TorrentFreak

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  • BitTorrent Piracy Doesn’t Effect US Box Office Returns, Study Finds

    A new academic paper by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College has examined the link between BitTorrent downloads and box office returns. Contrary to what’s often claimed by the movie industry, the researchers conclude that there is no evidence that BitTorrent piracy hurts US box office returns. Internationally, there is a link between downloads and revenues, which the researchers attribute to long release windows.

  • Megaupload Founder’s Home Seized, Co-Defendant Bailed

    The main programmer of Megaupload was granted bail today on restricted grounds including a ban on Internet access and no contact with his “Mega Conspiracy” co-accused currently resident overseas. Meanwhile, the family home of Mega founder Kim Dotcom has been seized by New Zealand authorities. Dotcom’s heavily pregnant wife and the couple’s three children will be allowed to stay – for now.

  • Download a Copy of The Pirate Bay, It’s Only 90 MB

    Soon The Pirate Bay will stop linking to .torrent files. Instead, the world’s largest BitTorrent site will only list so-called magnet links. One of the advantages of the switch is that The Pirate Bay will be much more portable, and easier to copy. A new torrent listing all titles and magnet links on The Pirate Bay proves this point, as the public can download a copy that fits easily on a small USB stick – or even a few dozen floppies.

  • RapidShare: From “Notorious Market” To Proactive Piracy Eliminator

    In a 2010 submission to the US Government, RapidShare was described by the RIAA and MPAA as a “notorious market” for pirated media. Just one year later the file-hosting service was given a tacit clean bill of health. TorrentFreak caught up with RapidShare attorney Daniel Raimer who explained that this achievement was down to a combination of education and industry-leading proactive anti-piracy measures.

  • Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down

    While the file-sharing ecosystem is currently filled with uncertainty and doubt, researchers at Delft University of Technology continue to work on their decentralized BitTorrent network. Their Tribler client doesn’t require torrent sites to find or download content, as it is based on pure peer-to-peer communication. “The only way to take it down is to take the Internet down,” the lead researcher says.

  • Is BitTorrent Done? Major Torrent Sites Consider Shutting Down

    News of raids, arrests, seizures, extraditions and jail time in the file-sharing world hasn’t gone unnoticed by the operators of major BitTorrent sites. Yesterday, the owners of BTjunkie decided to close their site because the stress became too much, and there are others who consider doing the same. While there are still plenty site owners who are determined to continue, doubt and uncertainty are more present than ever before.

  • Elite Anti-Terror Police Went After Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom

    While last month’s shutdown of Megaupload has been well documented, the finer details of the raid on Kim Dotcom’s mansion have only just been revealed. A new and astonishing report features a house tour and in-depth discussion with Dotcom’s bodyguard. He was confronted by dozens of armed police, some from New Zealand’s elite anti-terrorist force, who also demanded of a nanny: “Do you have any bombs?!”

  • You Can’t Copyright Porn, Harassed BitTorrent Defendant Insists

    A woman who says she was incorrectly accused of sharing copyrighted material on BitTorrent has filed a harassment lawsuit against a copyright troll. Porn outfit Hard Drive productions had demanded $3,400 to make their threatened lawsuit go away but their target not only says she’s innocent and harassed, but also that porn cannot be copyrighted. So, does filmed sex promote scientific progress or constitute useful art? A court may soon have to decide.

  • BitTorrent Giant BTjunkie Shuts Down For Good

    BTjunkie, one of the largest BitTorrent indexes on the Internet, has decided to shut down voluntarily today. A combination of legal actions against fellow file-sharing sites and time-consuming projects have led to the drastic decision that takes out one the main players in the BitTorrent landscape.

  • The Target Isn’t Hollywood, MPAA, RIAA, Or MAFIAA: It’s The Policymakers

    In reactions to my last column on TorrentFreak, concerning how we must go on the offensive for our freedom of speech, I saw many questions and emotions asking what it takes to get Big Monopoly – the copyright industry – to listen to the net and change their ways. A number of suggestions were made, from boycotts to petitions. Alas, this is entirely the wrong way to bring about change.

  • First Downloaded and 3D Printed Pirate Bay Ship Arrives

    For The Pirate Bay team simply copying bits and bytes is not enough. They want you to ‘download a car’, literally, so with that goal in mind they added a 3D-printing section to their website last month. A Gimmick? Not really. Canadian Charles Randall is one of the first to show off his new ‘physible’ Pirate Bay ship, downloaded off BitTorrent and printed in three dimensions. The auto industry is shaking in its boots.

  • Busted By The FBI: The Life Of An Elite Teen BitTorrent Uploader

    Releasers and torrent racers are the select few counted on by millions to bring the latest movies, music and video games to the wider Internet in record time. One such person, a 15-year-old school kid, eventually gained access to elite piracy sites and went on to become the top uploader on one of the world’s most famous BitTorrent trackers. But how did the buzz of the elite compare to being hunted down by a Patriot Act-empowered FBI?

  • We Need Copyright Reform, Not ACTA!

    As a Member of the European Parliament, I very much welcome the increased attention the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has received in the past weeks. It has taken a while for massive outcry to emerge, but we are seeing protest voices getting louder and louder.

  • Seized Sports Streaming Site Makes a Blazing Comeback

    Firstrow, one of the sites that had several of its domain names seized by the Feds yesterday, is furious at the US Government. Convinced that the service they are providing does not violate the law, the site continues to operate under a new domain name. One of the owners told TorrentFreak that they don’t intend to stop until a court shuts them down.

  • Megaupload Founder Accuses Police of Assault, Denied Bail Again

    Following a hearing today at the High Court in New Zealand, Kim Dotcom was again denied bail. The Megaupload founder, who authorities insist will likely flee should he be released, told the court that he’d been kicked and punched by police during his arrest. Dotcom added that during his time in prison he had been approached not only by women wanting to be his friend, but by an expert document forger.

  • Megaupload: Hong Kong Mulls Copyright Crackdown

    In the wake of the Megaupload shutdown, authorities in Hong Kong say they will set up a center to investigate electronic crime and copyright infringement later this year. Although there has been no suggestion of wrong-doing, the news will almost certainly unsettle other cyberlocker services such as Filesonic, Uploading, Uploaded.to, Zshare and Filepost, all of which have a presence in the region.

  • Feds Seize Sports Streaming Domains in New Super Bowl Crackdown

    In a new round of seizures the US authorities have taken control of domain names belonging to several popular sports streaming sites including Firstrowsports.tv, Firstrowsports.com and Soccertvlive.net. All affected sites now redirect to a notice from DOJ/ICE. In common with last year’s campaign, the new round of seizures appears to be part of another “Super Bowl Crackdown” targeting sites that link to unauthorized sports streams.

  • Pirate Bay Verdict SignalsThreat Of Huge New Anti-Piracy Campaign

    Today’s Supreme Court rejection against The Pirate Bay signals the start of a new campaign targeting 150 file-sharing sites, say anti-piracy figures. A lawyer for the Hollywood movie studios says she expects Swedish sites and those providing them with infrastructure will stop their activities today. Antipiratbyran say they will take legal action against those that don’t.

  • The Pirate Bay Moves to .SE Domain To Prevent Domain Seizure

    After the court case against the founders of The Pirate Bay was concluded today, the operators of the site quickly moved to change their domain name from .ORG to the Swedish .SE. A Pirate Bay insider informed TorrentFreak that this move was made to prevent the US authorities from seizing the domain, which is a serious risk now the court case has completed.

  • Cyberlocker Burden of Proof Should Be Reversed, Anti-Piracy Group Says

    An anti-piracy group say they have monitored decreased usage of cyberlockers that withdrew their rewards programs in the wake of the Megaupload shutdown and increases for those that maintained them. What is required now, the Hollywood-backed group says, is a “burden of proof reversal” which would require hosts to prove that their businesses are not built on piracy, or face being held liable.

  • Authorities Shut Down Ukraine’s Largest File-Sharing Site Ex.ua

    Following a six month investigation initiated by international tech companies including Microsoft, Graphisoft and Adobe, Ukrainian authorities have shut down the popular file-hosting site Ex.ua. The police confiscated 200 servers on which more than 6,000 terabytes of data was stored. The Ex.ua raids follow less than two weeks after US authorities ordered the shutdown of another file-hosting service, MegaUpload.

  • Justice Department Backs RIAA Against Pirating Student

    The Department of Justice has filed a brief siding with the RIAA in its civil case against the file-sharing student Joel Tenenbaum.The RIAA is protesting a demand from the student’s legal team, who want the court to reduce the massive $675,000 fine on due process grounds, to the minimum statutory damages of $750 per song.

  • MegaUpload User Data Soon to be Destroyed

    MegaUpload has received a letter from the US Attorney informing the company that data uploaded by its users may be destroyed before the end of the week. The looming wipe-out is the result of MegaUpload’s lack of funds to pay for the servers. Behind the scenes, MegaUpload is hoping to convince the US Government that it’s in the best interest of everyone involved to allow users to access their data, at least temporarily.

  • Dutch ISPs Refuse To Block The Pirate Bay

    Two large ISPs in the Netherlands have said they will not be blocking subscriber access to The Pirate Bay, as demanded by the Hollywood supported anti-piracy outfit BREIN. T-Mobile and KPN argue that blocking websites is a threat to the open Internet, and suggest that the entertainment industry focuses on new business models instead. BREIN is now expected to take the ISPs to court.

  • Mega Aftermath: Upheaval In Pirate Warez Land

    While last week’s shutdown of MegaUpload is of huge interest in itself, but a wave of aftershocks and side-effects are proving equally fascinating to watch. In addition to causing all sorts of problems for legitimate users of file-sharing services, there is no avoiding the fact that certain elements of the piracy scene are in a mess. But amazingly, still the beat goes on.

  • Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship

    At a behind-closed-doors meeting facilitated by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, copyright holders have handed out a list of demands to Google, Bing and Yahoo. To curb the growing piracy problem, Hollywood and the major music labels want the search engines to de-list popular filesharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, and give higher ranking to authorized sites.

  • MegaUpload Alternatives See Surge in Traffic After Shutdown

    After losing access to their favorite file-hosting service last week, millions of former MegaUpload users have fled to the many alternatives available. Filefactory, Depositfiles and many of the other top cyberlockers have seen an unprecedented surge in traffic in recent days, showing that people haven’t stopped sharing even though the authorities have closed one of the main players in the business.

