EliteBits Private BitTorrent Tracker Raided

enigmax
January 25, 2010
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EliteBits
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The private tracker EliteBits was raided on Friday. The site admin had a visit at his home by a court official accompanied by staff from a law firm who work for an anti-piracy group. They allegedly traced him via the bank account used to accept donations from members.

The administrator of the private EliteBits BitTorrent tracker has been explaining how he received some unwelcome visitors last week.

Known by his nickname ‘Laeborg’, the Denmark-based admin had a knock on his front door at 7:00am on Friday. There he was confronted by a man from the enforcement court, accompanied by three men from Johan Schlüter Advokatfirma, a law firm that works with Danish anti-piracy group, Antipiratgruppen.

After producing screenshots from EliteBits, information on the bank account used to collect site donations and a warrant, they explained that they had come to secure evidence to show Laeborg was involved in the illegal distribution of copyright works.

The man from the enforcement court contacted lawyer Benny Thomson to represent Laeborg, who was told not to use his phone on concerns he could use it to destroy evidence.

“The collection of evidence started when they asked me to turn on my computer which I did,” Laeborg explains. “They asked me to go to elitebits.org where they took screenshots of my profile and screenshots of the statusbar that says: “Welcome, Laeborg (Owner).”

They went on to take screenshots of all the staff profiles, the Top 10 downloaders, Top 50 uploaders and various other lists, including uploaded torrents.

A list of donors who contributed via bank transfer was discovered and screenshots of all their profiles were taken. Laeborg was informed that he had been traced via the bank account used to accept these donations from site members.

After taking screenshots of hashes and NFOs linked to a pair of torrent files, Laeborg was asked for the user database. He explained that he couldn’t provide it and they would need to speak to host Netdirekt.

Various “non-legal” CDs and DVDs were seized from Laeborg’s office for destruction, with an assurance that the contents wouldn’t be examined. The evidence was copied to a USB drive and the group left.

“My lawyer stayed and we talked the whole thing through,” Laeborg recalls. “I told him the basic concepts about the site. He says that they won’t have enough evidence to make me pay for the all the stuff shared, but it is possible that they will take down EliteBits.org.”

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ro-non

What a waste of law enforcement…
http://www.eZee.se www.eZee.se

Good luck mate, keep us updated…
Anonymous

Holy shit, they got SCREENSHOTS! Of a person, RUNNING his SITE!
Anonymous

“who was told not to use his phone on concerns he could use it to destroy evidence.”

What the fuck? How the fucking fuck is that even remotely possible?
annon

If I was an admin for one of these such sites, I’d have a special script written so that if theses bastards came and woke me up at 7am, when I logged in for them, the special script was run and the site transformed and any private data was rendered utterly useless.

but in any case, good to see that screen-shots are still being taken as “evidence”
Peter_Pan

Rotfl.

Next time encrypt your PC and do not give them the password.

There is NO excuse for what you did.
You are not ‘worthy’ to be an admin.
Anonymous

@annon

I’d have one of these….

http://www.community-credit.com/images/prizes/usb_nuke_button_1.jpg

Maybe one a little more discrete though.
AlienDK

Peter_Pan: Please go away, very far away. The admin has not done anything wrong. His users might have broke the law using his site. But if someone murders someone in my house, is it my fault? NO! Therefore I do not see why he would have to encrypt anything at all.
Anonymous

Hmmm k. This is why you use something like VNC to connect to a computer at a different location with all your admin stuff on it. That way they won’t know where it is or have access to it :)
Goug

Should have done the following in this exact order:

#1 closed the door in their faces.
#2 PGP formatted the drive.
#3 Opened the door and let them in for a cup of tea.
anonpirate

aren’t police supposed to be the ones enforcing the law, not lawyers that work for Antipiratgruppen which have no legal authority?
Trelew

Sad to see that corporations still abusing their power by the corruption of government and the legal powers that are attached to it.
anon

That is terrible, I hope they can recover. :)
Taff

I must agree with number 6, very lax security.

To all site admins reading this, encrypt your computers with something like Truecrypt !!!

http://www.truecrypt.org/
Dia

This is a surprisingly sensible raid. A court official comes with them, they take screenshots of important stuff while keeping the chain of custody and don’t confiscate stuff like sat navs while leaving CDs behind.
Dia

I would think that the warrant includes a decryption key if crypting is used. It’s not realistic to expect that if you have a pile of child porn in your safe and you tell the police that you won’t give them the key that they’ll just go away and never bother you again.
Surprised

Yeh, I’m surprised the way this guy acted. Well they come and he does what they want, like their slave – if the court didn’t order to do so, it was not legali necessary to do so. why didn’t his lawyer told him that?

Anyway, good luck!

And to all admins: not enly encrypt stuff, but build sites mades to be anonymous, with no logs of ip adresses…
enter8

One word.

