SilverSeed Returns – Music Video Torrent Tracker
Posted on: February 08, 2010Back in November 2008, we ran an article on SilverSeed torrent tracker. SilverSeed (SS) was a private community that focused primarily on music video releases. Unfortunately, the site did not gain much popularity back then and eventually died due to lack of user activity. Now, nearly one and a half years later, SilverSeed has returned. This time around the site has a much better outlook and looks like it’s here to stay – there’s plenty of activity going on, lots of torrents are being uploaded...
TalkTalk Rises Awareness in WiFi Safety
Posted on: February 08, 2010Honoring the invitation from Channel 4 News to participate in a broadcast, security expert Matt Roburgh, member of the team behind Internet service provider TalkTalk, seized the opportunity to educate the public on WiFi safety and the threat posed by WiFi hacking.
Roburgh directed the discussion towards the limitations of today’s network safety solutions and hackers’ ability to constantly reinvent their methods of tackling existing security measures. Admitting he had also been a victim of WiFi hacking, the expert explained that although protection of WiFi connections with passwords is highly recommendable, this measure alone might not always be enough to block hacking attempts. To demonstrate WiFi hackers’ ingenuity, the news clip included footage of the improvised "Cantenna" device, one of the latest tools used for snatching users’ connections.
Contesting the approach adopted by the Government to battle online piracy, Roburgh pointed out to the flaws in the much-disputed “three strikes” policy, which could result in disconnecting the wrong people.
The security expert also informed the public about the latest methods used by downloaders to source copyrighted material and suggested that the Government should not limit their efforts to monitoring peer-to-peer use when it comes to fighting online piracy. Roburgh explained that there are many online piracy threats currently not properly addressed by the authorities, some in the form of dedicated ripping sites, which impede Internet service providers’ attempts to track copyright infringement. According to Roburgh, the Government should consider creating an effective strategy to block this kind of online resources.
http://www.p2pon.com/2010/02/08/talktalk-rises-awareness-in-wifi-safety/ Post LinkJudge Jeopardizes Anti-Piracy Cash Operation
Posted on: February 08, 2010DigiProtect is a controversial anti-piracy company which also acts as a copyright holder in order to ease civil claims against alleged file-sharers in several countries across Europe. They track IP addresses on popular file-sharing networks, obtain the identities behind them and demand cash settlements.
A ruling by a court in Frankfurt on January 29th could now have put DigiProtect's “Turn Piracy Into Profit” mass-warning business model into jeopardy.
An individual was sent a letter by the lawyer Udo Kornmeier on behalf of DigiProtect. The letter contained accusations of illicit file-sharing including a customary cash payment demand of around 651 euros to cover legal costs based on an infringement claim of 10,000 euros. It was accompanied by a demand to pay a further 150 euros in order to acquire a license from the copyright holder for the material downloaded.
While the file-sharer didn't contest the 150 euro license fee, he refused to pay the 651 euros legal bill. DigiProtect's lawyers countered with an offer for him to pay 450 euros plus the 150 euros license fee. Again the file-sharer rejected the offer.
DigiProtect then went on to sue the man for 651.80 euros and the case went to court.
In court the judge asked DigiProtect and its lawyers to open up their books to show what legal costs were actually incurred (and paid) to perform legal actions against the file-sharer and send him the letters. Both DigiProtect and their lawyer refused to submit the information.
During the hearing the judge discovered that the relationship between DigiProtect and its lawyers was covered by an agreement similar to the one it had previously with lawyers Davenport Lyons for their UK operations. The details of that arrangement were leaked out last year by a disgruntled insider and revealed some embarrassing truths about the operation.
DigiProtect and its German lawyer refused to allow the agreement between them to be shown in court which meant that the true costs of pursuing the file-sharer remained unproven.
The judge said that even if DigiProtect had paid 651.80 euros to its lawyers to pursue the file-sharer, these cannot be considered as involuntary damages since DigiProtect paid this fee to its lawyer voluntarily. Therefore the only involuntary damages in this case was the 150 euros rights holder licensing fee.
Due to this lack of transparency, the judge decided that the file-sharer did not have to pay DigiProtect the claimed 651.80 euros legal action costs, only the 150 euros licensing fee.
Clearly, if the lawyers can't get their sizable share of the spoils in this “Turn Piracy Into Profit” operation, the whole business plan falls down. There was certainly no profit to be made from this file-sharer – time will tell if this effect ripples on to other cases.
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6697nVgHAJw/ Post Link
Freedom of Speech Censorship in Australia Coming to an End?
