levels of business. However, that’s how a Hollywood studio exec has labeled BitTorrent Inc, the software and solutions company utilizing the world’s most efficient data shifting protocol. While the company is understandably annoyed, one has to question just how hard it’s going to be to change perceptions about what BitTorrent Inc. is all about.
After The Pirate Bay’s new Greenland-based domains were suspended earlier this month, the world’s largest file-sharing site has found a safe haven in Iceland. From now on TPB can be reached via ThePirateBay.is without the imminent threat of another domain suspension. The Icelandic registry informs TorrentFreak that they will not take action against the domain unless a court order requires them to do so.
Security software company McAfee has patented a new technology that aims to prevent the public from accessing pirated movies and music online. The system, which expands the SiteAdvisor tool, can detect and block pirated material from any website and present users with authorized and legal alternatives. McAfee says the technology will help steer consumers to authorized services and thereby prevent costly lawsuits.
After being targeted by a police raid on a web host previously owned by Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm, Sweden’s #2 torrent site took just three weeks to come back online. Taunting the authorities with their return, Tankafetast rented cinemas and launched a clothing range but for the police there was clearly unfinished business. An admin of the site has now been arrested and questioned. The site, however, remains fully operational.
BitTorrent Inc. has opened up its Sync app to the public today. The new application is free of charge and allows people to securely sync folders to multiple devices using the BitTorrent protocol. Complete control over the storage location of the files and the absence of limits is what sets BitTorrent’s solution apart from traditional cloud based synchronization services.
The former moderator of a now-defunct torrent site has just earned the dubious honor of becoming the most prolific BitTorrent uploader ever to be charged by authorities. The man, who was arrested in 2011, is said to have uploaded around 500 movies and TV shows to a private BitTorrent tracker over a two-and-a-half year period. The quantity of uploads is almost ten times more than the previous record in a case of its type, leading the prosecutor to warn of a looming jail sentence.
The Pirate Bay has begun accepting contributions from the public, allowing users to donate exclusively via the P2P crypto-currency Bitcoin. One of the advantages for the operators of the infamous BitTorrent site is that Bitcoin funds can’t easily be seized or traced back to a person. The downside, on the other hand, is that everything that’s sent to a Bitcoin address is public, so the entire world can see how many virtual coins are rolling in.
Last week the privacy invasive CISPA bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives, taking it one step closer to becoming law. The proposed bill allows warrant-less spying by Internet companies on behalf of Government agencies. Turning the tables, TorrentFreak decided to “spy” on download and browsing habits at the House and other prominent Government institutions, using publicly available data.
Last week Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm was charged with hacking into companies and a bank. While it’s no surprise that the news traveled quickly through the media, one might have expected that Gottfrid himself would be one of the first to hear the news. But Gottfrid’s mother Kristina informs TorrentFreak that her son learned of the charges by watching TV news in his cell. Even today he still hasn’t seen a copy of the lawsuit.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Jack Reacher’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘The Host’. ‘Gangster Squad’ completes the top three.
Following an undercover police investigation, the Vice President of Lithuanian Anti-Piracy Association LANVA has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges. Vytas Simanavicius, known for his efforts to curb online piracy in the Baltic country, faces up to eight years in prison. Because of the looming incarceration, his role as an expert witness in a Microsoft court case against a local BitTorrent site has become uncertain.
A horror film producer has slammed a copyright troll lawsuit which targets alleged file-sharers said to have downloaded his movie. The lawsuit, which takes aim at Internet account holders in the hope they’ll pay multi-thousand dollar settlements, has a serious error. It names completely the wrong movie, meaning that an innocent producer – who describes the action as “nonsense” – has been sucked into a controversy he has nothing to do with.
Copyfighter, journalist, sci-fi writer and Boing-Boing editor Cory Doctorow has fallen victim to the almighty content empire of Rupert Murdoch. In an attempt to remove access to infringing copies of the TV-show Homeland, Fox has ordered Google to take down links to Doctorow’s latest novel of the same title. Adding to the controversy, Doctorow’s own publisher has also sent DMCA notices for the Creative Commons licensed book.
In a filing just submitted to a U.S. federal court Megaupload is using the Government’s own words against it, hoping to get the case against it dismissed. Megaupload points out that the Department of Justice is trying to change the law to legitimize the destruction of Megaupload. The DoJ wants to amend the law so that it’s possible to serve foreign defendants, while it previously argued in court that the authorities didn’t require such power.