Thermite.

Knock on door. Light fuse. If false alarm, cut fuse. Otherwise, let the thermite do it’s work and turn your hard drives into goo. No encryption, no password, no evidence.
Anonymous

@Dia

Courts in several countries have ruled that the police can’t demand you provide the decryption key because it is considered self-incrimination.
Anonymous

@ Surprised

IP logs are pretty much required in order to keep track of cheaters/duplicate accounts and account theft.
Anonymous

I do not know if the same is true in Denmark, but in the United States he would have been under no legal obligation to comply. To enter a person’s home here requires one or more law enforcement officers and a warrant to search the premises. As Denmark is a civilized nation, I would assume that similar protections exist.

The DVD confiscation seems extremely unreasonable. If they are not going to examine them, how can they know that there is any illegal content on them? I suppose by non-legal, they meant any created with a home DVD burner, since OBVIOUSLY only the film industry is allowed to use DVDs. This “raid” bears an odd similarity to petty theft.

His lack of security and compliance without protest seem odd as well. I wonder what actually is going on.
Anonymous

Stupid admin.

- encrypted hard drives
- no CDs (!) whatsoever
- killswitch for server/logs: easy, if you have the disks at your ISPs encrypted as well, just unmount
- don’t use your own bank accounts for stuff like that
- hidden backup server for whole site in a different country in case they take it down
- …

also, of course you can easily build a killswitch that activates by phone. connect a mobile phone to a PC somewhere; once it receives a call (or message) from your phone or area, unmount the encrypted disk. or give the killscript to a responsible friend. or your lawyer.

…
kiran_n444

@20
well you could hash all IPs into MD5.
Then you could cross check the MD5 hashes on all accounts to find duplicate accounts, cheaters,etc.

If you get my drift.

On Topic Now @least he didn’t get harassed like other admins lol. Good luck in the future.

-kirann444
Don

What a stupid admin… NoobBits :)
prodigydancer

@17 Jan 25, 2010 at 17:58 by Surprised
“I’m surprised the way this guy acted.”

Why? That’s your typical *closed* tracker admin – a coward.

And yes, I still dislike the way TPB founders acted when things turned ugly. But, to their credit, they’ve never been cowards.
Wolfy

“The man from the enforcement court contacted lawyer Benny Thomson”

First off where were the police? Court officials and lawyers have no authority to enter a premises at all, even with a warrant. Even with letting them in, this guy should have refused everything.
Plus the above statement. The guy from the court calls a lawyer. The only reason a court official could possibly be there is if he is on the prosecution side of the case. Why should the defendent accept any help from them? With the instructions the lawyer gave this guy, its obvious the lawyer was in cahoots with these guys. I mean, this is a 7am raid. What high profile lawyer is ready for business at 7am?
UK sweet guy

What a stupid admin… NoobBits :)
Anonymous

@6 Peter Pan

“here is NO excuse for what you did.
You are not ‘worthy’ to be an admin.”

Each time someone get victimized there is invariably some morons to blame the victim!

Why don’t you get your fat ass off your chair and do something about this instead?
Anonymous

Let’s kill all these corporate parasites.
BIOS

Well, he didn’t do anything wrong, so it’s not terrible that he let this happen. But, he should have exercised his rights to ignore them completely.
@25

As Obviously, criminals only work between 9am & 5pm
pwned

@26

I agree, the language of 6 was kinda rude. But honestly, it is so easy to use TrueCrypt to encrypt properly and even install a phantom OS for EXACTLY this case.

In the current persecution climate operators have to be concerned, for the sake of themselves and their users.

I’d assume that every serious tracker op takes appropriate precautions, if not, they’re reckless.

Good luck to Laeborg and his “top uploaders”.
neostyles

I guess private trackers aren’t untouchable either.
Anonymous

but guys haven’t you heared athority is ALL WAYS RIGHT…

yer, give a break who exactly do these buggers think they are

Adolf Hittler seriously i can not stand these illegal industry charities who think they can make the law.

But hey who is going to do something about it’s not like there letting are new elected pirate party member in are they ?

One thing you have to realise is that the western political system is just as corrupt as Robert Mugabe.

In short with out a fight its never going to change

and besides who say’s they own you ?

My self i run a two stage boatload for my encryption.

Don’t be disheartened guys were win slowly won’t be long till these buggers are out on there arse’s

I only hope that one day there brought to justice for there hate and human rights crimes.

Send them to gallows I say.

Good luck Laeborg.

I wouldn’t let there ss ass in myself.
whatever

“a visit at his home by a court official accompanied by staff from a law firm”
And he let them in?!? Afaik, even in Denmark, this is a civil case, so why?

