uTorrent Relaunched as Official BitTorrent Client
BitTorrent Inc launched their rebranded version of uTorrent as BitTorrent 6.0. The good news is that uTorrent and its community will not be replaced. Not now, and not in the future.
OurArchives:
-
-
BitTorrent Sites Shut Down, Admins Arrested
In a renewed effort to put a halt to piracy, Spanish Police shut down two BitTorrent sites. Todotorrente.com and trackertdt.com were both taken offline and three administrators were arrested and accused of facilitating “copyright infringement”.
-
TorrentPod Episode 41
And yet another Podcast from Charlie, late as usual. Here’s TorrentPod episode 41, Enjoy!
-
Rock Star: I Feel I’m Going to Jail for Downloading Torrents
Some people admit to using BitTorrent to obtain the occasional movie. However, it’s very rare for a rock star to confess that they are serial movie and TV show downloader – and then worry that they are going to jail for it. We’re happy to put her mind at rest.
-
Uploader Slips Harry Potter Spoilers into “Evan Almighty” DVDrip
There have been Harry Potter spoilers popping up all over the web since the 7th book was leaked before its release. Some have shown up on websites, others in e-mail signatures. The most unexpected, though, are in a DVDrip of “Evan Almighty”.
-
Get into Private BitTorrent Sites with Tracker Checker 2
Constantly checking private trackers for open signups can be a drawn out task. Some open only briefly and by the time one gets a tipoff, all the places have gone and registrations are closed again. Tracker Checker 2 automatically checks chosen sites for open signups, getting you into those elusive private sites with a minimum of effort.
-
Massive Leak of Pre-Air TV Shows: Piracy or Promotion?
Several TV shows from the upcoming TV season have leaked to BitTorrent over the past week. Weeds, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chonicles, Pushing Daisies, Californication, Brotherhood and Dexter, to name a few. It makes you wonder, Is this the work of hardcore pirates or just a new form of promotion by the TV studios?
-
uTorrent Mobile UI Goes Live Tomorrow
An independently developed mobile user-interface for uTorrent, appropriately named uTorrent mUI, is going live tomorrow. Located at utorrentmui.com, the interface will allow you to remotely control your torrents from just about any mobile browser, including Opera Mini.
-
Anti-Piracy Outfit’s Business Model On Life-Support
Swiss anti-piracy outfit Logistep has been travelling around Europe, threatening and bullying P2P users in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and anywhere else where the courts will allow them to operate. File-sharers have had enough and now – at long last – so have the courts.
-
Filtering Torrents: The Pirate Bay vs. Torrentspy & Isohunt
Torrentspy and Isohunt announced that they will give content owners a “carte blanche” to remove torrents from their BitTorrent search engines last month. The perfect solution for content owners and site admins says Torrentspy – a nightmare according to The Pirate Bay.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk29)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Evan Almighty” tops the chart this week.
-
Mininova Launches SFW Video Site
The Mininova team launched Snotr, their very own video upload service today. The site focuses on funny and interesting video clips that are SFW (safe for work) – meaning no adult content, no extreme violence and no racism.
-
Critical BitTorrent Vulnerability Found in Opera Browser
The cross platform browser Opera has been discovered to contain another critical vulnerability affecting its BitTorrent engine, one which leaves it wide open for a malicious user to run arbitrary code, potentially taking remote control of the host machine.
-
MPAA Responds to Harry Potter Leak
MPAA CEO Dan Glickman was devastated by the leak of the last Harry Potter book. Ironically, the MPAA has been caught pirating others work more than once. So who’s the real pirate here?
-
Major Victory Within Reach For European File-Sharers
European file-sharers were given a huge legal boost today when the Advocate General to the European Court of Justice declared that EU law does not allow Internet Service Providers to be forced to reveal the personal details of people accused of file sharing.
-
Harry Potter Fans Transcribe Book from Photos
A group of Harry Potter fans are collectively typing out “Deathly Hallows”, the final episode in the Harry Potter series, from photographs leaked of each page in the book.
-
Hilarious Mininova Support E-mails
Our friend Niek who runs mininova posted a series of hilarious e-mails that he received from Mininova users. A sneak peek into the daily business of a BitTorrent site admin.
-
TorrentFreak Under Attack?
Our server took some terrible beats over the past few hours. Was it Harry Potter’s magic spell? Or perhaps our anti-piracy friends?
-
XBTIT: Bringing BitTorrent Tracker Ownership Within Reach
The decision to become an administrator of a BitTorrent tracker can be a difficult one. Even if one puts aside the issues surrounding legality in certain countries, to the inexperienced there’s a technical mountain to climb. Thanks to XBTIT team, the mountain has eased to a small incline, bringing tracker ownership within reach of BitTorrent enthusiasts.
-
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leaked to BitTorrent
The final book in the Harry Potter series has been leaked to BitTorrent. A torrent with photographs of each page of the American edition of “Deathly Hallows” has shown up on multiple torrent sites.
-
ZipTorrent Pollutes and Slows Down Popular Torrents
BitTorrent users are facing a new enemy. A BitTorrent client named ZipTorrent, allegedly created by our friends from the anti-piracy organization Media Defender, leeches bandwith and spreads useless data chunks.
-
Music Industry Gains Hollow Victory Over eDonkey Server
The German music industry has obtained a temporary injunction against the operator of an eDonkey server, ordering the site offline while it’s involved – even indirectly – in the unauthorized distribution of copyright music works.
-
Major Upgrades at Newzbin to Accommodate Massive Usenet Retention
After major Usenet provider Giganews announced that it would increase its data retention to a massive 200 days, the original nzb provider Newzbin invests heavily to maximize its usability.
-
TorrentPod Episode 40
It’s been a while but Charlie has finally returned. TorrentFreak was podcastless for more than three weeks but the wait has ended. Here’s TorrentPod episode 40, Enjoy!
-
“iTorrent”: A BitTorrent Client for your iPhone?
The possibility of file sharing whilst walking down the street is closer than you might think. Carrying a BitTorrent client in your pocket is getting closer, with the release of new high-powered communication tools, such as the much publicized Apple iPhone.
-
Media Defender Endorses TorrentFreak’s Great Work
TorrentFreak’s recent articles about Media Defender have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, surely proving beyond any doubt that they must be an incredibly popular company doing great things for the BitTorrent community. In recognition of our great work, Media Defender has re-directed its p2p.net domain to us, an action which has us bursting with pride.
-
uTorrent 1.7 Stable Finally Released
After months of hard work and nearly half a year after the release of their previous stable release uTorrent 1.7 finally sees the light. uTorrent 1.7 comes with several new features and some essential changes and big fixes.
-
Media Defender Buys P2P.net: Preparing for their Next Scam?
The infamous anti-piracy organization Media Defender recently bought the P2P.net domain. Currently P2P.net redirects to Google and at this point it is still unclear what their plans are for the domain. However, it is likely that they will use it for one of their pirate traps such a the fake video download service Miivi or the fake BitTorrent trackers they run.
-
Faster BitTorrent with New Opera Browser Build
Back in 2006, Opera Software announced that it had teamed up with BitTorrent Inc to include support for the BitTorrent protocol in its popular browser. With their latest build, users can expect greater performance and stability.
-
3rd Annual Fair Use Day Arrives
The 3rd annual Fair Use Day Is about to start, July 11 to be exact. A day to celebrate and learn about things is not new. There are similar days and even months for everything from “black history” to trees and even talking like a pirate, but it is not common for something that governments are attempting to legislate out of existence.
-
The Pirate Bay Interview (Video)
The BitLord show released a special episode in which they interview with Brokep from The Pirate Bay. Brokep talks about TPB’s contribution to the BitTorrent scene, their secret upcoming project, the new anonymous P2P protocol they are working on and much more.
-
uTorrent Mac vs. Azureus Mac
uTorrent will be available on the Mac very soon and two weeks ago we wrote an early review. Today we read that anonymous statistics show that uTorrent will be twice as fast as Azureus, but is this really the case?
-
Anti-DRM T-Shirt Design Contest: The Winners are…
DRM is doomed to fail. Unfortunately, the majority of the movie companies and record labels still think it’s the best way to “protect” their media. By wearing these shirts you can show them it’s not and that it only hinders honest customers.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk27)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Outlaw” tops the chart this week.
