It is hard to tell if these sites will ever stop growing, and if they will ever make it into the top 100 without one of them going down, but we’ll see what the future brings. Isohunt, the site that bumped the other sites into the top 200, is currently moving their servers from The USA to Canada, and will probably be up and running soon.

Note: Alexa’s data gathering is quite dubious. The exact figures may be not be completely accurate, but it is a great tool (especially the traffic rank) to compare sites within the same niche and to get a global impression of traffic shifts over time.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

So in the near future it could be that you’re downloading your favorite torrents from your ISP’s server instead of some random seed or peer at the other side of the globe.

Currently, “regular” BitTorrent is traffic is suffering from throttling ISP’s that claim that BitTorrent traffic is cluttering their pipes. This morivated the developers of the most popular BitTorrent clients implement encryption to protect BitTorrent users from being slowed down by their ISP’s.

However, Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent protocol and the developer of the mainline BitTorrent client did not believe that encryption was the solution, and found (tohether with Cachelogic) a more ISP friendly alternative. However, this new and improved version is promising the opposite, downloads will be accelerated instead of throttled. However, only for commercially licensed content.

Ashwin Navin, President and Co-founder of BitTorrent states:

“CacheLogic has developed an innovative solution to address a major problem that all ISPs face with respect to network congestion. Today, people use the Internet for many bandwidth-intensive services and consumers are increasingly aware of the quality of service needed for their favourite applications. With the popularity of BitTorrent usage worldwide, ISP networks are being taxed in a way they weren’t designed for. As a remedy to this, the Cache Discovery Protocol is providing carriers with an economical and scalable solution that improves the end-user experience for applications that consumers are growing to love.”

press release.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

“With the feeders soon seeding bleeders, you’ll find yourself flooded with needers needing bleeders finding feeders in the seed.

When your feeder seeds the seed, you need the needer needing needs on the feeds you can bleed while bleeding feeders what they call stackers. Now, stackers sit and sack the seed while bleeders knead the needers and the hackers pack the stackers in the needy feeder feeds. Slackers take the sacking stackers in the feeder bleeding seeds.

Then the tracker stacks the hacker needing feeder feeding feeds, while the bleeder seeds the seeds and the stacker tricks the tracker into bleeding needlessly. While the tracker stacks the stacker in the feeding bleeder deed, you can sick the needy knocker in the bleeder seeding feed.”

Revolutionary development! We definitely going to hear more about this one.

source

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Slightly more than a year ago the word was going around that LimeWire, at the time download.com’s most popular commercial p2p file sharing application, was going down.

“We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by the clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties,” wrote justice David H. Souter for the US Supreme Court in the Grokster / StreamCast v MGM ruling.

Then, “Mark Gorton [left], the chief executive of the Lime Group … said he was likely to stop distributing LimeWire in reaction to the ruling,” said The New York Times. “He said it appeared too difficult to meet the implied standard for inducement. The court, Mr. Gorton said, has ‘handed a tool to judges that they can declare inducement whenever they want to’.”

LimeWire’s answer was what amounted to DRM – a copyright filter – but Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG have, in their ongoing assault on the internet and its users, again targeted LimeWire, together with Gorton and coo Greg Bildson. And once again “inducement” is the hook, the line and, the Big Four hope, the final sinker for LimeWire.

Meanwhile, a community driven project based on source code released by LimeWire LLC aimed to, “create and maintain a Gnutella client according to the open standards of an international community”.

The new application was, and still is, called FrostWire, written to, “keep and maintain the freedoms that LimeWire LLC may be forced to withdraw,” says the site, going on:

“LimeWire LLC has been considering an alternative path to keep them out of any legal situations they could be forced into. From what we understand, LimeWire LLC intends to implement a DRM filtering technology into their client. If LimeWire ever decides to implement this DRM technology, we will be prepared to remove it from our code and distribute the client under our own branding. However, we will continue supporting the LimeWire client development and do not wish to make fundamental or drastic changes to the LimeWire core itself.

“FrostWire will not break with LimeWire’s design philosophy. We will always do our best to maintain a strong relationship with the LimeWire Development Team. FrostWire, although very much like LimeWire, will never offer a paid version or a subscription service for the download or use of the FrostWire application. FrostWire is a not-for-profit project. We will never bundle our software with any type of adware, spyware, malware or collect any personal or private data. FrostWire will always remain free as in both price and freedom.”