  • WordPress Plugin Unblocks Censored Sites, Including The Pirate Bay

    A new WordPress plugin makes it dead easy to uncensor blocked websites. In just a few clicks people can setup their own proxy site with the popular blogging software. An essential tool for people whose speech is restricted by oppressive regimes, and handy for downloaders in The Netherlands, Italy, Finland and other countries where ISPs are blocking The Pirate Bay. Additionally, the plugin partially defeats the PIPA and SOPA bills in the US.

  • Two MegaUpload Ops Bailed, But Government Wants Surveillance

    While MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom will remain in custody for at least another month, two indicted members of the so-called “Mega Conspiracy” were granted bail this morning. Their privacy, however, will have to wait. On top of the revelation that the FBI monitored Skype calls as far back as 2007, officials are now assessing whether the defendant’s homes are suitable for “electronic monitoring”.

  • EMI Boss Opposes SOPA, Says Piracy is a Service Issue

    The RIAA has been one of the most dedicated supporters of the PIPA and SOPA bills, but not all of the people they represent share their enthusiasm. EMI’s VP of Urban Promotions Craig Davis made some very reasonable remarks on the controversial anti-piracy plans, stating that “the method they’re using is incorrect.” In addition, the VP says that he’s no fan of DRM and that piracy is a service issue, not an issue of money.

  • Anti-Piracy Warnings Have No Effect on iTunes Sales

    To back up their demands for tougher anti-piracy laws, the music industry often promotes statistics that show how drastically sales improve when they have their way. This week the music industry did this again by claiming that the French three-strikes law has been highly effective and has boosted iTunes sales tremendously. But is this really the case? Or have the media and lawmakers been fooled again by the copyright lobby?

  • The Pirate Bay Wants You To Really Download A Car

    You wouldn’t download a car, the Internet meme predicted. But if The Pirate Bay has its way that action will be a reality in the years to come. In preparation for this world-changing day, the world’s biggest torrent site has just premiered a new section containing the plans for physical items that can be downloaded then printed out. Today its a plastic pirate ship, but one tomorrow in a decade or two it may well be a car.

  • Meganomics: The Future of “Follow-the-Money” Copyright Enforcement

    As last week’s arrest of Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom emphasized, the main character in the SOPA/PIPA debate is the foreign ‘thief’. He’s everywhere—robbing Americans of their creativity, jobs, and money. Worse, he’s enjoying himself. As the Chamber of Commerce put it: “The criminals behind these sites are laughing all the way to the bank, stealing the best of American creativity and innovation at the expense of our jobs and consumers.”

  • MegaUpload Loses Top Lawyer After ‘Outside’ Pressure

    A few days after top lawyer Robert Bennett announced he would defend MegaUpload vigorously in their upcoming trial, he has been forced to withdraw from the case. A source says that this drastic decision was made because the case conflicts with the interests of another client of Bennett’s law firm Hogan Lovells. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that the pressure most likely came from the entertainment industry.

  • Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action

    In the wake of last week’s Megaupload shutdown, some of the biggest names in the market are taking drastic action. During the last 48 hours many sites have completely withdrawn their systems for paying uploaders when their files are shared with others, but one of the most dramatic moves came first from Filesonic and today Fileserve. Both services now forbid people from downloading any files they didn’t upload themselves.

  • Judge Delays Megaupload Bail Decision, More Site Operators Arrested

    In a New Zealand court today, a judge delayed the decision to grant or deny bail to Kim Dotcom, the larger than life founder of Megaupload.com. The prosecutor said that since multi-millionaire Dotcom had multiple identities, four dozen credit cards and a history of “fleeing criminal charges” he represented a flight risk “on the extreme end of the scale”. In the meantime, two other site operators were arrested in Europe.

  • Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests

    Filesonic, one of the Internet’s leading cyberlocker services, has taken some drastic measures following the Megaupload shutdown and arrests last week. In addition to discontinuing its affiliates rewards program and not yet paying accrued money to members, the site has disabled all sharing functionality, leaving users only with access to their own files.

  • White House Petitioned to Investigate MPAA Bribery

    The public has started a petition asking the White House to investigate comments made by MPAA CEO Chris Dodd a few days ago on Fox News. Closing a tumultuous week of wide protest against PIPA and SOPA – two MPAA backed anti-piracy bills – Dodd threatened to stop the cash-flow to politicians who dare to take a stand against pro-Hollywood legislation. Clear bribery, the petition claims, and already thousands agree.

  • Australia: US Copyright Colony or Just a Good Friend?

    Collectively, we Australians can be a cowardly bunch, so scared of an unknown invader that we will sell our sovereignty for the illusion of protection. This fear is symbolised in the movie ‘Tomorrow When the War Began,’ a film of dubious quality that portrays an Australia under invasion from some shadowy Asiatic power.

  • Second NinjaVideo Admin Jailed For Copyright Infringement

    A second administrator of NinjaVideo, one of the first targets of the US government’s Operation in Our Sites, has been sentenced. Matthew Smith, known online as Dead1ne, received 14 months in prison, two years supervised release, and was ordered to pay back just over $172,000 he allegedly earned from the site.

  • MegaUpload: What Made It a Rogue Site Worthy of Destruction?

    File-hosting services all around the world will have looked on in horror yesterday as MegaUpload, one of the world’s largest cyberlocker services, was taken apart by the FBI. Foreign citizens were arrested in foreign lands and at least $50 million in assets seized. So what exactly prompted this action? TorrentFreak read every word of the 72-page indictment so you don’t have to, and we were surprised by its contents.

  • MegaUpload Founder Denied Bail At Extradition Hearing

    The founder of MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom, has been denied bail in an extradition hearing in New Zealand this morning. Dotcom, who was raided by 76 armed police in helicopters yesterday, is wanted in the United States alongside other key MegaUpload employees on racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering charges.

  • MegaUpload Shut Down by the Feds, Founder Arrested

    MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand at the request of US authorities. MegaVideo, the streaming site belonging to same company, and a total of 18 domains connected to the Mega company were seized and datacenters in three countries raided.

  • 165 French File-Sharers Now On 3rd Strike, “iTunes Up 22.5%”

    The French authority responsible for administering the country’s anti-filesharing operations reports that it has now sent out more than 736,000 “first strike” and 62,000 “second strike” infringement warnings, with a total of 165 Internet account holders now on their third and final strike. Meanwhile, a report set to be published by IFPI next week will suggest that Hadopi is a success that has contributed to a 22.5% increase in purchases from iTunes.

  • SOPA / PIPA Co-Sponsors Drop Like Flies As Millions Protest

    Today the Internet is witnessing the largest protest in its history, aimed at killing two pending anti-piracy bills. The effort has not been without results. During the past few hours several Senators who co-sponsored SOPA and PIPA have dropped their support. The protests made them realize that the legislation is flawed, and a potential threat to the future of the Internet.

  • Historic: The Internet Protests Anti-Piracy Bills

    January 18, 2012, will still be talked about decades from now. It is the day tens of thousands of websites, including giants such as Google, Wikipedia and Reddit, decided to take a stand against what they see as a hostile takeover of the Internet by Hollywood, the recording industry, and other rightsholders. As it faces two draconian anti-piracy bills, the free Internet is at stake. Whatever the outcome may be, history is being made today.

  • Grooveshark Blocks German Users Over Licensing Costs

    This morning millions of Internet users in Germany have woken to find their online music listening options reduced. Music streaming service Grooveshark has self-censored in the country, citing “unreasonably high” licensing costs imposed by local music rights collections group GEMA. In other news, Grooveshark is now trying to unmask the ‘whistleblower’ who recently landed them in so much legal trouble with the major labels.

  • RIAA Labels Demand Cash from Alleged BitTorrent Pirates

    Although the major label members of the RIAA publicly ended their file-sharing settlement schemes in the United States, surprisingly they are continuing with a similar project elsewhere. Using the same IP address-based evidence, Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner are sending out controversial cash settlement demands in Germany where recipients have little alternative than to pay up.

  • The Pirate Bay: PIPA/SOPA Won’t Stop Us!

    Supporters of the pending PIPA/SOPA anti-piracy bills often use The Pirate Bay as a prime example of a website that can be taken out under the new legislation. But is that really the case? The Pirate Bay team has been silent on the issue, until now. As it turns out, the people behind the popular torrent site don’t believe the laws will do much to stop them, but they do fear for the future of the Internet.

  • ACS:Law Anti-Piracy Lawyer Suspended For 2 Years

    Today, lawyer Andrew Crossley from the now defunct ACS:Law faced the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over his disastrous foray into ‘speculative invoicing’ – the chasing down of alleged file-sharers with the sole aim of receiving cash settlements. In a surprising turn-around from previous displays of bravado, Crossley contested only one of the seven charges against him. The Tribunal suspended him from acting as a lawyer for 2 years.

  • The Pirate Bay Launches Promo Platform For Artists

    Hollywood and the major music labels frequently describe The Pirate Bay as a piracy haven that ruins their businesses. On the other side, however, there are many independent artists who would like nothing more than to be featured prominently on the world’s largest torrent site. For the latter group The Pirate Bay team have just released a new platform where artists can have their content promoted on the site’s homepage, free of charge.

  • Square Enix, Eidos & Other Game Giants All Demand Cash From Pirates

    After it was revealed that games developer CD Projekt had been sending cash settlement letters to Internet users based on flimsy IP address-based anti-piracy evidence, this week the company decided to end their campaign. Today TorrentFreak reveals the names of many other famous games companies conducting almost identical operations – “Send us cash settlements,” they tell their targets, “…or else…”

  • White House Speaks Out Against SOPA/PIPA, Sort Of…

    The White House just released a statement commenting on the pending SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills in congress. While the Obama Administration sides with the opposition by saying that free-speech should be protected, censorship is evil, and that DNS-blocking is a no go, the statement doesn’t mean that the bills are off the table.

  • RIAA Orders WhoisGuard to Identify Torrent Site Owner

    The RIAA is continuing to put pressure on torrent sites. This week the music group went after the torrent indexer TorrentHound. The RIAA obtained a subpoena at the U.S. District Court of Columbia and has asked the whois privacy service WhoisGuard to hand over the IP-address, email and all other identifying information related to the account holder.