Earlier this week in a copyright infringement crackdown initiated by the Italian authorities more than two dozen file-sharing domains were placed on ISP blocklists. One of those domains was Rapidgator, one of the world’s leading cyberlocker sites. Rather than simply rolling over, Rapidgator is now fighting back with with the assistance of an Italian lawyer experienced in handling Internet-related litigation. ISPs are also reportedly filing appeals.
With a budget of $10 million and under $2 million in domestic grosses, the movie “Killer Joe” didn’t provide the box office successes its makers had hoped for. To make up for disappointing sales, movie studio “Killer Joe Nevada” is now turning to alleged BitTorrent users. The company sued a few dozen people at a federal court in Delaware this week, and aside from subscribers of residential ISPs their list of defendants also includes VPN users.
Last month BitTorrent site isoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA and since then several rightsholders have used this verdict to their advantage in other copyright infringement cases. Google has also been targeted with the ruling in its case against Viacom, and has now asked the court to change its opinion. The Internet giant explains that the verdict against the BitTorrent site is overly broad and endangers the existence of innovative businesses.
Despite regular complaints from rightsholders and direct pressure from the United States Trade Representative, little has been done to shut down or even damage Bulgaria’s Zamunda BitTorrent tracker. This so-called “Notorious pirate market” has continued against the odds but during the last few days a carefully planned operation has torn the site apart.
Citing an Interpol investigation underway with the cooperation of Mastercard and Visa, Czech-based payment processor iKoruna discontinued service to file-hosting sites this week. The target of the investigation was not announced but transaction information was handed over to Interpol and all remaining funds have been frozen. The news comes soon after an Italian prosecutor announced a major crackdown on file-hosting sites, including some iKoruna clients.
In the UK a range of sites are now blocked including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy. But despite very public High Court orders the true extent of the censorship is unknown as the actual URL blocking list is being kept out of the public eye. However, through an unexpected turn of events last week, TorrentFreak discovered that at least one independent domain not operated by any of the sites in question is also being censored.
A Swedish prosecutor has announced new hacking related charges against Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm. Together with three others he is suspected of hacking several companies including a bank, from where the defendants allegedly attempted to transfer money. The new changes will most likely mean that Svartholm will remain in prison when his Pirate Bay sentence concludes next month.
Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case has come to an end with six men standing trial for running a so-called ‘topsite’. Two were cleared by the court but four others were found guilty of distributing movies, music, TV shows, software and other media. They received suspended jail sentences of up to six months but rightsholders are disappointed after their six million euro damages claim – 900,000 euros from Microsoft alone – was reduced to just 45,000 euros.
When it comes to online piracy, copyright holders have an obsession with Google. Every month the search engine is asked to take down links to millions of URLs to help stop the unauthorized distribution of their work. Strangely enough, many copyright holders fail to target the root of the problem as they don’t make the effort to send takedown requests to the originating websites.
In what is being described as the biggest domain crackdown since US Homeland Security seized more than 70 domains in 2010, Italy has targeted more than two dozen BitTorrent, cyberlocker and other file-sharing sites. The Public Prosecutor of Rome has ordered the blocking of Rapidgator, Uploaded, BitShare, NowVideo, VideoPremium and many others, warning that he will progress the action internationally in order to properly seize their domains.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Gangster Squad’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘A Haunted House’. ‘Broken City’ completes the top three.
As I was explaining the need for copyright monopoly reform in Dublin this week, an elderly gentleman red-faced with rage exclaimed in the Q&A session that the copyright monopoly was absolutely crucial for freedom of expression. It surprises me that some monopolists still have things this backwards: the monopoly was always a gag on freedoms of speech and expression.
All torrent sites rely on seeders, people who effectively donate their upstream bandwidth to provide content for others. Some go the extra mile and use a seedbox, a server-based piece of kit that pumps content into torrent swarms enabling faster downloads for everyone. While this is seen as a good thing by the majority, a private tracker specializing in high definition content has just introduced a set of the toughest and most baffling seedbox rules ever to grace the torrent scene.
Many privacy concerned BitTorrent users are using VPN services to hide their IP-addresses from the rest of the Internet. This works well, until the VPN disconnects. Luckily there are some tips and tricks that can prevent one’s IP-address from being broadcasted over the Internet when this happens. Vuze is the only client that has this functionality built in, but for others there are alternatives available.
Anyone obtaining and sharing files on the Internet should be aware of the risk that someone, somewhere, might consider their behavior to constitute a breach of their rights. If people are eventually held to account, painful monetary fines can be the outcome. However, a new initiative by the youth division of the Swedish Pirate Party aims to soften the blow for those unlucky enough to get caught by paying their copyright infringement fines.