Posted on: February 08, 2010
The state of South Australia has snatched politicians’ promise that the highly disputed election law enacted on January 6 will be revoked.
The recently introduced law stipulates that anyone publishing politically oriented comments online during election periods must declare their identity or risk the prospect of paying a stinging fine. Applied only to bloggers and commenters, not to official online newspapers or magazines, the law has a pronounced discriminatory character, which is condemned by persons constricted by its terms.
Voted by politicians as a measure of protection against disparagement, the law has caused waves of discontentment among the persons it targeted, who consider it a serious blow to freedom of speech. AdelaideNow, one of many online resources affected by the ruling, decided to take a strong stance and confront its restrictions in the press.
"It's hard to imagine South Australia's Electoral Commissioner will prowl the Internet day after day during the election campaign policing such a ridiculous law," said a spokesperson from AdelaideNow in an editorial.
"Realistically and logically, there is no need. All blogs and comments published on AdelaideNow are moderated. Broadcasters monitor and moderate what is broadcast. All also abide by extensive laws that prevent the publication or broadcast of defamatory and other illegal material."
South Australia's Attorney General Michael Atkinson hurried to defend the ruling, responding during a radio broadcast that among other things, the ruling is aimed at discouraging political adversaries from launching attacks while hiding under the cover of anonymity. Atkinson also suggested the idea that multiple negative comments addressing the law in effect posted on websites like AdelaideNow were faked, and pointed out to the name of Aaron Fornarino, whom he claimed to be a fictive person.
The team behind AdelaideNow subsequently attacked Atkinson’s hazardous statement, posting a picture that proved the mentioned person was indeed real. Realizing the potential implications of his mistake, Atkinson sent a new statement to the website, in which he had radically changed his position on the matter at hand: "From the feedback we've received through AdelaideNow, the blogging generation believes that the law supported by all MPs and all political parties is unduly restrictive. I have listened. I will immediately after the election move to repeal the law retrospectively. It may be humiliating for me, but that's politics in a democracy and I'll take my lumps."
Atkinson’s last statement was followed by various other comments from politicians who finally admitted the law was harsh on persons who wanted to express their opinions under the protection of anonymity, and suggested that it should be changed. Until then, however, freedom of speech will be kept in check throughout the state.
http://www.p2pon.com/2010/02/03/freedom-of-speech-censorship-in-australia-coming-to-an-end/ Post LinkOscar Pirates, Fewer Films Leak Online This Year
Posted on: February 08, 2010Waxy's Andy Baio has been collecting detailed piracy stats for every Oscar-nominated movie since 2003. Much to the delight of the MPAA, his most recent statistics show that, compared to previous years, fewer Oscar nominees have leaked online.
The statistics for all 2010 nominees, except documentary and foreign films, show that 27 of the 34 films were available on BitTorrent in DVD quality last night. Nearly half of the films have leaked as a screener and 10 of those are estimated to be leaked by Academy members.
Although the majority of the Oscar nominees are available online, the movie industry has certainly scored a small victory. Last year all films leaked in one format or another. On another positive note for the MPAA, the median time for films to leak after their US-release date has nearly doubled to 21 days. In 2003 it took only one day for most films to leak onto the Internet.
On the negative side, there were still 4 films that were available online before they they premiered in US movie theaters. In The Loop, The Hurt Locker, The White Ribbon and The Young Victoria all leaked in advance of their official premiere.
Leaked DVDs or Screeners of Oscar nominees
The graph below further shows that there are less retail DVD rips available compared to previous years, 44% versus 100% in 2008 and the years before. As Andy also mentions, this figure may go up a little before the official Oscar award ceremony broadcast.
Leak Formats
Although this data suggests that the movie industry is becoming more effective in preventing screeners from leaking online, we have to emphasize that more than a third of the leaks originated from deviant Academy members who like to share the work of their colleagues.
The Oscar screener of Avatar was sent out relatively late, only a few weeks ago. It leaked onto the Internet today and is not included in the graphs above.
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BFcNxfQrZXw/ Post LinkJudge Clears Aussie ISP of Infringement Accusations
Posted on: February 08, 2010
Yesterday, after a long legal battle, iiNet, one of the major Australian ISPs, has finally triumphed against an alliance of movie and television studios. Justice Cowdroy who favored iiNet with his decision, considered the ISP was not responsible for the copyright infringing activities conducted by some of its subscribers.
Unsurprisingly, the Pirate Party hailed the news (and they weren’t the only ones 
). Rodney Serkowkski, the Party’s Secretary pointed out:
"This is a good decision by Justice Cowdroy, and reflects that there is no legal basis or obligation for any ISP to act in the interest of copyright holders, or to expect that they should disconnect any entity upon allegation of infringement without judicial oversight and due process," said Pirate Party Australia secretary Rodney Serkowkski.
