Two Major Movie Hubs Blocked By UK’s ISPs

May 21, 2013 by Yonah · Comments
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games

After a successful campaign against The Pirate Bay, Newzbin and Kat.ph (all three websites are completely blocked throughout the entire island), UK’s anti-piracy measures expand to Movie2k and Download For All, two important movie hubs.

Although not confirmed, the case against the two portals was filed by the MPAA; as such, Movie2k and Download For All could go completely dark on the island.

UK’s prominent internet service providers (BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, and EE) are already receiving court orders, demanding them to censor their customers’ access to the aforementioned websites. At the time being, BT, Virgin Media, and Sky had confirmed that they’ve complied with the order. Here’s what their statements read:

“The block on Download4All and Movie2k should start at some point today,” a spokesperson for BT said.

“This is in addition to Newzbin, Pirate Bay, Fenopy, H33t and Kat which BT’s already blocking access to in compliance with previous court orders.”

As for Virgin Media, the ISP said:

“Virgin Media has received an order from the Courts requiring it to prevent access to Download4All and Movie2K in order to help protect against copyright infringement. As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company, but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives to give consumers access to great content at the right price.”

Sky had also confirmed that Movie2k and Download For All are being blocked starting with May the 20^th, 2013.

While UK citizens can still access blocked websites through available proxies (including The Pirate Bay), PirateReverse.info informed that they’ve already taken measures to keep Movie2k alive on the island. So, there’s some good news there, after all.

“We’ve just deployed movie2kproxy.com (in record time), still working on getting the images to load properly but should all be fixed shortly,” the crew told Torrent Freak.

PirateProxy.net had confirmed that they will (also) join the fight.

Tags: anti-piracy, BitTorrent, BT, censorship, download4all, file sharing sites, file-sharing, legal, movie2k, sky, UK, Virgin Media

Top 10 Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent

May 20, 2013 by Yonah · Comments
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 May 19. All the films included in this chart are DVDrips (unless mentioned otherwise).

‘Iron man 3′ takes the lead this week, followed by two newcomers: ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’, starring Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney, and ‘Warm Bodies’, a rather out of the box zombie movie.

This week’s chart features five new entries.

The chart also includes free download links for the movies listed here – via Kat.ph (clicking on download movie links in the chart below shows you all the versions available for the respective movie; just pick the one you want [don't simply click on that big blue button] and then download it).

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	Rating / Trailer
1	(2)	Iron Man 3 (R6)	7.7/trailer
2	(…)	A Good Day To Die Hard	5.5/trailer
3	(…)	Warm Bodies	7.1/trailer
4	(…)	Fast And Furious 6 (Cam)	7.7/trailer
5	(3)	Parker	6.1/trailer
6	(1)	Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters	6.1/trailer
7	(…)	Dark Circles	6.6/trailer
8	(4)	Assault On Wall Street	6.0/trailer
9	(8)	Jack Reacher	7.0/trailer
10	(…)	Star Trek Into Darkness (Cam)	8.3/trailer

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

Click here for top speed movie downloads

Tags: BitTorrent, file-sharing, free downloads, movie downloads, movies, top movies

Digital Piracy Is Not What It Seems To Be, A Large-Scale Analysis Informs

May 15, 2013 by Yonah · Comments
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Digital Media, Mobile Phones, P2P technology, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services

The comprehensive report on sharing PC games via BitTorrent’s networks reveals some interesting aspects of the “digital piracy” issue. The results are to be published in the “International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication”.

The illegal sharing of digital content (using peer-to-peer technology) has been the catalyst of thousands of debates and media headlines. With one side claiming that online piracy is the death of the American jobs and responsible for billions of dollars lost by the entertainment industry, the other one’s flag reads “freedom of speech”, “internet’s freedom” and “piracy is not theft”. The most epic controversy of the past decade is born, but what we really know about each of the coin’s side proves to be limited.

The report, as mentioned before, focused on game piracy and used open methodologies to gather data that covered a three-month period – between 2010 and 2011. One hundred and seventy three games were included. The results prove to tear down all the myths surrounding online piracy. For example, “shooter” games are not pirates favorite dish, but also children’s games and family games. Moreover, it highlights that the real figure of illegal copies that are being accessed via BitTorrent is under what other reports (the gaming industry’s) claim to be.

Specifics of the report reveal that 12.6 million unique peers (covering more than 250 countries/areas) shared pirated games, including Darksiders, Fallout: New Vegas, NBA 2k11, Call of Duty: Black Ops, TRON Evolution, Starcraft 2, Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2, The Sims 3: Late Night, Two Worlds II, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Furthermore, of the 173 sampled games, the ten most popular titles drove more than 4 out of every 10 unique peers on BitTorrent, and just 20 of the monitored countries were contributing to more than three-quarters of the total file-sharing activity.

An average of 536,727 unique peers (spread across the globe) sharing the most popular games titles via BitTorrent were acknowledged during the three-month period. The most dedicated unique peers seemed to cover the following territories: Romania, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Armenia, Serbia, and Portugal.

