Top 10 Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent

November 30, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads, Entertainment Industry, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games, Tops 

"Despicable Me"

TorrentFreak has published the data they collected with the top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent for the week ended November 29. All the films included in this chart are DVDrips (unless mentioned otherwise).

After a short absence we’re back with the weekly chart collecting the most downloaded films on torrent sites.  ‘Despicable Me’ is the leader this week, ‘Inception’ drops to second position and ‘Easy A’ enters the list as #3.

This week’s list features five new entries.

Ranking (last week) Movie Rating / Trailer
1 (…) Despicable Me 7.6/trailer
2 (1) Inception 7.4/trailer
3 (..) Easy A 9.1/trailer
4 (…) Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows 1 (TS) 8.1/trailer
5 (2) The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
 6.3/trailer
6 (7) The Social Network (DVDscr) 8.4/trailer
7 (…) Takers (PPVrip) 5.1/trailer
8 (8) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 8.2/trailer
9
 (…) Dinner for Schmucks 6.3/trailer
10 (3) Shrek Forever After (R5) 6.7/trailer

(via TorrentFreak)

The Expendables (DVDscr)

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US Supreme Court Overturns Fine-Reducing Ruling in File-Sharing Case

November 30, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues 

Remember the Whitney Harper file-sharing case ? Last time we reported about it, the U.S. Supreme Court was pondering on ‘Innocent Infringer’ defense.

Now the verdict: The same court has refused to hear an appeal in this case that was supposed to probe the “innocent infringer” defense in a copyright related issue.

Whitney Harper was accused of copyright infringement because he shared 37 songs online without permission. The recent decision by the US Supreme Court revalidates the $27,750 fine he was ordered previously. Another ruling by a federal judge in Texas had reduced Harper’s fine to $200 (£128) per song instead of the standard minimum of $750 (£481) per song (a provision under the Copyright Act in the US) arguing that Harper is entitled to “innocent infringer” exemption since she was 16 when the illegal file-sharing occurred and not aware of the law she was violating.

Now that ruling was overturned because there’s a money-machine that must be fed and one cannot allow exceptions that would weaken that mechanism.

CNN points out:  “It was the first music-downloading copyright appeal to go trial and subsequently reach the high court, after the industry sought to stifle what they say is rampant illegal file-sharing, costing companies and artists billions of dollars […] The justices’ refusal Monday to intervene is a legal setback for Harper, and leaves thousands of music downloaders like her liable for thousands of dollars each in damages.”

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Pirate Bay Appeal Ends with Higher Fines and Reduced Jail Time

November 30, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues 

A lot has happened while we’ve been busy with some important updates of the site (still to be completed). Thanking you for your patience and understanding, let’s check out some events that occured over the last few days in the p2p landscape.

The entertainment industry must be jumping for joy – the Pirate Bay appeal covered by P2PON through its unfolding, ended last week again with the verdict “guilty” for its founders.

The Svea Appeals Court upheld the convictions on Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom, all three accused of facilitating copyright infringement, but trimmed down their possible jail time from one year to 4-10 months. On the other hand, the damage fines the three men must pay to the entertainment industry to compensate the latter’s losses due to their website have been raised from $4.5 million to $6.5 million (after all, it’s all about the money, right?). All three defendants have denied the accusations and said they cannot be held liable since their site does not actually host itself any copyright protected material. Neij, Sunde and Lundstrom also said they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

However, against all odds, The Pirate Bay remains indeed the most resilient torrent trackers in the world – still running, still having one of the most loyal fans around. Currently, TBP has 4.7 million registered users, and offers more than 3 million torrents covering any type of content one may be searching for.

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Alternatives to LimeWire

November 25, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Tops 

Best LimeWire Based Clients & Other File-Sharing Methods

First of all, we owe you, our readers,  some explanation – due to technical and administrative issues (read: updates) we had to interrupt our posts over the last week and it is possible that this might go on for a day or two. However, don’t need to worry, we’re still here so stay tuned.

LimeWire topped the p2p charts for a long time but since its permanent shutdown other kindred p2p applications have stepped into the spotlight to fill the void left by once the most installed file-sharing client in the world.

However, LimeWire also gained a bad rep because of the gate open to malware and the annoying adware it bombarded its users with. The amount of fake files circulating its network had become enough turn off for most passionate file sharers. But here comes the good part – most of these next apps while being based on LimeWire’s architecture, have removed the flaws I mentioned earlier to offer a better, cleaner, safer file-sharing experience.

