file sharing | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 30 Nov 2017 15:09:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png file sharing | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Yesterday’s macOS security patch fixed the root login bug, but it also broke file sharing https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/yesterdays-macos-security-patch-fixed-the-root-login-bug-but-it-also-broke-file-sharing/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/yesterdays-macos-security-patch-fixed-the-root-login-bug-but-it-also-broke-file-sharing/#comments Thu, 30 Nov 2017 12:10:21 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=356073 Yesterday, an alarming macOS bug came to light that allowed you to access any system running High Sierra simply by typing Root at the login screen and pressing enter twice. This posed as a huge security issue, leading to Apple pushing out an emergency patch. Unfortunately, it seems that in the rush, Apple's software team …

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Yesterday, an alarming macOS bug came to light that allowed you to access any system running High Sierra simply by typing Root at the login screen and pressing enter twice. This posed as a huge security issue, leading to Apple pushing out an emergency patch. Unfortunately, it seems that in the rush, Apple's software team has broken file sharing.

The root login issue came to light yesterday morning, with Apple pushing out a patch later that afternoon. This patch has been a double-edged sword though, as macOS High Sierra users are now reporting that they can't properly connect to file share systems in businesses and on home networks.

Apple has acknowledged the problem and provided a manual fix for users to try. It involves opening up the Terminal app, and typing “sudo /usr/libexec/configureLocalKDC”, then you press enter, type in your admin password, hit enter again and you should be good to go.

On the plus side, breaking file sharing seems like the lesser of the two evils here, but this adds to growing concern surrounding Apple's software team. The company has been criticized for buggy updates since merging the iOS and macOS software teams. In the wake of this, Apple has apologized, and promised to do better in the future with more stringent quality control checks.

KitGuru Says: Hopefully the errors encountered this week will give Apple the push it needs to invest more in its software team. Issues like this make it seem clear that having one team managing both iOS and macOS is becoming a bit of a struggle.

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France’s biggest file sharing site has been shut down by Police https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/frances-biggest-file-sharing-site-has-been-shut-down-by-police/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/frances-biggest-file-sharing-site-has-been-shut-down-by-police/#respond Tue, 29 Nov 2016 12:45:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=313304 The biggest file sharing website in France, Zone-Telechargement, has been shut down after being seized by the police. This will see millions of file sharers looking elsewhere for their content, as Zone-Telechargement was ranked as the 11th biggest website in France at the time of its shutdown. Launched in 2011, Zone-Telechargement rose to prominence after …

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The biggest file sharing website in France, Zone-Telechargement, has been shut down after being seized by the police. This will see millions of file sharers looking elsewhere for their content, as Zone-Telechargement was ranked as the 11th biggest website in France at the time of its shutdown.

Launched in 2011, Zone-Telechargement rose to prominence after the shutdown of Kim Dotcom's MegaUpload, which was a popular source of file sharing within France before its takedown in January 2012.

The French government made the announcement of the shutdown following a few hours of confusion after its initial disappearance. It claimed that the site has cost the French media industry some 75 million euros in losses. While those sorts of stats are always a little hard to confirm, Zone-Telechargement did allow direct downloads of copyright protected content, which isn't very easy to defend.

zonetelechargement

Source: Debrideurs

TorrentFreak has it that the operators of this site, also ran another direct download site, known as DL-Protect. The shutdown of both sites led to the arrest of seven individuals from the Andorran region between France and Spain, with two still in custody. Police really took those charged to task, seizing assets like cars, real estate and bank accounts.

Over the past few years, the two sites are said to have generated some 10 million euros in advertising funds.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While of course we know that the visitors to such sites will simply go elsewhere for their file sharing needs, this is quite an impressive takedown for the authorities. It's rare that they get such big targets in one fell swoop. 

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UK government wants 10 year jail sentences for online piracy https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/uk-government-wants-10-year-jail-sentences-for-online-piracy/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/uk-government-wants-10-year-jail-sentences-for-online-piracy/#comments Fri, 22 Apr 2016 13:38:30 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=290287 Following on from an almost year-long consultation on the matter, the UK government has decided that two-year maximum prison sentences for those caught sharing copyrighted material online might not be enough, and now wants to push for a ten-year maximum sentence instead. According to an Intellectual Property Office report, this is partially down to the …

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Following on from an almost year-long consultation on the matter, the UK government has decided that two-year maximum prison sentences for those caught sharing copyrighted material online might not be enough, and now wants to push for a ten-year maximum sentence instead.

According to an Intellectual Property Office report, this is partially down to the fact that the penalty for physical copyright infringement is ten years, so an increased sentence for online pirates would bring the two more in-line: “These offences are currently punishable by a maximum of two years' imprisonment. By comparison, the maximum custodial sentence for infringement in respect of physical goods is 10 years”.

Piracy-Its-a-Crime-e14059506615481

“In July 2015, the government consulted on proposed changes to the maximum term for online copyright infringement, increasing it from two to 10 years to make it consistent with the penalty for physical copyright infringement”. Apparently this new ten-year sentence has been settled on despite objections from the Open Rights Group (ORG), amongst others.

However, The Inquirer got in touch with ORG for comment on the matter, who noted that while the maximum sentence for online piracy could increase, the minister has committed to narrowing the scope of the offence: “We note that the minister has committed to narrowing the scope of the offence. We need to see that it relates to genuinely commercial infringements,” said Jim Killock, executive director at the ORG.

It is also worth noting that the Intellectual Property Office report on this matter notes that a “response system” is in place that will give infringers a warning, likely in the form of a cease and desist, before they get hit with criminal charges.

KitGuru Says: The UK government has been making a lot of effort to crack down on piracy in the last few years and it looks like that isn't slowing down any time soon. There are still a few stages this proposal has to go through first before it becomes law anyway so we should get more details later on. 

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Pirate Bay return far from smooth sailing https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/pirate-bay-return-far-from-smooth-sailing/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/pirate-bay-return-far-from-smooth-sailing/#respond Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:42:43 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=236274 The return of the Pirate Bay at the beginning of February should have been a triumphant one, with fans and staff happy to see the classic face of online file sharing back to its old self. Unfortunately for them though, its rebirth has been anything but that. On top of many of the staff being …

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The return of the Pirate Bay at the beginning of February should have been a triumphant one, with fans and staff happy to see the classic face of online file sharing back to its old self. Unfortunately for them though, its rebirth has been anything but that. On top of many of the staff being forcibly removed from helping to manage it, it has experienced severe downtime and with a lack of staff, fake files and malware are rife.