Another interesting aspect is that mass-media’s positive game reviews drive the most attention on BitTorrent’s networks.

“First and foremost, P2P game piracy is extraordinarily prevalent and geographically distributed [at least it was during the period analyzed]. However, the numbers in our investigation suggest that previously reported magnitudes in game piracy are too high,” Anders Drachen (working for the Department of Communication and Psychology, at Aalborg University and the PLAIT Lab, Northeastern University and Robert Veitch of the Department of IT Management at Copenhagen Business School, in Frederiksberg, Denmark) said.

“It also appears that some common myths are wrong, e.g. that it is only shooters that get pirated, as we see a lot of activity for children’s and family games on BitTorrent for the period we investigated.”

Tags: BitTorrent, digital piracy, file-sharing, game piracy, p2p

DHS Vs. Mt. Gox, The Tango Begins

May 15, 2013 by Yonah · Comments
Filed under: Announcements & Events

Suspected of violating US’ existing laws on money transfers and money exchange, the world’s largest Bitcoin interchange link started to weaken as their funds are seized during a Homeland Security investigation.

Trying to obtain DHS’ insight on the ongoing investigation, the media was served with a “no comment” and the copy of a warrant that justified seizing Mt. Gox’s funds in Dwolla (we shall refer to Mt. Gox as Bitcoin’s powerhouse or “the powerhouse”, as it handles nearly 63% of all Bitcoin transactions starting with April this year), an ArsTechnica report informs.

The warrant justifies a special agent’s statement (working for the Homeland Security Investigations) that Bitcoin’s powerhouse is engaging “money transmitting” outside the law (due to its nature … that of being immune to Governmental [capital G] control), which is probable cause for doing up to five years in prison or a “nominal fee”.

“The warrant goes on to demand that Dwolla hand over the keys to account number 812-649-1010, which is owned by Mt. Gox subsidiary Mutum Sigillum LLC,” ArsTechnica notes.

Apparently, Home Security used a mole (the governmental agencies call it “confidential informant”) to build up a case. The blind but cunning informant created two accounts, one for Dwolla and one for Mt. Gox, purchased Bitcoins, and then transferred them into good ol’ American dollars. Just like Hansel & Gretel used bread crumbs to find their way back, the confidential informant tracked the exchange as it passed through a Wells Fargo account (no. 7657841313). The account was created by president and CEO of Mt. Gox Mark Karpeles.

“As part of the account opening process, Wells Fargo required Karpeles and Mutum Sigillum LLC to complete a “Money Services Business (MSB) Accounts, Identification of an MSB Customer” form. That document was completed on May 20, 2011 and identified Mutum Sigillum LLC as a business not engaged in money services. The application asks several questions; to include, “Do you deal in or exchange currency for your customer?” and “Does your business accept funds from customers and send the funds based on customers’ instructions (Money Transmitter)?” Karpeles answered these questions “no,” indicating that Mutum Sigillum LLC does not deal in or exchange money, and that it does not send funds based on customer instructions.

Money transmitting businesses are required by 31 USC section 5330 to register as such with FinCEN. According to FinCEN records on May 6, 2013, neither Mt. Gox nor the subsidiary, Mutum Sigillum LLC, is registered as a Money Service Business,” the warrant reads.

The informant goes on to explain that:

“Mt. Gox acts as a digital currency exchange where customers open accounts and fund the respective accounts with fiat currency, which is then exchanged into crypto-currency by Mt. Gox; the crypto-currency is known as bitcoin. Fiat currency simply refers to any money that a government has declared to be legal tender. The exchange is bidirectional and allows customers to also exchange bitcoins back into fiat currency, and then withdraw those funds. The exchange of fiat currency and bitcoins incurs a floating rate fee charged by Mt. Gox and is determined by the customer’s aggregate amount of funds exchanged on a monthly basis.”

The untouchable Bitcoin currency had quickly become very tangible. Is this a case of “no one escapes the long arm of the law” or freedom from governmental control is a taboo subject that must be swept under the rug?

Tags: bitcoin, BitTorrent, DHS, homeland security, US, US government

Top 10 Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent

May 14, 2013 by Yonah · Comments
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 May 12. All the films included in this chart are DVDrips (unless mentioned otherwise).

A stunning surprise from ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’, as it managed to go up 5 places, all the way to number one. Breathing on the deadly duo’s necks is ‘Iron Man 3′ (still CAM version), followed by ‘Parker’.

This week’s chart features four new entries.

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	Rating / Trailer
1	(6)	Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters	6.2/trailer
2	(2)	Iron Man 3 (CAM)	7.8/trailer
3	(1)	Parker	6.1/trailer
4	(…)	Assault On Wall Street	6.0/trailer
5	(…)	Dark Skies	6.1/trailer
6	(3)	The Place Beyond The Pines (DVDscr)	7.7/trailer
7	(…)	I Give It A Year	6.0/trailer
8	(4)	Jack Reacher	7.0/trailer
9	(…)	Escape From Planet Earth	5.2/trailer
10	(5)	21 And Over	5.6/trailer