  • US Authorities Silence NinjaVideo Founder, Rush Her to Prison

    Last week Hana Beshara, one of the founders of the popular NinjaVideo movie and TV show streaming site, was sentenced to 22 months in prison for conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement. Beshara was released until a bed opened up at a detention center, but after she posted critical notes on Facebook the authorities asked to reconsider this decision. As a result, the NinjaVideo founder was rushed to local prison today.

  • TVShack Admin Can Be Extradited To US, Judge Rules

    Despite protestations that merely linking to copyright material isn’t an offense in the UK, a judge has today ruled that the UK-based ex-administrator of the TVShack video linking website can be extradited to the US to face copyright infringement charges. Richard O’Dwyer, 23, has never set foot in United States but now faces being used as a ‘guinea pig’ for US copyright law.

  • Witcher 2 Devs Abandon Games Piracy Shakedown

    CD Projekt RED have abandoned their misguided pay-up-or-else anti-piracy scheme. Initially a hit with fans due to their rejection of experience-killing DRM, the company fell from grace when it was revealed that in common with other companies with less of a reputation to maintain, they had chosen one of the most controversial methods of extracting money from the public.

  • The Pirate Bay Will Stop Serving Torrents

    In a month The Pirate Bay will no longer offer downloads of .torrent files. Instead, the largest torrent site on the Internet will only provide so-called magnet links to its visitors. The first step in this direction was made today with The Pirate Bay replacing the current default torrent download links with magnets. Could this be the end of an era?

  • Musicians Praise BitTorrent and Creative Commons

    While the major record labels see BitTorrent as a threat, thousands of independent musicians believe it’s one of the best ways to gain an audience. The FrostWire BitTorrent client has been promoting independent artists for years, with great success. To celebrate a massive 2.4 million downloads in 2011, FrostWire just released a compilation album featuring free Creative Commons-licensed tracks from 30 artists.

  • EMI Sues Irish State For Not Implementing Piracy Blocking Provisions

    After failing last year in its attempt to force a local Internet service provider to block online piracy, a major record label is now taking on a much bigger opponent. Yesterday, EMI Records filed a lawsuit against the Irish state for not fulfilling its obligations under European law which would otherwise allow for the “blocking, diverting or interrupting of internet communications” which breach copyright law.

  • Dutch ISPs Ordered To Block The Pirate Bay

    Despite claims that freedom of expression is at stake, today a pair of ISPs have been ordered to block The Pirate Bay. Following a demand from Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, the Court of The Hague ruled that Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, and competitor XS4ALL have to block subscriber access to the world’s most famous torrent site. XS4ALL say they are “bitterly disappointed”, noting that fundamental rights have been traded for “commercial interests”.

  • BitTorrent Seeders Harrass Blackmail Victim, High Court Rules

    Anyone who understands The Pirate Bay, BitTorrent and the viral nature of file-sharing will appreciate just how difficult it is to have content taken down. So what can you do when previously private explicit photos of you appear online? For one young lady it seems that no effort was too big or too costly, as court papers from this fascinating case reveal.

  • ‘Rogue’ Attorney General Spreads MPAA-Fed SOPA Propaganda

    Last weekend Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote a column in the Salt Lake City Tribune supporting the pending SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills. In his article Shurtleff argues that the bills are a necessity if the US is to “stop Internet thieves and profiteers.” An interesting take, but not very credible, as the Attorney Generally who may soon have the power to seize domains, simply passed off MPAA-penned propaganda as his own words.

  • The Pirate Bay Shows Futility of Domain and DNS Blocks

    In October 2011, a court in Finland ordered local ISP Elisa to block The Pirate Bay to stop copyright infringement among its subscribers. Today, the blockade – which covers many domains and IP addresses – took effect, but behind the scenes there is an effort to unblock the site and render the court order useless. Meanwhile there is already collateral damage – the court order has succeeded in blocking a domain linking to Electronic Frontier Finland.

  • Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012

    Continuing a long-standing New Year’s tradition, we present an up-to-date list of the world’s most visited BitTorrent sites. At the start of 2012 The Pirate Bay continues to pull in the most visitors, followed by Torrentz and KickassTorrents. The six-year-old TV-torrent distribution group EZTV appears in the list for the first time, ranked 8th.

  • MPAA Lawyer Inspired File-Sharing Religion, Catholic Bishop Unhappy

    Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde has revealed that the words of an MPAA lawyer several years ago inspired the creation of the Missionary Church of Kopimism. The Church hit the headlines this week and was met largely by words of tolerance, but a Catholic bishop has just labeled it “farcical” since it has no God. Interestingly, Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge mulls the idea that ‘pirate’ communications may now be barred from evidence in court.

  • NinjaVideo Founder Sentenced To 22 Months in Prison

    An outspoken founder of NinjaVideo, one of the first domains to be targeted in the ongoing Operation in Our Sites, was sentenced today for conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement. Hana Beshara, known online as Phara, will now spend 22 months in prison followed by 2 years of probation and 500 hours of community service. A source close to NinjaVideo told TorrentFreak that Hana’s lawyer “was happy” with the sentence.

  • MPAA Joins RIAA in “Monstrous” Jammie Thomas Appeal

    In its appeal against the file-sharing mom Jammie Thomas, the RIAA has asked the court to reinstate a massive fine which U.S. District Judge Michael Davis previously slashed because it was “monstrous and shocking.” The music group argues that awards as high as $1.5 million for sharing 24 songs are appropriate and constitutional. In their appeal, the RIAA is joined by the MPAA who also want to overthrow the standing verdict.

  • BitTorrent Releases New “Share” Application

    BitTorrent Inc. just released a new standalone file-sharing application called “Share.” The application aims to make it easier for tech novices to share large files with friends, without having to get familiar with all the BitTorrent customs and lingo. Share will eventually be integrated into BitTorrent’s flagship client uTorrent.

  • US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law

    In a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist . Inclusion would have left Spain open to a range of “retaliatory options” but already the US was working with the incoming government to reach its goals.

  • You Don’t Have To Support Piracy To Hate Bullying & Extortion

    Last month, the Gamer/Law legal blog published an article which in many ways failed to understand what so-called pay-up-or-else anti-piracy schemes are all about. Now the owner of Gamer/Law is back with an open letter titled “To those who defend game pirates”. Since it’s published in Edge, probably the best print-based games publication ever made, I simply can’t let this one lie.

  • File-Sharing Recognized as Official Religion in Sweden

    Since 2010 a group of self-confessed pirates have tried to get their beliefs recognized as an official religion in Sweden. After their request was denied several times, the Church of Kopimism – which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols – is now approved by the authorities as an official religion. The Church hopes that its official status will remove the legal stigma that surrounds file-sharing.

  • 4Shared Sued To Reveal Identify of Infringing Users

    4Shared, the largest file-sharing website on the Internet, has been sued in an attempt to reveal the identities of the person or persons who uploaded copyrighted files. The case was filed at a US federal court by Modulo Security Solutions, who are trying to identify the alleged uploader of confidential documents belonging to the company. If successful, the case may have implications for others who share copyrighted files on cyberlockers.

  • How SOPA Can Kill Reddit and Many Other US Sites

    Supporters of SOPA and PIPA, two bills that aim to deter piracy, claim that they will only affect foreign sites and businesses. However, this view is not shared by a wide range of opponents, including the people behind the popular Reddit community. But how exactly can SOPA and PIPA threaten sites like Reddit? Leading First Amendment lawyer and Internet policy expert Marvin Ammori explains.

  • Belarus Bans Browsing of All Foreign Websites

    As citizens of the United States worry over the implications of the pending SOPA legislation, a small land-locked country on the fringes of Europe is showing how bad things can really get. Labeled by the United States as an “outpost of tyranny”, Belarus is certainly living up to its reputation. This Friday, browsing foreign websites will become an offense punishable by fines, with service providers taking responsibility for the actions of their users.

  • Turn Any WordPress Site Into A BitTorrent Tracker

    A new plugin for WordPress allows anyone to set up a fully functioning BitTorrent site in just a few minutes. Whether it’s a totally public torrent index or a private torrent tracker with strict ratio enforcement, WP-Trader supports it. The project was born when the developers recognized a huge demand for a simple script that even relative tech novices can set up.

  • Website Blocking Law Implemented By New Spanish Government

    Spain’s new government has wasted no time in approving tough new legislation to combat unauthorized file-sharing. After less than two weeks in power, the Partido Popular government has fully implemented the so-called Sinde Law. Spaniards can look forward to previously legal sites being blocked by ISPs or shut down completely, all within 10 days of a rightsholder complaint.

  • Zut Alors! French Government Deny BitTorrent Piracy Allegations

    Mid-December, data from YouHaveDownloaded was used to show that several illegal downloads had taken place in the palace of French President Sarkozy. These, however, were just the tip of the iceberg. More than 250 further IP addresses belonging to the French Ministry of Culture have now been linked to illegal downloads but the government, unsurprisingly, say they are completely innocent. OK, so prove it.

  • 2011: Striking Pirates and Stopping SOPA

    The year of Internet censorship wouldn’t be complete without the SOPA soap, the row between Megaupload and Universal, three-strikes plans and the countless other censorship attempts and anti-piracy actions that were carried out in the second half of the year. Luckily, there were also a few positive things to report on.

  • 2011: Piracy Wars and Internet Censorship

    Looking back at the past 12 months it’s fair to conclude that 2011 was the year that the entertainment industries focused on piracy-fueled Internet censorship. Domain seizures, DNS blockades, raids and arrests dominated the news, and the threat of the SOPA and PIPA bills in the US left millions of Internet users worried. Let’s see how events unfolded.

  • Domain Blocking Will Encourage Yet More Fraud and Scams

    One of the most often-heard retorts to the domain blocking provisions of SOPA, is that where there’s a will to circumvent them, there will be a way. Although most people know that VPNs and proxies can prove useful, there is also a new generation of solutions such as those provided by MafiaaFire and Newzbin2. But history shows us that for every trusted solution, dozens more will pop up, each aiming to scam and defraud unsuspecting Internet users.

  • The Most Pirated Games of 2011

    As 2011 comes to an end, we follow up our most pirated movies and TV-shows charts by taking a look at the most pirated games of the year. Crysis 2 comes out on top in the PC games category in 2011. On Xbox 360 Gears of War 3 receives the same honor, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 scoops the title of most pirated Wii game for the second year in a row.