Serkowski also added that ISPs should not be regarded any way different than postal services which are not responsible for the data they carry and which is considered private.
(via ZDNet )
http://www.p2pon.com/2010/02/05/judge-clears-aussie-isp-of-infringement-accusations/ Post LinkUCLA Teams Up with Clicker to Combat Campus File Sharing
Posted on: February 07, 2010
UCLA staff has recently announced the closing of a new partnership with Clicker, aimed at discouraging students from relying on torrent sites to get access to online TV, ReadWriteWeb reports.
Following the example of other colleges in the U.S., the school’s faculty hopes that by offering students the alternative of using Clicker – a programming guide for online TV content, they will be able to significantly reduce illegal file-sharing.
Apart from providing online TV services around the campus, the partnership with Clicker is expected to have a positive impact on students’ education as well, offering them convenient access to high-quality educational content.
Launched in November 2009, Clicker provides users with access to a large database of online video content, which includes more than 400,000 episodes from around 7,000 different American TV shows. The service lists TV shows from a variety of broadcast and cable networks in the U.S., as well as Web originals.
UCLA’s collaboration with Clicker has won the appreciation of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which didn’t hesitate to praise the school’s efforts in the media. MPAA's general counsel and chief content protection officer Daniel Mandil publicly expressed his admiration towards Clicker and UCLA for “fostering a campus culture that respects creativity and supports the livelihoods of the millions of people across the United States and around the world who create the movies and TV shows that we love, and for helping to ensure that these great jobs will be there for future college graduates."
UCLA staff is currently optimistic that students will show the same enthusiasm regarding the project and turn away from the practice of using torrent sites in the future.
http://www.p2pon.com/2010/02/03/ucla-teams-up-with-clicker-to-combat-campus-file-sharing/ Post LinkLost Season 6 Premiere Pirated On The Beach
Posted on: February 07, 2010
Last year, Lost achieved the questionable honor of being the second most pirated TV-show on BitTorrent. With more than 6 million downloads per episode, Lost was only trailing Heroes by a few thousand downloads.
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.
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_IVv4JsCvE0/ Post LinkLG Shows How To Play Pirated Movies On TV
Posted on: February 07, 2010
Using pirated films as promotional material to sell consumer electronics is nothing new. The John Lewis store has used aXXo rips to sell iMacs in the past and Saturn, Europe’s largest retailer of consumer electronics, showed pirated films to sell Macbooks.
In these previous cases the pirated films were only on display in the stores, but the multinational electronics company LG takes it a step further. The company is selling TVs that have the functionality to accept a connection from an external USB device. This allows customers to enjoy pictures, music and videos directly on their TVs, all with a piracy endorsement from the manufacturer.
In the packaged English language manual, LG does not try to obfuscate the true purpose of this nifty USB feature – playing pirated movies. In the picture below, LG included pirated versions of The Incredibles and The Aviator, while explaining how easy it is to play the films directly on a TV.
How to play pirated movies on your LG TV (full pic)
LG seems to understand perfectly what customers want, but we doubt that the movie studios will be very excited about this piracy endorsement from the Koreans. Whether the pirated films were included intentionally is unknown, we expect that a company employee simply downloaded the movies off a file-sharing service out of habit or convenience.
Life's Good isn't it?
(via Fefe)
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2pU0I1zf4b8/ Post LinkHardTracker – Torrent Tracker For HardCore, HardStyle, Schranz & Other Music
Posted on: February 07, 2010We have posted about several music torrent trackers that focus on hardcore / hardstyle music here on FILEnetworks Blog before such as Underground Ravers. For those who love this music genre, here’s another private tracker that’s shown promising growth over the last couple of months. HardTracker is a relatively new BitTorrent site that tracks hardcore, hardstyle, schranz, frenchcore, terror,dnb, speedcore, etc music. It’s not a widely known site in the BT community but for a niche tracker that’s...
Kickasstorrents’ Top 5 Most Downloaded Music Albums
Posted on: February 07, 2010
Let’s check out what music file sharers have been downloading this week according to a top five compiled and posted by the guys at Kickasstorrents, a site we like a lot. The chart presented here applies for this site alone.
This week’s Kickasstorrents’ Music Top 5 is a bit pop-ish – it includes albums from Alicia Keys, Mary J Blige and Robbie Williams but also features a classic one undoubtedly addressed to more than one generation – a last year Beatles remastered greatest hits compilation.