To anyone in the Netherlands: Don’t ever let anyone in your home except a “gerechtsdeurwaarder”(bailiff) that says he has a right to (and make him explain that to you’. Even then you can refuse, it just means he has to come back with a “hulpofficier van justitie” (assistant DA, usually a cop doubling as one) at which point there’s not much point to refusing as they are allowed in without your approval.
And even then, simply deny entry to anyone else. At your request, the cop present will (probably) prevent them from breaking the law and entering.
Anonymous

i think we should make our own task force to fight these guys fight them back with there own filth.

I bet someone could find flaws in there warrants.
Sketch@1337x.org

I guess I’m a lil different in how i would handle it……since they didnt have an actual police officer with them im afraid id bash some bastards head in with a bat……and i dont give a fuck what happens after that. No one comes into my house uninvited, and i dont give a shit.
Norqueta Huff

This is obviously propaganda by the mafiaa.org friends. First there would be nothing to give as for everything would be crypt ed, computer would self wash, and everything goes through vpn. Also contents would be remotely backed up or remotely ran and possibly not even on own local machine.
Norqueta Huff

Various “non-legal” CDs and DVDs were seized from Laeborg’s office for destruction, with an assurance that the contents wouldn’t be examined. The evidence was copied to a USB drive and the group left.

Also this would be able to be stored with a webcam or hidden cam. I know not always possible but if any way, web cams have an one key record button so best to get the whole situation on video and release it via ed2k/kad & torrent. Heck might as well put it on vimeo after you can release it (right after raid). Basically nothing to give and/or nothing to provide = nothing against. I know my one touch record webcam is set just in case. Nevr can be too sure these days. http://www.shareplanet.co.uk
Jim

What an idiot for cooperating with these ‘authorities’. He should have refused to do anything they asked instead of rolling over like a gutless puke.

When ‘authorities’ come to your house, don’t let them in. Let them call the real police, and don’t let in non-police personnel like record-company lawyers.

This is why private trackers are stupid. What kind of an idiot would donate money to these places? They’re usually run by stupid kids that don’t know the law from a hole in the ground.
Anonymous

Here in America, when the police visit, they come to your house before 5AM, and they don’t knock. Don’t get out of bed too fast, or you might get pumped full of hot lead.

Denmark seems to have a much different system of law enforcement, where the police knock and ask, rather than smash and grab.
lol

@10 and 21 Didn’t you read it? They had a warrant. Closing a door in the face of someone who has a warrant means they can kick the door in and walk in anyway thats the whole point of getting a warrant….
MrFrans

“A list of donors who contributed via bank transfer was discovered and screenshots of all their profiles were taken. Laeborg was informed that he had been traced via the bank account used to accept these donations from site members.”

I would like to know more about this. Did have people directly transfer money to his bank account, or use paypal, or something else in the middle.?
Whatever

So it happens again in another so called civilized country (now even bankaccounts are tracked by lobbygroups?).

And why would any lobbygroup be qualified to collect any evidence. This is an unfair advantage to one side, which incidentally happens to be the side with the most cash. The admin should have the same right to raid the homes of all members of the antigruppen and affiliates for counter evidence. And order them to show all they’re hiding from the daylight.

And thats the next point: Even if it would be legal for them to collect anything at all why can they order the admin to help them get into the computer as there isn’t even an obligation to help the “real police”.
me

Well, that was a perfect foot shooting.

Note to wannabe p2p site admins: never, ever, under any circumstances accept money donations (or ads). From no one! It WILL be used against you in trials like in: “look, they did it for profit! OMG, criminals!” Of course it’s a crappy line, but that’s how the real (corrupt) world works.

This admin broke that basic rule here in file sharers’ land. Feeling sorry for him of course, but when you fight for the good cause of spreading knowledge and culture, you should under all circumstances keep clean and stay away from money transactions, at all costs.
Anonymous

Seriously he should have just microwaved his hard driver. All evidence gone in 10 seconds. Bingo
Whatever

@37
But then it is at least the police doing that or are there usually lobbygroups present and free to walk around the property while the police is waiting ?

@38
That is what i find strange. How does any private party/person get a warrent ? Maybe someone here should try to get one for a MAFIAA address. But i think they still need to wait for a police officer to kick the door.

Maybe not all the facts are known yet.
freeinternet

comment on Me:

I agree with this basic rule, but tell me then how are you going to pay for the hardware and the bandwidth needed to actually run the tracker?

I don’t think ISP’s or computer companies take apples or bananas for their payment.

unless you say that in order to be an p2p site admin, you must be wealthy enough to run the show from your own pocket at all times.
Yatti420

This assumes the warrant the enforcement peeps had was even legal.. They wouldn’t be entering my place of residence without my lawyer verifying that warrant.. Epic failure.. I hate to say it but it was lax security to say the least..
Unauthorized Content Consumer

@ 5 Jan 25, 2010 at 17:20 by annon

Now that is a f@cking amazing idea. I’m not sure why I never thought of that.