  • 15 Percent of US File-Sharers Hide Their IP-Address, More to Folllow

    In response to increasing legal actions and surveillance of Internet traffic, more and more file-sharers are choosing to hide their identities online. New data gathered through telephone interviews with thousands of adults reveals that in the US 15 percent of all file-sharers take measures to hide their IP-address. Some VPN and proxy providers have doubled their customer base in 2011, and this upward trend is bound to continue in the coming year.

  • Tors.in: Dump Your Torrents and Get a Fancy URL to Share

    BitTorrent is a great way to share large files with friends, family or even complete strangers, but it’s not always as convenient as it should be. Even though BitTorrent is more than a decade old there’s no site where users can simply dump torrents and get a fancy URL in return, so they can share with others. Until now that is, because the newly launched Tors.in just filled that gap.

  • Megaupload to Universal: You’ve Got Some Explaining To Do

    In their 18-page response filing at the US District Court for Northern Californian earlier this month, not once did Universal Music say why they forced YouTube to remove Megaupload’s Mega Song. Since that’s what the dispute between the two companies is all about, that was a pretty strange event. In a new filing, Megaupload makes it clear that it isn’t going to be brushed aside. The cyberlocker wants answers, and it will dig deep to get them.

  • Court Order Blocks BitTorrent, Megaupload and More

    In a sweeping attempt at stopping piracy of their latest movie, a studio has obtained a court order forcing India’s ISPs to block some of the world’s largest file-sharing sites. A company spokesman gave a SOPA-style reason for their actions, claiming that site blocking is the only way they can stop foreign sites from engaging in “rampant online piracy.” Megaupload says the ban presents a great opportunity for them to test their anti-blocking technologies.

  • BitTorrent Zeitgeist: What People Searched For in 2011

    Each and every day hundreds of millions of people scour their favorite BitTorrent search engines for content to download. But what are all these people looking for? Today we present the BitTorrent Zeitgeist 2011, a list of the 50 most searched for phrases and keywords on one of the most used public BitTorrent indexes during the past year.

  • While Drafting SOPA, the U.S. House Harbors BitTorrent Pirates

    In recent weeks we discovered BitTorrent pirates at the RIAA, Sony, Fox, Universal and even law-abiding organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security. By now it should be clear that people are using BitTorrent pretty much everywhere, and not only for lawful downloads. Today we can add the U.S. House of Representatives to that list, the place where lawmakers are drafting the much discussed “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA).

  • Why “Safe Harbor” Laws Are Disastrous For Free Speech

    In the debate about the American “Stop Online Piracy Act”, some have hailed the decade-old American DMCA as a law that was somehow beneficial for the development of new services on the net. This is not only a complete misconception, but a very dangerous one at that. The DMCA was basically a wet dream come true for the copyright industry, and the “safe harbor” provisions have gradually shifted the environment to suppress free speech and expression in favor of the suppressing industries: the copyright industries.

  • Skrillex: Happy Holidays! Pirate My Music, I’ll Still Love You

    As negativity surrounding online piracy grows to epic proportions in the United States, Sonny John Moore is playing the intelligent game. Moore, better known to his fans as Skrillex, has a total of six 2011 Grammy nominations under his belt but he’s still not towing the corporate line on file-sharing. As he drops his brand new album, Skrillex tells fans that don’t have the money to go ahead and pirate it instead.

  • Dutch Parliament: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal

    In an attempt to reduce widespread piracy in the Netherlands, the government there recently introduced a plan that would make downloading movies and music unlawful. However, this proposal was binned yesterday by a motion from the Dutch parliament due to concerns it would restrict the free flow of information, invade the privacy of citizens and invite copyright trolls. Instead, they encourage the entertainment industry to focus their attention on providing authorized alternatives.

  • The Witcher 2 Devs Defend Pirate Witch-Hunt With Bogus Accuracy Claims

    The makers of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings are cracking down on BitTorrent pirates in Germany, requesting hundreds of euros from each alleged offender. As is always the case with these schemes, settlement demands are sometimes addressed to people who didn’t download the game at all. In a recent interview with PC Gamer The Witcher devs interestingly enough say that their evidence is foolproof, but this claim is 100% bogus.

  • Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of 2011

    As 2011 comes to an end, we follow up our most pirated TV-shows chart by taking a look at the most pirated movies of the year. Fast Five comes out on top, and aside from other usual suspects such as box office hits Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Hangover, the list also includes a few surprising entries and some notable absentees.

  • GoDaddy Drops SOPA Support After Customer Revolt

    Domain registrar and hosting company GoDaddy has dropped its support for the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The change in position follows the protests of thousands of customers who threatened to transfer their domains to competitors. In a statement released today the company now says it “will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”

  • File-Sharing App Creator Not Guilty of Copyright Infringement

    After a legal process lasting more than 7 years, the creator of Japan’s most popular P2P file-sharing application has finally been cleared by the country’s Supreme Court. After his initial arrest in 2004 on copyright infringement grounds, the former university researcher has been on a roller coaster ride of convictions, fines, and appeals. Now, barring a dispute on rare technical grounds, his ordeal is over.

  • Hurt Locker BitTorrent Lawsuit Dies, But Not Without Controversy

    The record-breaking lawsuit, filed by the makers of The Hurt Locker against 24,583 alleged BitTorrent users, has come to an end. Although this appears to be good news for the defendants, the lawyers representing the movie studio are continuing with their cash demands. During recent months the lawyers engaged in dubious behavior, asking people to settle with them after they were dismissed from the lawsuit, and targeting people who were never included to begin with.

  • Retired, Computerless Woman Fined For Pirating ‘Hooligan’ Movie

    Despite not owning a computer or even a router, a retired woman has been ordered by a court to pay compensation to a movie company. The woman had been pursued by a rightsholder who claimed she had illegally shared a violent movie about hooligans on the Internet, but the fact that she didn’t even have an email address proved of little interest to the court. Guilty until proven innocent is the formula in Germany.

  • US Government Targets The Pirate Bay, Megaupload and Others

    The US Government has classified some of the largest websites on the Internet as examples of sites which sustain global piracy. The list released by the United States Trade Representative draws exclusively on input from rightsholders. It includes popular torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, file-hosting service Megaupload and Russia’s leading social network VKontakte.

  • RIAA: Someone Else Is Pirating Through Our IP-Addresses

    A few days ago we reported that no less than 6 IP-addresses registered to the RIAA had been busted for downloading copyrighted material. Quite a shocker to everyone – including the music industry group apparently – as they are now using a defense previously attempted by many alleged file-sharers. It wasn’t members of RIAA staff who downloaded these files, the RIAA insists, it was a mysterious third party vendor who unknowingly smeared the group’s good name.

  • IFPI and RIAA Patronize Google With Anti-Piracy “Report Card”

    The IFPI has told Google it must try harder with its copyright enforcement activities. In its patronizing teacher/student style “Report Card”, the music industry group says the search giant profits from digital piracy, puts up barriers to make life difficult for rightsholders, engages in destructive rhetoric and raises alarmist, self-serving criticism to any legislative proposal designed to thwart infringement.

  • File-Sharing Darling Dan Bull Publishes Anti-SOPA Rap

    Since the recording industry is one of the key supporters of the pending SOPA legislation in the United States, it seems fitting that its opponents should use the medium of song to make their counter argument. Following previous musical escapades in support of file-sharing, Internet and gaming culture, today UK activist artist Dan Bull sharpens his lyrical bayonet and plunges it deep into SOPA’s heart.

  • “Spanish Napster” Victorious As Court Rejects Major Label Copyright Case

    Some of the world’s biggest record labels have failed in their attempt to sue a file-sharing developer for copyright infringements carried out by users of his software. During a 2009 trial, Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner had demanded 13 million euros in compensation from Pablo Soto, the creator of the Blubster, Piolet and Manolito P2P sharing applications. A court has now ruled that Soto’s technology is “completely neutral”.

  • SOPA Will Mean The End of Reddit, Says General Manager

    Last week the House Judiciary Committee discussed the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA). After an abrupt end of the markup session on Friday, a new hearing date was set for this week. Meanwhile, opposition to the controversial bill is increasing and yesterday the General Manager of the largest online community Reddit said that the bill would “almost certainly mean the end” of the popular site.

  • File-Sharing 3 Strikes Killed in Ireland, Government Promises Site Blocking

    Following an investigation into the legality of a 3 strikes-style anti-filesharing mechanism operated by Irish ISP Eircom, the country’s Data Protection Commissioner has now ordered the practice to be brought to a halt on privacy grounds. But this setback for rightsholders was immediately countered by government promises to swiftly publish an order enabling rightsholders to have file-sharing sites blocked by ISPs.

  • From Rogue To Vogue: Megaupload and Kim Dotcom

    Last week file-sharing site Megaupload found itself at the center of a huge controversy. After some of the world’s leading artists endorsed its service, Universal Music forced the song offline and was met with widespread accusations of censorship. Today TorrentFreak hands its Sunday guest slot to Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who tells us the row with Universal started much earlier than we thought….

  • RIAA and Homeland Security Caught Downloading Torrents

    If there’s one organization known for its crusade against online piracy, it’s the RIAA. Nevertheless, even in the RIAA’s headquarters several people use BitTorrent to download pirated music, movies, TV-shows and software. And they are in good company. The Department of Homeland Security – known for seizing pirate domain names – also harbors hundreds of BitTorrent pirates.

  • Anti-Piracy Investigator Bemoans Lack of Training, Meddling By Lawyers

    An investigator who worked for the anti-piracy outfit behind Finland’s Pirate Bay ISP blockage and two file-sharing cases where defendants collected huge fines, has been speaking of his lack of training at the organization. The man also says that he was so uncomfortable with the heavy modification of file-sharing related witness statements he created for the police, in the end he refused to sign them.

  • Top 10 Most Pirated TV-Shows of 2011

    With 2011 nearing its end, today we begin our annual look at the most-pirated entertainment titles across various categories, starting with TV-shows. Dexter comes out on top this year, followed by HBO’s debut series Game of Thrones. Although the years of exponential growth in download numbers have passed, episodes of the top TV-shows are still shared among millions of people.

  • Megaupload Video Reinstated, Universal Says “You Can’t Touch Us”

    A week ago today, Megaupload’s now-famous Mega Song was on its way to becoming a viral hit, only to be cut down from YouTube by a Universal Music takedown demand. Following the filing of a Megaupload lawsuit the song is back online, but Universal are standing firm. You can’t touch us on DMCA grounds, the label says in a new filing, adding it can take down any material, even if it doesn’t infringe their rights.