As usual, hosting companies are proving wary of providing a port in the storm for TPB and have been taking it down when they receive notices to do as such from various sources. This has meant that the site has been up and down various times over the past two weeks, with the admins claiming that finding a stable and willing host has been the biggest challenge so far.

phoenix2
Despite its phoenix imagery, TPB's return has been far from firey

To make matters worse, spam has become a major issue. With the skeleton crew now running the site without many of the long-standing admins and moderators, those looking to capitalise on the site's high traffic, low oversight, have been doing so in droves, with malicious links and fake files. Funnily enough, the admin that kicked them all out has now said he would welcome some of them back in the future.

“After hosting issues are resolved I’ll talk to some old mods,” he said in a chat with TorrentFreak. “If they want to continue then it’s okay, but I won’t look for new mods. Someone from the old team will have to be in charge of that.”

While you might assume that the shunned mods may be disinterested in helping out the people behind the site, in-fact many are keen to get back to work, suggesting that they just want to help keep The Pirate Bay clean from spam and malware.

At the time of writing The Pirate Bay is not accessible. Again.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I'm quite impressed how altruistic the old mods are being. Then again, if you were working unpaid on a site for over a decade, I suppose you'd have to be pretty selfless. 

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Rapidshare will close. No longer feels like sharing https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/brendan-morgan/rapidshare-will-close-no-longer-feels-like-sharing/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/brendan-morgan/rapidshare-will-close-no-longer-feels-like-sharing/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2015 22:13:31 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=235018 Filesharing sites tend to have pretty short lives, with most popular sites being forced to call it a day after a few years at most. Rapidshare has been though its share of ups and downs, but it has been around for a long time now, since it was first founded in 2002 almost 13 years ago. Now …

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Filesharing sites tend to have pretty short lives, with most popular sites being forced to call it a day after a few years at most. Rapidshare has been though its share of ups and downs, but it has been around for a long time now, since it was first founded in 2002 almost 13 years ago. Now it's time as one of the top file hosting and sharing sites is coming to an end, with the Swiss company shutting down on the 31st of March, 2015

In 2009 it claimed to be hosting over 10 petabytes of files uploaded by users to its servers, while we don't know how much that has changed recently, this closure will definitely result in a lot of dead links to older content that the site hosted. Previously counted as one of the top 50 most used sites on the internet, Rapidshare has fallen a long way since then, now languishing at an Alexa rank of 5,006.
RapidshareHQ
It seems that the rise of several other large file sharing sites such as Megaupload and now Mega in the last few years have hit the company pretty hard. In February 2014 it gave 23 out of 24 employees a choice to quit or be fired and has been running for the last year with only one employee, who was there to answer phones and deal with any paid account issues.

It has also been at the center of several court cases over the years, with various copyright holders taking action against it. As recently as 2013 it also tried to reinvent itself as a business cloud storage services provider, but it seems that this has not given it the profit that it needs to survive.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it is sad to see a well-known site close up shop and delete petabytes of files, it seems that this has been coming for a long time. Have you used Rapidshare at all over the years or are you fond of another file sharing site?

Source: ArsTechnica
Photo source: Wikimedia – Schulerst

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The Pirate Bay is back… sometimes https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/the-pirate-bay-is-back-sometimes/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/the-pirate-bay-is-back-sometimes/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2015 11:37:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=233441 The Pirate Bay, perhaps the world's most well known torrent site, is officially back online after weeks of downtime, marking the site's longest outage in its 11+ year history. However, it isn't all smooth sailing, as despite its seeming imperviousness to traffic spikes and overloaded servers before its downing, TPB has struggled with error messages …

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The Pirate Bay, perhaps the world's most well known torrent site, is officially back online after weeks of downtime, marking the site's longest outage in its 11+ year history. However, it isn't all smooth sailing, as despite its seeming imperviousness to traffic spikes and overloaded servers before its downing, TPB has struggled with error messages since its return as fans flood to see its resurfaced homepage once again.

TPB officially returned as of yesterday, marking the end to the month long timer that sprung up a short while ago, counting down until the site's comeback. It wasn't always certain, with hints along the way suggesting that it would probably come back to the file sharing community, but some admins expressed doubt as to whether it was even needed since so many copycat versions sprang up.

phoenix2
The phoenix image has been prominent since TPB's initial return

However perhaps those same admins are no longer working at the site and that that's the reason it's currently suffering down time? Late last week, several former admins and moderators of the site found themselves displaced and unable to work on the new version of the site, with the apparent newly crowned king of TPB suggesting that they didn't need help from the decade old admin team.

In response, they announced that they'd be launching their own version of the archived Pirate Bay before long. It will be hosted on a different domain, but will be more reminiscent of the Pirate Bay of old according to staffers.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Of course none of you should be visiting such sites as The Pirate Bay, but for those of you that love ignoring our advice, have you been able to access it?

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Fallout at TPB, admins and moderators jumping ship https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/fallout-at-tpb-admins-and-moderators-jumping-ship/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/fallout-at-tpb-admins-and-moderators-jumping-ship/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2015 12:19:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=232931 The past month has seen many a file sharer await with baited breath the return of the infamous Pirate Bay torrent search site. Since its downing late last year, its future has been up in the air, but in February at least, it looks likely to return. However, according to some people purportedly close to …

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The past month has seen many a file sharer await with baited breath the return of the infamous Pirate Bay torrent search site. Since its downing late last year, its future has been up in the air, but in February at least, it looks likely to return. However, according to some people purportedly close to the situation, there's been quite a squabble behind the scenes, leading to moderators and administrators that have been with the site for years, leaving to potentially start up their own site in the near future.

TorrentFreak has been speaking with some people behind the scenes of the iconic P2P site and has found that there's been quite a fallout over the site's return. While there hasn't yet been any sort of official announcement from anyone, the word on the digital street is that when TPB returns, it will be a trimmed down version, with a lot less staffers than it had before the take down – and a lot of them aren't happy.

These are the behind the scenes guys that nobody was really aware of, who spent their time cracking down on spam and fake torrents.

tpb3
Yesterday the official PirateBay domain added a Phoenix logo to its homepage

“I wish I had better news to come with. The launch that is about to take place on February 1 is not us,” said WTC-SWE, one of the lead admins of The Pirate Bay.

