Top 10 Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent

January 31, 2012 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games, Tops 

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

The new leader of the chart is a Hollywood remake after the successful Swedish ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’  (‘Män som hatar kvinnor’). Two other newcomers settle on the second and third positions – the comedy romance ‘The Rum Diary’ and drama ‘The Descendants’.

This week’s list features four new entries.

Ranking (last week) Movie Rating / Trailer
1 (…) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (DVDscr) 8.2/trailer
2 (…) The Rum Diary 6.6/trailer
3 (…) The Descendants (DVDscr) 7.8/trailer
4 (2) In Time 6.6/trailer
5 (3) Seeking Justice 7.6/trailer
6 (4) Johnny English Reborn 6.5/trailer
7 (…) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 4.7/trailer
8 (7) Reel Steal 7.4/trailer
9 (5) War Horse 7.6/trailer
10 (1) Special Forces 6.1/trailer

(via TorrentFreak)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1231583/

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MegaUpload’s User Data Scheduled For Deletion

January 30, 2012 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues 

With Megaupload’s shut down millions of people lost access to their non-infringing files stored on the former file-sharing portal, from personal data to work-related files. Now, as expected, people were not happy about it and demanded their files back as soon as possible.

However, their hopes of getting the files back suddenly dropped down as the US Attorney informed Megaupload that its database may be destroyed by the end of the week, TorrentFreak reports.

“We received a letter very late Friday from the US Attorney that declared there could be an imminent destruction of Megaupload consumer data files on this coming Thursday,” MegaUpload lawyer Ira Rothken told TF.

He’s also added that MegaUpload is doing its best to protect the people’s interests, but without help from the authorities there’s not much to do. The imminent data loss comes as a result of some unpaid bills at Cogent Communications and Carpathia Hosting where some of MegaUpload’s servers were leased.

“We of course would like to think the United States and Megaupload would both be united in trying to avoid such a consumer protection calamity whereby innocent consumers could permanently lose access to everything from word processing files to family photos and many other things that could never practically be considered infringing,” the lawyer told TF.

“Megaupload’s assets were frozen by the United States. Mega needs funds unfrozen to pay for bandwidth, hosting, and systems administration in order to allow consumers to get access to their data stored in the Mega cloud and to back up the same for safekeeping.”

MegaUpload has already contacted the US Attorney’s Office, requesting for their assets to be unblocked, including money and domains, so that users can get their data back. If their call remains unanswered, millions of people may say goodbye to their files, infringing or not.

“If the United States fails at helping protect and restore Megaupload consumer data in an expedient fashion, it will have a chilling effect on cloud computing in the United States and worldwide. It is one thing to bring a claim for copyright infringement it is another thing to take down an entire cloud storage service in Megaupload that has substantial non infringing uses as a matter of law,” Rothken told TF.

With help from the EFF and Pirate parties, people affected by MegaÚpload’s demise are already planning to file a complaint against US authorities.

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WordPress Releases Plugin to Unblock Censored Sites, The Pirate Bay Included

January 30, 2012 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services 

As internet censorship is being applied in The Netherlands, Italy, Finland and several other countries where internet providers are blocking access to The Pirate Bay, WordPress comes with a simple solution by releasing a plugin, allowing you to create a proxy site, thus being able to visit blacklisted websites.

The plugin, called RePress, is developed by the hosting company Greenhost, and allows anyone who has a WordPress blog to start a proxy for sites that entered ISPs’ blacklist, including The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks.

“By adding this plug-in to your WordPress website it will start functioning as a proxy and uncensor any blocked website you’d like,” Greenhost explains.

“The only thing you’ll need is a WordPress website and the ability to install new plug-ins. After that you can maintain a list of websites you’d like to keep open freely available on the web.”

If SOPA or PIPA become law one day, the plugin may be used by US citizens as well.

“We hope people outside Holland use the plug-in to uncensor piratebay.org, as it is in danger of being blocked in our country after a court-ruling. In the Netherlands we could then uncensor websites for people in oppressive regimes like Iran, Syria or the US after SOPA is passed.”

“[SOPA and PIPA] are said to defend the interests of the Entertainment industry, but will mainly cause grave and undeniable damage to the Open and Free web and all of its users: from the end-consumer to the cutting edge developers and inventors. Our aim is to make this impossible,” the Greenhost team notes.

RePress has been praised by several political figures, including European Parliament member Marietje Schaake.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for human rights activists and a solution for people who face technological censorship and repression,” she told Webwereld.

If you feel like downloading the plugin, visit this link.

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Kim Dotcom’s Bail Request Denied Again; High Court Appeal Launched

January 30, 2012 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues 

MegaUpload’s founder Kim Dotcom’s request for bail was denied once more, for the third time in less than a week, a TorrentFreak report reads.

Judge David McNaughton took the decision at the North Shore District Court on the 25th of January as he considers Kim a liability, due to his past tendencies of fleeing justice. He added that Megaupload’s founder may try to make his way to Germany (his birthplace); as such, the extradition would be impossible since Germany has no agreement with the United States.

While agreeing with prosecutor Anne Toohey – who has described Kim as a “significant” flight risk – Jude McNaughton denied his bail, and ordered that he’d be kept in custody until 22nd February.

Paul Davidson – Dotcom’s lawyer – has already filed an appeal to the High Court.

“We were hopeful that the judge would accept our intentions and our arguments and see that there was no risk whatsoever of Kim Dotcom seeking to leave New Zealand.”

“All of his assets have been frozen, all of his resources have been taken,” he said.

“He’s living here with his wife and family, he has no intention whatsoever of endeavoring to leave New Zealand.”

Along with Dotcom, his alleged co-conspirators Bram van der Kolk, 29, Finn Batato, 38, and Mathias Ortmann, 40 were also present in court that day. Guy Foley – representing the three men – said that his clients did not enjoy the same resources as Dotcom. He’s also added that in absence of a guilty verdict, they should be granted the presumption of innocence.

There was a debate between Foley and prosecutor Anne Toohey whether the three men represent a flight liability as well or not, with both sides presenting their arguments.

The next day Judge McNaughton granted bail to both Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato, but denied Ortmann’s due to financial concerns. More on the story can be read here.

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PartyGaming, PayPal And Moneybookers Linked To Megaupload

January 27, 2012 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues 

Lots of posts related to MegaUpload lately but it’ s kindda fair considering it was, after all, the fall of a giant. Here comes another one:

The sudden end of Megaupload dragged many names under FBI’s scope, among whom Kim Dotcom (founder), famous rapper and music producer Swizz Beatz, and some other people from all around the world, including Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Estonia. This time, however, Megaupload’s indictment includes along with PayPal and Moneybookers, a big name in the gaming section.

According to this indictment, PartyGaming – the online gaming giant – paid more than $3 million to Megaupload since 2009. Under the section “Third Parties” we can read:

“PartyGaming plc is a company based in the United Kingdom that has operated PartyPoker.com since 2001. PartyPoker.com has more than 3 million visitors annually and is one of the largest online poker rooms. PartyGaming’s advertising contract with the members of Mega Conspiracy was initiated on or about November 12, 2009 and has resulted in payments of more than $3,000,000 to the Conspiracy. The contract was still active as recently as on or about March 18,2011.”

Under the same section we can also find two famous money transferring services – PayPal and Moneybookers.

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