1. Alicia Keys – The Element of Freedom;
2. Mary J Blige – Stronger With Each Tear;
3. Drake – So Far Gone;
4. Robbie Williams – Reality Killed The Video Star;
5. The Beatles – Greatest Hits (Remastered);
IFPI Claims “3-Strikes” Can Remove Single User, Not Household
Posted on: February 07, 2010Spokesperson also tells audience at the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net conference that there are “many conversations going on at different levels” about disconnecting repeat file-sharers in the US.
Last week the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee hosted the 6th Annual annual State of the Net Conference as part of its regular attempts to gather policymakers, the press, and the public to discuss important Internet-related policy issues.
As part of that conference there was a particularly interesting panel entitled: “Copyright Strikes: When Has a Pirate Graduated to Internet Exile?” It was essentially a discussion about a “three-strikes” graduated response system and what it means for Internet users.
When a representative from an unnamed ISP asked what disconnection would mean for households that rely on VOIP for their telephone services, emergency services like 9-11 especially, Shira Perlmutter, Executive Vice-President of Global Legal Policy for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), replied that ISPs would be able to make the necessary distinction between it and other Internet traffic (read: DPI).
The Honorable John Robertson, MP from the UK, said that it doesn't matter, that if someone's breaking the law with their Internet connection than their service should be “withdrawn.”
Perlmutter also seemed to downplay the effect Internet disconnection would have on a family, saying that in most cases Internet access would be suspended for only one account and may not affect a whole family. But, if a teenager is responsible for the infringement and costs his parents the account, how are they to regain Internet access? Sign up for an account under their kid's name?
“The response is disproportionate to the crime,” argued John Morris of the Center for Democracy of Technology, another of the discussion's panelists. He noted the importance of the Internet for education, business, and other aspects of society. He said a lawsuit was a more appropriate penalty.
His best point was that courts have repeatedly struck down individualized Internet bans even for child pornographers, a far, far more heinous online crime.
One judge ruled that “computers and Internet access have become virtually indispensable in the modern world of communication and information gathering,” and that just because they offer the “possibility” they can be used for illegal use “does not justify a total ban on Internet access.”
“It's hard to imagine how the defendant could function in a modern society,” read another ruling Morris cited.
As for possibility of a “three-strikes” regime coming to the US Perlmutter adds that there are “many conversations going on @ different levels.” Considering the lack of public input on the matter it just may be that it comes not by legislation, but by govt mandate or voluntary agreement between ISPs and copyright holders.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
[Hat Tip]
.
Watch the Panel Here
Fix STALKER : Call Of Pripyat Crashes, Launch Errors, X-Ray Engine Issues & More
Posted on: February 06, 2010The English version of the long awaited S.T.A.L.K.E.R : Call Of Pripyat (CoP) has finally hit the shelves. Russian version of this game was released back in November 2009. Although there were numerous RUS to English translation patches, subtitles, menu fixes, etc around, the NA and EU versions of the game which are targeted specifically at English speaking users are now out. If you’ve played the previous two STALKER games, most of you would agree with me when I say they had great gameplay. But...
uTorrent 2.0 Final (Build 2.0.17920) - Direct Download
Posted on: February 06, 2010After a number of beta builds and four Release Candidate (RC) builds, uTorrent v2.0 final has been released. It has been a long wait for fans of this popular BitTorrent client – final version has hit the web almost 6 months after the first public beta was released. As usual, no new features have been introduced in the final build that weren’t available in RC4 and changes are limited to a couple of bug fixes. Major new changes in uTorrent 2.0 (as revealed earlier) remain to be UDP support,...
STUDY: Only 1% of BitTorrent Files are “Non-Infringing”
Posted on: February 06, 2010Princeton senior investigates what kinds of files are available on mainline public BitTorrent tracker sites.
We all know BitTorrent is currently probably the most popular way for people to share files online, but not clear is the type and nature of those files. Sauhard Sahi, a Princeton senior, decided to answer these questions.
“Sauhard chose a (uniform) random sample of files available via the trackerless variant of BitTorrent, using the Mainline DHT,” reads a description of his efforts. “The sample comprised 1021 files. He classified the files in the sample by file type, language, and apparent copyright status.”
First are the results about the types of files available. Note that they only surveyed the Mainline trackerless BitTorrent system and did not take number of downloads into consideration, meaning that some may have never been downloaded, only that they were available.
The breakdown:
46% movies and shows (non-pornographic)
14% games and software
14% pornography
10% music
1% books and guides
1% images
14% could not classify
Sauhard also assessed the nature of the files, copyright-infringing or non-copyright infringing. For this they made “judgment calls” based on whether the files appeared to be (1) in the public domain, (2) freely available through legitimate channels, or (3) user-generated content.