“It was until some dickhead decided to take TPB crew out of the picture. He thinks a site can be run without any staff at all and at the same time keeping up with fakes, internal issues etc,” he added.

Many of the staffers that have been ‘let go' from their Pirate Bay duties have been with it for over a decade and are understandably unhappy about the site's new direction. In protest, they've brought down the official Pirate Bay IRC channel and will launch their own version of the site with a new domain, using a back up of the original Pirate Bay.

It will take some time they said, but the ‘real' TPB, that is, the one run by the people that helped keep the original alive, will be coming back soon.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While we don't recommend you use any torrent sites, I know there's some TPB fans out there. Which version of the site will you support?

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Pirate Bay still popping up, added Phoenix https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/pirate-bay-still-popping-up-added-phoenix/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/pirate-bay-still-popping-up-added-phoenix/#respond Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:42:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=232456 Visiting the Pirate Bay in the last few years has felt like stepping back in time. Its design never really changed, apart from a few new homepage links and the creation of the promo-bay. And yet in the last couple of months change is all we've seen from TPB. After it was taken down in early …

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Visiting the Pirate Bay in the last few years has felt like stepping back in time. Its design never really changed, apart from a few new homepage links and the creation of the promo-bay. And yet in the last couple of months change is all we've seen from TPB. After it was taken down in early December, it appeared back online shortly after with pirate flag logo and pop ups. Since then much has been added and the countdown timer keeps ticking down, but today, TPB has renovated its homepage with a phoenix.

As TorrentFreak points out, this is the second time that the site has featured the mythical bird which signifies rebirth. After the site was taken down by the authorities back in 2006, it reappeared online shortly after featuring a modified PirateBay logo emblazoned with a phoenix, prompting the site's impending return. Perhaps then, this new addition of a Phoenix to a counting down timer, is the admins' way of saying that it's not long until the site returns.

tpb3

Of course that's what most have been expecting all along, but it was not exactly certain since this is the longest the site has ever been down – or at least without functionality – since it was born over 10 years ago.

Ultimately it looks like we're going to have to wait until the 1st February to find out.

KitGuru Says: Be aware that visiting TPB at the moment and clicking anywhere still results in popup images which may be malicious in nature.

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UK continues to lazily block streaming sites https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/uk-continues-to-lazily-block-streaming-sites/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/uk-continues-to-lazily-block-streaming-sites/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2014 11:02:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=181566 Despite knowing that they're incredibly easy to get around, a new High Court ruling this week has once again forced the top ISPs, BT, Sky, Virgin, O2, EE and TalkTalk to initiate DNS blocks on media link and streaming websites, because of their affiliation with copyright protected content. The sites in question, are  Megashare, Viooz, Watch32 …

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Despite knowing that they're incredibly easy to get around, a new High Court ruling this week has once again forced the top ISPs, BT, Sky, Virgin, O2, EE and TalkTalk to initiate DNS blocks on media link and streaming websites, because of their affiliation with copyright protected content.

The sites in question, are  Megashare, Viooz, Watch32 and Zmovie, all of which will be unreachable through standard browsers sometime soon, if you're a customer of any of the above companies. Of course though, anyone visiting these sites is likely to be aware of proxies and other simple circumvention techniques, so it seems unlikely any traffic dips will be particularly noticeable.

viooze
The largest of the bunch, Viooz is almost in the top 400 sites in the UK

As TorrentFreak points out, one of the worrying parts of rulings like this, is that the sites in question rarely host the content themselves, merely linking to it. This would potentially put companies as large as Google in the firing line, though due to its huge legal funds, it's unlikely to be targeted. Courts and lobby groups have been taking down link sites for years though, perhaps most famously in 2007 with the shut down of TvLinks and the arrest of its owner.

This latest High Court filing was pushed forward by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the Motion Pictured Association of America (MPAA) and as usual went completely uncontested by any of the ISPs, so there was no chance of the ruling turning out any other way. This continues to be a puzzling move by all service providers, since there is precedent for combating copyright lobby demands. In The Netherlands recently, lobby group BRIEN was defeated by the country's major ISP, Ziggo, allowing it to rescind all previous block orders.

KitGuru Says: These blocks won't do much in the long run, simply pushing the content further underground rather than eliminating it. I do wish media lobby groups would push for more legal services, rather than trying to take down the illegal ones. People only watch it on these sites because it's cheaper and easier to access than what's on offer legitimately. 

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YIFY founder retiring, but uploads to continue https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/yify-founder-retiring-but-uploads-to-continue/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/yify-founder-retiring-but-uploads-to-continue/#comments Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:23:38 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=174140 The founder of YIFY Torrents, one of the most beloved movie rippers and uploaders in the torrent scene, has announced his impending retirement. However, he's urged fans not to be too upset, as YIFY will continue as always, with a new person at the helm and a few small changes. YIFY has only been around …

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The founder of YIFY Torrents, one of the most beloved movie rippers and uploaders in the torrent scene, has announced his impending retirement. However, he's urged fans not to be too upset, as YIFY will continue as always, with a new person at the helm and a few small changes.

YIFY has only been around as a brand for a few years, but it quickly became one of the most popular upload groups around, because of its consistency with big releases and low file sizes. Quality on a YIFY release, particularly the audio, might not be up to the standards of other uploaders and some of the more vocal ‘fan'base, but its regular uploads of watchable quality content have led YIFY to become a household name on the scene; one the owner is now leaving.

yts
The YTS rebranding has already begun

“After two and half years of running the YIFY-Torrents website, and almost four years of being involved in the torrent community, I have decided that the time has come for a new challenge. As much as I have loved being able to provide content for all of you, it is simply time for a change in my life,” he explained (via TorrentFreak).

While he assures everyone that uploads will continue in the same style as always, there will be a new person handling encoding (OTTO) and a new website manager (Seraph), as well as a bit of a rebrand of the whole group's image. YIFY is set to be rechristened YTS for its website and anything linked to it, however the YIFY tag will remain on all videos so people know who it's coming from. In-fact, if you don't visit YIFY outside of your favourite torrent site, then you will be unlikely to notice a difference.

Ultimately YIFY – who's nickname inspired the group name – said that he was thankful for everyone's support over the years and that they were the reason he did it for so long.

KitGuru Says: As YIFY rides off into the sunset, it will be interesting to note if any changes do happen within the group now that he fearless leader has moved on. Are there any that you guys would like to see?