  • ‘For Dummies’ Publisher Sues BitTorrent Users to “Educate and Settle”

    John Wiley and Sons, one of the world’s largest book publishers, is continuing its efforts to crack down on BitTorrent piracy. The company filed a new mass-lawsuit this month, targeting dozens of John Does who allegedly shared Wiley titles online. Talking to TorrentFreak, the publisher states that it’s not their intention to litigate against individuals, but to settle and educate instead.

  • French President’s Residence ‘Busted’ For BitTorrent Piracy

    French President Nicholas Sarkozy is a man who has championed some of the most aggressive anti-piracy legislation in Europe. But today it’s revealed that the occupants of his very own office and home are responsible for a nice selection of pirate downloads using BitTorrent. Three strikes? Those with access to the Presidential Palace’s IP addresses have already doubled that quota.

  • Will.i.am: I Did Not Authorize Megaupload Video Takedown

    In a filing today in federal court, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom stated that all artists involved in the now-infamous Megaupload video signed Appearance Consent and Release Agreements. Furthermore, Dotcom revealed that Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am had assured him during a telephone call that contrary to suggestions in the press, he had not authorized the submission of DMCA takedown notices of Mega Song.

  • Filmmaker: BitTorrent Pirates Help Us Get More Exposure

    A few days ago the independent film “The Inner Room” ended up on BitTorrent. Where some filmmakers would see such an event as a threat, for producer Mark Diestler it’s quite the opposite. For months he had waited for pirates to pick the movie up, and now it’s out he’s seeing the film gain additional exposure. For the first time his movie has jumped into the top 250 as listed by IMDb’s movie meter.

  • Two File-Sharers Fined Total of $725,000, Others Asked To Pay Thousands

    Two long-standing file-sharing cases have just been concluded and both defendants have been hit with extraordinarily harsh punishments. A 36-year-old received a 4 month jail sentence and a fine equivalent to $433,000, and a 22-year-old received a fine of $291,600. Meanwhile, the anti-piracy group behind the action is sending “pay-up-or-else” letters to Internet subscribers, and not always getting it right.

  • Busted: BitTorrent Pirates at Sony, Universal and Fox

    With increasing lobbying efforts from the entertainment industry against BitTorrent sites and users, we wondered whether these companies hold themselves to the same standards they demand of others. After some initial skimming we’ve discovered BitTorrent pirates at nearly every major entertainment industry company in the US, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Entertainment and NBC Universal. Busted.

  • Wikipedia Mulls Total Blackout to Oppose SOPA

    Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wants to blank out all pages of the online encyclopedia to oppose the pending SOPA anti-piracy bill in the US. Wales, who has asked the Wikipedia community for input on the idea, fears the bill could seriously hurt the Internet and thinks that blanking out Wikipedia will send a strong message to lawmakers.

  • Megaupload to Sue Universal, Joins Fight Against SOPA

    File-hosting service Megaupload has told TorrentFreak that it will sue Universal for wrongfully taking down its content from YouTube. Universal took action Friday to remove a Megaupload-produced pop video which featured leading artists singing the cyberlocker service’s praises. The move has also prompted the company to enter the SOPA debate, with a call for like-minded people to join forces and fight for an Internet without censorship.

  • Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties

    One of my first large keynotes, in 2007, was called Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties. In the 15-minute original keynote at OSCON, I outlined all the civil liberties that were at risk because of enforcement of the copyright monopoly, and that the copyright industry brutally understood these liberties needed to be killed to preserve their business. What was fringe paranoia five years ago is now becoming the law of the land.

  • Kino.to “Main Admin” Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail

    A man described as the main administrator of movie streaming portal Kino.to has been sentenced to 3 years in jail for criminal copyright infringement. The 27-year-old is said to have made around 230,000 euros profit from the site, which was shut down earlier this year as part of the biggest anti-piracy operation ever to take place on European soil.

  • I Know What You Downloaded on BitTorrent….

    Most people know that BitTorrent is far from anonymous, but seeing all your recent downloads listed on a public website is still quite a revelation. This is exactly what Youhavedownloaded.com does. The developers of the site want to make people aware of the public nature of BitTorrent, and are currently working on a more anonymous version of the leading file-sharing technology.

  • Universal Censors Megaupload Song, Gets Branded a “Rogue Label”

    Earlier today, Megaupload released a pop video featuring mainstream artists who endorse the cyberlocker service. News of the controversial Mega Song even trended on Twitter, but has now been removed from YouTube on copyright grounds by Universal Music. Kim Dotcom says that Megaupload owns everything in the video, and that the label has engaged in dirty tricks in an attempt to sabotage their successful viral campaign.

  • RIAA Label Artists & A-List Stars Endorse Megaupload In New Song

    MegaUpload is currently being portrayed by the MPAA and RIAA as one of the world’s leading rogue sites. But top music stars including P Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West disagree and are giving the site their full support in a brand new song. TorrentFreak caught up with the elusive founder of MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom, who shrugged off “this rogue nonsense” and told us he wants content owners to get paid.

  • uTorrent Adds Media Player, Plus Goes Live…

    The free version of uTorrent just came out with a new stable release that adds a media player and support for external devices such as smart phones and game consoles. On the same day, BitTorrent Inc. also made their paid client uTorrent Plus available to the public. For $24.95 uTorrent Plus gives users extra features such as file-conversion and a built-in virus scanner.

  • Feds Return Mistakenly Seized Domain After a Year of Smoke and Mirrors

    Just over a year ago, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized dozens of domain names as part of Operation in Our Sites. The lawyer for one of them, music blog Dajaz1, has been furiously trying to find out about the site’s case and now, after a year of smoke, mirrors and stonewalling, the Feds have done the previously unthinkable – they’ve given the domain back.

  • Copyright Trolls Auction Off €90 Million in File-Sharing Settlements

    A German law firm has started an auction to sell the unpaid settlements of 70,000 alleged file-sharers to the highest bidder. The ‘debt’ belongs to people who thus far failed to settle with a copyright holder, and would be worth 90 million euros if recouped entirely. This controversial move opens up room for a new group of outfits to join the “pay-up-or-else” scheme – the aggressive debt collectors.

  • DRM-Free Witcher 2 Cashes in On BitTorrent Pirates

    Since its release in May this year, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has sold over a million copies worldwide. Unfortunately, though, the game has also been plagued by piracy. But for the makers this isn’t much of a problem since they are making money on both sides, by getting paid by regular customers and demanding hefty cash settlements from those who (they claim) dared to pirate the game.

  • International Police Operation Targets Movie Piracy Release Groups

    Police in three European countries have carried out an operation to disrupt two scene release groups said to be responsible for pre-releasing thousands of movies onto the Internet. The action, which focused on datacenters and home addresses across Germany, Switzerland and Hungary, targeted the leaders and equipment of CRUCiAL and iNSPiRED.

  • Canadian Songwriters Want to Legalize File-Sharing

    While most of the major entertainment industry companies wage war against BitTorrent sites, the Songwriters Association of Canada prefers to embrace file-sharing. Speaking with TorrentFreak, vice president Jean-Robert Bisaillon says that the Internet has revived the music business. Sharing music is part of people’s nature and the songwriters want to legalize file-sharing, while compensating the artists whose works are shared.

  • Ad Network Not Guilty of Copyright Infringement For Serving Pirate Site

    An advertising network has been found not guilty of copyright infringement for serving ads to a site offering links to unauthorized copies of ebooks. The case, brought by Elsevier and ‘For Dummies’ publisher Wiley & Sons, sought to find the Chitika ad network liable for contributory infringement, even though it produced no evidence of direct infringement, or that the network had knowledge of the e-book site’s allegedly infringing behavior.

  • Anti-Piracy Group Blackmails ISPs to Censor The Pirate Bay

    After a court ordered two of the largest Belgian Internet service providers to prevent their users accessing The Pirate Bay, the local anti-piracy outfit is now urging other ISPs to do the same. Internet providers who refuse to give in to this request within 10 days will be taken to court, a threatening letter explains. The blackmailing tactic seems to have worked, as one of the smaller ISPs has already disabled access to The Pirate Bay.

  • Kaspersky Dumps Anti-Piracy Group in SOPA Protest

    Security vendor Kaspersky has announced it will withdraw its membership of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) over the group’s support of SOPA. The Russian company, which is famous for its anti-virus products, says the pending legislation will hurt both innovation and consumers. In protest, Kaspersky will end its association with the BSA on January 1st 2012.

  • Feds Seize Domain Names of Korean Movie Portals

    Homeland Security’s ICE unit has started the ninth phase of Operation In Our Sites. Following on from last week’s action targeting online shops selling counterfeit goods, US authorities have just seized the domain names of 11 Korean movie download portals. For the first time since the seizures began the banner has been updated to include Korean language.

  • Student Bay Admin Prosecuted in Sweden

    After a process lasting more than three years, a man from Sweden has finally been prosecuted for his role in the operations of Student Bay, a site dedicated to the sharing of textbooks. Despite prosecution attempts to link a Pirate Bay founder to the site, the 23-year-old is the only person in the spotlight. An apology requested by The Pirate Bay for wrongful accusations appears to have gone unfulfilled.

  • RIAA: Piracy is “Under Control” But Wait – “Rampant Theft” Continues

    Make no mistake, anti-piracy organizations have a thin line to tread. On the one hand they have to show their efforts yield results, and on the other that the piracy situation is so bad that they are needed more than ever. From two different mouths the RIAA has been doing that just this week but it’s hard to accept that either approach yields results without being counter-productive.

  • Swiss Govt: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal

    One in three people in Switzerland download unauthorized music, movies and games from the Internet and since last year the government has been wondering what to do about it. This week their response was published and it was crystal clear. Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won’t suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products.

  • Copyright Corruption Scandal Surrounds Anti-Piracy Campaign

    Anti-piracy group BREIN is caught up in a huge copyright scandal in the Netherlands. A musician who composed a track for use at a local film festival later found it being used without permission in an anti-piracy campaign. He is now claiming at least a million euros for the unauthorized distribution of his work on DVDs. To make matters even worse, a board member of a royalty collection agency offered to help the composer to recoup the money, but only if he received 33% of the loot.

  • Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, ISPs, All Served With Streaming Site Blocking Demand

    A trio of organizations representing the movie, cinema and TV industries have gone to court in France in an attempt to force Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and the country’s ISPs to block several streaming sites. The groups, which represent hundreds of video-related companies such as Paramount and Sony, want streaming sites blocked to Internet subscribers and delisted from search engines.