He found that all of the 476 movies or TV shows in the sample were infringing, as were 141 of the 148 files in the games and software category. Of the 145 porn files one claimed to be an amateur video, and it was “given the benefit of the doubt as likely non-infringing.” As for the 98 music trackers, nearly all were likely infringing.
Some 13 of the fifteen files in the books/guides category were also likely copyright-infringing.
Moreover, using these standards he found that a startling 99% of all files were copyright-infringing!
“This result should be interpreted with caution, as we may have missed some non-infringing files, and our sample is of files available, not files actually downloaded,” cautions Ed Felten, the instructor who oversaw Sauhard's work. “Still, the result suggests strongly that copyright infringement is widespread among BitTorrent users.”
Copyright holders are going to love this one.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
uTorrent Reaches Milestone With 2.0 Release
Posted on: February 06, 2010
uTorrent for Windows saw its first public release in September 2005 and soon became the most widely used BitTorrent applications. The client is used by more than 50 million users worldwide and this number continues to rise.
Today, uTorrent version 2.0 was officially released. This new release is built to be more network friendly thanks to the Micro Transport Protocol (uTP) which aims to mitigate network congestion caused by poorly configured BitTorrent clients.
uTP is a new and improved implementation of the BitTorrent protocol which is designed to be more network friendly than its predecessor. The current implementation often causes interference with other applications. This is one of the main reasons why ISPs try to slow it down, or even stop it altogether. uTP aims to solve this problem.
Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management is quite proud of the end result, and told TorrentFreak that most ISPs have also responded positively to the implementation of the uTP protocol.
“In general the ISPs who we have explained the technology to have been quite pleasantly surprised. There are occasional noisy skeptics who think its something evil, but they are generally poor confused souls who are more interested in selling a centralized vision of the internet rather than the distributed egalitarian system we have today,” Morris said.
“I'm excited about uTP finally arriving at a full scale deployment on the internet and I really hope that ISPs take the time to understand the potential benefits to them before they take decisions about how to manage this new class of traffic on their networks,” he added.
Aside from being gentle to the ISP's networks, uTorrent 2.0 might also have a beneficial effect on the download speeds of individual users. Since there is less congestion, uTorrent users will experience no slowdowns in web-browsing.
Less congestion and a more efficient use of the network may eventually result in faster download speeds, which means that it will be a win-win situation for both ISPs and uTorrent users.
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/x66C3-6emwc/ Post LinkuTorrent Releases Version 2.0
Posted on: February 06, 2010
The long period of anticipation is over for uTorrent users, as the much-expected version 2.0 of the application was finally released. The development team behind the popular uTorrent application is optimistic that the new version will enhance users’ download experience, while eliminating the need for ISPs to monitor BitTorrent traffic on a regular basis.
uTorrent for Windows has come a long way since it was first introduced to the public back in September 2005. The application is now extensively utilized and so is the BitTorrent, which has gathered over 50 million users worldwide.
The latest version of the uTorrent application was particularly designed for optimized use of network resources, thanks to the Micro Transport Protocol (uTP) aimed at reducing network overloads associated with improperly structured BitTorrent clients. Implementation of the new uTP protocol is intended to eliminate clashes with other applications, and therefore will no longer require sustained corrective intervention from ISPs.
BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management Simon Morris is satisfied with the development team’s achievement, which has also been complemented by most ISPs after realizing the positive impact the new uTP protocol will have on network fluency.
“In general the ISPs who we have explained the technology to have been quite pleasantly surprised. There are occasional noisy skeptics who think its something evil, but they are generally poor confused souls who are more interested in selling a centralized vision of the internet rather than the distributed egalitarian system we have today,” Morris announced in a public statement.
“I’m excited about uTP finally arriving at a full scale deployment on the internet and I really hope that ISPs take the time to understand the potential benefits to them before they take decisions about how to manage this new class of traffic on their networks,” he then concluded.
uTorrent 2.0 has indeed great potential to free valuable network resources, which is good news for both ISPs and individual users, who will benefit from higher download speeds. Enthusiasts of the application are convinced that it will provide a considerably improved web-browsing experience.
(via TorrentFreak)
http://www.p2pon.com/2010/02/04/utorrent-releases-version-2-0/ Post LinkMovie Studios Lose Landmark Case Against Aussie ISP
Posted on: February 06, 2010
The Federal Court has today ruled in favor of Aussie ISP iiNet following a copyright infringement case instigated by AFACT, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft.