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ISP’s call out useless site blocks https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/isps-call-out-useless-site-blocks/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/isps-call-out-useless-site-blocks/#comments Mon, 25 Nov 2013 17:02:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=164341 The US is playing world police again and leaning on Switzerland this time to crack down on its high levels of piracy. However, not everyone is cool with that this time around, as local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been standing up and protesting the proposed site blocks. “The United States strongly encourages Switzerland to …

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The US is playing world police again and leaning on Switzerland this time to crack down on its high levels of piracy. However, not everyone is cool with that this time around, as local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been standing up and protesting the proposed site blocks.

“The United States strongly encourages Switzerland to demonstrate its commitment to copyright protection and to combating online piracy vigorously, including by taking steps to ensure that rights holders can protect their rights,” quotes TorrentFreak from a secretive US report. It goes on to suggest that sites be blocked and that those found to be illegally sharing copyright protected material, should be sent warnings. More than that though, there's also been discussion on ISPs being forced to delete content from Swiss websites if it's found to be illegal.

Of course no ISP has been invited to these secretive US/Swiss meetings, but they're aware of the goings on and have begun to comment.

“The Justice Department [will take measures] that affect the Internet and hosting providers but have not invited them to the working group. Accordingly, useless ideas have now emerged,” says Franz Grüter, managing director of ISP Green.ch.

surfentelefonien
“Surfen brah. Let's do it on the telefonieren.”

He also went on to criticise the entire idea of tracking what a user looks at online – something that has become common place in the UK – suggesting that that led down a road of totalitarianism.

Backing up these claims was the president of industry association Simsa, Andrej Vcjkovski, who said: “We reject the monitoring of Internet traffic on principle, because to have exceptions opens a dangerous door. Suddenly, it would be conceivable, for example, to filter political content.”

If policies like this actually become implemented, it seems likely that there will be real teething issues. If the problems with DMCA take-downs are anything to go by, we'll have ISPs banning their own websites and files being deleted that don't even belong to the company issuing the deletion order.

KitGuru Says: While it's great to see the Swiss ISPs standing up to the law makers, unlike here where they seem to just roll over, the changes being proposed are far harsher than a simple site block. File deletion orders could get so, so messy. 

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$100 gadget to block the NSA https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/base-unit/matthew-wilson/100-gadget-to-block-the-nsa/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/base-unit/matthew-wilson/100-gadget-to-block-the-nsa/#comments Mon, 30 Sep 2013 14:06:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=155134 John McAfee wants to protect us from the NSA, with a d-central device that communicates directly with your devices to create a private network – this network would be inaccessible to the government. The technology has been planned for a few years, but with the recent NSA leaks, work on the device has intensified. It's …

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John McAfee wants to protect us from the NSA, with a d-central device that communicates directly with your devices to create a private network – this network would be inaccessible to the government.

The technology has been planned for a few years, but with the recent NSA leaks, work on the device has intensified. It's about six months away from the prototype phase with a design already in place.

As far as hitting retail shelves goes, it may never happen as it could be criminalised. That said, John McAfee wants to sell this device to people even if it gets banned in the US. When asked about legal concerns he stated: Of course it will be used for nefarious purposes, just like the telephone is used for nefarious purposes.”

One of the main uses to come out if this could be long range local file sharing. This could make sharing movies and music across campus's undetectable, safe and reliable.

abc_mcafee_in_usa_thg_121213_wg

KitGuru Says: Considering this product has already being boasted as the NSA blocker, along with all the potential it has for encrypted file sharing, it's unlikely the US government will let this become a mainstream product. That said, John seems determined to get this out at any cost so maybe, while not a mainstream device, people could still get their hands on it.

Source: The Verge

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CNET can keep its torrent client downloads, court rules https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/cnet-can-keep-its-torrent-client-downloads-court-rules/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/cnet-can-keep-its-torrent-client-downloads-court-rules/#respond Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:38:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=125981 Last week we heard how a coalition of artists and one billionaire had targeted CNET's Download.com with legal action, hoping that the court would ban it from distributing the file sharing software uTorrent. However a court has now ruled that the site is more than within its right to continue doing so. Initially it was …

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Last week we heard how a coalition of artists and one billionaire had targeted CNET's Download.com with legal action, hoping that the court would ban it from distributing the file sharing software uTorrent. However a court has now ruled that the site is more than within its right to continue doing so.

Initially it was claimed by the coalition, that because CNET had reviewed the software and provided an instructional video on how to use it, that it was encouraging the use of the program. The court disagreed, with the judge saying that there was no indication of encouragement and that a ban on any distribution of the technology would dampen “public discussion of P2P technologies.”

The judge did admit that there was plenty of evidence to suggest that uTorrent and other P2P clients can be used to infringe copyright, “However, inducement of infringement requires more than just knowledge of actual or potential infringement. While there might be some evidence of past inducement of copyright infringement, there is no evidence of any ongoing distribution of any file sharing software ‘with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement’.”

TorrentFreak explains, that despite the argument by the coalition that past infringement had been made by those that downloaded the client, ultimately they needed to prove that future infringement would occur – which they cannot.

UTorrent
It remains online, for now

Any stifling of file sharing software, could potentially lead to less of a discussion on file sharing in the media, the judge suggested. Which is something he didn't want to allow.

“The Court has clearly recognized that none of our ongoing actions encourage or induce copyright infringement. Needless to say, we are very pleased with this resounding victory at this stage, and are fully confident we will similarly prevail on all remaining claims as well,” said CBS Interactive’s Rosabel Tao.

KitGuru Says: Good to hear this. It's unfair for the software creators to be found liable for what end users do with it – let alone the software distributors.

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Labels, not musicians make money from record sales https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/labels-not-musicians-make-money-from-record-sales/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/labels-not-musicians-make-money-from-record-sales/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:18:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=121988 While this might be something a lot of people have known about for a long time, it's not what you'd hear trumpeted by most big music labels. The claims often made by these corporations is that without album sales, musicians starve – it's why they go after pirates so much. However now some interesting new …

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While this might be something a lot of people have known about for a long time, it's not what you'd hear trumpeted by most big music labels. The claims often made by these corporations is that without album sales, musicians starve – it's why they go after pirates so much. However now some interesting new research has shown up, which makes it quite clear who makes money from album and single sales: the labels, not the artists.

Care to take a guess as to how much of an average musician's income comes from actually selling their work? Six per cent. That's it. This comes in behind 10 per cent from session work and 28 per cent from live performing. The information comes from research by Professor Peter DiCola of the Northwestern University School of Law, who quizzed over 5,000 musicians and artists about where they make their money.