CREATE a panic/dummy account that when it is logged into the screen details everything innocent and nothing out of the ordinary but pretending to show Superuser control and all kinds if innocent information and statistics.

ALL THE WHILE in the background the real systems are using miltary-grade file deletions and all logs and select information is being wiped out. All of this could be going on invisibly while the investigators are over your shoulder.

OR ANOTHER great idea: Always only telnet/remote desktop/VPN to the host server computer that is located outside your justice systems jurisdiction. Create yourself a decoy Superuser account that pretends to show only innocent and fake stats.

Two very exciting, interesting and plausable ideas. Thanks guys.

One last thing though. Set up your systems to be backed up remotely at least once a week using torrent-style remotely networked systems just in case. Naturally evidence of this would be wiped too. That ought to do it. xD
John

I love all these US posters who assume that as the US is a “civilised country” all other “civilised countries” have the same laws and procedures. They don’t. Each country has its own legal tradition.
Random

@38

If any of those fools kicked his door in, he could sue them for trespassing and could have easily canceled their warrant out.

They aren’t police, therefore they have no authority to even come to his residence without some type of law enforcement present.

Lawyers can’t do shit with a search warrant besides giving it to the authorities. That’s like toilet paper to them.
Whatever

Completely offtopic:
Time for another Torrentfreak TV ?
(if waiting any longer there will be so much articles she won’t be able to breathe at all between words)
Reasoned Mind

It’s true that law enforcement would never be able to keep up if sites kept springing up day after day after day.

But it’s equally true how deeply satisfying it is to see someone who accepted donations and thereby profited from piracy to go down hard.

It’s one thing to fund your principles out of your own pocket, i.e. servers, bandwidth, webpages.

It’s something else entirely to collect cash for a clearly unlawful act, not even consistent with fundamental pirate values. I hope they lock him up and throw away the key.
neostyles

You can delay being caught by encrypting things and using anonymizing services, but you will eventually get caught. Your site is publically accessible, and if they can find out who is hosting it, they can figure out who you are. The FBI is the best at what they do and they eventually will catch you

What if he had used a different bank account? They would have noticed the transfers and been able to connect the dots.

Running from the law is a pointless fantasy.
Stevo

1) Running/Admin of a torrent site is NOT illegal (in most countries)

2) If you want donations to keep your site alive, set up an paypal account but do not link it to any of your own bank accounts… and ONLY use it to pay server costs – that way its harder to track it to you, and you have proof you don’t profit from it.

3) Use an Anonymizing VPN that keeps no logs (like IPREDator), along with having a dynamic IP Address. That way they have a very limited amount of time to collect information about you over the net… once your IP address changes (mine does every few days) the information they have collected is useless.
Think about it

@54 Jan 25, 2010 at 22:42 by Reasoned Mind

Congratulations on what seems to be your first non-troll post.

@55 Jan 25, 2010 at 23:04 by neostyles

Once again your illiteracy has made you fail to notice this was in Denmark.
Sean

He’s actually right. (apart from the fact that this is in Denmark and the FBI has no jurisdiction there)

You can get the owners info from the ISP, host, or registrar.

Not that hard.
Pirate Blackbeard

@55 obvious troll is obvious

You can anonymize most of your services and yes while most places keep your original ip addressee you signed up w/ getting a different provider and as most providers can’t keep logs (isp’s) lifetime retention anyways (extreme privacy violation) but tee were vpn encrypted everything anyway after orig ip changes logs get too old/deleted, you are virtually anonymous using an anonimizing service covering your whois info being hosted over vpn via remote client. Remote client is encrypted outside of current country client resides. Ok so siezed = notta. Anon Wins Btw F.b i sucks and Take your nwo with you
Kitty Gizzard

Don’t use paypal as they are not a registered bank and do not operate like one. They can seize/hold your funds with no oversite for an indefinite time (if they ever do decide to give your money back ). I have heard of many sites this happening to. Perhaps get yourself a chip.in account or research different accounts. Last thing you want is paypal keeping your funds and you being out cost/donations whatever because cartel wants to complain to them.
File Sharer

@55 Neostiles

Hey Neo Your buddies the C i a run the show and apparently they are the problem. Why ya trying to cover them up and talking about the f b. i ?

Ron Paul: The CIA Runs Everything
http://b it.ly/6jLQ5p
The CIA is Wall Streets finely honed tool for the neoliberal agenda of the banksters. A considerable proportion of the developed worlds prosperity rests on paying the lowest possible prices for the poor countries primary products and on exporting high-cost capital and finished goods to those countries. Continuation of this kind of prosperity requires continuation of the relative gap between developed and underdeveloped countries it means keeping poor people poor, former CIA agent Philip Agee wrote. Increasingly, the impoverished masses are understanding that the prosperity of the developed countries and of the privileged minorities in their own countries is founded on their poverty.