Last year several studios including Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Disney Enterprises, Inc. and the Seven Network took legal action against iiNet, claiming that the ISP did nothing to stop its customers from sharing copyright media via BitTorrent.
The ISP refuted the claim with a multi-layered defense, which was heard then adjourned in November 2009.
Passing his verdict today, Justice Cowdroy ruled that while the studio's copyrights had indeed been infringed upon, iiNet did not authorize the copyright infringing activities of its subscribers and therefore the ISP could not be held responsible.
Notably, Justice Cowdroy said that iiNet had no control over BitTorrent networks and the ISP was covered under so-called “safe harbor” provisions.
“It is impossible to conclude that iiNet has authorised copyright infringement ... [iiNet] did not have relevant power to prevent infringements occurring,” Justice Cowdroy said in his judgment.
AFACT had insisited during the original court case that iiNet should forward copyright infringement warnings to its customers on behalf of AFACT members, but the judge ruled that this was not the way copyright infringements should be handled.
Electronic Frontiers Australia said the outcome of the case was the “application of common sense” and Pirate Party Australia also welcomed the decision.
“This is a good decision by Justice Cowdroy, and reflects that there is no legal basis or obligation for any ISP to act in the interest of copyright holders, or to expect that they should disconnect any entity upon allegation of infringement without judicial oversight and due process,” said Rodney Serkowski, Party Secretary.
“Essentially an ISP should be considered similar to the postal service – they simply carry data in the form of packets, and that communication should be considered private,” he added.
In a statement, iiNet said it had “never supported or encouraged breaches of the law, including infringement of the Copyright Act of the Telecommunications Act,” adding that the company had always been a “good corporate citizen and an even better copyright citizen.”
After the huge distraction of this prolonged legal battle, iiNet said it would now like to get on with business, adding that it looks forward to working with the entertainment industry to make content available legally to reduce illicit file-sharing.
AFACT executive director, Neil Gane, said his group was extremely disappointed with the Court's ruling.
“Today’s decision is a set back for the 50,000 Australians employed in the film industry,” he said in a statement.
“But we believe this decision was based on a technical finding centered on the Court’s interpretation of the how infringements occur and the ISPs’ ability to control them. We are confident that the Government does not intend a policy outcome where rampant copyright infringement is allowed to continue unaddressed and unabated via the iiNet network,” he added.
AFACT will have to pay all of iiNet's substantial legal costs. Thus far, the group has declined to confirm whether it will appeal the Court's decision.
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9PQ-FS8BDtM/ Post LinkUK ISP Talk Talk: Copyright Bill Will Increase Piracy
Posted on: February 05, 2010Warns that Digital Economy Bill, as written, will only “hasten the migration away from P2P” as people develop tools and applications to evade anti-piracy measures.
Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone is calling for the Government to come to its senses over its threat to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet.
Dunstone was speaking at an event hosted by Carphone's ISP TalkTalk as part of its TalkTalk's “Don't Disconnect Us” campaign. He was joined by representatives from Which?, civil rights groups Liberty and the Open Rights Group, and the recently founded Pirate Party, all of whom are lobbying the Government to amend the proposed Digital Economy Bill.
“All we really want is for people to see the sense of what people are threatening to do to customers,” said Dunstone. “We feel very, very simply that there are laws in the UK that protect intellectual property rights. If you feel someone has taken your intellectual property rights, please take them to court.”
One of the main problems is that sanctions cannot target the actual person responsible, but only the IP address responsible. For households that share Internet access, i.e. families, etc., this a rather important problem. There's also the concern that households that rely on VOIP for telephone services could lose access to emergency services.
Dunstone adds that the proposed legislation will only lead to the development of new tools and applications to circumvent any proposed anti-piracy measures. People and technology will not simply surrender and go home.
“The measures in the Digital Economy Bill will hasten the migration away from P2P, ignite the development of new tools and popularize the notion that stealing content is socially acceptable, akin to breaking the speed limit by one or two miles per hour,” he told the audience. “The inevitable consequence of persisting with this legislation will be to increase the moral chasm between labels and fans and between government and citizens.”
He emphasized that everyone agrees copyright infringement is illegal, but that trying to fight P2P ignores real world realities.
“We do not encourage, condone or profit from it,” he continued. “But we live in the real world and it is clear that the Digital Economy Bill is futile and will only hasten the development of more beneath-the-radar tools and applications. The old model just cannot work in the digital age.”
Dunstone blames copyright holders for causing the problem in the first place by trying to dictate when and where consumers can view and listen to content.