  • ‘The Pirate Bay Dancing’ Add-On Killls DNS and IP Blockades

    Efforts to censor the Internet are increasing in the Western world. In the US lawmakers are currently discussing legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that could take out The Pirate Bay, or disable access to it. In several other countries such as Italy, Finland and Belgium, courts have already ordered Internet Providers to block their users’ access to the site. Demonstrating the futility of these efforts, a small group of developers today releases a browser add-on called “The Pirate Bay Dancing.”

  • Grooveshark Prepares To Unmask Anonymous ‘Whistleblower’

    As both sides in the forthcoming Universal Music versus Grooveshark copyright infringement lawsuit prepare to do battle, a warning shot has been sounded across the bows of the currently anonymous individual whose comments set off the legal chain reaction. The alleged Grooveshark whistleblower could be unmasked following a request not from Universal, but from Grooveshark’s legal team.

  • DNS ‘Seizure’ Takes Out MegaUpload

    For the past 24 hours the hugely popular MegaUpload file-hosting service has been rendered inaccessible across many countries around the world. With the United States government ‘Cyber Monday’ domain seizures fresh in everyone’s mind, fingerpointing has been directed at the U.S. authorities. The problems, however, seem to be rooted with the site’s domain registrar since they appear to have ‘seized’ MegaUpload’s DNS records following a dispute.

  • uTorrent Plus Goes on Pre-Sale for $24.95

    For the first time ever uTorrent users can now pay for their favorite BitTorrent client. BitTorrent Inc. just put a pre-order for the “Plus” version of uTorrent online for $24.95 a year. The official release is scheduled to come out before the holidays. The paid version of uTorrent will offer additional features to the free client, that will continue development as usual.

  • France Attacks Finances of Cyberlocker and Streaming Sites

    France’s Hadopi agency has announced the next phase in its ongoing battle against unauthorized Internet file-sharing. In common with its counterparts in the United States, work is now underway to strangle the finances of direct download, cyberlocker and video streaming sites. The agency hopes to report significant progress by early 2012.

  • Pirate Party Founder In Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers

    Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, has earned a spot in Foreign Policy’s prestigious list of Top 100 Global Thinkers. Falkvinge is in good company, listed among many key figures in the Arab Spring and world leaders such as Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. Foreign Policy describes 2011 as the year where Falkvinge’s ideas about transparency, Internet privacy and copyright law are gaining in popularity.

  • The Copyright Industry – A Century Of Deceit

    It is said that those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. In the case of the copyright industry, they have learned that they can get new monopoly benefits and rent-seeker’s benefits every time there is a new technology, if they just complain loudly enough to the legislators.

  • BitTorrent Defense Lawyer Joins Copyright Trolls

    DC attorney Mike Meier was initially well-known as a defense attorney for BitTorrent users, but in recent months he’s made an interesting career move. Perhaps recognizing that more money could be made with a slight shift in focus, Meier has joined the “other” side, suing hundreds of BitTorrent users on behalf of copyright holders.

  • IFPI Sues Pirate Bay Admins in Finland, Demands Further ISP Blocks

    The IFPI is stepping up its war on copyright infringement by suing the current administrators of The Pirate Bay, the Internet’s most famous torrent site. The lawsuit, filed in the Helsinki District Court, demands that the operators of TPB stop facilitating the unauthorized distribution of music and pay compensation to rightsholders. For good measure, IFPI is demanding that two more local ISPs block the site.

  • Feds Seize 130+ Domain Names in Mass Crackdown

    US authorities have initiated the largest round of domain name seizures yet as part of their continued crackdown on counterfeit and piracy-related websites. With just a few days to go until “Cyber Monday” more than 100 domain names have been taken over by the feds to protect the commercial interests of US companies. The seizures are disputable, as the SOPA bill which aims to specifically legitimize such actions is still pending in Congress.

  • Aussie ISPs Propose Anti-FileSharing Warning Notice Scheme

    Five of Australia’s largest ISPs have today put forward a detailed proposal to deal with the issue of illicit file-sharing. The paper proposes the implementation of a warning letter process, but unlike the 3 strikes-style regime in neighboring New Zealand, would not include an Internet disconnection sanction. Instead, rightsholders would head back to the legal system to punish persistent infringers.

  • Ubisoft Blames Piracy for Non-Release of PC Game

    Ubisoft is known for laying the blame for many problems on the unauthorized downloading of its games. Stanislas Mettra, creative director of the upcoming game ‘I Am Alive,’ confirms this once again by saying that the decision not to release a PC version is a direct result of widespread game piracy. However, those who look beyond the propaganda will see that there appears to be more to the story than that.

  • European Court: ISPs Can’t Spy on Pirating Customers

    In the crucial 7-year legal battle between a music rights group and an Internet service provider, the European Court of Justice has now delivered an important ruling. Music rights group SABAM wanted ISP Scarlet to spy on its customers and block their communications to stop file-sharing, but the Court decided that would breach privacy and violate the fundamental rights of both the ISP and its subscribers.

  • Google Now Censors The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, 4Shared and More

    Google has expanded its search blacklist to include many of the top file-sharing sites on the Internet, including The Pirate Bay. The changes were quietly processed and appear to be broader than previous additions. Google’s blacklist prevents the names of sites appearing in their Instant and Autocomplete search services, while the pages themselves remain indexed.

  • Grooveshark Bites Back: We’ll Fight Universal in Court, Not The Press

    In a lawsuit filed last week, Universal Music made the devastating claim that bosses and other workers at Grooveshark personally uploaded many thousands of infringing tracks to the service. Through their General Counsel, Grooveshark has now bitten back, pouring scorn on the “blatantly false” basis of Universal’s claims and their alleged tactic of tipping off the press about the lawsuit before informing Grooveshark.

  • MPAA Costs Hollywood More Than US BitTorrent Piracy

    During the last year Netflix managed to outgrow BitTorrent in terms of the amount of US Internet traffic it generates. A promising finding for Hollywood as it shows that there’s an overwhelming interest for the legal movie streaming service. At TorrentFreak we wondered what might happen if all US BitTorrent users made the switch to Netflix, and the results of this exploration are quite intriguing.

  • Net Neutrality: Mobile Broadband Suppliers Discriminate Against BitTorrent

    According to a new report on Net Neutrality, users of mobile broadband services who hope that all of their Internet traffic will be prioritized equally will be disappointed. While much traffic is left unhindered, the report from the organization responsible for Sweden’s .SE national domain reveals that some operators systematically degrade BitTorrent transfers, and some block them altogether.

  • “Pirate Blogger” Law Student Raided By Police For File-Sharing Articles

    Anti-piracy group RettighedsAlliancen say they have been busy recently tracking down piracy ‘masterminds’. After busting who they claim is the leader of a huge movie piracy group, last week they had the police detain a less likely target – a 19-year-old law student who runs a file-sharing blog. RettighedsAlliancen say that guides on his site showed readers how to break the law, an act serious enough to involve the police.

  • Copyright is Failing, Who Feeds the Artists? Asks EU Commissioner

    European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes delivered an inspiring speech at the Forum d’Avignon this weekend. The Commissioner noted that the current path of increased enforcement as put forward by the copyright monopoly is not the right one. Copyright should protect artists instead of corporations, and technology is not something to restrict but to make use of, she argued.

  • Pirate To Join European Parliament As Youngest Member

    In a few weeks Amelia Andersdotter will be the second Pirate Party member to take a seat at the European Parliament in Brussels. The 24-year-old Swede was voted in more than two years ago, but due to bureaucratic quibbles her official appointment was delayed. TorrentFreak catches up with the soon-to-be youngest MEP to hear about her plans and expectations.

  • “Grooveshark Bosses Uploaded Music” Say Universal In Massive Lawsuit

    In a quite astonishing lawsuit, Universal Music could be demanding hundreds of millions in damages from Grooveshark’s music streaming service. Claims in the lawsuit lay waste to Grooveshark’s insistence that they enjoy ‘safe harbor’ under the DMCA, stating categorically that bosses and other workers at the company, from the CEO down, personally uploaded many thousands of infringing tracks to the service.

  • UK Internet Blacklist Censors Fileserve File-Hosting Service

    UK users of the popular Fileserve file-hosting service are currently unable to download any files as the site is being blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation. Since early this week the blacklist, which aims to disable access to sexual child abuse content, has been preventing users from accessing their personal files and downloading those uploaded by others. Fileserve expects the issue to persist for at least a couple of days.

  • EU Advocate General Anti-Piracy Advice “A Victory For Freedom”

    A long-running dispute over whether an ISP can be forced to hand over the details of one of its customers to an anti-piracy group is now with the EU after courts in Sweden couldn’t decide. Now the EU’s Advocate General has delivered his assessment which is being described as “a victory for freedom” by the Pirate Party’s MEP. But that, according to the Advocate General, all depends on ISPs’ intentions when they store information on their subscribers.

  • Police Raid BitTorrent Tracker…and Arrest its Hosting Provider

    This week an operation led by a powerful anti-piracy group closed down a 6-year-old BitTorrent tracker. The site had already been targeted following the verdict in the original Pirate Bay trial, but had quickly announced their intentions to go 100% legal. This week, however, people said to be behind the site were arrested. Most surprisingly, one of them was the owner of the company supplying them bandwidth.

  • EU Adopts Resolution Against US Domain Seizures

    The European Parliament has adopted a resolution which criticizes domain name seizures of “infringing” websites by US authorities. According to the resolution these measures need to be countered as they endanger “the integrity of the global internet and freedom of communication.” With this stance the European Parliament joins an ever-growing list of opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act .

  • RIAA Wants To Shutter Torrent Sites, And More

    The RIAA has informed the U.S. government about the piracy-promoting websites it would like to be dealt with in the near future. The list includes all major torrent sites, but also Russia’s Facebook and Classmates equivalent. The submission is particularly sensitive because the House Judiciary Committee today discussed the pending Stop Online Piracy Act, which would grant copyright holders the power to put these sites out of business.

  • Site Shrugs Off Hollywood Shutdown Attempt, But Here Comes SOPA

    Following legal action by the Hollywood studios, the UK’s High Court ordered the country’s leading ISP to block subscriber access to Usenet indexing site Newzbin2. As expected the group then used the decision to have a UK webhost shut down a similar site, NZBsRus. Although the site went offline for a few days, it’s now back, hardened and more determined than ever. But are comebacks like this likely to become a thing of the past if SOPA passes?