-
Mininova Enters List of 100 Most Popular Sites on the Internet
Mininova is the fist BitTorrent site to enter the list of 100 most visited sites on the Internet, joining sites like Google, Yahoo! and Digg. A great accomplishment proving that BitTorrent’s popularity and Mininova in particular continues to grow.
-
Media Defender to Spam P2P Networks With 16,000,000 Tracks from One Artist
Spam comes in many shapes and forms and today we have news that anti-piracy company Media Defender has hooked up with telecoms company Sprint and Atlantic Records to give away 16 million free tracks on P2P networks. However, don’t get too excited, its 16 million tracks from one artist.
-
UK Conservatives Plan to Extend Copyright
In a recent speech before the UK record industry, the head of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, pledged to increase copyright terms for music, as well as shift the focus for enforcing copyright onto the ISP, echoing the recent decision by a Belgian court.
-
The Pirate Bay Conspiracy
Swedish authorities and anti-piracy groups are taking extreme measures to shut down The Pirate Bay. Their latest trick is to use child pornography as a tool in their war on piracy. Ethical? No. Effective? Could be. Meet the people behind The Pirate Bay Conspiracy.
-
Swedish Police About to Shut Down The Pirate Bay (again)
With their ongoing failure to find evidence in The Pirate Bay server seizure fiasco, the Swedish Police now seem to be resorting to any methods they can to disrupt the activities of the popular torrent site. Their latest effort appears to be an attempt to block access to the site, at least by Swedish nationals, through putting the site on a child pornography blocklist
-
Top Cheap Russian AllofMP3 Alternatives
The Russian government has closed down AllofMP3 and those who are trying to access its sister site, MP3Sparks, or another replacement may be disappointed that the site also seems to have disappeared. But never fear, those Russians have plenty of alternatives. We take a look at some of them.
-
‘Transformers’ Movie-Cammer Facing Prison
Following the announcement of a fresh anti-piracy drive and new, aggressive legislation, a man has been caught using a camcorder to record the latest ‘Transformers’ movie and is now facing 6 months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
-
ISP Forced to Block and Filter Pirated Content on P2P Networks
A court in Belgium ruled that ISPs can be forced, and are obliged to, either block or filter copyright infringing content on P2P networks. Freedom of expression and privacy are not important in this regard. How exactly ISPs are supposed to block and filter copyrighted content remains a mystery.
-
The Pirate Bay Wants MediaDefender to Walk the Plank to Bankruptcy
The BitTorrent trackers sitting in the depths of The Pirate Bay are there for the benefit of the people, to help them distribute bandwidth intensive media worldwide at no cost. But when anti-piracy companies like Media Defender of MiiVi infamy abuse that service, it’s time to bring out the plank. They’re not welcome.
-
Anti-Piracy Gang Launches their own Video Download Site to Trap People
Media Defender, a notorious anti piracy gang working for the MPAA, RIAA and several independent media production companies, just launched their very own video upload service called “miivi.com”. The sole purpose of the site is to trap people into uploading copyrighted material, and bust them for doing so.
-
OiNK.me.uk is Dead, Long Live OiNK.cd
OiNK.me.uk is no more, the end of a legendary domain name was announced today. Due to “legal” issues with their domain registrar the popular private BitTorrent tracker decided to give up their domain name and move to OiNK.cd.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk26)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Pathfinder” tops the chart this week.
-
’24′ Uploader Facing Prison After Admitting Causing Fox $4m Losses
A Chicago man accused of causing Fox $4m in losses after uploading episodes of the hit show ’24′ to a YouTube style video hosting site, has pleaded guilty and now faces the prospect of 3 years in jail.
-
AllOfMP3 Shut Down by Russian Government
AllOfMp3, the popular online music store, has been shut down by the Russian government. Pressure from the United States, and a refusal to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO) convinced the Kremlin to take the website down for good.
-
OiNK is Alive! Learn How to Access
The hugely popular BitTorrent tracker OiNK.me.uk appears to be offline but it is in fact alive and well. OiNK is suffering from some annoying DNS issues, strangely enough their domain registrar decided to suspend the domain. The good news is that with a little tweak, it’s still possible to access the site. Read on.
-
Demonoid’s ISP to Appeal Against BREIN
Following on from reports this week that the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN had moved to take the Demonoid BitTorrent tracker offline, its host Leaseweb, is set to appeal last week’s decision to force it to reveal the customer’s details of the smaller BitTorrent site everlasting.nu.
-
Pirate Parties Prepare for the 2009 European Elections
“There is a far better than average chance that this is becoming the next global political movement, and I’m going to claim it already is the next big political movement.” Words to ponder, and strong words for the leader and founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, to start the off the keynote speech with at the Pirate Party conference Nextstep09.
-
BitTorrent Survival: The Way of the Hydra
As more and more people hear about BitTorrent, each day the major sites get bigger, with more and more visitors, members, seeds and peers. Mainstream awareness of P2P is driving this new surge but with copyright and law enforcement agencies clamping down hard, some are considering tactics for survival.
-
Anti-Piracy Organization Tries to Shut Down Demonoid
The Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN filed a subpoena against Demonoid’s ISP (Leaseweb) in which they demand that the site will be taken offline. It seems likely that Demonoid’s current downtime is not a hardware problem, they are probably moving to another ISP.
-
uTorrent for Mac is Coming: An Early Review
When BitTorrent Inc bought uTorrent, the most popular Windows BitTorrent client, they announced that they would begin porting it to both the Mac and Linux. They have. Here’s a preview of the “soon to be released” Mac version of uTorrent.
-
Windows Worm Uses BitTorrent to Propagate
A worm that infects Windows XP and, possibly, Vista is said to spread itself over IM applications, like AIM and Windows Live Messenger, and… BitTorrent. Security research firm Sophos says the worm uses “a social engineering scheme” to get people to unknowingly infect their computers with it.
-
Demonoid Offline For a Few Days
Last week, Demonoid’s ISP was forced to take a smaller BitTorrent site offline. So, when the Demonoid site failed to respond this morning, many expected the worst.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk25)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Shooter” tops the chart this week, again.
-
Throwing File-Sharers in Jail to Grab Headlines
To the casual file-sharer, the big headlines of people going to jail for engaging in their hobby may seem like terrifying stuff. Indeed, for the anti-piracy bodies, scaring file-sharers away from their activities is vital because after all, you can’t jail everyone, especially when laws don’t allow you to do so. So who has been jailed so far and more importantly, why?
-
FlixFlux: BitTorrent Site Includes Movie Trailers
FlixFlux is a relatively unknown BitTorrent site. The site focuses on movie releases and lists box office and DVD rental charts on the frontpage. Just recently FlixFlux added movie trailers to all the titles, pirate friendly, but something the MPAA probably won’t appreciate.
-
BitTorrent Sites Safe Haven Under Threat
Leaseweb, the ISP of some of the largest BitTorrent sites like Torrentspy, BTjunkie and Demonoid was forced to take down everlasting.nu, a relatively small BitTorrent site. The outcome of the lawsuit initiated by the Dutch anti-piracy outfit Brein could spell trouble for some of the key players in the BitTorrent landscape.
-
Mac OS X Leopard Leaked to BitTorrent
The latest version of the Macintosh operating system, version 10.5 Leopard, has appeared on torrent sites all over the web. Though a little late, the torrent comprises of the feature-complete beta release handed out to developers at WWDC ’07.
-
The Pirate Bay Launches Uncensored Image Hosting
BayImg, an uncensored image hosting service, is the latest side-project from The Pirate Bay folks. The main difference compared to other image hosting services is that they pretty much allow everything on there, freedom of speech above all.
-
O.J Simpson’s ‘Murder Confession’ Leaked to BitTorrent
In 2006 O.J Simpson announced he was releasing a book in which he would detail what would have happened, had he really committed the horrific murders of his ex-wife and her boyfriend in 1994. After public outrage, the book was shelved and 400,000 copies of the book were destroyed but now a digital version has been leaked to BitTorrent.
-
CBS Promotes BitTorrent Downloads
CBS links to .torrent files from several BitTorrent sites on the homepage of their reality show “Pirate Master“. Very useful if you missed the latest episode, but illegal in most countries since downloading the show is considered to be copyright infringement.
-
HTTP Traffic Overtakes P2P, Courtesy of YouTube
A recent study shows that YouTube is responsible for nearly 10% of all Internet traffic. As a result of the increased popularity of YouTube and other video streaming sites, HTTP traffic now generates more traffic than P2P, for the first time since 2002.