Speaking to an audience of like-minded libertarians at a Campaign for Liberty regional conference in Atlanta this past weekend, Ron Paul the Texas Republican said:

There’s been a coup, have you heard? It’s the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything, they run the military. They’re the ones who are over there lobbing missiles and bombs on countries. … And of course the CIA is every bit as secretive as the Federal Reserve. … And yet think of the harm they have done since they were established [after] World War II. They are a government unto themselves. They’re in businesses, in drug businesses, they take out dictators … We need to take out the CIA.
Paul’s comments, made last weekend, were met with a loud round of applause, but they didn’t gather attention until bloggers noticed a clip of the event at YouTube. Video is also on above url
copyleft

What a waste of tax payers money, when real criminals (murders, rapists, robbers, etc) are at large, you have them building a weak case against him.

It seems the man made law is made by the rich record labels and movie industry. They have to power to sway politicians to do their dirty work, make them change the law, etc. We all need to unite and end this corruption.

Alan Ellis was found innocent. Maybe the Danes should take notice.
gorehound

For every site taken we will rise up a hundred.And we will stop buying your movies or music new as we will buy all used.

and we will stay away from the theater and do something else instead.

Screw The RIAA & MPAA
Reasoned Mind’s Little Sister

There needs to be some kind of UNION or secret BBS for these guys so that they can learn the tricks!

It would seem that as nice as Laeborg is, he wasn’t keeping his head cool.

These guys need to know their rights where they live, and be one step ahead. Have an emergency plan for every possible scenario.

1) Kill-switch on home PC
2) Contingency plan via mobile phone “phone-a-friend”.

just for starters.
nightspydk

This is in my experience how our system works in a situation similar to this.
The authority in this paticular question, cannot force entry. Plaintif can deny entry as long as there are no law enforcement officers present. They will be called and a search warrant issued. This needs a signiture from either plaintiff or a judge. Nobody can force anybody to sign.
This part of the procedure can take along while before completion and in the meantime there is plenty of time to remove all traces.

If it’s the right thing to do is up to the individual.

There are many things about this I would like to think, I would have done differently had it been me and that bank statement. Well….

To stay anonomous on the www, that’s something a siteop should really know.

Some things one must learn the hard way.

All the best to all involved. :)

*I’m not a laywer.
Anonymous

@55

Obvious troll is obvious.
Dan

Why did he just give them evidence?
Matthew

What an invasion of privacy
Midarezaki

Read the article. They had a warrant.
Anonymous

Should of run the site server over vpn and through a TOR network. Unfortunately you can’t hide how much you uplink/downlink, but you can hide the activity your doing. And never keep CD’s/DVD’s. Much easier/quicker to destroy a few hard drives than a couple hundred discs. I always keep an ice-cream container with Hydrochloric acid in the cupboard, I have tested it before and it eats through the data on HDD platers in like 5 minutes. Cheap and easy, it would help if you kept the side loose/off your case for quick access.
TB

@ all the people screaming that he should have just encrypted his computer…

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/24/ripa_jfl/
sanddbox

Step 1) Manually enter a clause in the code that checks if a certain password is used. If it is, have the site display differently.

Step 2) ????

Step 3) Profit!

(As someone who’s fluent with PHP, this would be really easy to do)
Anonymous

LOL. Where are all the elites now claiming how safe private sites are? Maybe this shut up you retards. :)

I didn’t know data is soluble to acid. Good to know.

“Welcome, Laeborg (Owner).”

ROTFL. You shouldn’t set yourself up like that. Hahahaha!

“Therefore I do not see why he would have to encrypt anything at all.”

To protect his users, hello? (dumbass)

“Thermite.”

LOL

I guess the Top 10 downloaders, Top 50 uploaders can expect callers as well.

“I agree with this basic rule, but tell me then how are you going to pay for the hardware and the bandwidth needed to actually run the tracker?”

Get a job!!!
Brandon

You should never answer the door to ANY Goons. If they kicked in my door they would be getting a shotgun in the face. I doubt it will stand up in court anyway.
Anon

@72

Too easy to do it :P

if ($login['password'] == “real_pass”){
…..
}
elseif ($login['password'] == “fake_pass”) {
…..
}
Georgieboy

Most of you are don’t seem to get that this happened in Denmark, NOT in the US so US law does not apply.

In the UK for example, not turning over encryption keys can land you FIVE years in jail. However, goons and lawyers can’t just turn up, they need a warrant which can only be served by a police officer or you are within your rights to refuse entry. Bailiffs are different, some CAN enter your house with a court order, so maybe in Denmark things are different again.

