TorrentFreak

Latest Posts

• Jail Terms For Unlocking Cellphones Shows The True Black Heart Of The Copyright Monopoly

  The discussion around people’s banished right to unlock their own cellphones has been framed as an unexpected and unanticipated effect of the copyright monopoly. To the contrary, it shows the heart of the monopoly’s philosophy: killing ownership as a concept.

• Reflections on Iceland’s Election of Pirate MPs

  They say that politics takes time. Yet, history doesn’t show any political movement spreading and succeeding as fast as the Pirate Party movement. Will it maintain its accelerated speed, or slow down to follow the tracks of history?

• The Copyright Monopoly Was Always Intended To Prevent Freedom Of Expression

  As I was explaining the need for copyright monopoly reform in Dublin this week, an elderly gentleman red-faced with rage exclaimed in the Q&A session that the copyright monopoly was absolutely crucial for freedom of expression. It surprises me that some monopolists still have things this backwards: the monopoly was always a gag on freedoms of speech and expression.

• Why It’s Important For Each Of Us To Explain And Keep Explaining The Net And Its Civil Liberties

  We’re all used to changing society over a weekend of coding. But changing the values of society takes much, much longer than that, and it requires all of us to keep patiently explaining what we understand to those who don’t. Here’s a primer on how.

• Who Protects Freedom Of Speech When It Isn’t Profitable To Do So?

  Over the past years, we have seen an all-out assault on the messenger immunity, forcing liability onto commercial distribution services for merely carrying a message. The net effect of this is a drastic and catastrophic abolition of the freedom of speech in the Internet.

• Motivating Yourself Every Day To Fight The Copyright Monopoly

  When working for reform or abolition of the copyright or patent monopolies, things can sometimes feel a bit uphill, even though the eventual abolition of these protectionist monopolies seems inevitable. To get energy for activism each day, it helps to understand the Overton Window.

• Why Do Copyright Monopolists Think They Can Just Take Somebody Else’s Work?

  Copyright monopolists insist on the idea of controlling the fruits of other people’s labor, such as when other people copy a particular file. This attitude is offensive, insulting, and antithetical to a free market.

• The 16th Century Religious Wars And Today’s Copyright Monopoly Wars Have More In Common Than You Think

  People in power have always tried to prevent the common folk from obtaining knowledge that threatens their power. This happened in the 16th century, and it is happening now.

• Copyright Monopoly Trends And Predictions For 2013

  2012 was, without a doubt, the most intense year to date in the fight for civil liberties and against the copyright monopoly. While much work remains to be done, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

NewsBits

Even more news...

• Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

  An anti-piracy system present in all official Blu-ray players since 2012 has received a fresh update...

• Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

  One of the main reasons why people turn to piracy is the lack of legal alternatives....

• UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

  Last year an Internet user known as El Nomeo leaked version 3.70 of Sony’s Playstation3 SDK...

• Pirates Can Be Identified Despite Sharing IP Addresses, ISP Claims

  Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation is a network mechanism through which many Internet subscribers can share the...

• Feds Seize Cash from Major Bitcoin Exchange’s Dwolla Account

  The U.S. Government has taken a significant action against the web’s top Bitcoin exchange by seizing...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

• Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun

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• McAfee Patents Technology to Detect and Block Pirated Content

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• Pirate Bay Finds Safe Haven in Iceland, Switches to .IS Domain

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• Game Pirates Whine About Piracy in Game Dev Simulator

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• The Pirate Bay Moves to .SX as Prosecutor Files Motion to Seize Domains

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PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.

• VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition

  More than a year ago TorrentFreak took a look at a selection of the web’s VPN...

• Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2013

  Continuing a long-standing New Year's tradition, today we present an up-to-date list of the world's most-visited...

• Which VPN Service Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously?

  Last month it became apparent that not all VPN providers live up to their marketing after...

• What’s The Best VPN / Proxy for BitTorrent?

  Privacy is important on the Internet, and BitTorrent users are certainly not excluded. Already, hundreds of...

• BTGuard Review: How Does it Work?

  With the entertainment industries lobbying for increased powers to spy on BitTorrent users, many downloaders are...

• Optimize Your BitTorrent Download Speed

  BitTorrent can be fun, as long as you get decent speeds. Not satisfied with your current...