-
How to Stop Warez Pirates: Ask Them Nicely
Organizations such as the MPAA, RIAA and IFPI spend millions of dollars enforcing copyrights by getting people fined and even jailed for file-sharing. So when a small developer sees his work pirated on the internet, what can he do about it with his tiny resources? Easy. He emails the warez group, turns on the charm and asks them nicely to leave him alone in the future – and they agree!
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk24)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Shooter” tops the chart this week.
-
6 Ways to Download Torrents with your Web-Browser
Wouldn’t it be easier if people can download .torrent files with their web-browser? This is a question BitTorrent novices often the ask. Last year Opera was the first browser to add BitTorrent support, soon followed by BitFox, FireStorm, FoxTorrent, AllPeers, and Wyzo/FireTorrent. Here’s an overview of these applications and extensions that add BitTorrent support to your web-browser.
-
TorrentPod Episode 39
Here’s TorrentPod episode 39, Enjoy!
-
IFPI Board Member Threatens University Lecturer Over RIAA Criticism
Andrew Dubber is the Degree Leader for Music Industries at UCE Birmingham, in the UK. His blog has carried some criticism of the RIAA in the past, just as many sites do these days. But when Paul Birch of the IFPI, BPI and Revolver Records read some anti-RIAA comments, it resulted in an amazing exchange of emails between him and Mr Dubber. We have them here.
-
Deluge Torrent Client Aims to Thwart ISP Traffic Shaping
With the latest release of the Deluge BitTorrent client, Linux users wishing to counter the slow download speeds associated with ISP traffic shaping now have a viable alternative to Azureus, Ktorrent and Rtorrent.
-
Using BitTorrent to Generate Traffic to a Website
BitTorrent is an easy and free way to distribute your own material over the internet. A video tutorial is available which covers using BitComet along with The PirateBay to create and publish a torrent, start to finish and in simple terms that even a novice can understand.
-
Mininova Breaks 2 Billion Downloads Barrier
Mininova, one of the most popular BitTorrent search engines, experiences a massive growth in the first half of 2007, and today they served the 2 billionth .torrent download.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk23)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, ” Ghost Rider” tops the chart this week. The Last Run, a movie released in 2004, suddenly became very popular thanks to aXXo.
-
RIAA and MPAA Fund Anti-Piracy Politicians
Over the last month or two, we have seen congressional investigations started and bills proposed to deal with file sharing. Not surprisingly, these politicians receive a fair amount of money from the RIAA and MPAA. Doesn’t it make you wonder , Are these politicians for hire?
-
TorrentPod Episode 38
Charlie’s back with TorrentPod episode 38, Enjoy!
-
TorrentSpy Ordered By Federal Judge to Become MPAA Spy
TorrentSpy, one of the world’s largest torrent dump sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA.
-
Pirates Gather at First International Pirate Party Conference
The citizens of Vienna will be locking up their wenches, and breaking out the grog this weekend, as representatives of Pirate Parties from all over Europe descend upon Austria’s capital. The reason , the first ever International Pirate Party Conference.
-
The Pirate Bay Servers Remain in Custody
It has been more than a year now since the servers of The Pirate Bay were raided, but Prosecutor HÃ¥kan Roswall again managed to extend the custody by presenting some doubtful arguments to the district court. He, and his team of experts now have until October to find evidence against The Pirate Bay. Will they ever give up?
-
Wyzo: The BitTorrent Browser
Wyzo is a new web-browser with BitTorrent support built in. The browser is built on the Firefox core, and includes an advanced BitTorrent plug-in called “FireTorrent”, that works surprisingly well. FireTorrent is also available as a standalone add-on for Firefox.
-
Anti-Piracy Outfit to Spy On Usenet, Punish Legitimate Purchasers
It’s normal these days for anti-piracy companies to target P2P protocols and applications such as BitTorrent, LimeWire and eDonkey. Targeting the newsgroups or Usenet is fairly unusual but add that to the fact that one particular company isn’t going after pirates but the original content purchaser, this approach seems relatively unique.
-
Steal This Film II Needs Your Help
The second part of “Steal This Film” is currently in production. The documentary will cover the (r)evolution of piracy, and p2p in general. The filmmakers interviewed people like Bram Cohen, and admins from The Pirate Bay and Mininova, but they also want to hear from YOU! Get your 15 frames of fame, and upload your message to the RIAA and MPAA.
-
AllPeers Releases “P2P Firefox”
Allpeers, the “BitTorrent powered” Firefox extension just released version 0.60 which includes some major improvements and a FireFox bundle for people who don’t have the popular browser installed yet. With AllPeers you can easily share pictures, music, videos, and web pages with your friends within Firefox.
-
Anti-DRM T-Shirt Designs: Vote Now
We don’t like DRM, and we’re not the only one. Unfortunately, the majority of the movie companies and record labels still think it’s the best way to “protect” their music. Let us show them it’s not, it only hinders honest customers.
-
Man Uploads Episodes of ’24′, Faces 3 Years Jail
A man who uploaded four episodes of the hit series ’24′ to a YouTube-style video hosting site has been tracked down by the FBI and is now being threatened with 3 years in a federal prison.
-
Documentary: Good Copy Bad Copy
Good Copy Bad Copy is a great documentary discussing the current state of copyright, piracy and free culture. A .torrent can be downloaded over at The Pirate Bay, for free of course.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk22)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, ” Next” tops the chart this week.
-
IFPI claims piracy is ‘Made in China’
If you were to take press statements made by the anti-piracy lobbyists, everyone in South East Asia is busy camcording movies, working in ‘illicit replication factories’ or smuggling people across borders to sell counterfeit CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes. They’re also responsible for global warming, the fall of society in general, and most importantly, the drop in profits by the media companies.
-
Movie Chief: Pre-Release Piracy Makes No Impact on Box Office
The last time a workprint copy of a high profile movie hit the web, a BitTorrent site got shutdown by the FBI and several people went to jail. A US citizen caught seeding a pre-release movie faces 5 years in jail but according to the President of movie company Lions Gate, a jail sentence must be inappropriate. What level of devastating financial impact will be felt at the box office due to Hostel: Part 2 piracy? “Nothing meaningful” he says.
-
The Pirate Bay: One year After the Raid
Today it’s exactly one year since the controversial raid on The Pirate Bay. Unlike the MPAA would have wanted, TPB is still online, more popular than ever. Let’s look back at last years events.
-
ISPs Facilitate Filesharing according to the IFPI
ISPs facilitate the illegal swapping on copyrighted music on a grand scale according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). This is one of the 10 inconvenient truths about the music industry they published today. Most of the “truths” are simply not true of course, they are nothing more than cheap propaganda.
-
What’s the Weight of all the BitTorrents in the World?
Computers store data as 0′s and 1′s in their circuitry, utilizing voltages. Voltages have mass so all data held in this fashion everywhere on the planet actually adds up to weigh something in the physical world. So exactly how much does all the BitTorrent traffic in the world weigh? Give or take, 0.06 millionths of an ounce.
-
Anti-Piracy Group Flyers at Cannes Film-Festival
French antiP2P agency CoPeerRight has been distributing flyers to advertise their new services to film makers and executives at the Cannes Film Festival. Titled “Bytes Corrupted”, the company claims it can “protect your rights, before and after the digital piracy of your films.”
-
Pirates of the Internet: At Intellectual Property’s End
The ever controversial Pirate Bay is messing with Hollywood again. They’ve put up a new logo which links to pirated copies of the blockbuster movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”. To make it even more juicy, they are also selling a T-shirt with the logo on it in the new and improved Pirate shop.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk21)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Ghost Rider” tops the chart and “300″ ends up in 6th place.
-
I Didn’t Download it, My Router Got Hacked!
People accused of uploading the game ‘Dream Pinball’ who claim they are the victim of a hacker, are starting to get letters back from lawyers explaining what they should do next. Among other things, the lawyers are demanding that the accused demonstrate computer security skills in providing evidence detailing exactly how their equipment was exploited.
-
TorrentPod Episode 37
TorrentPod episode 37, Enjoy!
-
Multiple Police Raids Take Down BitTorrent Tracker
German police searched several locations this week in their efforts to close down a BitTorrent tracker they claim was involved in the distribution of movies and other copyrighted material, including a pre-released computer game.