Now you might be thinking that of course the lower income musicians aren't going to make much from record sales. They don't have the fans to generate the big bucks and they might not even have album deals or the promotion to get the word out. Well that theory is shot down in flames by further evidence from DiCola, who also graphed the results by income. Ultimately it showed that the richest artists, the top one per cent, made almost the least of the lot, easily beaten out by the lowest earning group.

Music Earnings
DiCola's statistics paint a bleak picture of the music business. Source: Money from music study

DiCola also asked artists about file sharing, with the results split quite evenly. A quarter of those polled believed it harmed them, while another quarter said it helped them – the rest were indifferent.

Collating all this data together, DiCola suggested that current copyright laws benefit the highest earners the most and specifically music labels, since by protecting music sales, the labels protect their own revenue streams more than the artist's.

That said, he was keen to point out that copyright law was still important, as it helped protect those that relied on composing work for the majority of their income: “Those who focus their activity on composing rely on composition revenue and are much more vulnerable to harm from copyright infringement. The same goes for recording artists who rely on sales of sound recordings,” DiCola writes.

KitGuru Says: It really seems criminal that music labels suck up so much of an artist's revenue. Obviously these big musicians aren't starving and they don't have to worry so much about the business side of things, but there's got to be a better way of doing this.

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US refutes Dotcom entrapment claims https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/us-refutes-dotcom-entrapment-claims/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/us-refutes-dotcom-entrapment-claims/#respond Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:39:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=121983 Kim Dotcom has been very vocal about his opinions of the US government and the way it treated him during his investigation, arrest and the shuttering of his file locker website, Megaupload – often suggesting that he was used to entrap himself through cooperation. US authorities are of course keen to refute these claims. According …

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Kim Dotcom has been very vocal about his opinions of the US government and the way it treated him during his investigation, arrest and the shuttering of his file locker website, Megaupload – often suggesting that he was used to entrap himself through cooperation. US authorities are of course keen to refute these claims.

According to the Wired breakdown, this all centres around a core few members that were using Megaupload to operate their own file sharing business through Ninjavideo. Treated like the ISP of these individuals, Megaupload was asked to hand over information on them and to remain quiet about it. This is despite the fact that the investigation into Megaupload was already under way and that eventually the movies shared by the Ninjas, were then used in Dotcom's court case to implicate him and his fellow defendants.

Dotcom
Despite being arrested over a year ago, Dotcom's extradition trial has still yet to take place

Dotcom's legal defence team claims that Megaupload was asked by us authorities to retain the files. The opposition camp says it did no such thing. “Megaupload's allegations are baseless, as even a cursory review of Megaupload's pleading and the search warrant materials at issue disproves the allegation that the government misled the court as part of a conspiracy to entrap Megaupload,” the government stated.

Dotcom and his attorney's maintain that it was their job to maintain “the status quo” until further instruction was received from the government.

KitGuru Says: Considering the way this investigation seems to have been handled, I wouldn't be surprised if Megaupload had deleted the files, if Dotcom and others would then have been indicted for destruction of evidence.

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First Pirate Bay server becomes museum exhibit https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/first-pirate-bay-server-becomes-museum-exhibit/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/first-pirate-bay-server-becomes-museum-exhibit/#respond Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:00:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=121614 The Computer Museum in Linköping has continued to expand its exhibition on the past 50 years of file sharing by showing off the first ever Pirate Bay server. It's a pretty unremarkable looking PC base case filled with simple hardware, but what it represents to the online world is huge. While the server is available …

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The Computer Museum in Linköping has continued to expand its exhibition on the past 50 years of file sharing by showing off the first ever Pirate Bay server. It's a pretty unremarkable looking PC base case filled with simple hardware, but what it represents to the online world is huge.

While the server is available for viewing in its original condition, the museum replaced one of the side panels with a clear plexiglass, inscribed with the following (thanks TorrentFreak):

“Stockholm, in the year of 2004. In the home of Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, at his parent’s place, this ordinary computer is running day and night. With a special software and a standard broadband connection this machine was the beginning for one of the most loved, hated and debated phenomena in modern time – the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay.”

TPB
This isn't the very original case, that one was made out of blue cardboard. Photo source: Marcin De Kaminski

“In less than ten years The Pirate Bay has become a contemporary historical phenomenon, due to its distinguished position in the file-sharing debate. The discussions that have sprung from this simple computer server concerns serious subjects as freedom of speech, global democracy and of course the sole existence of copyright.”

“Support groups and political parties have gathered around the now well-known banner of The Pirate Bay. Together they stand in the center of a cultural revolution. A revolution that begun in a dark grey metal box under a bed.”

Today the torrent search website is hosted on 17 virtual servers around the world, a move that was made in late 2012 to further protect the site from raids by police and other authorities.

KitGuru Says: Indeed The Pirate Bay turns ten years old in September 2013, so not long to go for the decade anniversary. Who's betting that the owners do something special to celebrate?

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Demonoid just blinked its dead eyes https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/demonoid-just-blinked-its-dead-eyes/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/demonoid-just-blinked-its-dead-eyes/#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:00:23 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=121232 Demonoid, one of the world's most well known torrent trackers and search sites, has begun to show signs of life again, even if it is the bare minimum. Now if you attempt to visit the Demonoid.me page, you're redirected to a new domain: Demonoid.hk, which shows a “403 forbidden” status. According to the Whois directory …

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Demonoid, one of the world's most well known torrent trackers and search sites, has begun to show signs of life again, even if it is the bare minimum. Now if you attempt to visit the Demonoid.me page, you're redirected to a new domain: Demonoid.hk, which shows a “403 forbidden” status.

According to the Whois directory for the new domain, it was registered on the 8th December last year to the Instra Corporation, from Melbourne Australia. Whether this is the future home of Demonoid remains to be seen. TorrentFreak has it that the tracker has gone up and down in recent days but remains the latter for now.

Demonoid
Demonoid has been down for over six months before and came back, why not this time too?

Whether Demonoid will eventually return to former glory remains to be seen, but it's gone down for extended periods in the past and eventually come back to full strength.

In this latest episode in the life of Demonoid, it went down after a hacking attack in mid 2012. This was immediately followed by a criminal investigation in Mexico against the site's owners. Since then the Demonoid team has remained pretty silent, apart from seemingly putting the Demonoid domain up for sale. There was a flicker of life when the tracker appeared again a few months ago, but since then there's been little in the way of developments.