True the site owner should have made things a LOT more difficult, encrypted VPN, encrypted servers, fake accounts etc.
Ben Ben

@71 TB
Scary days the ones we are living in.
The thermite idea even though not bad would probably get you into more trouble for burning holes through the building or lighting the whole building on fire.
I think I would go with the microwave oven idea previously mentioned. Keep backups of everything somewhere online or on a friends home server who lives in a different country and assuming you make enough from donations you can purchase new equipment.
But we shouldn’t have to hide. We should unite, inform more people of the outdated copyright laws and why they should be changed and then all together demand for the legislation to be changed.
Hans Pandeya

Bottom line is that the security to keep unwanted noses poking about was lacking to the point of being non exsistant. If your an Admin then take note, if your hang out the window with your ass then expect to get something inserted at some point.

Now, I must take a dump.
Jeff

Once again, the MAFIAA clowns fail to see that torrent sites do not host any infringing content. Maybe they facilitate it by providing files that tell where users may find parts of this content or that file, but nothing is actually hosted on the tracker site.

Also, I kind of tend to agree with RM’s comment about accepting donations effectively painting a target on one’s self for anti-piracy groups. I do think it’s a stretch to say he was profiting from piracy, especially if the donations only covered the costs of running the tracker.
Pingback: EliteBits chiuso e raid a casa dell’amministratore
Anonymous

Sieg heil! The media companies are the continuation of Hitler’s thousand year reich.
nrgz

why didn’t they use whois coz everything are exposed there, see;-
http://who.is/whois/elitebits.org/
Obedient

I JUST LEARNED SOMETHING NEW BY READING THIS ARTICLE!!!!
So it seems that it is possible to run those torrent sites anonymously!!!
Good luck to this poor fellow, who will probably run the same fate as Ellis. But this will be a lesson to all other tracker runners.
There is no way the MAFIAA can win in the long run.
pwned

@ the UK’ers,

that’s why you use TrueCrypt. It let’s you create an encrypted OS INSIDE another encrypted OS.

They will THINK you decrypted for them when in fact the ACTUAL stuff is hidden somewhere entirely different.

Depending on what password you use, the bootloader decides which OS to boot in.

Plausible deniability = Failsafe
Jimmy Bob

Not really sure why they waste time when sites like this only let people enjoy life.

EliteBits.org isn’t even that popular. It has an Alexa traffic rank of less than 100,000.

Wasted time. Wasted effort.
Me Pirate

@71 They just made the guy look crazy by probably placing all that crap he got cought & put him in a mental institution. He could have possibly been set up and if not wtf are you going to leave all that stuff around for he had anyways seriously he was asking for trouble by being so carefree. REgardless:

n his judgment, Judge Hetherington accepted JFL was no threat to national security and noted his outsider lifestyle. “You… wished to involve yourself in a world which was largely based upon the access to the internet and using computers and not really interacting with other people in the ordinary outside world to any great extent,” he said.

“It is said on your behalf that you lead an existence rather akin to that of a monk, and that there is nothing sinister in any of this but it is essentially private matters and you do not see why you should have to disclose anything to the authorities.”

During sentencing, the judge seemingly confirmed that NTAC staff had been unsuccessful in their attempts to crack the encrypted files – or had not bothered trying. “To this day no one really has any idea as to what is contained in that equipment,” he said. One file encrypted using software from the German firm Steganos was cracked, but investigators found only another PGP container.

“We needed to take powers so that we could de-encrypt commercially encrypted e-mails and other communications. Why? Because we knew that terrorists were going to use this.”

Ah set up just like the terrorist the cia and fbi train and set up. What about those airplain nu de scanners . Oh yeah Al Quieda is c i a and his new message is c i a & so basically gov’t is saying just tell us. f k u No fkn way get your own shi t.

I actually solute this guy in 71′s article for never giving away his keys althogh he was a dumb a ss for having all that stuff around he got cought with. Like I said, smells of a set up.
Me Pira te

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/22/naked-airport-scanne.html

Naked airport scanner catches cellphone, misses bomb components

They told us that we have to go through this thing because terrorist could potentially get on planes with ex plosives in their underwear. They tried to launch this thing before but many people didn’t like the privacy aspect to it. They figured that if they have a reason to justify it (set up detroit case) they could push it out as justification. I for one will not take it. So set people up (prob this story too) to push laws to punish the masses as scare tactics. People are not as dumb as you all think. On yeah those airport scanners can see a full color nu de photo of you which is easily stored and can be sent/received. So much for privacy.
pirate

@55 all you have to do is watch this documentary on bill clinton
to see how he sold out the usa to china.
its a must,if you have not seen it or question the ammount of CORRUPTION IN THE USA GOVERMENT.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-6107885031407830500#
Haha…

