A few moments ago KickassTorrents disappeared from the Internet prompting the usual flurry of worried emails. While these instances of downtime are usually down to minor technical issues that tend to sort themselves out, there are signs that something a little more serious might be underway. Details are sketchy but at the moment it appears that the site’s KAT.ph domain is being replaced with a new one, KickAss.to.
France is seen as the pioneer of so-called “three strikes” anti-piracy legislation, in which repeated file-sharing offenders are disconnected from the Internet. This week, following the issuing of millions of warning notices, the law has finally resulted in the first disconnection. The news comes as somewhat of a surprise since the Hadopi regime is set to be scrapped after doing little to stop online piracy.
Following the high-profile raid on his New Zealand mansion in 2012, Kim Dotcom released dramatic film of the event taken from police helicopters. Now the Megaupload founder is back with new footage captured by his own in-house CCTV system. Among other events, the new material shows police carrying machine guns fitted with silencers, arrests of staff and the towing of his cars. Dotcom’s sense of humor still shines through though, with an ending fit for a Hollywood blockbuster.
Some of the world’s largest book publishers are going after two prolific Usenet uploaders. The publishers have obtained subpoenas from a federal court in the District of Columbia which require major Usenet providers to reveal their customers’ identities. Thus far legal action against Usenet users has been relatively rare, but the documents suggest that the publishers are preparing just that.
The High Court in Ireland has made its decision in a copyright infringement case brought by the major recording labels against several top ranking ISPs. The labels said that the service providers should be prohibited from facilitating subscriber access to The Pirate Bay and today the Court agreed. UPC, Imagine, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchison 3G and Telefonica O2 now have 30 days in which to block the infamous torrent site.
Considering the scale of the problem it comes as no surprise that dozens of organizations across the web have come out against the U.S. Government’s PRISM spying program this week. One of the latest additions is the team behind the Vuze torrent client. Condemning “stunning abuses and violations of our basic Constitutional rights” the team say that they fully support encryption tools such as VPNs for legitimate uses. In parallel, a major VPN provider is reporting a nice boost in business.
Streaming sports indexes, event streamers and Flash players used for broadcasting have all been subjected to malicious attacks during the past 10 days. According to sources close to the situation, sites including FirstRowSports and WiziWig, plus sundry Flash broadcast tools have been hit by DDoS attacks. One prominent sports streamer says that there has been a constant daily effort to disrupt unauthorized sports streaming activities.
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Left Quote“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
Peter Sunde Left Quote
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