A day later and using several Scene sources, we tried to piece together what had happened and which sites had been affected. Certain rumors that we were unable to confirm at the time, such as those suggesting that a UK topsite had been busted, appear to have been unfounded. It seems that servers did go down at times, but merely coincidentally or as a precaution.

While it’s proven immensely difficult to validate many of the tips we’ve received (as we’ve said before, reporting on The Scene is somewhat of a black art), some have proven very interesting. Right now we would like to share one in particular with you, which not only describes in part how the Scene is structured but also goes some way to illustrating just how important these raids were.

Structure – How the Scene selects which sites are the best in the world

• The Scene consists of 8 ranked trading groups. The members of these groups meet online every few months and take a vote on which sites should be considered to be the best in the world. Speed, routing, support on races, release group affiliates and user databases are taken into account
• A a total of 27 sites leading sites are chosen which are now deemed ‘globally ranked’

How the globally ranked sites are organized

• The ranking system is ordered like a pyramid, with the cream at the top
• 2 sites are ranked 3.0 (top of the pyramid), 3 sites are ranked 2.5, 4 sites are ranked 2.0, 5 sites are ranked 1.5, 6 sites are ranked 1.0 and 7 sites are ranked 0.5
• Total sites globally ranked: 27

Traders

Traders are Scene members who move files around the 27 globally ranked sites and others in the Scene. They are motivated to do so by winning points. In order for a trader to become ‘globally ranked’ he or she needs to be in the top 20 uploaders overall. Their point rewards for positioning in this list work as follows:

Deciding the best traders in the world

All points accrued are placed in a global ranking chart for measuring which trader is the best each week. The winner is naturally the one with the most points

The European Scene raids and how this affects trading and structure

We mentioned several topsites in our earlier article which were busted or otherwise affected by the raids. At the time we redacted some site names to keep our sources happy but we are now able to publish most of them. Group affiliates are reported but unconfirmed.

BAR

Confirmed as busted, BAR was one of the top two sites in the Scene with a ranking of 3.0. As we’ve seen from the explanation above, it’s impossible for a site to be more important than this.

Groups affils: MARVEL, EPTiSO, RELOADED, Clue, ESPiSE, DASH, Metis, REV0, CBGB, XII, Heirloom

LOST

A highly respected 2.5 site which was ranked 3.0 for a long time. One of the five most important sites in the Scene. Without being overly specific, police managed to obtain certain hardware connected to the site but completely missed other more crucial elements. Site staff have made announcements which stated that tight security and encryption on the site meant that users should be fine.

Group affils: Refined, FQM, CiNEFiLE, SPARE, Hatred, SUBMERGE, Felon, ALLIANCE, Pellucida, Sinners, MACRO

DLR

DLR is one of the sites we mentioned but not by name in our earlier article. DLR is/was ranked as 2.5, meaning that along with LOST it is one of the top 5 most important sites in the Scene. While the ISP where DLR was hosted was visited by the police, our sources believe that DLR’s server was missed and may not even have been the prime target. As of last week, no announcement had been made about the site’s future.

SC

SC is proving a very difficult site to find information on. Ranked as 2.0 and therefore one of the nine most important in the Scene, the site had some very high profile affiliate groups. The site appears to have been small, but particularly elite.

Group affils: Hubris, RELOADED, Jumanji, MPTDVD, Magnitude, DAGGER, ETHOS, Clue, AAOCG

Still unamed site, Italy

We mentioned another European site in our earlier article as being permanently down, and we can now reveal that site was in Italy. Although we are told it is very important, we have been unable to find out its ranking in order to show its significance.

Conclusion

While there is much talk of the piracy pyramid (in its wider sense, with the Scene at the top and general file sharing and BitTorrent-type activities providing the broad base) the Scene also has a pyramid structure too, at least in terms of kudos. As can be seen by the above, these raids clearly hit some very important sites at the top of that pyramid.

