Archive for the ‘DRM and Other Evil’ Category

BitTorrent Rip Off Sites, and How to Avoid Them

BitTorrent is supposed to be hassle free, that’s why it’s so attractive right? Sadly, it is also used by by scammers to generate money, often through trickery and deception. Recently, a new ring of BitTorrent rip off sites has sprung up, this time related to movie codecs.

Cashing In on Naive BitTorrent Users

BitTorrent sites are overloaded with ads for malware ridden BitTorrent clients and paid tutorials that promise to quadruple your download speed. They try to lure naive users into downloading their products with catchy phrases such as “Breakthrough Information Will Have You Downloading Torrents Up To 475% Faster”. It’s time to take them down.

Lawyers For ‘Imposter’ P2P Software Threaten Open-Source Team

A company trying to pass itself off as vendors of the open-source file-sharing software Shareaza, has set the legal dogs on the real Shareaza forum. Discordia Ltd, who earlier turned Bearshare and iMesh into pay services, demanded action after a member of the real Shareaza forum suggested a DOS attack on the site.

The Pirate Bay Fights Danish ISP Block

The Pirate Bay has just launched jesperbay.org as a countermeasure to the Danish ISP block that was announced yesterday. The site is named after Jesper Bay, the head of the Danish IFPI and gives detailed instructions for affected customers on how to regain access to The Pirate Bay.

IFPI Forces Danish ISP to Block The Pirate Bay

The battle between the IFPI and the Pirate Bay continues. A Danish court ruled in favor of the IFPI, and ordered the Danish ISP “Tele2″ (DMT2-Tele2) to block all access to the popular BitTorrent tracker. The Pirate Bay, currently ranked 28th in the list of most visited sites in Denmark, is working on countermeasures.

Oscars Veteran Resigns Over DVD Screener Piracy Threat

Academy member: Sign this legal document. By breaking this seal you agree to our terms. If any unauthorized copies are traced back to you, you risk civil and criminal penalties. FBI. Prison. Interpol. A 17 year veteran of the Academy has had enough of being treated like a criminal. Enough is enough - he resigns.

Movie Industry: DRM Is For Customers, Not For Members

A DVD-player that has been designed to prevent DVD-screeners from leaking to the public will be phased out because industry insiders say the DRM hurts their viewing pleasure. It seems that DRM is fine when it’s annoying the public but unacceptable when it’s affecting them.

Shareaza.com Hijacked and Turned Into a Scam Site

Shareaza.com, the home of the hugely popular Shareaza multi-network sharing application, has been hijacked by scammers. Unsuspected visitors to the site will be completely unaware that they will be tricked into downloading something that isn’t Shareaza at all, but subscription-based malware infected software instead.

Behind The Scenes of the Swiss DMCA Fight

Whilst America is often considered by many to be the home of overreaching and overprotective copyright laws, the Swiss government has decided that it can do better, and so quietly passed a bill in an attempt to catch the US. However, the Swiss won’t accept such a law without a fight.