However, LimeWire is still under the corporate gun and, “Despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site’s corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model that adequately respects copyrights,” says the Big Four’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America),” according to Billboard. “While other services have come productively to the table, LimeWire has sat back and continued to reap profits on the backs of the music community. That is unfortunate and has left us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect the rights and livelihoods of artists, songwriters and record label employees, as well as those companies building legitimate businesses based on music.”

The labels want an injunction and damages of at least $30,000 for every infringement of every recording and at least $150,000 for every willful infringement if each recording, says the story, adding:

“Last week Sharman Networks and others involved with P2P network Kazaa settled with the labels for $115 million and agreed to go legit. A similar deal was struck last year with Grokster.”

Sharman has, of course, been striving for years to reach an agreement with elements of the corporate entertaiment industry and in our humble opinion, the actual amount handed over is unlikely to be $115 million, or anywhere near it, and might in reality be regarded as an admission fee for the cartel good ‘ole boys klub.

p2pnet

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The data is collected by Big Champagne, the numbers of seeds and peers is the average swarm size of the torrents during the last week. Check out Peermind for more free p2p filesharing (non BT) statistics.

thanks to p2pnet

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

What do they offer?

Master flash files and bitmaps of every piece of art used in this season of Odd Job Jack. Every character, prop, and background from every episode plus tutorials and other support material. All free to hack, use, remix under a share-friendly license.

And why?

We love animation and we just know you do too. We’re proud of Odd Job Jack and we’ve put lots of work into our show. Our art deserves to live beyond broadcast and who better to give a free gift to than the entire planet?

The torrents are tracked by legaltorrents.com, and can be found a the freejack site. This is a great initiative, let’s hope more will follow.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

If the woman is convicted for copyright theft, she could face up to five years in prison, or a fine between 6000 and 90.000 USD.

However, the staff of the cinema in question may have responded a little too adequate (early), it might be hard to get someone in jail for recording an anti-piracy commercial.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

He said:

“The version of Gangs Of London that you have brought our attention to here is a pre-production ‘preview’ version,” he revealed. “It is not the complete game and it has anomalies in the code since it hasn’t been through our QA process yet.”

This reaction makes you wonder.. Is this some new form of a advertising? Piracy or promotion? What’s wrong with the good old “trial/preview version”.

The full version is scheduled to appear by the end of 2006.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Paid downloads will cost $0.99 per song. Mashboxx offers a “try before you buy” mechanism to check out songs before you decide to buy. You have the option to preview the full song 5 times, after that previewing is limited to 30 seconds.

And the DRM? If you decide to buy/download a song, you have the right to copy it to 5 other pc’s, and burned onto CD up to seven times. Copying the songs to windows media compatible portable players is unlimited.

Mashboxx

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

And it looks like this defense is working:

“This month, the inability to prove who actually did the file sharing caused the RIAA to drop a case in Oklahoma. The same defense has worked in a California case as well. As soon as the RIAA realized the person was using this type of defense, they dropped the cases, rather than lose and set a precedent showing they really don’t have the unequivocal evidence they claim to possess.”

Anyway… just reset your wireless router if you receive a letter from the RIAA or MPAA….

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Although Grokster caved and accepted the judgment, paying a substantial amount to MGM, Streamcast hasn’t given up. The case is now being heard in US District Court in L.A. (Source: Hollywood Reporter.com)

The new “inducement test” is being hotly debated by entertainment and technology lawyers in and out of court. Even if StreamCast loses, attorney Charles Baker will seek to block damages by asserting the affirmative defense of copyright misuse. “The motion picture companies, record labels and publishers have for years colluded to limit the distribution of digital content”, pointing out the unfavorable licensing contracts that indie labels and others not associated with the majors are forced to accept.

Baker says, “The fight is far from over”, as the Supreme Court, in its ruling, invited anyone to take the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Has anything changed in the real world of p2p? Yes, quite a lot.

The Hollywood Reporter, ESQ., invited RIAA general counsel Steven Marks, Universal Music Group eLabs president Larry Kenswil, and EFF’s Fred Von Lohmann to take part in a “spirited” roundtable discussion on the court ruling, filesharing, and digital distribution.