An interesting piece of information came out during the last few days. According to authorities speaking on the matter this week, they have not infiltrated the Scene themselves, but have instead recruited some high-level trusted informers in the Scene. There can be little doubt that on some level at least, these claims must be true. Finding and ejecting those individuals will be a top priority for the Scene.

While it’s too early to say how things might recover in the longer term, one thing is certain. Raids like this in the past have disrupted but never stopped the Scene. And, as we highlighted in our earlier article, P2P release groups are starting to show their significance.

One thing is for sure. Virtually all movies, music, software and games will continue to be pirated and no one will have any problem at all putting their hands on them. To most on the Internet, nothing will have changed.

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

There is no doubt that the final season of the show will again be a strong contender in 2010’s list. On average, an episode of Lost is downloaded nearly 1.5 million times in the first week after its appearance on BitTorrent, but there is an overwhelming demand for the series finale which aired on Sunday.

In the first 20 hours after they appeared on BitTorrent, the final two episodes were downloaded a little over 900,000 times, an amount expected to increase to four or five million by the and of the week. As far as we know, this is a new download record for BitTorrent in such a short time frame.

One of the main reasons why people turn to BitTorrent for missed TV-shows is because they air significantly later in their home country. In an attempt to take this incentive away Lost’s finale was aired in 59 countries simultaneously, or within 48 hours of the US broadcast.

Whether the narrower release window has indeed decreased piracy is hard to say. What we do see is that there is a huge demand for the Lost finale in Australia, as 15% of all downloaders come from down under. Coincidentally, the season finale is scheduled to air in Australia this Wednesday.

Another factor that contributed to the high number of downloads globally is all the fuss about the season ending. Undoubtedly, people who missed it will be more inclined to download the final episodes compared to those mid-season.

It will be interesting to see if Lost’s new download record can be broken in the future.

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

There is no doubt that the final season of the show will again be a strong contender in 2010′s list. However, it already has the honor of becoming the first TV-show to leak online after being recorded using a webcam on a tropical beach.

The copy of the first episode that appeared online two days ago was recorded during a live screening hosted by ABC at an Oahu beach. Well over 10,000 fans of the show attended the screening and at least one of them decided to record it via their laptop webcam.

The recording was posted online a few hours later and is now available on virtually all BitTorrent sites. The video quality is ‘reasonable’ according to initial reports from people who downloaded the file. The sound quality on the other hand is not that good, which is not really a surprise considering that thousands of people were present.

The cammed version of the episode has been downloaded a little over 25,000 times on BitTorrent thus far, which is really low and unlikely to cause ABC to lose any viewers tonight. If anything, it might serve as free publicity reminding people that the new season is starting soon.

From the torrent site comments we indeed learn that the majority of fans say they would prefer to see the episode in full quality on TV, or download a copy on BitTorrent a few hours later. In this case, most people seem to prefer quality over early access, which must be a comfort to the makers of the show.

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

The rise of unauthorized downloading of TV-shows is a signal that customers want something that is not available through other channels. Availability seems to be the key issue why people turn to BitTorrent, and this is also reflected in the fact that most downloads occur from countries where the show has yet to air on TV.

Outside the US, fans sometimes have to wait for weeks or even months before the show airs on TV in their own country. Many of them are simply not that patient or willing to torture themselves, and turn to BitTorrent in desperation.

Despite massive piracy of TV-shows, there are plenty of opportunities for distributors and broadcasters to win viewers back. The piracy figures simply show that TV viewing habits are changing. There is a huge interest in on-demand TV and there are millions of viewers that can potentially bring in millions of dollars in revenue.

Below we have compiled a list of the most downloaded TV-shows, together with the viewer average for TV in the US, based on data from Nielsen. The data for the top 10 is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all public BitTorrent trackers. All the data is carefully checked and possible inaccuracies are systematically corrected.