With only a few hundred IP-addresses North Korea’s Internet presence is rather limited. Only a choice few are able to connect to the World Wide Web and access all the free information that comes with it. TorrentFreak decided to take a deeper look at the BitTorrent downloads that can be traced back to North Korean IP-addresses and the results are intriguing, yet expected.
A torrent site owner who was arrested in 2008 but later found “not guilty” in court has been targeted again. The man, who runs Latvia’s biggest torrent site, says that following the filing of a new copyright case the country’s Economic Police turned up at his house and handcuffed him. The Latvian says he was subsequently beaten by three policemen, an attack which resulted in concussion. His domain has also been seized.
Following requests from some copyright holders, search giant Google has relaxed its DMCA restrictions allowing for more takedown notices to be processed. As a result the number of URLs being removed from Google continues to shoot up, surpassing the record-breaking 4.4 million mark this week. Both Google and the RIAA are happy with the progress being made but the former says it will keep a close eye on abusive practices.
Another member of the movie piracy release group IMAGiNE has been sentenced to prison. Javier E. Ferrer, known online as bigdaddykane, admitted to camming pre-release movies such as Captain America: The First Avenger and Fright Night, and being involved in the operations of UnleashTheNet, a private torrent site run by IMAGiNE. He was ordered to serve 23 months in a federal prison and pay compensation to the MPAA.
In anticipation of having their Swedish domain name seized, this week the crew of The Pirate Bay took evasive action. In the early hours of Tuesday morning they switched to two Greenland-based domains, but already the plan is starting to unravel. The telecoms company in charge of the .GL TLD says it will now block the domains after deciding they will be used illegally.
Somewhat predictably this year’s Time 100 list features the usual political and technological giants such as Barack Obama and Google co-founder Sergey Brin. However, in a possible first, two giants with a shared name are currently dueling away in the top ten. While North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is in a healthy but dictatorial eighth place, Mega.co.nz’s Kim Dotcom is setting the pace for Internet freedom in third.
After months of uncertainty, last December former TVShack owner Richard O’Dwyer averted his looming extradition from the UK on criminal copyright infringement charges by cutting a deal with the U.S. Government which allowed him to carry on with his life. Freed from extradition worries O’Dwyer swiftly finished his dissertation, and he is now working on the launch of a new video streaming portal called Filmhub.
No one really knows how much money they generate but it’s generally acknowledged that file-sharing settlements can be a lucrative business. However, while it has to be acknowledged that movie makers have costs to cover following the creation of their product, a case brought by a horror film company is on track to become especially lucrative. If things go to plan, just four alleged file-sharers will cover the costs of making an entire movie.
The Pirate Bay has received indications that the Swedish authorities might soon attempt to seize the site’s .se domain. In anticipation of this move, today the world’s largest file-sharing site switched to Greenland’s .gl domain. The move comes with a set of new IP-addresses which raises the possibility that existing ISP blockades might be bypassed, at least temporarily.
Preferring to handle file-sharing in its own way, Cox was one of the few large ISPs that refused to take part in the United States’ “six-strikes” scheme. Cox operates its own 10+ strikes program featuring warnings and temporary Internet restrictions in the early stages. The Internet provider stops short of detailing the end-game but if earlier statements are to believed, repeat infringers are likely to have their accounts terminated.
As Russia tries to find a balanced solution to the thorny issue of Internet piracy, the head of a government department responsible for communications and information technology says that attacking Internet users is not the solution. Speaking at the launch of a nationwide campaign to promote legal eBook purchases, Vladimir Grigoryev said that the government has no intention of holding downloaders liable or having them sent to court.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Gangster Squad’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’. ‘Django Unchained’ completes the top three.
While Thou Shalt Not Steal is one of the best known ten commandments, there is no directive ordering Thou Shalt Not Copy. This glaring loophole in God’s law, which runs contrary to established entertainment industry doctrine, apparently allows priests to watch pirated Oscar review copies of major movies without concern. Meanwhile, over in the Vatican, pirates are having the time of their lives downloading some quite eye-watering media.
IFPI wants governments worldwide to facilitate plans to tackle online piracy, whether voluntary or not. The music group’s CEO Frances Moore mentions the U.S. six-strikes program as a prime example. On paper the agreement between copyright holders and ISPs was voluntary, but Moore reveals that Vice President Joe Biden was one of the driving forces behind it.