Kenswil believes that rather than shaking up the music industry, the Supreme Court’s ruling brought stability to the industry, setting rules about what people can do with copyrighted material. Von Lohmann disagrees. Except for the “inducement test”, the court failed to clarify the basic rules, pointing out that it’s still unclear whether a technology that has substantial non-infringing uses can be held responsible if people misuse the technology.

Both Marks and Kenswil believe that the inducement test has “nudged” technology companies to approach the labels and studios, looking for ways to work together, in effect taking the position that any technology not approved and sanctioned by the cartels is illegal. This, they claim, doesn’t stifle technological innovation, but encourages it (as long as the cartels can control it). Von Lohmann rightly puts them in their place and tells them they’re putting “the cart before the horse” when it comes to encouraging innovation.

The cartels claim the Betamax precedent doesn’t exist, as concerns the Supremes’ decision , or that if it does exist, it can be ignored because they want to work with “legitimate services”, which has already “enhanced” the market, citing the growth (haha!) of the legitimate digital market year to year.

Did we miss something here? As all parties acknowledge, free p2p has increased monthly since the original Napster case. They also acknowledge that the cartels will always have to compete with free p2p, although Universal’s Kenswil claims Napster had nothing to do with the “billions of dollars now being spent on digital music” and the technology behind it. He calls that idea “preposterous”. I guess he should know because it was the RIAA which shut Napster down, coerced it into joining the “legitimate” marketplace, which then turned Napster the useless piece of p2p crap it is today. He wouldn’t want to admit that billions were wasted in that arena.

On the other hand, while the rate of shared music files has slowed down – but still moving in an upward direction – in comparison to just a few years ago, film and TV filesharing has risen dramatically, constituting the bulk of files being shared around the world.

On the lawsuits in general, this roundtable had some obvious observations and a few surprises for the reader:

Marks: “I don’t think we’ve ever targeted technology or technology services.”

What’s that?

Didn’t the cartels sue Grokster, Streamcast, and Kazaa? Aren’t they trying to make a case against XM’s Inno? Didn’t they try to influence (read blackmail) the Swedish and U.S. governments into closing down Pirate Bay, ultimately failing – an endeavor which in turn gave birth to more filesharers and the creation of numerous political “Pirate Parties” in several countries, including Sweden and the U.S.?

Marks: “We’ve targeted companies who were, in our view, facilitating copyright infringement.”

Ah, so that’s how they blackmailed Bram Cohn. Okay, I get it now. As long as they can control the technology, everything’s kosher. If they can’t control it, in their view it’s illegal. Gotcha. First, threaten to sue the pants off the inventor of the most popular filesharing software. When he capitulates to your demands, pay him off with a house, a car, lifetime education for his kids, health insurance for the family, a seven-figure salary, and an exclusive contract (compulsory gag order/non-disclosure codicil included) .

Don’t forget to go after the users of the software, either.

Marks: “We very reluctantly began filing cases against individual users. But we think that both of those efforts have borne through. [The problem of piracy is now one] that is exemplified more by a hard-core group of users than it is by a continuing growth of users.”

LOL! That’s very funny because every statistical survey of file sharing has continually shown that more and more people are sharing files every day.

As Eric Garland, CEO of Big Champagne – the main analyst of p2p facts and figures – tells in a separate Hollywood Reporter interview, at any one time there are 10 million people sharing files on free p2p networks.

That’s roughly ten times as many as when Napster was in its heyday. And the numbers are going up, not down.

The lesson, according to the view of the cartels and their interpretation of the Grokster ruling is, if you have – or want to create – a filesharing program, go to the cartels first and ask for permission to innovate. Then you’ll get a sweet deal like Bram did. If you don’t you’ll be viewed as a thief and sued.

Marks: “Eradicating every last act of piracy is something we understand is futile, and has never been an objective of the industry.”

Really? So what’s with the 19,000 + lawsuits then? The ones you have no proof of copyright infringement? The ones, which will cost the industry billions of dollars and millions of customers? The ones you’ll ultimately lose because public awareness of and disgust for these frivolous cases and their waste of tax payer money will do more to turn people away from “legal” product than any p2p program ever could? What about these lawsuits? Are they just symbolic token lawsuits to grab headlines before they’re lost or thrown out of court? Hmmm?