-
Subscribe to TV Shows Using BitTorrent and TVNanny
TVNanny is a BitTorrent site specializing in the indexing of TV show torrents. Using a subscription based interface, it’s possible to automatically download your favorite TV show episodes to your PC, utilizing the RSS feature in your chosen torrent client.
-
New and Promising Torrent Sites
BitTorrent is the most widely used P2P protocol. New BitTorrent sites emerge regularly and we at TorrentFreak often get requests from people to write about their BitTorrent startups. Because it is nearly impossible to showcase all the new sites here on TorrentFreak, we decided to post a selection of some promising and / or innovative BitTorrent sites.
-
BitTorrent Malware Spreads to Media Players
When someone or something becomes a huge success, inevitably some people want a piece of that and try to cash in. The BitTorrent scene is no exception and in recent months we have reported on a raft of torrent clients hitting the internet, each installing malware on unsuspecting user’s PC’s. Sadly this disease is now spreading to their latest tool; malware-infected media players.
-
Tribler: A Next Generation BitTorrent Client?
The latest version of the “social” BitTorrent client Tribler integrates BitTorrent with YouTube while offering the best of both worlds: ease of use, browsing with thumbnails, HDTV quality, and Video on Demand support. The client uses an Amazon.com-like recommendation system to suggest what you might enjoy.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk20)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “The Messengers” tops the chart for the second week in a row.
-
Police Has No Evidence Against The Pirate Bay
It has been almost a year now since the controversial raid on The Pirate Bay. Recently, Prosecutor HÃ¥kan Roswall said that he was determined to press charges against the admins of The Pirate Bay. However, new information has leaked which shows that the Swedish police has nothing to give to the district attorney, and doesn’t have a strong case.
-
The Pirate Bay to Launch YouTube Competitor
There had been rumours abound about The Pirate Bay launching a streaming video site. It has now been confirmed by the TPB guys that they are in fact in the process of building a YouTube competitor.
-
TorrentPod Episode 36
Finally. TorrentPod episode 36!
-
Shining Light on the Warez Darknet: A Scene Insider Speaks
When a site publishes an article about the infamous world of digital pirates known as the ‘warez scene’, controversy is never far away. Some feel that the ‘Scene’ should be treated like ‘Fight Club‘ and never spoken about. Others are frustrated because they want the full story: How do you get in? Where is it? Who are they? How do they hide from the law? What do they offer? People told others about Fight Club, and we’re about to tell you about The Scene.
-
Despite Worldwide Search, RISCISO Warez Leader Escapes US Justice
Last year, Sean O’Toole was named by US authorities as the ring-leader of scene release group, RISCISO. After being ordered to appear in a Chicago court during February 2006 and facing 5 years in a US jail, a $250,000 fine plus a possible million-dollar restitution claim, O’Toole disappeared.
-
BitTorrent in Focus: TV-series are Hot
Almost 50% of all people using BitTorrent at any given point in time do this to download TV-series, while only 10% of the available torrents are TV related. People who download TV-shows also have one of the best share ratios, only Anime fanatics beat them.
-
Interview with a Warez Scene Releaser
They sit at the top of the piracy pyramid and inhabit shadowy areas of the internet, hidden behind encrypted connections. Hunted by law enforcement agencies worldwide, they’re the first suppliers of the latest movies, music and software. Getting any members of ‘The Scene’ to break cover is a difficult task, so getting an interview with a member is a rare event.
-
RIAA’s IP Gathering Techniques About to be Busted
RIAA’s shoddy data gathering techniques are unlawful and shouldn’t be used as legal evidence. This is what a Dutch court concluded based on the expert witness statement from Dr Johan Pouwelse, who is about to testify in the UMG v. Lindor case in the US.
-
Share Files and Chat with Friends, Safe and Secure
Alliance is a P2P application that allows you to share files and communicate with friends, family and colleagues, safe and secure. It is open source and works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The filesharing functionality is based on BitTorrent, and all chats and transfers are encrypted.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk19)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “The Messengers” tops the chart this week.
-
Video: Ashwin Navin on the History of BitTorrent
Ashwin Navin, CEO and President of BitTorrent Inc, talks a little about the history of BitTorrent, from its creation in 2001 by the unemployed engineer Bram Cohen, through to its strong position today in 2007.
-
Malicious BitTorrent Clients: New Coat of Paint, Same Bad Story
It seems that hardly a month goes by without another malicious BitTorrent client appearing for download, hoping to dupe inexperienced and unsuspecting file-sharers into installing malware. As new kid on the block ‘Get-Torrent’ hits the web, we scratch below the surface to find the same old malware and the same old story.
-
Booty Plundered from Pirate Bay is Useless
When you’re as infamous as The Pirate Bay, this inevitably leads to attention, not all of it positive. Unfortunately, the guys at the bay have had a run in with some undesirables who took copy of the site’s user database. However, prepared as ever for disaster recovery, The Pirate Bay crew had already taken measures to limit the value of this booty.
-
Share a Single Song on BitTorrent, eDonkey, Get Fined $400
In March we reported on an anti-piracy outfit and its legal partners taking action against UK file-sharers, having already done so against thousands in Germany. Now, thousands of Italian file-sharers have been issued with demands totaling over one million euros. The cost of sharing a single song in Italy? A cool 300 Euros.
-
Use BitTorrent in Germany, Get Your Internet Disconnected
The heads of the international recording industry have a nice suprise for BitTorrent users in Germany. If they get their way, anyone caught using torrents to obtain copyright material will have their internet connection disconnected by their ISP.
-
Jailed ‘Big Crook’ BitTorrent Pirate Appeals Again
Chan Nai-ming, the first man in the world to be sentenced to jail for using BitTorrent has taken a second appeal against his sentence to the highest Court in Hong Kong. Chan made his first appeal against his original sentence of three months in prison in 2006, but lost the case.
-
Pirate Bay Politics for Dummies
The Pirate Bay dismissed the rumor that they sympathsize with right-wing (or left-wing) political views. In fact, the only wings they treasure are their Phoenix wings. It looks like the anti-pirates have loaded their cannons, but so far The Pirate Bay has dodged their bullets, as they continue to sail on.
-
BitTorrent Chief: University Shirked its Responsibilities to Students
Ashwin Navin, president of BitTorrent Inc. has levelled some serious criticism towards Ohio University after it issued a blanket P2P ban on its campus network. Navin says the school has shown a serious lack of knowledge, has stifled innovation and demonstrated neglect as an educational establishment.
-
uTorrent’s Vista Sidebar Gadget
This new gadget for uTorrent allows you to monitor and handle your .torrent downloads from Vista’s sidebar. The gadget works in combination with the uTorrent WebUI, an extension that inspired many people to develop useful and innovative gadgets.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk18)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent, “Apocalypto” tops the chart this week.
-
The Pirate Bay Not Impressed by Announced Prosecution
In a public statement, Prosecutor HÃ¥kan Roswall made it clear that he intends to press charges against the admins of The Pirate Bay. Tobias Andersson from the Pirate Bay was not impressed by Roswalls statements, and said they will simply move to another country if they are outlawed in Sweden, without downtime!
-
Torrentbits.ro Raided by the Romanian Police
The popular Romanian BitTorrent tracker Torrentbits.ro was raided and the two admins of the site were placed under arrest. Torrentbits was founded little over a year ago but was already among the 200 most visited websites in Romania. Both admins are charged with copyright infringement and face up to 4 years in prison.
-
TorrentPod Episode 35, We Have a Guest
We have a guest on this weeks show. Lermy, one of the admins of the private BitTorrent tracker TorrentIt joins Charlie! TorrentIt was shut down by the Dutch anti-piracy organization Brein little over a year ago, but recently announced its return. Lermy and Charlie talk about the new and improved TorrentIt, and discuss the latest BitTorrent news.
-
BitTorrent Exploit Vulnerability Discovered in Latest Opera
Opera, the popular cross-platform web browser has a bug in its BitTorrent engine which leaves it vulnerable to an attack which renders its host machine unusable.
-
LimeWire Adds Ubuntu Support
The popular filesharing application LimeWire released Debian packages for Ubuntu. The latest LimeWire release is tested on Ubuntu Edgy and Kubuntu Edgy/Feisty, and both the free and pro versions are available for download.