After being sent to prison early 2012 for running NinjaVideo, the first site to fall victim to the U.S. Government’s ‘Operation in Our Sites’, founder Hana ‘Phara’ Beshara is now back in society. Fresh from peeling potatoes for 12 cents an hour and learning how to knit, the self-styled ‘queen’ of Ninja is living at a halfway house and thinking about how she’s going to pay $210,000 damages to the MPAA. Maybe an MTV documentary and reality shows hold the key…
Last month BitTorrent site isoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA, meaning that the site has to continue filtering movie and TV related terms from its search engine. However, isoHunt founder Gary Fung is not giving up just yet and has asked for a jury to decide on the case. In a petition filed this week isoHunt argues that, among other things, the Ninth Circuit decision chills innovation and threatens free speech online.
When content is removed from the Internet following a DMCA complaint filed by a rightsholder the user who uploaded the content gets a chance to file a counter-claim. If successful this should reinstate the content but on YouTube things now appear to be working somewhat differently. It transpires that YouTube has a special deal with Universal which sees content taken down at the record label’s request and DMCA counter notices blocked with no chance of appeal.
When the lawsuit against the Pirate Bay began, hip-hop artist Max Peezay found out that his album was being used by the IFPI as evidence to claim damages from the founders. Peezay, however, wanted nothing to do with the case and never gave the record labels permission to use his work. In an interview released today the artist looks back on the events and describes how he eventually managed to disconnect from the lawsuit, but not without consequence.
In a comical display of meta-censorship several copyright holders including 20th Century Fox and NBC Universal have sent Google takedown requests asking the search engine to take down links to takedown request they themselves sent. Google refused to comply with the movie studios requests and the “infringing” DMCA notices remain online. Meanwhile, the number of takedown notices received by Google is nearing 20 million per month.
A report from Sweden’s National Police Board proposes changes to the country’s handling of copyright infringement and file-sharing offenses. The proposals have developed from meetings with entertainment company rightsholders and include the creation of a single team focusing on intellectual property crimes, plus more accessible forensic resources in order to successfully prosecute cases.
As Game of Thrones smashes download records this week, an extra act of sharing will soon come from a most unusual source. Sick and tired of the poor quality offered by HBO’s official streaming service, the director of movie Iron Sky says he’s going to take retaliatory action. Complaining about their delivery the Finnish director told HBO that their service “sucks” so in future he’ll download the show from The Pirate Bay.
Following a request from Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, a Dutch bailiff has seized the bank account of a Pirate Bay proxy operator. The owner of the popular proxy site Kuiken.co has been involved in a legal battle with BREIN over the past months, who demand that he shuts down his website. The anti-piracy group seized the funds after the proxy owner failed to pay the penalties that were set out in two preliminary injunctions.
It’s just a few weeks since the six-strikes copyright alert system was activated in the U.S. and already it’s being utilized in a civil action against an alleged BitTorrent pirate. To prepare for a trial against a Verizon subscriber, adult movie studio Malibu Media has subpoenaed the user’s ISP to hand over copies of DMCA and six-strikes notices issued to far. In addition, the copyright holder also wants to know how much bandwidth the subscriber uses each month, and what pay-per-view programs were watched .
A UK-based anti-piracy group is continuing to crack down on any sites considered to be engaging in copyright infringement. Last week representatives of The Federation Against Copyright Theft personally turned up at the home of a torrent site owner who was told to cease and desist, or else. Hand over your domains, FACT explained, and things should turn out OK.
With a million downloads on BitTorrent in less than a day, the season premiere of Game of Thrones is breaking records on multiple fronts. Never before has there been a torrent with so many people sharing a file at the same time, more than 160,000 simultaneous peers. Data gathered by TorrentFreak further shows that Australia has the highest piracy rate of the popular download destinations, while London tops the list of pirate cities.
After its failed experiment in North Korea, The Pirate Bay has set course to the land of the free, the United States of America. The infamous BitTorrent site has renamed itself to The Freedom Bay and is promising to censor all torrents uploaded by hostile nations. With help from the U.S. Government the site is now able to withstand any retaliatory nuclear attacks Kim Jong Un may have planned.
Last month the director of Game of Thrones admitted something that his paymasters had HBO might have avoided. Huge online piracy doesn’t hurt the show, he said, and in fact might create benefits by generating cultural buzz. Well check the date if you like folks but the following is absolutely genuine. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo has just announced that not only is the huge piracy a compliment, but the phenomenon hasn’t hurt DVD sales at all.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Django Unchained’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’. ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ completes the top three.