  • 20th Century Fox Abandons $12 million Pre-Release Movie Script Lawsuit

    Just under a year ago, screenwriter P.J. McIlvaine felt the wrath of one of the world’s most powerful movie studios. After allegedly making available dozens of movie scripts online, 20th Century Fox sued the part-time flower seller for a staggering $12 million. But now after months of hardship. P.J. expresses relief as her ordeal is finally confirmed over.

  • Artists Sue CBS, CNET, for Promoting and Profiting from Piracy

    A coalition of artists has joined eccentric billionaire and FilmOn founder Alki David in a new class action lawsuit against CNET and CBS Interactive. The complaint filed at a federal court in Los Angeles claims that through websites like Download.com, these companies have willingly profited from popularizing online copyright infringements. The artists want the CBS chiefs to be held accountable for “soliciting such widespread theft.”

  • Music Rights Group Claims Money From Creative Commons Event

    German music rights group GEMA is known for its strict copyright regime, but sometimes they take things too far. The group recently claimed money from the organizers of a dance event where only Creative Commons music was played. The organizers informed GEMA beforehand about their royalty free status, but the group suspects foul play and demands cash.

  • Anti-Piracy Group Asks Court To Order Grooveshark DNS Block

    After court action in Denmark ended with the country’s major Internet service providers blocking The Pirate Bay, copyright holders now have a new target in their sights. An anti-piracy group say they have sent an urgent letter to a court demanding that Grooveshark should be subjected to an ISP DNS blockade, an action which would take the site offline in Denmark.

  • The Privatization of Copyright Lawmaking

    Copyright law strikes a balance between private rights and public interests. Not everyone likes the balance the law sets. Copyright owners complain that it does not adequately protect them from infringement of their works. Critics contend that copyright law tilts too far in favor of the interests of copyright owners and does not safeguard the rights of consumers.

  • “Shoot the Pirate” Copyright Campaign Descends Into Real Violence

    While observers criticize Western companies for their ‘aggressive’ anti-piracy campaigns, elements of the creative industries in South Africa are taking things to a whole new level. With their “Shoot the Pirate” campaign, music and TV industry players have taken to the streets with threats to “fight violence with violence.” Hacks into Sony computers to obtain content and warnings of a blood bath only add to the bizarre mix.

  • ISPs: Blocking The Pirate Bay Violates Freedom of Expression

    Two of the largest Internet providers in the Netherlands clashed in court with the local anti-piracy outfit BREIN today. The ISPs argued that blocking The Pirate Bay would be useless, even dangerous, as it could take down the entire network. In addition they feel that this type of censorship violates basic human rights such as freedom of expression. BREIN disputed these concerns and said that the ISPs want to keep The Pirate Bay online because they profit from the site.

  • ChannelSurfing Admin Pleads Not Guilty to Criminal Copyright Charges

    Following the seizure of several domains belonging to major sports streaming sites earlier this year, the feds arrested the operator of Channelsurfing.net. The 32-year-old Texan Bryan McCarthy was taken into custody on suspicion of criminal copyright infringement. After several months McCarthy has now been indicted on several copyright related charges. Awaiting his trial, the psychologically-troubled operator pleads not guilty on all counts.

  • Cybercrime Police Shut Down Five File-Sharing Sites

    The Italian police division tasked with handling cybercrime cases has announced it has shut down several file-sharing websites. The sites, which were connected by ownership, offered links to torrents and files hosted on cyberlocker services and indexed more than 31,000 illicit items including movies, music, TV show, games and software.

  • The Pirate Bay Trademark Handed To Alcohol Entrepreneur

    A Sweden-based alcohol entrepreneur has successfully obtained the trademark “The Pirate Bay”. Colin Scragg, who made complaints to police over share dealings at his former company earlier this year, had faced opposition at the Patents and Trademarks Office, but now the decision has swung in his favor.

  • Music Rights Group Bills Internet Providers For Piracy ‘Licence’

    Belgian music royalty collecting agency Sabam has once again stepped up to enforce their strict copyright regime. Today the group announced that it will bill Internet providers for allowing subscribers to play and download copyrighted songs. Sabam claims it is entitled to this compensation based on existing copyright law, and is demanding 3.4 percent of the monthly fee paid by subscribers.

  • Warner Bros. Admits Sending HotFile False Takedown Requests

    Hollywood movie studio Warner Bros. has admitted to a federal court that it removed files from the file-hosting site Hotfile without owning the copyrights. Some of the false takedowns were the result of failing filtering software but Warner also admitted that one of its employees deleted Open Source software that could speed up downloads.

  • European Court Set To Rule On Crucial Internet Filtering Case

    Soon the European Court of Justice will have to decide whether an Internet service provider can be forced by a music rights group to proactively filter all of its traffic – both inbound and outbound – for copyright infringements. As detailed in a new paper by intellectual property expert Cedric Manara, the notion is fraught with difficulties and the potential for collateral damage huge.

  • Police Arrest Fugitive Suspect in Kino.to Piracy Ring

    This summer raids and arrests in several European countries took out several prominent websites. Aside from the main target, movie streaming links portal Kino.to, the raids also affected several file-hosting sites including Duckload.com. Initially one person escaped the wrath of the police, but the authorities now report that after a five-month search they have arrested the fugitive, who they claim was also connected to two of the Kino.to replacements that sprung up recently.

  • Internet Doomsday: Wrongs and Rights of Copyright Fortune Telling

    As the war of words over PROTECT IP and SOPA ignites the Internet, the MPAA has issued a reminder that “opponents” of past copyright laws have been wrong before. But while some fears over 1998′s DMCA and 2005′s Grokster ruling didn’t come to pass, some things are absolutely guaranteed. If the entertainment industries don’t get their way – or even if they do – they’ll be back for more. Again and again.

  • Injured Movie Pirate Drops Lawsuit Against MPAA

    Earlier this year convicted movie cammer Timothy Epifan filed a lawsuit against Somerset County police and the MPAA for arresting him with deadly force and breaking his leg. The case is still ongoing, but Epifan has struck a deal with the Hollywood group meaning that the MPAA has been dropped from the lawsuit.

  • Major Usenet Provider Shuts Down Following Court Order

    News-Service.com, one of the leading Usenet providers with many prominent resellers, has terminated its services with immediate effect. The shutdown is the direct and unavoidable outcome of a two-year battle with Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, which was eventually decided against the Usenet provider. News-Service announced that it will appeal the decision “out of principle” as it threatens the entire 30-year-old Usenet community.

  • BPI and MPA Demand UK Pirate Bay Blockade

    Following the High Court ruling ordering UK ISP BT to block Usenet indexing site Newzbin2, it was only a matter of time before that momentum was capitalized upon by the movie and music industries. Today a coalition of companies led by the BPI demanded that BT also block The Pirate Bay, either voluntarily or by consenting to a court order.

  • Piracy is NOT Theft: Problems of a Nonsense Metaphor

    When talking about piracy the entertainment industry and politicians often use the term “theft.” This is a huge problem according to the Swedish sociologist of law Stefan Larsson. In his thesis “Metaphors and Norms – Understanding Copyright Law in a Digital Society,” he explains that these metaphors are in part keeping the wide gap between people’s norms and the law intact.

  • Newzbin2: BT Have Started To Censor Us

    UK Internet service provider BT didn’t need the flexibility of a full 14 days to begin their censorship of Usenet indexing site Newzbin2. According to an administrator at the site the court-ordered blockade has already begun, with subscribers to the ISP getting an “Error – site blocked” message when they try to access.

  • Piracy May Boost Sales, Judge Concludes

    A Spanish judge came to an interesting conclusion in a case dealing with a seller of pirated copies. According to the judge the defendant doesn’t have to pay compensation to the rightsholders because it is not possible to determine to what extent piracy actually decreases sales. On the contrary, the judge suggests that piracy may even boost sales.

  • Video: Judge Savagely Beats His Daughter For Illegal Downloads

    Downloading copyright material without the permission of rightsholders is often portrayed as a heinous crime and treated as such by many judges across the United States. But what is an appropriate punishment for this apparently increasingly wicked act? Multi-million dollar fines? Jail? For one sixteen year-old girl using file-sharing software KaZaA, it was a savage beating, delivered by the leather belt of her father, Judge William Adams. And it was all caught on camera.

  • MPAA Lashes Out Against Rogue Cyberlockers

    An internal MPAA fact-sheet obtained by TorrentFreak shows that the movie industry is preparing a full-frontal attack on the business model of what they call “rogue cyberlockers”. The document summarizes how these file-hosting sites offer affiliates cash in return for signing up new premium members. According to the MPAA these practices facilitate mass-copyright infringement.

  • Guilty Verdict in Record-Breaking Swedish File-Sharing Case

    A guilty verdict has been handed down in Sweden’s largest-ever personal file-sharing trial. The 58-year-old female defendant avoided a jail sentence for sharing more than 45,000 songs online but now faces probation, a fine equivalent to 50 days pay, plus the costs of her defense. Pirate Party leader Anna Troberg described the verdict as “tragic”.

  • Major Book Publisher Files Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuit

    John Wiley and Sons, one of the world’s largest book publishers, have sued 27 BitTorrent users at a federal court in New York. The publisher claims that the defendants have shared copies of its “For Dummies” books without permission, and demands compensation. After several movie studios started filing lawsuits against BitTorrent users last year, Wiley is the first book publisher to take this kind of action.

  • After Newzbin2 Win, MPA Takes Down Another Usenet Service

    Although the ink is barely dry on the order forcing ISP BT to block the Newzbin2 Usenet indexing site, the MPA isn’t wasting its momentum. Through its UK proxy the Federation Against Copyright Theft, Hollywood has taken another Usenet indexing site offline, and for its owner the situation doesn’t look good.

  • Macropathy vs. The Swarm

    The current fight between the old and the new — characterized by file sharing, the Arabian Spring, the Occupy swarm, the success of the Pirate Parties, etc — goes way beyond a few laws on the surface. It goes right down to the heart of our views on what kind of society we desire.

  • The Death Of Anti-Piracy Companies And Copyright Trolls

    The potential effects of both PROTECT IP and the E-PARASITES legislations have been the subject of intense speculation in recent times. One side insists they will damage piracy and little else, opponents say they will only succeed in killing the Internet. But there are other potential casualties in all this – the poor anti-piracy companies and their copyright troll allies.