I think it’s so cute they still consider free filesharing as “piracy” when nothing has been stolen, no money or services have been exchanged , ergo, no profit , no theft – and there’s no proof that a shared file equals a lost sale.

On the other hand, entertainment cartel practice of colluding to fix prices, bribe radio stations, arrest customers and plant spyware into computers everywhere is considered business as usual.

The cartels have never been able to prove that a file shared is equal to a lost sale or rental. In fact, several court cases have either been dropped by the cartels or thrown out exactly because they can’t prove it. And at the same time, the music and film industries are reporting record profits.

Big Champagne, the most-noteworthy and respected compiler of free p2p statistics, the place where even the MPAA and RIAA go to for reliable information, has continually shown that free p2p has increased, despite the thousands of unlawful lawsuits filed against innocent people. But no-one can show that money is lost due to free p2p.

The entertainment industry is stuck in, and unwilling to leave, the past. The future is here. The future is now. The future is free p2p.

Free p2p doesn’t have to be seen as something negative or evil. It can also be a useful tool for the cartels.

For decades the Nielsen TV ratings system has decided the rates advertisers must pay.

The Nielsen ratings system is based only on overnight results in certain markets, whereas free p2p is immediate and virtually open-ended time-wise, and isn’t tied to age or gender demographics. Instead of calculating viewers per capita or by region, they can see exactly how many times a file was downloaded and use this info to help in setting advertising rates. There’s no reason why the Nielsen system can’t work with the Big Champagne system. There will always be people who either first watch a program on TV with ads and then download it, or vice verse. The two sets of statistics, taking this knowledge into account, can be used to create a better and more accurate picture.

True, when files are shared ads are edited out. But looking at the total worldwide viewership, instead of just measly overnight ratings, including the statistics from p2p networks will give a much better idea of how many people are interested in a program, which can be used to calculate ad rates.

Too many times a good program is cancelled because of either low ratings (Star Trek: Enterprise) or because of pressure from political or religious groups (The Book of Daniel). Both of these shows were extremely popular on p2p networks, but were canceled due to outdated ratings systems and the extreme-right activist groups. Ad revenue was lost, but not because of free p2p.

Even though more people might be downloading a program, that doesn’t mean they won’t watch it on TV as well, just as downloading a film doesn’t mean a DVD or cinema ticket won’t be purchased. But a new way of calculating ad revenue can be created using all the tools available.

I don’t know how this can be done, but I believe it can be done to satisfy networks and advertisers, without losing viewers. Keeping these shows on the air will increase the numbers of broadcast viewers, whether they have access to a computer or not. And p2p will be the cause of this increase.

Has anything changed in p2p since MGM v. Grokster? Yes, most definitely.

There are more and more files and file sharers and file sharing networks than ever before. This, despite , or as a result of , the backward-thinking cartels and their ridiculous claims of losing money, as well as the thousands of lawsuits being illegally and immorally brought against innocent people.

And as mentioned cinema tickets, and CD and DVD sales and rentals have increased.

Will the cartels change with the times? Probably not. As long as they can continue influencing political parties and the lamescream media; as long as they can control the distribution of “product” and the technology behind the distribution; and as long as there are lawyers willing to make a buck off the backs of innocent people, the entertainment industry will lag behind real innovation.

But free p2p is here to stay.

p2pnet

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The Austrian Pirate Party is planning to participate in Austria’s national elections this October and has three main points:

1. Copyright reform: People should be free to make private copies, prohibition of DRM, reduction of copyright protection to 5 years after publication
2. Privacy protection: No European Union powered data storage
3. Patent reform: Getting rid of trivial Software patents

They are currently collaborating with other Pirate Parties in France, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Germany and the USA.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

On Snarf-it.org we read:

A couple of days ago we received this email from Microsoft asking us to remove about 200 torrents from the site that were “offending” their ideas of copyright. This site is run by people who have day time jobs, we don’t make anywhere near the exorbitant amounts of money made by other BitTorrent site admins so we have to have normal day jobs to survive. This means we do not have the time it would take to go through 400,000 sql entries to find and remove the torrents that other companies would like us to remove.

So snarf-it indroduced a ‘delete it yourself” service. Users of the DIY system can select up to 20 infringing torrents per day. The DIY service fully discharges the site’s responsibilities in respect of US DMCA and similar legislation as stated in Snarf’s wiki.