Not the smartest fella.
Once there is money involved it’s a whole different game.
If you don’t know how to play it, don’t try!
omfg

sorry but admin fail ! encrypted harddrive -> have fun police

by law you are not forced to actually help the police raiding your home/work etc they all have to do it on their own !
omfg

hm read some other comments to double post – sorry

but a.) (as i posted before) there is no law that you have to support the police .. you don’t even have to open the door (but they can do that themselfe by force so you probably want to open the door ;) )
b.) you don’t have to login, boot, show them anything on your computer, of course they will seize your computer BUT with a decent encryption they will fail to read any data from your harddisk but as i said before there is nothing they can do about that so encryption wuhu
c.) admins shouldn have warez somewhere except on encrypted hdds :)
d.) you are allowed to leave, or use your phone .. call a laywer damnit those peope can do anything if you say “yes” or do nothing .. just say hey i gotta go .. they can’t force you to stay and watch (unless they arrest you)
please .. some people that call themselfe admins are bloody kids who are intimidated as soon as some dude says legal bla and has a nice suite and shiny papers
Allison

@87 wow I am watching that video and the us is way corrupt its shocking. thanks for the vid
lol

some “admin”
now the “owner” of “EliteNovice” site.
why the f did you have to login for them?
not only you exposed yourself but your users too.
pathetic.
All lies

Laeborg house wasnt visited by anyone. The story has too many holes. He wanted a way out and what more spectacular way to go out than to say you were busted.
Anonymous

#8 AlienDK

It’s not like elitebits admin didnt know what was going on his tracker.
Lets skip this part ? it’s ridiculous.

I do very much agree that the Admin should have had secured his computer.
This is an outrage.
MD3

This is easy for you “machos” to say he was too obedient. Now suppose if it were you? People might have the most different reactions in a situation like this. But I also think he did not have to even let them in and also got a bad plan.

Anyway, like @15(Dia) said, this raid was very sensible indeed, unlike ANY other I’ve heard about, with no confiscation whatsoever (probably due to the fact they shouldn’t be able to even step in, in the first place.

I think the he won’t be liable for shit. Let’s hope for the best.
Pff

This guy is an idiot and coward. Utterly pathetic. Did he blow them while he was at it?
Anonymous

“well you could hash all IPs into MD5.
Then you could cross check the MD5 hashes on all accounts to find duplicate accounts, cheaters,etc.”

There are only 2^32 possible IPs. I don’t see how this would help. Reversing the hashing would be trivial.
shawners

@alienDK
First of all, thats not the right way to say things.. If you wanna go there, lets say this. You let two people in your home and you let one murder the other one. You didnt call authorities and you witnessed it which is making it your fault.

Site is based on creating a file sharing hub for all users to upload stuff. No user is ever punished or kicked out for uploading illegal stuff that they do not own. More or less their is loopholes in the laws so he may get free but it could take him a year or more to do so.
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Anonymous

i delete this site after i heard this news, bad site. :( and staff.
nkjzdsnkjvlcxz

what an enormous waste of time :P!!, i like pay for everythin with cash bcuz debit n credit cards r such a hassle n i dont make much ta begin with, good like mate
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????

@ 100
the fuck ?

@ story

idiot admin is idiot
????

@ 100

The F*ck?

@ Story

Idiot admin is idiot.
Quartz

What should have happened here is similar to what did happen but with some small changes to ensure the monopolistic media support group was not able to steal data by misusing the law, just what right do they have to steal a list of those who have donated to the costs of the tracker?

Have the donators been informed as required under Danish & EU law that their data has been obtained and is being processed by this anti consumer group and its lawyers ? I dont think so and thus they seem to have created the ground for a mistrial as illegally gathered or processed evidence is not acceptable to a court. What would be helpful to know here is just what scope the warrant gave. There is a massive difference between simple entry and illegal aquisition of data, once a data breach such as this has occured it would be prudent to inform the data protection commisioner and seek his aid in securing the privacy of those whose data has been obtained possibly outside the scope of a court order.

The law can be your friend too if you use it correctly.
lolzer

I would’ve been all “I can’t remember the passwords and I forgot how to recover/reset them!”
a pirate speaks!

dumb ass anti pirates stop bugging us pirates!
United Hackers Association

pay pal works
….honest
Lol

Just FYI legal precedence hasn’t yet been set on the whole “you can’t force me to give you the encryption key” argument. So for those people who are like “LOL TRUECRYPT” as if encrypting an entire torrent site while maintaining functionality is an easy task, I think you need to re-evaluate your position on that.

As for his home computer, he voluntarily logged into the site for them. Truecrypt wouldn’t do anything about that. From the sounds of it most of the damage was done from screenshots of stuff online, not on his personal machine.

Anyway if you pull the killswitch routine, especially after all the evidence they’ve gathered, it just assures the judge/jury of your guilt. It’s like if you kill someone then flee the country… sure maybe you aren’t around to question anymore but most people are going to assume you were the murderer.