We’re all used to changing society over a weekend of coding. But changing the values of society takes much, much longer than that, and it requires all of us to keep patiently explaining what we understand to those who don’t. Here’s a primer on how.
They’re some of the most popular torrents around, but how do they get on the Internet and who puts them there? Today TorrentFreak catches up with the founder of a TV show release group responsible for releasing hundreds of TV shows online. Jaded by the super-organized and hard to reach ‘Scene’ he’s now back on home P2P territory, encouraging everyone to share while reminding people to support the creators of this great entertainment format.
In ever-more futile efforts to ‘fix’ piracy, lots of methods have been tried, and it’s doubtful there are very many left, except the obvious one of giving consumers what they want. Now the UK Intellectual Property Office has given almost £200,000 to two new projects that will almost certainly fail.
The Pirate Bay is now the most-visited file-sharing site on the Internet, taking over the lead from prominent one-click hosting sites such as 4Shared and Mediafire. After a spectacular rise in the early years of this decade cyberlockers are quickly losing ground, while BitTorrent sites continue to grow. This shift in balance can be attributed to the Megaupload shutdown, and the changes in the cyberlocker market that followed.
A new privacy-conscious file-sharing service is aiming to bring the power of BitCoin and BitTorrent together in one neat package, with some added extras. Offering high-speed remote transfers, BitFetch keeps BitTorrent users anonymous and helps them cut through ISP-imposed throttling measures with secure HTTPs downloads. Usually powered by BitCoin, there’s a free trial for all TorrentFreak readers today.
The MPAA and file-hosting service Hotfile are gearing up for their trial in a U.S. court later this year. This week the movie studios told the court that Hotfile does not qualify for safe harbor protection as it knew about the “massive infringing use” of its service, citing last week’s verdict against BitTorrent site isoHunt. The file-hosting site disputes the allegations and says that there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing on their part.
In a surprise move the popular BitTorrent site KickassTorrents moved to a new domain today. The immediate effect of the switch is that after the ISP blockade last week, some UK users are once again able to access the site. This is the second domain change in two years for the infamous torrent site. Previously, KickassTorrents traded its .com domain to prevent it from being seized by U.S. authorities.
The third edition of the Annenberg Innovation Lab’s Ad Transparency Report is now unofficially doing the rounds. Google, Quantcast and Open X are praised for making “strong moves” to block sites that receive a lot of DMCA notices but the government and some major companies are in for criticism for failing to place their ads more carefully. This week’s “Piracy is Progress” Times Square campaign is also mentioned in a negative light.
The popular movie and TV streaming script TVstreamScript has shut down “voluntarily” following pressure from movie industry group FACT. The script was used by hundreds of streaming sites, which have all been rendered useless overnight. FACT tells TorrentFreak that convincing site owners to sign over their domains is one of the strategies they use to tackle online piracy.
The most recent dispute between The Pirate Bay and a Finnish anti-piracy group appears to be over. CIAPC, known locally as TTVK, lifted the code of The Pirate Bay’s home page in order to promote their own anti-piracy message but were called out over their double standards. Now, in an unusual move the anti-piracy group has withdrawn the campaign, even though they say it was extremely successful. Attention has now shifted to claims by TTVK that they achieved an 81% reduction in The Pirate Bay’s traffic.
Earlier this month the major labels of the UK recording industry succeeded in having three major torrent sites blocked at the ISP level. KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy all disappeared from the screens of users not using a VPN or proxy, yielding some interesting results on the way. Data provided by Google suggests that not only did the blocks encourage a large fresh interest in other torrent sites and BitTorrent in general, official media outlets received more interest too.
The band Ghost Beach is running a controversial billboard campaign in New York’s Times Square. With slogans such as “Piracy is Progress” and “Piracy is Robbery” they are encouraging other artists to speak their mind about copyright infringement. The band itself told TorrentFreak that it is ultimately against piracy, but that the problem can only be tackled when consumers have affordable and convenient alternatives. For now, they want the public to choose whether they want to pay for their latest album, or download it for free.
Most Internet service providers log information about their users, such as when they use the service and the IP addresses they were allocated at the time. This information is useful for ISPs’ housekeeping but it’s also an invaluable resource for copyright trolls looking to track down file-sharers. Can an ISP be forced to collect and retain such data? In a disappointment to rightsholders, a higher regional court in Germany has clarified that ISPs cannot.
Hoping to revolutionize live broadcasting on the Internet, Bram Cohen has filed a patent application for the new BitTorrent Live streaming protocol. BitTorrent’s inventor has worked on the new technology for several years and believes his new protocol can be world-changing. “We plan to shape the future of live broadcasts and want to work with broadcasters to accomplish that,” Cohen says.