KitGuru Says: Any of you guys got your fingers crossed for Demonoid? Or have you moved on to greener pastures?

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BitTorrent teams up with author for promotion https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/bittorrent-teams-up-with-author-for-promotion/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/bittorrent-teams-up-with-author-for-promotion/#respond Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:00:04 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=115715 BitTorrent Inc has announced that it is joining forces with author Tim Ferriss in order to promote his new book, off the back of US book retailers stating that they wouldn't sell anything that was published through Amazon. Unfortunately for Mr Ferris, that's where his latest book, “The 4-Hour Chef,” was published, meaning his real …

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BitTorrent Inc has announced that it is joining forces with author Tim Ferriss in order to promote his new book, off the back of US book retailers stating that they wouldn't sell anything that was published through Amazon.

Unfortunately for Mr Ferris, that's where his latest book, “The 4-Hour Chef,” was published, meaning his real world sales could suffer. However, BitTorrent Inc. is hoping to help combat that with promotion through the torrent platform. The specifics of how it will work have yet to be officially announced, but it's been suggested that torrent users will have access to some sort of unique content that won't be available elsewhere.

Tim Ferriss
Ferriss is a New York Times best seller and author of several other 4 hour program books

“The nature of publishing has fundamentally changed,” offered Tim Ferriss in discussion of the partnership. “The business models and marketing must change to reflect what consumers want, and these wants can be harnessed to hugely benefit the content producer: the writer, the musician, etc. BitTorrent is a technology and ecosystem that is part of this sustainable future for content. There's no turning back, and I want to embrace the change-makers.”

“Tim has been disruptive and inspirational,” stated Eric Klinker, CEO of BitTorrent, Inc. “He is also a visionary who understands that solving the problems in the content businesses means embracing digital technologies like BitTorrent as we strive to make digital media more viable for artists and fans.”

The release also detailed how BitTorrent Inc. felt that it had helped other artists, mostly musicians, through cooperation between them and the company. They include: Counting Crows, Pretty Lights and Death Grips.

KitGuru Says: This seems like a good way to leverage contemporary technology to promote a publication, while simultaneously giving the middle finger to US retailers that aren't embracing the future. What do you guys think?

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Rapidshare reinstates high speed downloads for free users https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/rapidshare-reinstates-high-speed-downloads-for-free-users/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/rapidshare-reinstates-high-speed-downloads-for-free-users/#respond Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:00:44 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=113797 File locker website Rapidshare has announced that it has removed download speed restrictions from free users, as part of a move to introduce what a spokesperson described as “more efficient counter measures” against piracy. The Rapidshare download limits, which prevented those with free accounts from downloading at speeds over 30Kb/s, were introduced in the wake of the …

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File locker website Rapidshare has announced that it has removed download speed restrictions from free users, as part of a move to introduce what a spokesperson described as “more efficient counter measures” against piracy.

The Rapidshare download limits, which prevented those with free accounts from downloading at speeds over 30Kb/s, were introduced in the wake of the Megaupload shutdown earlier this year, which saw users of the site flock to similar offerings – like Rapidshare – in an effort to share their files. Worried about potentially being shut down themselves, many sites implemented measures to counteract their own image with the authorities as havens for pirates. Certain sites like Filesonic ended up removing file sharing functions altogether and ultimately shut down after massive reductions in users. However Rapidshare simply throttled its downloads, in what is considered a very temperature solution compared to its rivals.

Rapidshare
Many considered Rapidshare's name ironic during the throttling

However, now the site is emerging from the troubled times and is offering fast downloads once again. Rapidshare CEO Alexandra Zwingli said while speaking with TorrentFreak: “We can confirm that we have removed all download limits for free users, which is part of a new strategy. Even though the limit was initially introduced to deter piracy, we have since then come to realize that there are more efficient counter measures. Further details will be announced towards the end of 2012.”

The reaction from file sharers has been mixed. Some consider it hypocritical that Rapidshare is so anti-piracy, considering its meteoric rise as down to so many people sharing pirated content on the site. Others however consider it a smart move considering the crack downs against other sites. The fact that the SurfTheChannel owner received a four year jail sentence shows that some courts really aren't messing around when it comes to content platform providers.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think?

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The Pirate Bay takes to the cloud, ditches servers https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/the-pirate-bay-takes-to-the-cloud-ditches-servers/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/the-pirate-bay-takes-to-the-cloud-ditches-servers/#respond Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:00:45 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=112108 The Pirate Bay has announced the next step in its fight against authority take downs, by ditching its servers in favour of, “ascending into the next stage, the cloud.” “So, first we ditched the trackers. Then we got rid of the torrents,” begins the post on the website's blog. “Now? Now we've gotten rid of the …

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The Pirate Bay has announced the next step in its fight against authority take downs, by ditching its servers in favour of, “ascending into the next stage, the cloud.”

“So, first we ditched the trackers. Then we got rid of the torrents,” begins the post on the website's blog. “Now? Now we've gotten rid of the servers.”

TPB previously experimented with the use of flying drones as miniature servers, but it seems now instead it's opted for a more outsourced setup. Apparently there are thousands of clouds, all using heavy encryption that serve the site up to the public. “Earth bound nodes that transform the data are as deeply encrypted and reboot into a deadlock if not used for 8 hours.”

Pirate Bay Cloud
I feel like this picture needs the sound of angels singing

The idea behind this move is to make TPB more secure against takedown attempts from governments and other authorities, which have repeatedly raided front ended servers of the site for years. In almost all instances these have turned out to be dummy boxes containing notes or prizes for those that find them. In the cloud, with potentially thousands of backups around the world, there's much less chance of the site being taken down, by the authorities, or something more akin to hacker attacks, like DDOS attempts.

Discussing potential attacks, the blog post continues: “All attempts to attack The Pirate Bay from now on is an attack on everything and nothing. The site that you're at will still be here, for as long as we want it to. Only in a higher form of being. A reality to us. A ghost to those who wish to harm us.”

It ends rather poetically with: “Adapt or be forever forgotten beneath the veils of maya.”

KitGuru Says: That last part seems like something the authorities could listen to. Competing with piracy is often far more effective than actively trying to stop it.