-
Vigilante Group Threatens P2P Lawsuit Lawyer
In a bizarre twist, victims of the recent lawsuits against alleged P2P pirates appear to have formed a vigilante group and have their first target in their sights, a partner in the law firm Davenport Lyons. They don’t appear to have any demands but they do seem to want to cause lots of trouble for a certain Mr Miller – by using the internet to expose intimate details of his private life.
-
6th EliteTorrents Star-Wars Pre-Release Guilty Plea
Another uploader to the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement of a pre-commercial release work. Getting involved in the pre-release of Star-Wars Ep III could land him 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
-
Multiple Vulnerabilities Discovered in Ktorrent
Ktorrent, the popular open-source BitTorrent client for Linux has been discovered to contain multiple vulnerabilities which can result in a hacker remotely executing arbitrary code.
-
TV Broadcasters Experimenting with BitTorrent
The popularity of BitTorrent is still growing. Tomorrow a new version of the Tribler BitTorrent client will be released at a seminar of European TV bosses in Geneva. Tribler is a Bittorrent client which aims to grow into a Youtube-like solution for Internet TV with torrent recommendations, search capabilities without webservers, and friends. Currently the Tribler interface is still an ugly duck but they promise to do better later this month, and even have the BBC and the Germans at that party.
-
Protect Yourself from eDonkey Spy Servers
Connecting to a bad ed2k server can have some nasty consequences. They monitor your activities and report to anti-p2p outfits. They direct you to non-existent files, corrupted fakes and hide files which others genuinely want to share. Learn how to protect yourself.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk17)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” tops the chart this week.
-
Sealand Prefers Hacker to The Pirate Bay
The micronation Sealand is offering asylum to Gary McKinnon, a British hacker who’s facing extradition to the United States. Prince Michael Bates of Sealand apparently prefers hackers to pirates. Earlier this year he refused to sell its micronation to the Pirate Bay because this would upset his friends in Hollywood.
-
aXXo Torrents Exploited by Malware Peddlers
When someone becomes a success by earning the admiration of their peers, there will always be the ‘hangers on’ who want to share the spoils of success. For aXXo, the most popular DVD ripper on BitTorrent, it’s about people using his name to further their own, sinister aim: to install malware on as many file-sharers machines as possible.
-
Streaming and Downloading Torrents in Firefox
FoxTorrent is a BitTorrent extension for Firefox that makes it possible to download and stream torrents within Firefox. Last month we already reported the leak of an internal beta version, but today FoxTorrent 1.0 was officially released.
-
Company Cracks BitTorrent Protocol Encryption and Introduces Tracker Whitelists
The BitTorrent bandwidth battle continues. Ipoque, a German based company that specializes in developing bandwidth managing solutions for Universities and ISPs, announced today that their products are now able to detect and throttle encrypted BitTorrent traffic. In addition, they introduce the option to maintain a “whitelist” of legal BitTorrent trackers that are allowed on the monitored network. You could call it the PeerGuardian for ISPs.
-
TorrentPod Episode 34
It’s here already. TorrentPod episode 34, the official TorrentFreak podcast.
-
w3btorrent: A BitTorrent Client for your Web Server
w3btorrent is a full-featured but lightweight BitTorrent client designed to run off a Web Server. It is easy to configure, works without a database and supports WAP, so you can monitor your torrents on your mobile phone.
-
BitTorrent Pirates vs MPAA Ninjas
It’s probably the most famous hypothetical fist-fight in the history of the internet, so what better way to bring it up to date with events in the P2P world than to have our own fight? It’s an epic battle of good versus evil. So who will win? BitTorrent Pirates or MPAA Ninjas?
-
Anti-DRM T-Shirt Design Contest
Most of us would agree that DRM is doomed to fail. Unfortunately the Music and Movie Industry is not convinced yet, we still have to let them know that we (their consumers) are against DRM. What better way to do this than organizing an Anti-DRM T-Shirt contest? Spread the word, the winner gets $250.
-
The Pirate Bay: “It’s Coming!”
ThePirateBay’s brokep made a cryptic post on TPB’s blog a little over an hour ago. “It’s coming” he tells us. If that post was made on any other torrent site, you might get a little bit of interest but of course this is not ‘just another torrent site’. This is The Pirate Bay, the most infamous BitTorrent tracker on Planet Earth.
-
Using Adsense to Fight Malicious BitTorrent Clients
Torrent101, Torrentq and Bitroll are three malware supported BitTorrent clients which are heavily advertised on BitTorrent sites. They try to lure naive users into downloading these clients wiith catchy phrases like “We use unique technology to increase the download speed of your torrents”. We decided to turn the tables around and advertised with malware warnings on their websites.
-
Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk16)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. “The Hitcher” tops the chart this week.
-
TorrentPod Episode 33
A bit later than usual, but just as good. TorrentPod episode 33!
-
Extradited Warez Leader Pleads Guilty, Faces 10 Years in Prison
Hew Raymond Griffiths, the leader of the notorious warez group ‘DrinkorDie’ has plead guilty to “conspiracy to commit copyright infringement” and “criminal copyright infringement”. Griffiths, who already spend 3 years in an Australian prison fighting his extradition to the US, now faces 10 years in prison & a $500,000 fine.
-
Harry Potter BitTorrent Fake Upsets J.K. Rowling Fan
Getting a pre-release item via P2P can be an exciting experience for some file-sharers. Unfortunately, BitTorrent users hoping to snare a leaked copy of the final book in the Harry Potter series haven’t been getting quite what they’d hoped for.
-
Police Raid University, Dismantle P2P Network
Police in Poland have mounted an operation against a DirectConnect network situated within a university campus. Officers dismantled the operation following claims of students trading large quantities of unauthorized music, films and software.
-
Firestorm Adds BitTorrent Support to Firefox
Firestorm is a new Firefox extension that enables Firefox users to download and monitor .torrent files in their browser. Firestorm is being developed as part of a Senior Software Engineering project at Penn State University. The first Alpha release is expected to be released later today.
-
P2P Anti-Piracy System Defeated With 2 Clicks
eDonkey and BitTorrent users caught up in the latest Logistep anti-piracy sweep haven’t got much to smile about, facing threats, legal action and for many, accusations that are simply untrue. For those who would prefer not to have their privacy invaded by Logistep in the future, this anti-piracy cloud has a silver lining. Indications are, this system can be defeated.
-
Church Official Arrested in Piracy Crackdown
An Italian sacristan was arrested on the charge of downloading and distributing thousands of copyrighted movies and music albums. The man, who is in charge of the holy sacristy of the Naples’ main cathedral, is allegedly heading a large scale Piracy cartel.
-
EliteTorrents Uploader Faces 5 Years in Jail
A man from Columbus, Georgia has pleaded guilty to two felonies connected to the distribution of copyright works via the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker, which was shut down by the FBI in 2005. As a major uploader he faces 5 years in jail plus a $250,000 fine.
-
Generate 3D Worlds From Your P2P Traffic
There are many software packages out there for collecting data regarding how much you download or upload but most display the information in a functional but boring, spreadsheet-style layout. Wouldn’t it be much nicer for a piece of software to gather this data and allow you to visualize it by turning it into a 3D world on your desktop?
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk15)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. “Smokin’ Aces” tops the chart this week.
-
Do P2P Blocklists Keep you Safe?
Recent findings by researchers from the University of California, Riverside, show that 15% of the IPs people connect to on the Gnutella P2P network are blocked by blocklist applications such as PeerGuardian. Statistics like this do not prove anything about the effectiveness of these lists, however, according to an insider who worked for several anti-piracy organizations, blocklists significantly decrease the risk of getting caught by the MPAA or RIAA.
-
This is How We Catch You Downloading
All over Europe thousands of people are being threatened with court action for allegedly sharing games like Dream Pinball 3D on P2P networks. Now, documents obtained by TorrentFreak show details of the anti-piracy company’s techniques for identifying alleged file-sharers on the internet and the gathering of claimed ‘forensic quality’ evidence for use in court cases.
-
Automatically Transcode and Import Downloaded Videos to iTunes
iPodifier is a free application that automatically transcodes and imports TV-shows or other video files to iTunes. It works great in combination with BitTorrent. Download your favorite TV-show overnight, and it will be on your iPod when you wake up. It couldn’t be any easier.