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

The girl in question couldn’t connect to her home WiFi network from her bedroom, so she borrowed her mother’s 3G modem to download some Lost episodes, among other things. What she didn’t know was that this would result in a $40,000 (30,000 Euro) bill at the end of the year ($300 per episode).

Her mother, Blanca Rosa Alcántara, a city councilor for the People’s Party in Spain, protested: “I thought that it had unlimited downloading data rates.” In an official statement, representatives of the People’s Party at Getafe City Hall said that the party regrets “the improper use of the party’s Internet and phone lines by children”.

“I was absolutely unaware that such usage [using the 3G modem for downloading TV shows] could result in such excessive costs. I have a flat rate plan at my home and something like this has never happened before,” Alcántara added.

The councilor claims that she should have been warned against excessive use of the modem by the City Hall economic department, saying that this huge bill could have been prevented. Nevertheless, she promised to pay the entire bill including interest and hopes that the accident wont turn into a political issue.

This is not the first time that someone’s downloading habits have caused a financial crisis. In 2007 a factory worker from the UK was billed $54,000 for hooking up his mobile phone to to his laptop, and downloading 20 or 30 TV-shows. For some, file-sharing can prove to be an expensive hobby.

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

The fifth season of Lost just started with two new episodes. Both episodes were downloaded close to two million time in the first week. As always, the vast majority of the people who download the show are located outside the U.S, where it may take up to a year before season 5 will actually air on TV.

The rise of unauthorized downloading of TV-shows is a signal that customers want something that is not available through other channels. It’s more about availability than the fact that it’s free and should be viewed as an opportunity, not a threat. The more restrictions, the more piracy – it’s as simple as that.

The data for the most recent TV episodes are collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only. Thanks to ShowInsider we now also include a list based on the total number of downloads (not only recent episodes) of all shows in the past week.

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

Perhaps even more importantly, the rise of unauthorized downloading of TV-shows is a signal that customers want something that is not available through other channels. Availability seems to be the key issue why people turn to BitTorrent.

This also becomes clear when we look at the geographical location of the downloaders. The vast majority of the downloads come from overseas, over 90% on average. Outside the US, fans sometimes have to wait for weeks or even months before the show airs on TV in their country. Many of them are simply not that patient or willing to torture themselves, and turn to BitTorrent in desperation.

Legal online streaming services are only available in the US, and change very little in the overall download figures. Until the availability problem is addressed, we’re not likely to see a decrease in TV-show downloads from BitTorrent. Indeed, compared to last year, the download figures have grown a little, especially for the top three TV-shows in the list.

Below we have compiled a list of the most downloaded TV-shows, together with the viewer average for TV in the US, based on data from Nielsen. Note that the download count for each show is per episode, the most downloaded in this case. The Olympics Opening Ceremony was one of the most wanted broadcasts of the year with 4,620,000 downloads, but we decided only to include TV-series.

The data for the top 10 is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all the large BitTorrent trackers. The download number is the sum of all torrent downloads for the most popular episode. Based on previous experience a correction is made for smaller .torrent releases that we might have missed.

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

One could argue that their availability on BitTorrent actually helped ‘Lost’ and ‘Heroes’ to build a stronger fanbase. With torrents, no-one has to miss an episode anymore which keeps the fans more engaged. So called “pirates” advertise the shows to their friends, or write about it on their blogs. Accordingly, when we asked Jesse Alexander whether he thinks that BitTorrent might have helped to reach a broader audience, he answered with a clear cut “Yes”.

Not that Jesse wants everybody to get the shows off BitTorrent, but he said that it certainly signals that there is a market for on-demand and interactive TV. “People watching shows such as Lost and Heroes on BitTorrent is the present world reality,” Jesse told TorrentFreak. TV networks have to recognize this, give their viewers more ways to interact with the shows, and find ways to generate revenue from every member of the global audience.”

“It’s the same for music artists. The reality is, people share music. Artist now make money by driving people to concerts, through community websites, and by offering exclusive events. TV networks are focusing too much on one exclusive product, instead of building a community. This is a mistake I think.”

