Watch Out MAFIAA, Antibiotics Don’t Work On Viral Pirates

PROTECT-IP, the Digital Economy Act, site blocking, domain seizures and 3 strikes regimes. The list of techniques used to thwart online file-sharing seems to grow every month. But how effective are they really? The overuse of these anti-piracy medications is breeding new strains of powerful file-sharers, resistant to even the…

German Pirate Party Riding the Wave of Success

This week the German Pirate Party reached an impressive milestone as it hit double digits in the polls for the national elections. With one in ten Germans embracing the ideas of the young party, the Pirates are on course to gain serious influence in one of the world's major political…

The Case for Piracy

The excellent article below comes from ABC Australia and is written by Nick Ross. Well worth the read. When it comes to copyright theft and piracy, many people assume there’s just one side – the side of truth, justice and copyright owners. Beyond that there are parasitical thieves. When most…

The Pirate Bay Users Long for Anonymity

New data from the largest ever survey among file-sharers shows that the majority of users on The Pirate Bay value their anonymity online, but only a relatively small group take measures to guarantee their privacy. The use of VPNs and proxies is most common among North American and African users,…

BitTorrent Throttling Internet Providers Exposed

Data published by the Google-backed Measurement Lab gives a unique insight into the BitTorrent throttling practices of ISPs all over the world. It reveals that Comcast was slowing down nearly half of all BitTorrent traffic in the U.S. early 2008, but only 3% last year. In Canada, Rogers has the…

Security Flaw Links BitTorrent Users to Skype Accounts

Researchers have uncovered a major security flaw which allows outsiders to link a Skype account to a user's download activity on BitTorrent. The exploit works without the knowledge of the victims and also allows outsiders to see the travel patterns of Skype users. The vulnerability opens the door for scammers…

Belgium Starts Blocking The Pirate Bay

Two weeks ago the Antwerp Court of Appeal ordered the Belgian ISPs Belgacom and Telenet to initiate DNS blockades of 11 domains connected to The Pirate Bay within 14 days or face fines. Today the 14 days expired and people who are trying to visit The Pirate Bay now see…

Canadian Supreme Court Rules On Liability For Hyperlinking

The case between Wayne Crookes of West Coast Title Search and Jon Newton of the p2pnet.net blog is finally over, with the latter emerging the victor. Crookes sued Newton after he linked to an allegedly defamatory post and refused to take the links down on request. Crookes insisted that by…