NBC Universal is one of the copyright holders involved in the “six strikes” copyright alert system but the warnings it sends out to subscribers of non-participating ISPs stand in stark contrast to the educational approach of the program. A threatening email warns the alleged file-sharers that they risk substantial monetary damages, criminal prosecution and Internet disconnections.
In 2010, New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service were carrying out special checks on Kim Dotcom as part of his application to become an NZ resident. They turned up something unexpected. The FBI were investigating the Megaupload founder as part of a huge alleged criminal conspiracy. But mysteriously Dotcom was welcomed into New Zealand with open arms, something he now fears was a trap to make him more accessible to the United States.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’. ‘Broken City’ completes the top three.
As citizens around the world endure Internet censorship of all types, a Japanese university has stepped in to level the playing field. Whether you’re in Iran or China and blocked from YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, or in the UK desperate to get back on The Pirate Bay, KAT or H33T, a new tool from researchers gives instant access to dozens of VPN services. Not only is the system simple to use, but it’s also completely free.
This week several of the largest Internet providers in the UK started to block KickassTorrents, Fenopy and H33T, but this doesn’t mean that the sites have become entirely inaccessible. As a direct result of the blockades several proxies for the banned sites are now being overloaded with traffic..
The MPAA, RIAA and the Internet providers participating in the “six strikes” anti-piracy scheme have informed the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee about their plans. The MPAA’s Marianne Grant gave a detailed overview explaining how they gather evidence against illegal file-sharers. She further explained that the MPAA is particularly interested in tracking BitTorrent since it’s the best way for P2P file-sharers to download movies and TV-shows.
For years Japan’s leading producers of pornographic movies have been battling to protect their content overseas. In particular they have focused on Taiwan where websites openly sell their videos and TV channels air their content without permission. The studios eventually took legal action, but to no avail. This week prosecutors made the decision not to prosecute any of the alleged pirates, ruling that since pornography is obscene it isn’t worthy of copyright protection.
After becoming known as somewhat of a haven for both file-sharing sites and their users, Spain is preparing to crack down on breaches of intellectual property rights. In a blueprint published by the government today, sites said to infringe copyright on a large-scale face fines of up to 300,000 euros and having their payment processors and advertisers removed. P2P downloads will also be outlawed by limiting the right to private copy.
This week at a grand press event the French Publishers Association announced their new anti-piracy portal ProtectionLivres.com. Through the website authors can search for and take down infringing content. An ambitious project, but the publisher group overlooked one small detail – the registration of their website’s domain. This oversight was quickly punished by an eBook pirate group who scooped up the domain to redirect it to an anti-DRM website.
IsoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA today, with the Ninth Circuit upholding the 2010 ruling that the website does not qualify for safe harbor under the DMCA. The verdict means that isoHunt will have to keep filtering its search results. For the site’s users all will remain the same, as the site has been filtering keywords on a list provided by the MPAA since the initial injunction was issued.
Last time there was an attempt to turn streaming copyrighted content into a felony the effort was crushed when the Internet rose up and defeated SOPA. But this week the thorny issue was again raised before Congress, with a suggestion that until the offense is considered a felony rather than a misdemeanor, enforcement will be problematic. Across the Atlantic, Pirate Bay nemesis Rights Alliance says that while enforcement against torrents continues, visitors to streaming sites are on the increase.
BT, Virgin Media, O2 and Be There have started to block access to three of the world’s largest BitTorrent sites. The blockades were put in place following a High Court order earlier this year, which ruled that KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy were facilitating copyright infringement. With the sites no longer accessible, hundreds of thousands of UK BitTorrent users will be looking for a new hope, or options to bypass the filters.
As the tsunami of DMCA takedowns sent to Google breaks yet another record, there are signs that the search engine is beginning to make rightsholders who have their requests denied a little more visible. As it reinstates Torrentz’s homepage after an earlier takedown against content that doesn’t exist, Google is now actively highlighting takedowns they refuse to process. While some are of minor interest, some reveal a comedy of errors.
The New York Public Library is a bastion of public information and knowledge. While this may be true “on paper”, the library has a surprisingly restrictive Internet filter. The result is that many websites are censored in NYPL’s network, including The Pirate Bay and, curiously enough, TorrentFreak.