-
TorrentPod Episode 32
Arrr, TorrentPod episode 32, Charlie’s back!
-
Piracy Investigators Infiltrate Private Torrent Sites
In March, TorrentFreak published an article which aimed to answer the question ‘Are Private BitTorrent Trackers Safe?’ Now, an internet piracy investigator has admitted that his organisation has successfully infiltrated private BitTorrent trackers and is actively collecting information.
-
Rogers Fights BitTorrent by Throttling All Encrypted Transfers
In its ongoing war against BitTorrent, Canadian ISP Rogers decided to throttle all encrypted traffic. ISPs and BitTorrent client developers are playing an ongoing cat-and-mouse game, but Rogers really crosses the line here. A very bold move, to say the least, which affects not only BitTorrent users, but everyone who is using encrypted transfers.
-
How To Use Usenet, A Beginners Guide
Usenet is considered to be the most “private” way to share files. In other words, no MPAA or RIAA watching your back. It is fast, has a lot of content, and it’s getting more popular, even though the technology is almost 30 years old. Time for an introduction.
-
Automate Your BitTorrent TV Downloads on OS X
Downloading your favorite TV show is much easier than it was a few years ago with the help of torrent indexing sites and great software. With the arrival of the open source TVShows application, the whole thing just got even easier.
-
Optimize Vista for BitTorrent, eMule, P2PTV
Expert file-sharers are well aware that XP SP2 limits incomplete connection attempts, potentially slowing down transfers. This situation has been addressed with various patches on XP but until now, users of Windows Vista would experience similar problems. Follow this guide to remove the limits and reduce potential bottle-necks.
-
ShareMonkey Helps People Buy Their Pirated Content
Sharemonkey is a new application that helps pirates in tracking down and purchasing the items they have downloaded on P2P networks. Sharemonkey has indexed more than 500,000 of the most shared mp3s and over 200,000 movies that are available on P2P networks, and it also works for games and books.
-
TorrentPod Episode ??
In case you were waiting for TorrentPod episode 32, Charlie is on a break and will return later this week. Or is he just busy with the Bitlord show?
-
RIAA Survey: The Sultans of Spin
Like most anti-piracy lobbying organizations, the RIAA knows how to “spin” things around. They protect the rights of a large group of record labels and distributors, and their ability to spin and their lawsuits are two of the most powerful weapons they have.
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk14)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. “Deja Vu” tops the chart this week.
-
Mininova Wins .com Domain, Takes Down Scammer
Mininova.org has won the transfer of the mininova.com domain in a dispute, and successfully put a scammer out of business. The .com scammer has been a thorn in the side of mininova for a long time. Thousands of people who signed up at mininova.com were charged money without ever receiving something in return.
-
RIAA vs Infant in Courtroom Drama
After targeting a 10 year old girl for a copyright infringement offense they claim was committed when she was just 7 years of age, the RIAA is now demanding that infants have a full understanding of copyright law.
-
Pirated TV-Shows Popular with Swedes
Two out of five of Swedes between the age of 16 and 30 watch pirated TV-shows regularly according to a recent report. The delay in airing compared to the US, and the convenience of watching a TV-show whenever you want are two of the main reasons why pirated TV-shows are so popular.
-
Verizon Bans P2P, Streaming Services and Online Gaming.
They say that the devil is in the detail and to always read the small print. Well, if your ISP happens to be Verizon and you’re on the EVDO Wireless Data Service, this is great advice. Read their Terms of Service and you will see; P2P is banned, as are streaming services such as YouTube. And the ‘Unlimited’ transfers you were paying for? Forget those too, 5gig a month is the limit.
-
Bitlord V2 Released, Now Supports eDonkey
After 2 years of silence the controversial Bitlord client just rolled out a new version which is not longer based on the BitComet core. The new Bitlord 2.0 Beta is “Vista ready” and one of the first BitTorrent clients to include eDonkey support, thereby allowing its users to download from both networks simultaneously.
-
MPAA’s Anti-Piracy Dogs, Great Publicity but Nothing Special
Lucky and Flo, the MPAA’s DVD sniffing dogs are currently on a promotional tour in Asia. Last week, in Malaysia around 1 Million discs were seized in a raid on an office building in Johor Baru, a city in the south of the country that neighbors Singapore. The roughly 16,000Kg (or about 35,250lb) of optical media was picked out by Lucky and Flo who are able to smell Lexan, a very smelly substance which is used in thousands of products. The collateral damage was not reported.
-
BitTorrent Inc. Introduces Ad-Supported Downloads
BitTorrent Inc. is experimenting with alternatives to paid downloads on their Entertainment Network, and is now experimenting with advertising supported downloads. Instead of paying for a download, BitTorrent’s customers now see ads before and after watching an episode.
-
Global War on Piracy Launched, PirateBay Gets Nukes
Several filesharing sites suffer a prolonged assault on their infrastructure, uTorrent.com is hijacked by the MPAA, several scene release blogs are under attack, and the RIAA started a new IP harvesting operation. In a direct response to these threats The Pirate Bay teamed up with North Korea, and armed their nukes.
-
aXXo’s Prayer
Most people are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer. Less known is the aXXo prayer, dedicated to the popular DVD ripper that goes by this name. Courtesy of “the_dwarfer”, who just started a new religion.
-
Company Collects Royalties but Can’t Find the Artists
SoundExchange is a company that collects royalties for thousands of artists. Many webcasters, satellite radio stations and other music services pay license fees to SoundExchange, enabling them to play the music of these artists. Sounds fair, but there is one problem: SoundExchange has trouble tracking down the artists, Kim Wilde, Wu-Tang-Clan, where are you?
-
You’re caught Downloading “Dream Pinball”, Settle Now or go Broke
Having outstayed its welcome in Germany, a company is bringing its legal strategy against file-sharers to the UK. Its first targets are 500 P2P users who illegally distributed a game according to the company, even though many of the victims never even heard of the game in question. All Filesharers receive a letter in which they are urged to settle the case for a relatively small sum of money. So who are the accusers and what quality of evidence do they hold?
-
TorrentScan.com Shut Down Due to DMCA Violation
The popular BitTorrent meta-search engine torrentscan.com was shutdown a few hours ago due to a DMCA violation. An absurd action because the site never linked to a single .torrent file, it just allowed you to search for torrent files on other BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova. So how on earth can it cause a DMCA violation?
-
TorrentPod Episode 31
TorrentPod episode 31 is out. Enjoy this week’s news!
-
LimeWire Most Installed P2P Application, BitTorrent Clients Runner up
Limewire is installed on nearly 20% of all Windows PCs and little over 15% of the PCs has a BitTorrent client on it. This is concluded in the digital media desktop report from Digital Music News.
-
DirectConnect Hub Shutdown By Police
Just two days after TorrentFreak reported that a clampdown on file-sharing in Italy was looming, reports suggest that police raids have closed down a major DirectConnect hub, netting equipment and the network’s major uploaders.
-
Are Private BitTorrent Trackers Safe?
There is a statement you’ll often see on p2p forums, and in IRC channels. It usually comes in a discussion about “getting caught” or “letters been sent” and it goes something like “the safest thing is to join a private site. The other oft-proposed solution, blocklists, has been discussed before. Are private sites any safer though?
-
Milwaukee says NO to RIAA
Recently, the University of Wisconsin (based in Madison, WI) announced that it would not forward on threatening letters from the RIAA to its students. Now, some of the other schools in the system are going along with it in what can only be seen as a setback to the recording industry’s thuggish policies.
-
Xtorrent 1.0 Review
Xtorrent, the highly anticipated BitTorrent client for the Mac, is finally out of beta with a shiny 1.0 release. Here’s our review of it.
-
The Human BitTorrent Swarm
Following the forced closure of some of Bulgaria’s most loved BitTorrent trackers, the file-sharing peers of Bulgaria have done the thing they do best : they organized a human BitTorrent swarm in Sophia – and hundreds joined it to protest against the government.
-
Italian P2P Crackdown Looming
After a Court ruled that downloading films, music or software is not criminal if done for no profit, the Italian Vice Prime Minister said that the government will no longer turn a blind eye and declared that there will be a crackdown on sites hosted in the country.
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk12)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. “Casino Royale” tops the chart this week.