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Google adsense banned author for Pirate Bay link https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/google-adsense-banned-author-for-pirate-bay-link/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/google-adsense-banned-author-for-pirate-bay-link/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:19:51 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=109883 A self published author was banned from Google's adsense program after it was found he was using the torrent search site The Pirate Bay to distribute his work, linking to the content from the same site that Google's ads were appearing. Cory Jackson, author of a book on Python programming, made it available on TPB …

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A self published author was banned from Google's adsense program after it was found he was using the torrent search site The Pirate Bay to distribute his work, linking to the content from the same site that Google's ads were appearing.

Cory Jackson, author of a book on Python programming, made it available on TPB as a gesture of thanks to the open source community for helping him so much over the years. However, Google didn't like its adverts (which earned him no more than a few dollars a month) appearing alongside Pirate Bay links and banned him from the scheme.

Due to a public outcry from a few tech sites, Mr Jackson was eventually reinstated after he removed the original torrent links. Perhaps pushing his luck in some senses, he's now re-linked to the torrent file – not to the Pirate Bay directly – in a hope that he'll be able to continue to have both Google ads and a link to his torrentable book.

Cody Jackson
Cody Jackson: Pirate Bay proponent, Google victim?

Not everyone agrees with this though. Mr Jackson said that some of the comments he'd received about the incident, suggested that he should have seen this coming since sites like TPB were “bastions of piracy.” As he succinctly points out however, “Just because other people post copyrighted material on there doesn't mean they are wholly “evil”. They are simply tools, much like a knife. It can be used for good or bad purposes, but in and of itself, it is only a device to be used.” The fact that his innocent book was the subject matter being linked to backs up his point.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think? Should Google have the right to remove adverts from sites that link to The Pirate Bay, regardless of the content being linked to? Or should we consider torrent sites a tool like Mr Jackson suggests? Sound off in the comments below or on the KG Facebook page.

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Filesonic and Oron in court over porn https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/filesonic-and-oron-in-court-over-porn/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/filesonic-and-oron-in-court-over-porn/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:00:51 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=101961 File locker websites Filesonic and Oron have been served with legal papers by pornographic company Flava Works. In court with the sites' representatives, are 26 individuals that purportedly shared links of the copyright protected content on the sites as well as publicising links to it elsewhere. Flava works is alleging, that both Filesonic and Oron profited through affiliate schemes through …

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File locker websites Filesonic and Oron have been served with legal papers by pornographic company Flava Works. In court with the sites' representatives, are 26 individuals that purportedly shared links of the copyright protected content on the sites as well as publicising links to it elsewhere.

Flava works is alleging, that both Filesonic and Oron profited through affiliate schemes through the illicit sharing of its material. In its filing, the pornographic firm known for such series as CocoBoyz, said that: “Filesonic.com is not a legitimate file storage company. Filesonic.com’s affiliates reward program offered members the opportunity to make money by uploading copyrighted videos.”

It goes on to explain that: “Affiliates members are paid based upon the number of downloads of their posted materials and based upon how many other premium memberships were bought by users accessing Filesonic.com through the member’s links.”

Because of this, Flava works has accused the defendents of direct copyright infringement, as well as contributing to further infringement, and inducing it through incentives.

Filesonic Oron
Filelockers: In hot water with Flava works. Very hot.

As would be expected, the adult entertainment company is seeking reimbursement, alongside a permanent injunction against the sites. However as well as statutory damages, it is also looking for punitive damages. This last category is where the dollars can really start to stack up, since punitive damages are designed as a punishment rather than a direct repayment of lost revenue.

Ben Dover recently announced his intention to go after file sharers too, making this type of legal scuffle surprisingly, less surprising.

KitGuru Says: While this isn't the first suit Oron has been involved with that involved adult material, Filesonic's targeting is an interesting one, since the site hasn't allowed public file sharing since January.

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Torrent trackers to come back online https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/torrent-trackers-to-come-back-online/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/torrent-trackers-to-come-back-online/#respond Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:52:54 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=101905 Two of the world's biggest torrent trackers, OpenBitTorrent (OBT) and Public BitTorrent (PBT), have announced their plans to return to operation, concluding the protest against uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc. A couple of weeks ago, we reported on how both trackers voluntarily ceased operation in an attempt to force the silent BitTorrent Inc. to implement …

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Two of the world's biggest torrent trackers, OpenBitTorrent (OBT) and Public BitTorrent (PBT), have announced their plans to return to operation, concluding the protest against uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on how both trackers voluntarily ceased operation in an attempt to force the silent BitTorrent Inc. to implement protocol changes suggested by Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij. Now though, they're set to begin operation once again at the end of this week, because uTorrent's latest beta gives user's the option of using the enhancement, while the new alpha of the Torrent client will have it enabled by default.

Open Bit Torrent
Open Bit torrent is open again!

The suggested improvement to the system was designed to offer better security for admins and to reduce wasted bandwidth for the trackers. Both OBT and PBT switched to UDP only, dropping TCP support since it let a lot of bandwidth be used needlessly. However, due to many torrents containing HTTP addresses, many failed connection attempts were made, resulting in further wasted bandwidth. With this new protocol enhancement, the torrent trackers are able to specify what traffic they allow, meaning they can effectively cull the unnecessary requests, saving them huge sums of money in data charges (for a less succinct explanation, check out TorrentFreak‘s rundown.)

The head of OBT has been speaking out about the changes: “This is going to save us a considerable amount of money and will benefit the BitTorrent community in the long run. It’s a great step forward and guarantees the survival of open BitTorrent trackers.”

Another aspect that will be improved with this enhancement, is that it allows web admins to prevent their sites from being hit by mass torrent traffic, thereby making it harder for the P2P platform to be abused, for nefarious purposes.

KitGuru Says: Huzzah, now we can all get back to legally downloading stuff. Right guys?

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Global anti-piracy strategy revealed in leaked report https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/global-anti-piracy-strategy-revealed-in-leaked-report/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/global-anti-piracy-strategy-revealed-in-leaked-report/#respond Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:00:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=101136 A secretive report written by the IFPI – that purports to represent the music industry worldwide – has been inadvertently made available online. In it, the group and its leader detail plans to deal with piracy and major recording labels around the world. The 30 page document is dated for April 2012, suggesting that it's …

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A secretive report written by the IFPI – that purports to represent the music industry worldwide – has been inadvertently made available online. In it, the group and its leader detail plans to deal with piracy and major recording labels around the world.