The success of Heroes on BitTorrent didn’t pass by the cast of the show unnoticed either. “The cast and the people behind the scenes have all been talking about it,” Jesse said. As an example he mentioned last year’s promotional tour in France, where the actors were recognized by hundreds of fans, even though the show had not even premiered on TV yet.

Alexander has hit the nail on the head. This is in fact one of the main reasons why shows like ‘Heroes’ are so popular on filesharing networks. It can take up to six months after the US premiere before these shows are aired in Europe, Australia and other parts of the world. Jesse agreed that this is indeed one of the major causes of piracy. “This gap is something that is certainly going to change in the future,” he added.

Jesse went on to say that in the near future, thanks to the Internet, the viewers of TV-shows will see more interactive components and alternate realities they can participate in. The future of TV will be more international, with real interaction, and shows will be more and more integrated into the core part of an online community.

When we asked Jesse if he has ever downloaded TV-shows off BitTorrent, he told us: “I can’t confirm or deny, but I’m familiar with all kind of new technologies.” I guess we all know what he’s trying to say.

It is no surprise that Jesse is more positive towards new technologies than some others in the entertainment industry. Last week we reported on the upcoming “Pirate TV” show that he is working on, together with Matt Mason, the author of ‘The Pirate’s Dilemma’.

“Matt’s book needs to get a broader audience,” said Jesse. “We want to discuss the negative and the positive side of piracy, and place things in a broader historical context. We want to start a real conversation about the future of intellectual property.”

We’re happy to join the debate, what about you?

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

People are getting used to on-demand content. They simply want to watch their favorite shows whenever they want, wherever they want. To give some more insight into this growing phenomenon, and because Nielsen is not counting BitTorrent downloads, we decided to start a weekly report of the most downloaded TV shows on BitTorrent.

The data is collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites. The timing is a bit unfortunate, since popular shows like Desperate Housewives, House and Greys Anatomy just had their season finale last week, but we are aiming to publish an updated list every week from now on.

Top Downloads May 25 – June 01

To give an impression of how many downloads these shows can get, here is the list of the most downloaded TV episodes in 2007. The number of downloads reported here is for Mininova only, so these could easily quadruple if all large BitTorrent sites were taken into account.

Top Downloads 2007

The increasing popularity of these series on BitTorrent and other filesharing networks is a signal that customers want something that they can’t get somewhere else. It is all about availability. This is not a threat to TV studios, but rather an opportunity.

Please note, correct ‘Digg’ link is here

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

“We decided to move to the desert of Sinai in Egypt since we feel that we’ll be safe there.” Connectivity in Egypt should be uncongested, with only about 1 in 13 of the population regular net users, despite modern infrastructure investments by Telecom Egypt. Meanwhile, the sun should do wonders to counter the typical pasty-faced stereotype of the typical computer addict.

In other news, there’s egg on the face of ABC, as a pre-air episode of the popular TV-show “Lost” hit the net. Apparently, the episode is from a DVD screener, and proves, yet again, that the problems come from members of the industry, who are often claimed to be the victims.

There is more breaking news today, as the popular OiNK replacement Waffles.fm now accepts new members. For months thousands of users have waited to get an account at the popular private BitTorrent tracker, and today this may become reality.

Unfortunately, things have not been so rosy for all BitTorrent sites. BT-chat, a popular torrent site has closed it’s torrent operations, to concentrate on its Bluetooth based IM client.

BT-Chat owner NBtX told TorrentFreak ” Server costs we’re starting to get too much, and the ads were making everyone mad. We have since then decided to stop providing torrents, and focus solely on the Bluetooth instant messaging program.”

However, the worst news comes for users of the private BitTorrent tracker BitHQ. Like EliteTorrents before them, they have been raided and shut down by US Federal Officers. No comment from any party involved has been forthcoming so far.

What a day….

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