As reported, 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. Concerned about this decision, administrators at other trackers hosted at Leaseweb started looking for alternative hosts.

In an attempt to re-assure its customers, Leaseweb is set to appeal against the original court decision regarding everlasting.nu. They argue that the decision is an unacceptable restriction on freedom of expression on the Internet.

In addition Leaseweb stressed that they have nothing to do with the downtime issues Demonoid experienced this week. “Leaseweb had no contact with the owner of Demonoid this week”, Leaseweb’s lawyer noted.

The lawyers office further states that they demand that BREIN is more documented and thorough in their requests to take down BitTorrent sites. “If the ruling in the everlasing.nu case holds up, freedom of expression on the Internet would be a joke”, the lawyers said.

Tim Kuik, managing director of BREIN says Leaseweb doesn’t stand a chance because their previous request was well grounded, and everlasting.nu unmistakably engaged in unlawful behavior. Kuik further explained that illegally offering files has nothing to do with privacy and freedom of expression, as Leaseweb suggested.

To be continued…

Source: Webwereld (Dutch)

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The police and prosecutor HÃ¥kan Roswall desperately tried to find something they could use against the Pirate Bay crew, but it now seems that they have very little to go on. Brokep, one of the Pirate Bay admins writes on his blog:

“I talk to alot of people that are somehow connected to other interesting people – one of them told me that the police officer in charge of the case against The Pirate Bay actually has _nothing_ to give the District Attorney. Still he’s pressing charges.”

Last December, the district court decided that the servers, including some servers of The Pirate Bay’s ISP, PRQ, that have nothing to do with the BitTorrent tracker, would remain in custody till June 1, 2007. Time is running out guys.

In hindsight, the raid was highly unsuccessful. TPB was only down for a couple of days before they returned in full force, even stronger than before, thanks to the widespread media attention.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The police said the tracker was one year old, but for the last 6 months the administrators have been asking for donations and running ads on the site, which attracted the attention of the police officers.

A 2 month investigation lead the police to an apartment in Bucharest where they arrested the two 40-year old admins. In addition they seized 4 computers and 5,200 cds and DVDs, some of which contained copyrighted material. This indicates that the two were not only running Torrentbits, but that they were also selling pirates CDs and DVDs.

The two were released from custody Thursday afternoon, but are charged with copyright infringement, and both face 4 years in jail and a $10.000 fine. A video clip that shows the raid is posted in this Romanian news article.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

So excuse me when I get excited when I see a post like this from Brokep, one of the Pirate Bay admins.

.. maybe less than two weeks. or something like that. Yes. maybe. a couple of days. It's coming.

Of course we asked Brokep for an explanation. He said:

"The past, the present and the future. It's all the same, but one thing's for sure, we will radiate for weeks"

His answer immediately put an end to all speculation, it (no it’s not about Sealand) really is coming! Excellent! Just 2 weeks, and the BitTorrent community will change for good!

Stay tuned!

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The raid on the Pirate Bay, and the rise of the Pirate Party clearly left their mark on Sweden’s political climate. The extremely fast resurrection of the Pirate Bay was a slap in the face of the IIPA, MPAA, and other anti-piracy organizations. In the report we read:

Sweden also is the host country to ThePirateBay.org, the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker and one of Sweden’s largest web sites. Operators of the site proudly flaunt their role in facilitating infringements, often taking pot shots at rights holders from whom they receive notices of infringing activity. ThePirateBay was raided in mid-2006 by the Swedish police, and although the site is back up and running, it is expected that its prosecution will take place in the middle of 2007

The IIPA can not yet see an end to the widespread piracy in Sweden. According to the organization, 490 000 movies were downloaded during the third quarter last year, an increase from 468 000 movies the year before, the report says, not specifying any source.

The situation is further complicated, according to the organization, by the fact that Swedes are tolerant towards piracy, something that according to the report is evident in media and in public opinion. The politicians are not thought of as having understood the extent of the file sharing problem. The organization however claims to be looking forward to cooperating with the new government in finding new ways in the struggle against piracy.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Vadim Andrianov, one of the BitTorrent tracker admins, thinks that the shutdown of his, and other sites could be part of a new anti-piracy campaign. Andrianov is still waiting for an official response from his ISP. He is not worried about any form of legal action, because his site was only offering Open Source software.

Bandwidth management could be an alternative explanation for the closure of the BitTorrent sites. Immediately after the trackers were shut down, p2p traffic dropped drastically, to 20% of what it used to be. Could this be an attempt by Tomsk’s ISP to cut down the bandwidth generated by BitTorrent transfers? It sure is more effective than most traffic shaping devices.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Here are some more interesting stats from The Pirate Bay Blog:

The Pirate Bay is, without a doubt, the most popular BitTorrent tracker out there. Close to 50% of all the torrents that are listed on public trackers are tracked by The Pirate Bay. This means that millions of torrents would instantly stop working if the tracker goes down. Respect, guys…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Although The Poker Bay is a private site, they are not as obsessed about ratios as other private trackers are. The site currently has no rules regarding to ratios and would like to keep it that way, if possible.

“The whole idea is to spread poker to the masses and my thoughts on ratio is that it shouldn’t be so tough to keep your account at The Poker Bay“, said Slim, founder of The Poker Bay. “Some sites are really hardcore and a lot of people with bad connections and so on can’t keep up and get kicked out. I believe that we need to realize that a lot of countries still don’t have the as good internet resources than others.”

Sounds like a healthy view, which I tend to agree with. Take a look for yourself if you’re interested in poker torrents.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.