So let’s get started:

1. First on the list is LimeWire Turbo – a popular replacement for the defunct client and allows users, just like the latter, to search for and to share media files including MP3, movies, pictures, games, software, documents with anyone over the Internet. It doesn’t lack powerful features like ghost ratings, completely user configurable queue area, swarming downloads (portions of a file will be downloaded from different peers if available).

2. Mp3 Treat – while mp3 rocket is moving towards a different technology to avoid being targeted by the RIAA the same Limewire was, Mp3 Treat remains a solid option for those wanting a good downloading service with additional treats and a wide variety of extra-features concerning the management of your digital content – playing, recording, converting, tagging, etc.

3. TurboWire - a very strong p2p client. Limewire with a bit of twist. Quite resourceful in terms of features – auto-connect, groups, browse host, multiple search, upload throttling, connection quality control, library management and efficient filtering, TurboWire adds more speed to your downloads and spares you of the tones of crapware the original client delivered. (Free)

4. FrostWire – while LimeWire was being buried, its brother was busy extending its service to Android users; First released in 2004, Frostwire’s popularity increased rapidly and now it attracts more users since it can be used flawlessly with all Android devices that run Android 1.6 OS and higher. The app also offers numerous other features such as chat room and the ability to send private files with attachments. Two years ago the client launched FrostClick, a service for promoting independent artists and which has been received very well. (Free)

5. Sharest – “The Superlative in P2P File Sharing!” reads the website – another derivation that improves LimeWire’s capabilities both in terms of downloading and connecting functions. Good-looking and with a better overall performance. It uses the multi-platform Gnutella p2p protocol. (Free)

6. Limezilla – This is the original client with additional convenience and high-speed downloading. The website, Sharezillas.com also offers other advanced file-sharing programs that make downloading an easy and enjoyable process – ShareZilla and BitZilla. (Free)

7. Lets’not forget LimeWire Pirate Edition, the original client resurrected by a secret dev team that left aside what made the program detrimental to some point – all remote settings, the Ask toolbar etc. However, due to the intervention of the RIAA which said that the existence of this edition, the official LimeWire company violates the injunction given by the federal judge, the Pirate Edition’s website went offline. (Free)

Besides the names we presented here and which offer downloading services in the line of Limewire there are also other ways to connect to the file sharing communities. Since all of them have been covered in previous posts and articles by P2PON we merely give them a quick review now.

8. BitTorrent
For those who don’t know which are the most popular torrent sites around where they can find the files they want to download here is a list to help them decide what best suits them. If you want to check out how BitTorrent works out for you, a dedicated torrent we would recommend is uTorrent. (the BitTorrent client comes free but some torrent sites require invites to join). Also here is an introduction into BitTorrent, what it means and how it works.

9. File hosting services (subscription based) (read more)

10. Multinetwork file sharing services like Leechpack (subscription based) (read more)

11. Usenetwork – a network of newsgroups (subscription based) through which users can share data in the form of posts, articles and files. (read more)

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The Real LimeWire Becomes the Evil Twin

November 13, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Digital Media, Mobile Phones, P2P technology, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services 

Limewire fans have rejoiced this week when we reported that their favorite p2p client has been resurrected a “secret dev team” (under the name LimeWire Pirate Edition (LPE)) after being shut down for good through a US court’s decision.

The news got other file-sharing users excited as well when they learned that this pirate version keeps all the goods and gets rid of all the bads of the official application; it has taken out the Ask.com toolbar, made the LimeWire LLC servers redundant, disabled all remote settings, and offers for free the paid features that came only with LimeWire Pro. For many Limewire had become identified with a source of adware or spyware – not anymore – LPE got rid of them too.

But here comes trouble. LimeWire Inc. was not at all happy with hearing the news.

A notice on the official website reads: “We have very recently become aware of unauthorized applications on the Internet purporting to use the LimeWire name”.

“We demand that all persons using the LimeWire software, name, or trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted works in any manner cease and desist from doing so. We further remind you that the unauthorized uploading and downloading of copyrighted works is illegal.”

Yeah, this should take care of the problem! The irony is that, many p2p users will appreciate the fact Limewire was shut down since they can get now for free what before came with a price (and annoyance).

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