-
LimeWire Defiant in Face of RIAA Pressure
Despite being ordered to Cease & Desist and then sued by the RIAA, LimeWire is refusing to cave in to industry pressure and is prepared for a long fight. Installed on an amazing one-fifth of desktops worldwide, LimeWire’s popularity has never been greater and in their battle against the RIAA, millions will be cheering them on.
-
Journalists Attacked Reporting on BitTorrent Case
As they stood outside the court waiting for the release of the administrator of Bulgaria’s largest BitTorrent site, waiting journalists were kicked and punched, not by some villains – but by official court security guards. Now it’s time for the head of court security to face the music.
-
TorrentPod Episode 30
TorrentPod episode 30, yeah 30! Enjoy this week’s news.
-
BitTorrent Inc. to Sell Girls Gone Wild Videos
When Bram Cohen was testing the BitTorrent protocol back in 2002, he used free porn to lure people into using BitTorrent. Five years later BitTorrent turned into a commercial venture, and it now charges their customers for downloading soft-porn clips of drunk teens showing off body parts. Times have changed.
-
Tracking a BitTorrent Swarm in Google Earth
Do you ever wonder where all the seeds and peers on your torrent come from, and what their houses look like? P2p-monitor.com developed a great tool to visualize a real life BitTorrent swarm in Google Earth.
-
Another Dutch Torrent Site Taken Down
Most of the world’s largest and most important BitTorrent trackers are situated in The Netherlands, so you would expect that if anyone would be a target of Dutch anti-piracy oufit BREIN, they would. Wrong. BREIN has a long record of ignoring the heavyweights and picking on the little guy. Their latest target is dsb-tracker.org, a tiny BitTorrent tracker few will have heard of.
-
RIAA: Worst Company in America 2007
After 15 punishing rounds of combat involving 32 of America’s most hated companies, 100,000 voters have spoken: More hated than Halliburton, more despised than Walmart, the RIAA has defeated all-comers to become the Worst Company in America 2007.
-
BitTorrent to Launch Advertising Supported TV-network
BitTorrent Inc. has plans to launch a free, ad-supported TV-network by the end of this year. It will hereby be in direct competition with Joost and online video services like YouTube. It is unsure if BitTorrent’s current partners like Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox will also make their content available for the BitTorrent TV-network.
-
Band Frontman Wants to Strangle File-Sharer
Maxïmo Park’s latest album was leaked onto BitTorrent, a full month ahead of its official launch. Now, band frontman Paul Smith has told the BBC that he’s remaining philosphical: he knows he can’t stop it but he still wants to strangle the file-sharer who pre-released the album.
-
Calculate Your Optimal BitTorrent Settings
Configuring your BitTorrent client is extremely important if you want to get the best out of BitTorrent. However, the settings pane of the average BitTorrent client might be a bit overwhelming, and some people just don’t know where to start. For novices, this BitTorrent settings calculator might come in handy.
-
Government Blocks Torrent Site, Citizens Protest
May 2006 saw the admin of one of Bulgaria’s largest BitTorrent trackers arrested by the police, accused of putting links to over 20 million copyright works on the internet. Despite the fact he has been released, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry has now ordered all ISP’s to block access to the torrent site.
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk11)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. Newcomer “Night at the Museum” tops the chart this week
-
P2P File-Sharing Ruins Physical Piracy Business
If the likes of the MPAA, RIAA and IFPI are to be believed, file-sharing is causing worldwide havok, costing billions of dollars and creating unemployment. It’s true that some people are feeling the P2P effect; they’re called ‘physical pirates’ and one of them says that file-sharing has ruined his business.
-
Is Piracy OK if the Property isn’t Intellectual?
It is doubtful that the term “intellectual property” is still applicable to the majority of the Hollywood productions, especially the intellectual part. So, is piracy still intellectual property theft if the property is not a product of the intellect? Great cartoon by Clay Bennett
-
TorrentPod Episode 29
TorrentPod episode 29! Enjoy this week’s news, great fun!
-
Calendar to Track TV Shows and TV Torrents
Lilx.net has a great Tv-calendar that makes it easy to check when the latest episode of your favorite TV-show is broadcasted. To make it even better, the calendar also links to the latest TV-torrents for every episode.
-
GreedyTorrent: The Deadly BitTorrent Sin
Maintaining a respectable ratio on a BitTorrent tracker can be a drawn-out task. The vast majority of users understand this, warm in the knowledge that whatever they upload helps their peers to download more quickly. Some users do not care about such things, and turn to ratio hacking applications like GreedyTorrent.
-
Limewire Breaks iTunes 7.1
An anonymous Apple insider has tipped off the Unofficial Apple Weblog that he believes the corrupted iTunes libraries they have been seeing recently are caused by a conflict between iTunes 7.1 and LimeWire.
-
SymTorrent: BitTorrent on Your Mobile
SymTorrent is a BitTorrent client for mobile devices that allows you to download torrents over WiFi, GPRS and UMTS. The free and open-source BitTorrent client is developed by Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
-
The Pirate Bay’s Torrents Quadruple in a Year
Like most other BitTorrent sites, The Pirate Bay has grown explosively over the last year. They are now tracking 500.000 .torrent files and almost 5 million peers, what makes them by far the most popular BitTorrent tracker. In comparison, a year ago they tracked only 125.000 torrents.
-
Interview: aXXo, The Most Popular DVD Ripper on BitTorrent
In real life, aXXo is probably just an average person, but on the Internet he’s a celebrity, with over a million people downloading his DVDrips every month. The search term “aXXo” is among the top searches on every torrent site, and even anti-piracy organizations use his name to trap people into downloading fake torrents. We had the chance to ask him a few questions, and find out a little more about him.
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk10)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. Newcomer “Blood Diamond” tops the chart this week
-
MPAA’s Aggressive Anti-Piracy Propaganda
The MPAA is very active in recruiting America’s youth for their war on piracy. The deadline for the their anti-piracy propaganda contest just passed. SIFE Students from all over America spent weeks filming mind numbing anti-piracy PSAs, resulting in some really bad, but hilarious clips.
-
TorrentPod Episode 28
TorrentPod episode 28! Enjoy this week’s news.
-
Meet EZTV, The Leading TV-torrent Distribution Group
EZTV has been the leading TV-torrent distribution group for over a year now. They collect and distribute the TV-torrents, that find their way to millions of people every week. Time to have a chat with one of the EZTV crew members, to find out a little more about them.
-
University Bans BitTorrent Sites
While students at universities in the US are pressured by the RIAA, Cardiff University citing pressure from increasing numbers of copyright infringement notices, has taken out a blunt instrument and banned it’s students from accessing some of the world’s largest BitTorrent sites, regardless of the legitimate content they contain.
-
DRM Killing BitTorrent.com Video Store
The BitTorrent Video Store that was launched less than two weeks ago is facing some serious DRM issues. It is virtually impossible to play a great deal of the Movies and TV-shows they sell on computers that have a graphics driver older than 20 months.
-
AllPeers Goes Open Source
Allpeers is a P2P extension for Firefox that allows you to share pictures, music, and movies via BitTorrent. There’s no interface to download “normal” torrents yet, but this may change now AllPeers decoded to go open-source.
-
P2P Projects Dominate SourceForge Top10
We all know how popular file-sharing has become but with six file-sharing applications occupying the first six places in SourceForge’s Top 10 All-Time Downloads, surely the people have spoken. We love sharing files and we enjoy – no, we demand – Open Source!
-
RIAA’s Online Settlement Receipt: Thanks for your Money
P2Plawsuits.com now offers an easy 4-step process to hand over your money to the RIAA. This is the confirmation message that an anonymous blogger received after paying 3,456.23 to the RIAA.
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk09)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. Oscar winner “The Departed” tops the chart this week
-
Piracy Documentary: On Piracy & the Future of Media
“On Piracy” is a detailed and insightful documentary about picacy, DRM, copyright law, and digital media, with views from both sides of the fence. And the good thing is, the DVD can be downloaded for free.
-
9 Classic Educational Films about Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol
What we all should know about Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol. Educational clips from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Times have changed, or have they? The films are all in the public domain, and can be downloaded over BitTorrent, or from archive.org.
-
FoxTorrent: Another BitTorrent Firefox Extension
FoxTorrent is a BitTorrent extension for Firefox, developed by the Silicon Valley based company RedSwoosh. The extension makes it possible to download .torrent files in Firefox, and integrates BitTorrent downloads with Swoosh links.