The best solution is really VPNs and proxies out the ass so it’s a complete pain to sift through it all to your real IP. Donations are always a problem since most bank accounts are going to want your real info, but I’m sure there are some less scrupulous companies if you look hard enough.
United Hackers Association

even a landlord in canad ahas not the right to enter your room wihtout your permission

“you do not have permission to enter”
is all needs be said and as that one poster said htey have to get the proper people and in fact one hting you forgot that usually is needed is the reason aka a warrant

which is why warrant less search and seizure laws are extremely dangerous .

I could if i were in govt and you made me look bad just send over the cops and take your stuff with little to no oversight

think Canada is immune to stupidity though

here ya go guys somehting they want to make a terrorist act.

throwing a pie…..
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/01/26/nl-byrne-terrorism-012610.html
lol

if it aint police, it aint comin in..
Stoner

Thats harsh hope it all gets sorted. But why the fcuk did he enter is password, unless he had it saved on there. I Would never save my password for my admin accounts, If they asked me to enter the site I would just get it wrong, but tbh I would say i aint the admin, show me proof I am first lol. I have 3 others that know all server details and how to destroy the server in one command, You have to be a safe as possible in this world nowadays. Again good luck the the admin of this site.
133t

not a samrt admin, hdd should have been in true crypt, pp a/c should never be linked to a bank a/c which leads to your home , and worst using home ip to log onto yr site :O vnc , use shell , anything man but your home system :p

all the best anysways dude,
133t

@ 106 that is way the admins and mods mostly have 2 passes , one which is noraml user pass and other which logs into admin panel or mod panel, you if you are busted log via normal user pass, no sensible admin saves the pass to admin panel on p.c , thus your staff logs plus user ips are safe.
Whatever

@HD in microwave

I doubt it will work, might destroy the external electronics but the microwaves will probably not penetrate the metal case and leave the disk surfaces intact.

Don’t know if anyone who would have the time and the right tools ready to screw open the harddisk fast enough, break the disks into pieces (laptop disk) or taking out the disks themselves in one piece (which takes ages) and put it in the microwave oven. One might try to put in an opened harddisk but it might not wipe the bottom surfaces if it works at all.

If anyone has any proof that it actually works i would like to know.
hiro81

ITT: Internet tough guys who will never admin anything.
me

#97 Anonymous: “There are only 2^32 possible IPs. I don’t see how this would help. Reversing the hashing would be trivial.”

You’re right! All it takes is to compute a (rainbow?) map of all IP addresses to the hashes, and later lookup up the IP(s) in reverse. Should be doable with today’s computers.

That’s why one would usually combine the IP addresses with a secret key k, before hashing the pair (IP,k). Reversing this is not possible without knowing k.
pyro

This admin is completely useless.
Who the hell lets lawyers into their homes and do such shit without law enforcement officers? seriously, lawyers are not cops, what a complete idiot. really. You just shut the door in their faces and there is nothing they can do but wait for the police to arrive, until then, you got enough time to remove the crap they want from your computer. Fucking stupid, might as well let judges into your home and do whatever they like.
Hidden Volume

1. Lawyer knocks on door.
2. You is gentle and let him in
3. You has hidden volume on pc.
4. You types in passwords dat decrypt outer volumez
5. Lawyer says: you has hidden volumez!!!11
6. You say: No i hasn’t, and you has no proofs.
7. Laywer says: Oh… dat sux 4 me, eh?
8. You say: Yes it does, have nice day sir.
9. Win!
Shellos

So he had to log in to his account? Isn’t it the responsibility of the accuser to show evidence of illegal activity?

If they had a warrant to search and collect, that’s fine. But THEY search and THEY collect. You don’t log in and give them data. That’s THEIR responsibility.

Also like a lot of other posters said, GET A NUKE SCRIPT FOR THE SITE. Set up a complexly-named email account and have a short cut to email “BURN IT ALL” to that email address and voila! When they tell you to log in, there’s nothing there.
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anti-raid

Use “blueproximity”. put a mobile phone linked to bluetooth of one computer. When the phone is moved from its place, the bluetooth connction is cut and it unmounts the encrypted disk.
Or.. everytime the door bell rings, you have a script that starts a timer. If it’s not disabled in the next 3 minutes, it unmounts the encrypted disk.
And.. buy a big dog.
Anonymous

.torrent files are not copyright of the labels/studios/etc, in fact, they should be copyright of the individuals who made them… I wonder when someone will sue them for infringing the copyright of the individuals who made the .torrent files who only consented to distribute in the site?

The .torrent files are not their content, and tracking them has nothing to do with the content either. If they have a problem with people infringing, go after the peers themselves which each transfer a very small fragment of the content itself.

Creating .torrent files, distributing and tracking is not a copyright violation; unless your country accepts the dubious concept of “facilitate”.

Someone must put a stop to the lies that go in these corrupt courts; exploiting the absolute ignorance of the people involved.
lolwut

the game

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