UK ISP Talk Talk, which claims to be the country’s largest broadband provider with over 4.25 million customers, has long been “dismayed” by the govt’s “u-turn on illegal file-sharing.” It, along with Carphone Warehouse, were the first ISPs to reject any efforts to force them to “impinge its customers’ rights and restrict their freedom of use of the internet.”
It's also the one that showed just how easily pirates can hijack the connections of unsuspecting customers.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
File Sharing Community upgraded
Posted on: February 05, 2010 |
The FileSharingZ.com File Sharing Community has been totally reinvented. Our file sharing community lets you interact with other file sharers, discuss the latest trends or get help for a computer problem you've been having. Recommended you sign up now. |
Pirate Bay’s VPN Service Goes Public
Posted on: February 05, 2010Ipredator offers safe, encrypted communication between you and the Internet for only $7 bucks a month.
Last March I mentioned how BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay would begin Beta testing a new VPN service called Ipredator which would allow file-sharers to download copyrighted material anonymously.
The name Ipredator is a spin on the Swedish Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) that went into affect last April and forces ISPs to divulge the name of customers suspected by copyright holders of infringement.
The service was eventually introduced last June, but has remained in a Beta-testing phase since then. Late last week it announced the service was finally open to everyone.
Ipredator costs about € 15 ($21 USD) for 3 months, a small price to pay for peace of mind.
“For only 149 SEK (that's about 15 EUR / 21 USD) per 3 months you will get safe, encrypted communication between you and the internet, with no logging of the data transferred,” it says. “It's of our utmost concern that you can use the network without anyone deciding what you're can communicate about.”
It adds that the more people who use the service the better because it means it will have more funds to “build more tools.”
“At the same time the users clearly show that they want to be anonymous,” it continues. “It sends a very clear message to the politicians!”
Indeed it does.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
Best BitTorrent Trackers To Download British (UK) TV Shows
Posted on: February 05, 2010Lots of people tend to download television series via BitTorrent these days – there are even specialized TV trackers online that cater the needs of such users. However, most of these TV torrent sites focus mainly on series that are based on the United States (or Canada). But what if you want to download shows made in the United Kingdom (UK)? There are many UK based shows such as Doctor Who, The IT Crowd, BBC Documentaries, etc that hugely popular across the world and there are no doubt many...
Net Neutrality Wont Prevent BitTorrent Blocking
Posted on: February 05, 2010
Although Comcast has been at the center of the BitTorrent blocking and Net Neutrality debate, they are certainly not the only Internet provider targeting the popular file-sharing protocol.
All around the world, hundreds of larger and smaller ISPs are actively interfering with BitTorrent traffic, allegedly to keep their networks in good shape. Thus far, only Comcast has been punished for doing so.
In 2008 the FCC looked into Comcast's BitTorrent blocking and concluded that the company's network management practices were unfair because they specifically targeted BitTorrent, not any other protocols.
The FCC ordered Comcast to stop blocking BitTorrent transfers, and last year the communications commission decided to take up the task of ensuring that the Internet remains neutral. At least, that was the initial plan, the reality is less hopeful.
Although it was Comcast's anti-BitTorrent measures that sparked the current Net Neutrality debate, the FCC's current proposals are not going to stop ISPs from slowing down or even blocking BitTorrent traffic. In fact, if these rules are implemented, BitTorrent users will be worse off than three years ago.
In the 107 page proposal detailing the Net Neutrality regulation, the FCC says that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally, but it allows ISPs to slow down or block traffic if it's considered to be “reasonable network management”.
So the key issue is, what are reasonable network management practices and how may these affect BitTorrent traffic? Let's take a look at what the FCC has to say about this.
Reasonable network management consists of reasonable practices employed by a provider of broadband Internet access service to [...] (i) reduce or mitigate the effects of congestion on its network or to address quality-of-service concerns; [...] (iii) prevent the transfer of unlawful content; or (iv) prevent the unlawful transfer of content.
In short, this means that ISPs have plenty of options to target BitTorrent traffic and keep the Net Neutral at the same time. Let's take a closer look.
As the EFF has also pointed out, the latter two conditions (iii and iv) would make it perfectly reasonable to block BitTorrent traffic for the purpose of preventing piracy. The terminology is rather vague, but we expect that when the MPAA or RIAA produce a report stating that 95% of all BitTorrent traffic involves copyright violations, blocking BitTorrent may become perfectly reasonable.
And that's just one of the many loopholes. There are also plenty of options for ISPs to target BitTorrent traffic without going for the piracy/copyright angle. In fact, congestion issues and quality-of-service concerns are even more viable and can be implemented to target BitTorrent traffic specifically, but indirectly.