  • Busted Pirate Movie Site Primed For Grand 1.5 Million Euro Rebirth

    An illicit streaming movie site that was busted during a massive anti-piracy operation earlier this year is set to surprise Hollywood with a grand comeback. Following the huge police operation to shutdown Kino.to, an agreement was reached to put the site into the hands of new owners. The secret deal, worth a cool 1.5 million euros, is in its final stages.

  • ISP Boss Brands Copyright Trolls “Scum”, Vows To Stop Them

    The chief executive of a leading Australian ISP says his company will almost certainly invest a huge sum of money to stop their customers being targeted by so-called copyright trolls. John Linton of Exetel has branded those attempting to blackmail his subscribers as “scum” and says that his company would almost certainly make changes to their systems to bring the trolls’ activities to an end.

  • MPAA Lists “Notorious” Pirate Sites To U.S. Government

    The MPAA has submitted a new list of “notorious websites” to the Office of the US Trade Representative, sites that are all in danger of becoming the target of planned U.S. legislation. The list contains the most-visited torrent sites including The Pirate Bay, file-hosting and linking sites such as MegaUpload, and Russia’s Facebook equivalent, VKontakte. Interestingly, file-hosting service RapidShare is absent from the filing.

  • BitTorrent and Netflix Dominate America’s Internet Traffic

    New data published by the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that on the average day Netflix and BitTorrent are responsible for 40 percent of all Internet traffic in North America. During peak hours Netflix accounts for a third of all download traffic, while BitTorrent is credited for nearly half of all upload traffic during the busiest time of the day.

  • Two More NinjaVideo Admins Plead Guilty

    Two more staffers from the now-defunct NinjaVideo streaming movie portal have pleaded guilty for their roles in helping to the run the site. Ninja’s uploader supervisor and the site’s so-called “head of security” both face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. An arrest warrant for a key uploader located in Greece has also been issued.

  • Finnish ISP Ordered To Block The Pirate Bay

    The Helsinki District Court has ordered the Finnish ISP Elisa to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The ISP has to block the domain names and IP-addresses of the world’s most-visited torrent site before the end of next month or face a 100,000 euro fine. Elisa described the court order as vague and ineffective, and has announced that it will appeal the decision.

  • UK ISP BT Given 14 Days To Block Newzbin2

    Following a High Court ruling in July, UK Internet service provider BT now has just 14 days to carry out a full subscriber access block of Usenet indexing site Newzbin2. While the ruling will be seen as a victory for the major Hollywood studios behind the action, BT will have to pick up the bill for enforcing the block. The blocking order is flexible in order to reduce the effect of any countermeasures employed by Newzbin2.

  • Pirate Bay Founders “Should Be Denied” Supreme Court Hearing

    Sweden’s Prosecutor General believes that the founders of The Pirate Bay have already had enough opportunities to prove their innocence. The defendants want to take their case all the way to the Supreme Court but the Prosecutor says that there is no reason to prolong proceedings. Site co-founder Peter Sunde tells TorrentFreak there are still complex issues to be dealt with and that the Supreme Court is the perfect venue.

  • Exposed Copyright Trolls Dump Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuits

    A few weeks ago TorrentFreak unraveled a tangled web of copyright trolls who had sued hundreds of BitTorrent users under the name MCGIP. The article revealed the tight connections between the various parties involved in the scheme and the mistakes they made. Interestingly enough, soon after these findings were published MCGIP dropped their lawsuits for reasons unknown.

  • Married BitTorrent Admins Charged in Billion Dollar Piracy Case

    After anti-piracy investigators somehow managed to obtain a full copy of their site logs several years ago, a married couple behind the now defunct Interfilm BitTorrent tracker have finally been charged for their role in running the site. The Moscow pair face claims they cost movie companies a staggering $1.25 billion. Fines and possible jail sentences of up to six years await them.

  • Government Concludes Investigation Following Anti-Piracy Data Breach

    The French authority responsible for ensuring that data privacy law is applied to the handling of personal data has concluded its investigation into anti-piracy company Trident Media Guard. Earlier this year vulnerabilities caused TMG’s site to leak private data linked to the country’s Hadopi “3 strikes” operations. But while the anti-piracy outfit has now been given a clean bill of health, the spotlight has now fallen on rightsholders.

  • Piracy and Copyright Challenges in 1841 Mirror Those of Today

    Technology has come a long way since 1841, but the copyright debate at the time was strikingly similar to what we’re witnessing today. 170 years ago a new copyright bill was being discussed in the United Kingdom, one that would extend the rights of book authors to sixty years after their death. While some favored the plan, some feared that this lengthy “copyright monopoly” would only succeed in increasing piracy,

  • Watch Out MAFIAA, Antibiotics Don’t Work On Viral Pirates

    PROTECT-IP, the Digital Economy Act, site blocking, domain seizures and 3 strikes regimes. The list of techniques used to thwart online file-sharing seems to grow every month. But how effective are they really? The overuse of these anti-piracy medications is breeding new strains of powerful file-sharers, resistant to even the most powerful of digital antibiotics.

  • German Pirate Party Riding the Wave of Success

    This week the German Pirate Party reached an impressive milestone as it hit double digits in the polls for the national elections. With one in ten Germans embracing the ideas of the young party, the Pirates are on course to gain serious influence in one of the world’s major political arenas.

  • The Pirate Bay Users Long for Anonymity

    New data from the largest ever survey among file-sharers shows that the majority of users on The Pirate Bay value their anonymity online, but only a relatively small group take measures to guarantee their privacy. The use of VPNs and proxies is most common among North American and African users, while people from Central and South America care the least about appearing anonymous online.

  • BitTorrent Throttling Internet Providers Exposed

    Data published by the Google-backed Measurement Lab gives a unique insight into the BitTorrent throttling practices of ISPs all over the world. It reveals that Comcast was slowing down nearly half of all BitTorrent traffic in the U.S. early 2008, but only 3% last year. In Canada, Rogers has the worst track record as it systematically throttles more than three-quarters of all BitTorrent traffic.

  • Security Flaw Links BitTorrent Users to Skype Accounts

    Researchers have uncovered a major security flaw which allows outsiders to link a Skype account to a user’s download activity on BitTorrent. The exploit works without the knowledge of the victims and also allows outsiders to see the travel patterns of Skype users. The vulnerability opens the door for scammers to blackmail or defraud Internet users, the researchers say, and thus far Skype has shown no interest in releasing a fix.

  • Free Justin Bieber! (Why Streaming Shouldn’t be a Felony)

    U.S. authorities have demanded the extradition of Justin Bieber, the Canadian singer who turned blatant copyright infringements into a profitable career. The teen star is accused of streaming unauthorized songs to millions of people without compensating the copyright holders and now faces a 5 year prison sentence.

  • ‘Copyright Trolls’ Unite to Prevent Downfall of BitTorrent Lawsuits

    A pivotal case that could mean the end of many mass-BitTorrent lawsuits is currently ongoing in a Virginia federal court. Labeling the pay-up-or-else scheme as a “shake down,” the judge wants to know why he should allow copyright holders to massively coerce people into paying huge cash settlements. Realizing the importance of the case, a fellow anti-piracy law firm has now joined in to protect its livelihood.

  • TVShack Admin Eyes Court Hearing After US Extradition Blow

    A judicial review of the extradition arrangements between the United States and United Kingdom has concluded that the procedures are not biased in favor of the United States. The announcement is not only bad news for alleged Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon but also for Richard O’Dywer, the former operator of the TVShack linking website. He is now pinning his hopes on a November court hearing.

  • Google Boots FrostWire From Android Market, But Why?

    Without any explanation Google has suspended the FrostWire file-sharing application from the Android market. The timing of the removal is both remarkable and unfortunate. Google’s decision follows the news that FrostWire had settled its dispute with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over privacy concerns.

  • File-Sharing Admins Jailed For Linking To Copyright Works

    The administrators of two file-sharing sites have been sentenced to fines and a year in jail for linking to copyright works. Breaking a long run of operators being acquitted for similar activities, a Spanish court decided that the act of linking constituted a for-profit “public communication”. The lawyer for one of the defendants has denounced the decision, saying that it can only be understood in “political terms”.

  • Google-Backed File-Sharing Empire Cancels NASDAQ IPO

    With more than 2 billion page views a month and nearly 300 million active users of its BitTorrent-powered download client, Xunlei is without doubt the largest player in the file-sharing space. In an attempt to capitalize on this position the Chinese company, which is partly owned by Google, set its sights on a NASDAQ listing. However, due to copyright concerns and economic headwinds, this plan has now been canceled.

  • Record-Breaking File-Sharing Trial Heard in Sweden

    Today, a court in Sweden has heard the case against a woman accused of sharing 45,000 music tracks online. Even in the home of The Pirate Bay the sheer scale is a record-breaker, and the prosecution has already hinted at a jail sentence. The defense, however, will be hoping for a much better outcome. Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge was there to see it all.

  • DRM Needs To Be Banned Because It’s Toxic

    With the European Greens’ adoption of the Pirate perspective on the copyright monopoly, I have received a few questions from entrepreneurs, the copyright industry lobby, and libertarians why we want to ban Digital Restrictions Management. It’s a good question that deserves a good answer.

  • Anti-Piracy Outfit Tries to Erase History

    Anti-piracy outfit AiPlex Software made the news last year when their boss was quoted in the press admitting that his company launched DDoS attacks against several torrent sites. This confession resulted in an avalanche of negative PR and several retributive attacks from Anonymous. Today, a year later, AiPlex are attempting to erase these events from history by asking bloggers to take down their reports.

  • High Court “Reserves Judgment” at Newzbin2 Blocking Hearing

    The parties were back in the High Court Friday in the continuing case of the MPA against UK ISP BT. The latter was previously ordered to block subscriber access to Usenet indexing site Newzbin2 on copyright infringement grounds, but yesterday an objection by a Newzbin2 and BT user was added into the mix. Question is, what effect will it have?

  • Jail Sentence for Pirate Bay Co-Founder Made Final

    The Stockholm District Court sentence against Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm was finalized today after he failed to appear at the Court of Appeal. Svartholm, also known as Anakata online, did not appear at the appeal trial last year because he was hospitalized in Cambodia and later went missing. The Court of Appeal has now decided to finalize the initial verdict of one year jail time and a fine of $1.1 million.

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