Jason ‘Wee Man’ Acuna of Jackass fame is not amused that hundreds of people are sued for allegedly downloaded a movie he starred in. The film, Elf-Man, premiered on DVD late last year and its makers are now trying to boost their revenues through mass-lawsuits targeted at alleged BitTorrent users. And they’re not the only independent film studio that jumped on the copyright troll bandwagon recently.
Last week the European Court of Human Rights rejected an application to hear the cases of Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay. The MPAA has now come out to applaud the decision, claiming that they are tired of pirates hijacking the term “freedom of expression.” Criminals shouldn’t hide behind such basic rights, the Hollywood group believes.
Yet more embarrassing information on the Kim Dotcom spying fiasco has surfaced in New Zealand. Documents show that in December 2011 when the spying began, police already had information which stated that Dotcom – codenamed “Billy Big Steps” – was a NZ resident. As those deemed responsible are held accountable, the GCSB spy agency’s deputy director has become the first high-profile casualty, and the Prime Minister is warning of more “big changes” to come.
RapidShare has announced a business model change that is causing panic among its non-premium users. After offering unlimited storage space to customers using its free service, the Swiss-based file-hoster is about to implement tough new limits. This Wednesday all free customers will be limited to just 5GB of free storage if they choose not to pay for a premium account. All excess files still hosted will be deleted forever April 3.
For close on six years the dizzying file-sharing case of the RIAA vs Jammie Thomas-Rasset has been winding its way back and forth through the U.S. legal system. The U.S. government itself got involved last month, submitting a brief to the Supreme Court asking it to uphold the $220,000 verdict. Today the Court granted that wish with an announcement that it will not hear Thomas-Rasset’s appeal.
New research published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre shows that online piracy doesn’t hurt digital music revenues. The researchers examined browsing habits from 16,000 Europeans and found that there’s a positive link between online piracy and visits to legal music stores, irrespective of people’s interest in music. The study concludes that the music industry should not see piracy as a growing concern.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Parental Guidance’. ‘Jack Reacher’ completes the top three.
Over the past years, we have seen an all-out assault on the messenger immunity, forcing liability onto commercial distribution services for merely carrying a message. The net effect of this is a drastic and catastrophic abolition of the freedom of speech in the Internet.
After nearly 9 years of seeding The Pirate Bay’s oldest working torrent is still very much alive. Interestingly, the torrent is not a Hollywood classic nor is it an evergreen music album. The honor goes to a pirated copy of “Revolution OS”, a documentary covering the history of Linux, GNU and the free software movement.
One of the most enduring questions in the history of online file-sharing asks whether something bad will come from downloading and/or sharing a particular product. Will the the recording and movie industries come knocking? Will the police or even the FBI take an interest? Are the evil bottom-feeding trolls watching my torrents? It’s a complex area, but one that’s fairly easily understood.
More than half a year has passed since Demonoid went offline but many of its former users still haven’t lost faith. They cling on to every string of hope and this has led some to believe that the site returned as a meta-search engine under the new domain Demonoid.mk. While most people who are familiar with the old Demonoid know that the new site just trades on the brand of the famous torrent tracker, quite a few believe it’s a legit incarnation.
A new copyright infringement case filed this week looks set to cause a fresh round of controversy. Copyright trolls from Switzerland, who say they are part of a non-profit organization, are about to shake down thousands of alleged pirates who shared the 50 Cent movie All Things Fall Apart. However, in addition to the usual subscribers of ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast and AT&T, the trolls are trying to obtain the identities of individuals located at universities around the United States.
The homepage of the popular torrent search engine Torrentz disappeared from Google this week after Hollywood studio Paramount sent a peculiar DMCA takedown request. Paramount claims in the notice that the URL links to infringing content, but there are no links to torrents or even other torrent sites on Torrentz’ homepage. The meta-search engine has filed a counterclaim and is waiting for Google to respond.
One of the founders of huge newsgroup concern Giganews has lined up both Dropbox and Kim Dotcom’s Mega for criticism. Ron Yokubaitis, who is also co-founder of Golden Frog, the company behind Dump Truck and VyprVPN, says that Dropbox has a number of shortcomings including too much reliance on Amazon’s infrastructure in the United States. Courting more controversy, Yokubaitis also says that Mega’s customers are being “taken for a ride” by a company that has “little respect for governments.”
A few days ago two computer science students hacked a billboard in the center of Belgrade, Serbia, and replaced its standard message with a meters-wide Pirate Bay logo. The ‘hackers’ said they wanted to show that security of IT-systems is often lacking and their message didn’t fall on deaf ears. The manager of the billboard company thanked the pair for their efforts and rewarded them with a 4G iPad Mini each.