Under the proposed plans, ISPs could simply manage their networks by slowing down connections that use “too many” TCP connections, one of the key characteristics of BitTorrent traffic. There are plenty of arbitrary rules that may look reasonable and neutral, but will specifically (not exclusively) hinder BitTorrent transfers to ease the strain on the network.
In fact, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which develops and promotes Internet standards is working on a proposal that might kill BitTorrent traffic if implemented. The proposed protocol will mark all packets which are expected to cause congestion as “negative packets,” which is likely to apply to and slow down most peer-to-peer traffic.
One way or another, the FCC's Net Neutrality plan is no guarantee that BitTorrent will be able to download at full speeds. On the contrary, the plans might actually encourage ISPs to use Deep Packet Inspection technologies to check if the traffic of its subscribers is lawful, if it's the last resort to slow down BitTorrent. We don't want that to happen do we?
Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.
http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-9dHIwEN8UA/ Post LinkPunk Filesharing Protest Song Wins Stephen Fry/TalkTalk Competition
Posted on: February 05, 2010
TalkTalk’s campaign against UK Government’s plans to impose the notorious “three strikes” law and the entire debate sparked by Lord Mandelson’s anti-piracy proposals altogether was of great interest for us right from the start as you could easily see from our posts.
As we have previously pointed out, such a law would be a serious blow to the people’s freedom on the Internet since alleged file sharers would have their Internet connections cut off without the guarantee of a fair trial prior to that. Moreover, as TalkTalk has underlined a number of times, this absurd measure not only will fail to prevent illegal file sharing but will cause a dramatic increase in Wi-fi theft.
While we would incline to believe we’ve come a long way since the human rights were originally conceived, the truth is a lot of things give reasons to doubt that lately. Some countries have already adopted this measure but we still hope UK will not join them.
If you want to get actively involved in the campaign all you have to do is sign the TalkTalk’s petition against the Government’s plans which has so far received over 32,000 signatures on the Number 10 website: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/
Last month we reported again about the “Don’t Disconnect Us” campaign initiated by the broadband services provider TalkTalk. Along with the campaign a competition was then launched – Stephen Fry/TalkTalk competition (http://www.dontdisconnect.us/category/competition/) to sustain the primary objective of the campaign – that of preventing Mandelson’s proposals to be converted into law.
The competition as well as the campaign was welcomed by a impressive number of people, from artists, bloggers, software developers to the average Internet users. However, the competition is now over and, of course, like any other competition it has a winner (watch the video at the end of the post)
TalkTalk emailed us about the outcome of the competition so here’s an excerpt from the message:
Only Idiots Assume (www.dontdisconnect.us/category/winners) written by Londoner Liam Mullone and sung by his friend Hils Barker, is a stinging attack on the Government’s plans to disconnect people suspected of watching films and music online without paying for the privilege.
Fry selected the song to win a competition organised by TalkTalk, Britain’s biggest provider of broadband to homes.
“I am insanely in love with Only Idiots Assume,” said Stephen Fry. “It’s got the anger, the wit, the musical skill – all in a wonderful package that reminds me of the high days of my youth when punk roamed the land and the young were angry and funny and spunky and spiky.”
Liam Mullone, who, along with Hils Barker, is carving out a successful career on the comedy circuit, described the entry as a “ska-punk reply to Peter Mandelson”. Lord Mandelson is the minister behind the Digital Economy Bill which contains the controversial copyright protection clauses. The Bill is making its way through Parliament and may become law before the election.“I’m used to having my material taken because you can’t protect a joke,” said Liam. “I sympathise with any artist who gets discouraged at the thought of not making a living. But just because a problem is bigger than the government’s imagination, it isn’t bigger than the Magna Carta or the principle of due process.
“Assuming that people with high download volumes are stealing stuff is like calling someone a witch because they have a black cat. It’s a medieval premise.”
Facebook Desktop Client From Microsoft Based on Silverlight
Posted on: February 04, 2010Here’s a nice little application for FaceBook addicts out there. It’s a small piece of software based on Microsoft Silverlight that allows users manage their Facebook accounts right from the Windows desktop. What’s special about this app is that it’s developed and maintained by Microsoft itself (we’re not only talking about Silverlight but of the FB client as well). While it’s a very nice looking piece of software with several cool features, keep in mind that it’s still in beta. You will need...
BitTorrent More BitTorrent Reviews and Articles Comming Soon
Azureus More Azureus Reviews and Articles Comming Soon
Bitcomet More Bitcomet Reviews and Articles Comming Soon