The 30 page document is dated for April 2012, suggesting that it's relatively recent. Acquired by TorrentFreak, the report suggests five possible ways for dealing with a piracy problem: take down, disruption, investigation, lobbying and litigation.

Splitting pirated content into two categories, the kind held on private computers that's shared via P2P networking, and the kind held on central servers like file locker websites, the document has examples of some of the worst offenders in each respect. Interestingly however, when analysing cloud stroage sites like Fileserve, Rapidshare and others, MegaUpload – the site that was taken down and its owner arrested – was one of the lowest on the scale, with FileSonic being the worst offender.

IFPI Report
Why target one of the smaller ones for shutdown?

The IFPI believes the best way to deal with these sites is to force a content filter on them. However if that isn't sufficient or not complied with, and copyright protected content still ends up on the site, a take down request system must be implemented. If that is ignored or not enough, the organisation recommends legal action to force the site to close completely.

But what about ISPs? Block orders are a common phrase in the media at the moment with The Pirate Bay being ineffectively blocked in many countries. The IFPI believes that these are effective however, citing them as a great measure for restricting site access – despite the many reports contrary to this.

The report ends by saying that organisations need to work together and that “co-operation, partnerships and information exchange” were some of the most important things to consider when dealing with copyright infringement.

KitGuru Says: What's weird about the close of this report is the importance of “information exchange” is often the argument given by pirates for why they do what they do. Perhaps file sharers and the IFPI have more in common than they think?

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File share admin arrested for selling user info https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/file-share-admin-arrested-for-selling-user-info/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/file-share-admin-arrested-for-selling-user-info/#respond Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:59:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=99827 The administrator of several Italian file sharing websites has been arrested after selling on the information of some 300,000 of his users. While the sites themselves were shut down last November, with such a number of users between them, the owner who went by the online pseudonym of Tex Willer, was able to generate 37,000 …

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The administrator of several Italian file sharing websites has been arrested after selling on the information of some 300,000 of his users. While the sites themselves were shut down last November, with such a number of users between them, the owner who went by the online pseudonym of Tex Willer, was able to generate 37,000 euros from allowing advertisers to access the database of user information.

The backlash in the file sharing community has been an interesting one. Most of the time, file sharing sites and their owners, that have been targeted by copyright lobbyists and the authorities – like MegaUpload and Kim Dotcom – receive masses of sympathy from the public. However in this instance, users feel betrayed. Most file sharing admins believe not in spreading illegally distributed material – though accepting that their services are used for that – but the proliferation of information, and they'll often defend their users to the hilt, assuming that they ‘share' the same beliefs. However, in this instance, Tex Willer has not only made enemies of the authorities, but file sharers too.

Tex Willer
You bin' sharin' files boy?

As well as breaking local and international law by selling on user information, the admin has also been charged with tax evasion, forgery, fraud and (unsurprisingly) copyright infringement. These sorts of charges are often added to those arrested for running file sharing sites, so their legitimacy is still in question at the moment, but the tax evasion part at least seems likely. It's difficult to pay taxes on advertising revenue based around a site which is legally questionable.

Overall Tex Willer is said to have profited by nearly 600,000 euros since the sites began operation in 2007.

KitGuru says: While the moral and legal aspects of file sharing are debatable, selling on user information is deplorable. Unfortunately with the current legal status of online file sharing, it opens it up to all sorts of unscrupulous people attempting to simply make a quick buck.

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Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom released on bail https://www.kitguru.net/channel/blair-mcclelland/megaupload-founder-kim-dotcom-released-on-bail/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/blair-mcclelland/megaupload-founder-kim-dotcom-released-on-bail/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:00:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=80009 It has been exactly a month and two days since Kim Dotcom and three of his high-ranking employees were arrested in Auckland over file-sharing and copyright allegations and today Mr Dotcom was granted bail. The other three have already been released on bail. The North Shore District Court (literally 5 minutes drive from my home,) granted …

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It has been exactly a month and two days since Kim Dotcom and three of his high-ranking employees were arrested in Auckland over file-sharing and copyright allegations and today Mr Dotcom was granted bail. The other three have already been released on bail. The North Shore District Court (literally 5 minutes drive from my home,) granted him bail after newly discovered information showed that he does not have the funds or resources to flee New Zealand.

While US prosecutors believe Mr Dotcom has access to more funds in hidden bank accounts, the judge felt it was unfair to keep him in custody over a mere assumption.

The 38 year old is just happy to be going back to his $30 million mansion, which is New Zealand's most valuable property.

“I'm relieved to go home and see my family, my three little kids and my pregnant wife.”

Whilst happy to be released from prison, Mr Dotcom has some rather strange bail conditions to oblige with. The more standard conditions are that no helicopter is allowed to travel to his home, he cannot travel further than 80km and he must give Police 24 hours notice of any appointment that involves him leaving the mansion.

The most bizarre and almost comical condition is that he is not allowed access to the internet due to the prosecutors believing there is a high chance of re-offending.

Kim Dotcom and the three other men will be back in court in August for their extradition trial.

Kitguru says: We hope he doesn't suffer too much with no internet access.

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Megaupload takedown instills fear in cyberlocker sites everywhere https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/stephen-dougherty/megaupload-takedown-instills-fear-in-cyberlocker-sites-everywhere/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/stephen-dougherty/megaupload-takedown-instills-fear-in-cyberlocker-sites-everywhere/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:00:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=75583 The Megaupload saga that has unfolded in recent days appears to have sent ripples of fear through cyberlocker services across the globe. Very shortly after Megaupload was shut down and several principals arrested, there is a wave of other 3rd party file sharing web sites either making drastic changes to their policies, or even shutting …

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The Megaupload saga that has unfolded in recent days appears to have sent ripples of fear through cyberlocker services across the globe. Very shortly after Megaupload was shut down and several principals arrested, there is a wave of other 3rd party file sharing web sites either making drastic changes to their policies, or even shutting shop altogether.

Filesonic was quick to pull the plug on its public file sharing service soon after Megaupload takedown, and others have sinced begun following suit including the likes of Fileserver, Videobb, Videozer, Filejungle, Uploadstation, Uploadbox and Filepost.

Other sites are are really tightening up the hatches with reports of some users' files being deleted and select accounts being closed off altogether.

It looks like there will be a few left standing without concern however, such as Yousendit and Mediafire who remain true to their more law abiding conditions.

Kitguru says: Does this spell the end for 3rd party file sharing or are we just witnessing a temporary group of dogs with tails between their legs?

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