Although most BitTorrent sites comply with DMCA notices, a wise step if you want to keep the MPAA and RIAA off you back. But Snarf’s DIY service is certainly one of the most advanced and time-saving ways to do so.

If we take a look at the deal between BitTorrent.com and the MPAA we learn that all you have to do is comply to DMCA takedown notices, in order to please the MPAA.

Sounds fair enough.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

But it looks like things changed for the better. Gary from Isohunt.com came to the rescue…. At Podtropolis we read:

Well, I just hate good community and nice design going to waste, so here I am, rescuing sites again. I’m Gary, aka. IH at isoHunt.com. As Andrew have said, the site was having financial trouble with keeping up hosting costs, and I happen to have servers for it. So Podtropolis will be joining brethens at isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com. We are working out the kinks in getting the site back up to its former glory, so stay tuned.

By the way, you can see a CBC interview with gary over here

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The data is collected by Big Champagne, the numbers of seeds and peers is the average swarm size of the torrents during the last week. Check out Peermind for more free p2p filesharing (non BT) statistics.

thanks to p2pnet

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Azureus is currently implementing a “content layer” where commercial downloads will start to appear. Users will be able to search for certain keywords, or browse through the available content by tags.

Azureus is downloaded almost 2million times every month, and it has a strong and dedicated community. This spring they received an award for “most popular open-source software” at the first annual SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards. However, it is unclear how the public will respond to the paid content that will start to appear in Azureus.

A video presentation of the Azureus 3.0 and the new features is available here.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

But not any more.

That’s because they’ve found a clever, new ‘high tech’ way of getting the music out.

It’s called Kazaa, the self-same p2p file sharing application used by many, if not most, of the 19,000 or so men, women and children the RIAA has singled out as the back-drop for its bizarre RIAA sue ‘em all marketing campaign.

“I’ve been informed by more than one source that the major labels have encouraged the use of the very p2p networks they’re villifying,” Ray Beckerman, the New York lawyer who’s representing a number of RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) victims, has told p2pnet.

“Radio DJs have said the record company people who used to drop by with CDs would instead now tell them to get Kazaa, or gnutella or something, and download the song files that way.

“We have numerous affirmative defenses which would be supported by the fact that the RIAA has encouraged the very conduct it’s suing Marie Lindor for,” Beckerman says angrily.

Lindor is the Brooklyn, New York, home health aide who’s being sued by the Big Four Organized Music cartel’s RIAA.

Although she literally doesn’t know one end of a computer from another and has never even turned one on, according to Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG, she’s been using an “online distribution system” to, “download, distribute, and/or make available for distribution” copyrighted music.

Now Beckerman wants to see just how common the practice of employing the likes of Kazaa as a free corporate p2p promotional vehicle is, asking interested parties to call him at 212-763-6809, or email him here.

Definitely stay tuned.

p2pnet

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Hogan says:

“$100,000 in legal fees is a small price to pay to challenge the MPAA’s tactics.They’re completely abusing the system, I would spend well into the millions on this.”

The 30-year-old software developer is sued for downloading a copy of “meet the fockers”. Hogan denies that he ever used BitTorrent to download this movie, and on top of this, he already owns a legal copy of the DVD.

MPAA’s head of antipiracy John G. Malcolm responded:

“We look forward to addressing his issues in a court of law.”

This is a very interesting case because there’s finally someone who has the money to stand up to the MPAA. The result of this case will have a great impact on the MPAA’s “war on piracy” and their current suing habit.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

TPB supports an initiative by the AFCI to help the Ladonians in their quest for internet connectivity.

The AFCI demands:
* No copyright laws!
* Internets connectivity from every stone!
* Removal of all weapons of mass destruction aimed at the internets borders!

Pirate Bay Chairman of the Joint chiefs of staff Brokep states:

“ACFI has been working under cover for quite some time to get information on Ladonia and its goverment. We will support any action taken by ACFI against Ladonia in this matter!”

Arrr!

The AFCI goes on saying: “Surrender to our demands or we will take your castle by force!”

Stay updated on the latest developments at CAMP IRC (EFNET #IMPLODELADONIA)

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

However, since BitTorrent is the best p2p protocol to distribure large files, it still generates almost 50 percent of the p2p traffic according to chachelogic’s data.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.