The European Court of Human Rights has rejected an application to hear the cases of Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay. In its decision the Court recognizes that the Swedish verdict against the pair interferes with their right to freedom of expression, but adds that this was necessary in order to protect rightsholders’ right to be protected from copyright infringement.
The man who said he would buy The Pirate Bay and turn it into a legal service faced legal action when he was accused of trying to manipulate stock prices. Hans Pandeya was said to have made misleading statements in order to boost shares in his company, a situation that led the co-founder of Napster and the founder of the Grokster P2P service to testify against him. But now, with the court throwing out all but one of the charges against him, Pandeya is free to continue his business life.
Kim Dotcom made a virtual appearance in the U.S. yesterday, at the SXSW festival in Austin. The Megaupload founder talked about the ongoing legal battle with the Government and is confident that he won’t end up in jail. The flamboyant Internet entrepreneur further criticized a recent study which suggested that Megaupload’s shutdown positively impacted digital movie sales.
After years of development BitTorrent has now released its live streaming service to the public. BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen is one of the main developers of the new protocol which he expects to revolutionize online streaming. BitTorrent Inc. sees its BitTorrent Live product as the ultimate tool for creators to reach an audience of millions with minimal bandwidth costs.
In the last episode of the astonishing story of Prenda Law, a judge ordered the copyright trolls to appear in court Monday to face allegations of misconduct. At the last minute the law firm tried to squirm out of the hearing and true to their word failed to appear in court yesterday. The hearing went ahead without them and according to those present they now face the wrath of an angry judge, who at one point essentially referred to Prenda as liars.
The popular game EVE Online is set to enjoy a boost from the world’s favorite file-sharing protocol. Developer CCP Games has announced that work is underway to improve the EVE Launcher so that EVE client updates may be rolled out more frequently and reliably. In future, more than 500,000 EVE Online subscribers will have BitTorrent under the hood.
The launch of the six strikes anti-piracy scheme in the United States has boosted demand for VPN services and BitTorrent proxies. Data from Google reveals a big surge in searches for terms such as “BitTorrent VPN” and “BitTorrent proxy” over the past two weeks. Some VPN providers see the scheme as a clear invasion of privacy and are encouraging people to protect themselves.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘Jack Reacher’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’. This is 40′ completes the top three.
A group of hackers have managed to gain access to a prominently placed advertising billboard located in the crowded Republic Square in the center of Belgrade, Serbia. For a while the billboard displayed the Pirate Bay logo alongside Ghandi’s quote “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” The people responsible for the stunt claim the hack was done to demonstrate how little attention people pay to IT security.
The South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival is one of the largest and most popular in the United States. For the ninth year in a row SXSW is sharing DRM-free, RIAA-safe songs of performing artists, totaling 7.39GB so far. All the tracks can now be downloaded for free in one go, thanks to BitTorrent.
The copyright trolls of Prenda Law have kicked back against a judge who ordered them to appear before a Los Angeles court this coming Monday. The hearing has the potential to lead to prison for some of those involved but not if Prenda have their way. In a letter sent to the court, Prenda argues several points for canceling the hearing including that the judge lacks jurisdiction, they haven’t been given enough notice, and arrangements haven’t been made for them to get paid. The hole is getting bigger but they keep on digging.
Hollywood movie studio Fox has asked Google to remove dozens of allegedly infringing links to Pirate Bay proxy sites but forgot to check whether the links even exist. The result is a slew of bogus DMCA claims, some for TV-shows that have yet to be produced. Another prime example of how automated take-down procedures lead to abuse.
Last year it was revealed that the “independent and impartial expert” that reviewed the six-strikes scheme evidence was a former RIAA lobbying firm. To restore the public’s faith in the BitTorrent monitoring scheme, CCI promised to promptly appoint a new independent expert. However, TorrentFreak has learned that after several months the group is still to decide who will carry out the review of the evidence review.
In what is becoming one of the strangest, most unbelievable and over-broad farces in the history of United States copyright trolling, the ante has just been upped yet again. In a direct attack on the troll defense blogs FightCopyrightTrolls and DieTrollDie, Prenda Law has just ordered WordPress to hand over all IP addresses of users who accessed either site in the last two years. Just to be clear, that’s everyone’s details.
A new paper suggests that revenues from digital movie sales and rentals were positively impacted after the shutdown of Megaupload. Researchers from Wellesley College and Carnegie Mellon University compared the income from 12 countries with varying Megaupload usage. They conclude that the shutdown caused a 6-10% increase in digital movie revenues for two major Hollywood studios.
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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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