-
TorrentPod Episode 27
TorrentPod episode 27! Enjoy this week’s news.
-
TV Wars: BitTorrent to the Rescue
Millions of UK viewers who have already paid for access to shows such as Lost, 24 and Battlestar Galactica are now facing blank television screens because of a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB. They now face a stark choice: miss the shows they love so much, or download them via BitTorrent.
-
Bizarre Virus Threatens to Kill File-Sharers
A strange virus which taunts file-sharers and threatens to report them to the police and even kill them, is being distributed on the Winny network.
-
MPAA: We Were Only Testing Forest Blog
The MPAA have responded to the claims that they illegally used Patrick Robin’s blogging software. They say they were only testing it, and that the blog was “never advertised to the public in any way”. I wonder what would happen if a filesharer said he was just “testing” a movie.
-
Top 20 Less Known BitTorrent Sites
We all know about mininova, The Pirate Bay and Torrentz, but what few know is that there are a host of less known torrent sites that also have some great, and sometimes rare, content. Here are 20 of these less known torrent sites.
-
Discover and Download Free Music Albums with The Spiral
Jamendo just added a great new feature to their site that makes it easier to discover new music from their collection of over 2500 free music albums. It’s like a remix of the Digg Swarm and Pandora, incuding free BitTorrent downloads.
-
BitTorrent Oscars: Pan’s Labyrinth Big Winner
The absolute winner of the OscarTorrent night 2007 is Pan’s Labyrinth with 6 Oscars, including the Oscar for best foreign language film. Blood Diamond is runner up with 3 Oscars. An Inconvenient Truth, The Departed, and Children of Men were all rewarded with 2 Oscars, and Marty Scorsese got his first award from the pirates.
-
The Corporate Enemies of Filesharers
If they aren’t shutting down your favourite torrent site and sending you infringement notices they’re filling your network with fakes, sueing you and invading your privacy. So who are the enemies of P2P and what are they doing to ruin your file-sharing experience? If you share files, it’s time to meet your nemesis.
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk08)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. Casino Royale tops the chart this week
-
TorrentPod Episode 26
Here’s TorrentPod episode 26! Enjoy.
-
BitTorrent.com Launches Video Store
BitTorrent Inc has released the final details of their long awaited video store. The store itself will go live this Monday, and will offer movie rentals at $2.99 – $3.99, and “download to own” TV shows and music videos for $1.99. The “BitTorrent Entertainment Network” will start off with 5000+ titles in their collection, including movies such as Superman Returns and An Inconvenient Truth, and the popular TV show 24.
-
BitFox Adds BitTorrent Support to Firefox
BitFox is a Firefox extension that aims to make downloading torrents “as simple as downloading a file over a HTTP or FTP connection.” Still under development, BitFox is expected to offer the kind of BitTorrent integration Opera currently has.
-
Man Faces Jail for Uploading Oscar Screener
A man who obtained a DVD Screener movie from his sister – an active Oscars voter – and uploaded it onto the internet has been charged with criminal copyright infringement and is facing the prospect of 3 years in jail.
-
The Pirate Bay Servers Stay in Sweden
A little over a month ago the Pirate Bay crew announced that they were planning to buy Sealand, a micronation located just a couple of miles off the UK coast. Many assumed that this was an attempt to move their servers in order to circumvent copyright laws, but it now seems that this never was the plan.
-
SXSW 2007 Embraces BitTorrent: Over 700 Free MP3s
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference is one of the biggest and most popular music festivals in the United States. For the third year in a row now, SXSW released a DRM-less collection of songs that can be downloaded for free with your favorite BitTorrent client.
-
Warez Leader Faces 10 Years in Jail
After spending nearly 3 years in a detention center fighting his extradition from Australia, a leader of notorious warez group ‘DrinkorDie’ was yesterday arraigned before a U.S. District Court to face charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of actual criminal copyright infringement. If found guilty he faces 10 years in jail & a $500,000 fine.
-
MonoTorrent Beta 2 Released
Google’s Summer of Code produces something fantastic each year. Last year, a developer created a set of BitTorrent client libraries using Mono and C# called BitSharp, which was later renamed MonoTorrent. It has just received a major update.
-
BitTorrent Most Popular in Australia
A web traffic analysis shows that BitTorrent is popular among Australians, more popular than in every other country in the world. Australia is followed by Romania and Greece, the US ranks 12th
-
The First BitTorrent
Sure, Bram Cohen wrote it up, but the idea of chopping up stuff, and putting it back together is not that revolutionary. This one is a leecher though.
-
Integrating BitTorrent in Vista Media Centre
A new project by the name of Aufero integrates BitTorrent in the Windows Vista Media Centre. According to the unnamed developer, Aufero is an attempt to bring BitTorrent content to your living room sofa.
-
Sweden: A Safe Haven for Pirates
Sweden is considered to be a safe haven for Pirates, and received a special mention in the piracy report that was published this week by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA).
-
Mosts Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk07)
The 10 most downloaded DVDrips on BitTorrent this week. Casino Royale tops the chart this week
-
MPAA Steals Code, Violates Linkware License
A blogger who wrote his own blogging engine called Forest Blog recently noticed that none other than the MPAA was using his work, and had completely violated his linkware license by removing all links back to the Forest Blog site, and had not credited him in any way.
-
ISP: Minimize Your BitTorrent Upload Speed!
Canadian ISP Shaw advises its customers to minimize their upload speed (set it to 1 Kb/s) to prevent their connections from slowing down. Sure, this way BitTorrent traffic will not be likely to interfere with your Internet browsing, but it will also take ages to download something off BitTorrent.
-
TorrentPod Episode 25
Here’s TorrentPod episode 25!
-
Subscribe to TV Shows with Torrent Episode Downloader
Torrent Episode Downloader, or Ted, is a cross-platform Java application that lets you easily subscribe to TV shows. It gives you a list of shows that are currently popular on BitTorrent networks, and automatically downloads the latest episodes of the shows you choose.
-
uTorrent 1.6.1 Released
A long awaited new version of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent has been released today. The new release includes a fix for the remote exploit vulnerability that was discovered recently.
- June 2013 (54)
- May 2013 (100)
- April 2013 (92)
- March 2013 (78)
- February 2013 (69)
- January 2013 (78)
- December 2012 (77)
- November 2012 (73)
- October 2012 (75)
- September 2012 (66)
- August 2012 (86)
- July 2012 (81)
- June 2012 (89)
- May 2012 (101)
- April 2012 (104)
- March 2012 (88)
- February 2012 (87)
- January 2012 (122)
- December 2011 (82)
- November 2011 (89)
- October 2011 (85)
- September 2011 (94)
- August 2011 (96)
- July 2011 (90)
- June 2011 (100)
- May 2011 (113)
- April 2011 (118)
- March 2011 (95)
- February 2011 (97)
- January 2011 (119)
- December 2010 (66)
- November 2010 (62)
- October 2010 (63)
- September 2010 (64)
- August 2010 (65)
- July 2010 (62)
- June 2010 (60)
- May 2010 (66)
- April 2010 (62)
- March 2010 (60)
- February 2010 (61)
- January 2010 (61)
- December 2009 (71)
- November 2009 (68)
- October 2009 (72)
- September 2009 (67)
- August 2009 (74)
- July 2009 (71)
- June 2009 (73)
- May 2009 (78)
- April 2009 (73)
- March 2009 (73)
- February 2009 (65)
- January 2009 (66)
- December 2008 (66)
- November 2008 (59)
- October 2008 (62)
- September 2008 (63)
- August 2008 (57)
- July 2008 (60)
- June 2008 (50)
- May 2008 (47)
- April 2008 (53)
- March 2008 (60)
- February 2008 (50)
- January 2008 (60)
- December 2007 (55)
- November 2007 (58)
- October 2007 (54)
- September 2007 (41)
- August 2007 (47)
- July 2007 (55)
- June 2007 (40)
- May 2007 (43)
- April 2007 (44)
- March 2007 (50)
- February 2007 (43)
- January 2007 (48)
- December 2006 (55)
- November 2006 (50)
- October 2006 (59)
- September 2006 (56)
- August 2006 (70)
- July 2006 (38)
- June 2006 (53)
- May 2006 (39)
- April 2006 (36)
- March 2006 (44)
- February 2006 (27)
- January 2006 (31)
- December 2005 (39)
- November 2005 (25)
