BitTorrent’s advantages as a platform for distribution and exposure are attracting more and more companies and businesses. Berklee College of Music’s online division surprised many when they recently announced the release of a free BitTorrent Bundle containing music lesson videos and ebooks.

The Berklee Online Musician’s Guide might be the first educational material released by such an institution via the highly-controversial file-sharing protocol. This bundle will surely make music enthusiasts and composers quite happy as it offers 23 music lesson videos dedicated to lots of various topics including guitar and drum performance, music production, songwriting and business practices. The Ebooks content also cover an impressing variation of topics – guitar, piano, music theory, songwriting, orchestration, production and business (check the full list here).

While there’s an instand download sample containing 4 videos, to have access to the rest of the content you have to your email address.

BitTorrent’s blog reads:

Commenting on the company’s recent partnership, Berklee’s Vice President for Online Learning, Debbie Cavalier said:

“Part of our goal at Berklee Online is to expand the reach of the college. We’ve been teaching music online for over ten years, and we’ve always included a free component to what we do. This includes our lesson-rich YouTube channel and Berkleeshares.com free lesson site, as well as our more recent development of MOOCs.”

“The technology behind BitTorrent is impressive. It’s one of the best tools out there to move data to a large community of engaged people. We’re looking at this partnership with BitTorrent as an extension of our free approach, and it is one that I am very excited about.”

When the original crew of The Pirate Bay were found guilty of copyright infringement following their 2009 trial, the trio plus former financier Carl Lundström were left with a hefty bills for damages. Interest on the amount has been accruing by the day ever since and all told the amount owed now exceeds $12m. But with Lundström about to go bankrupt, will Hollywood ever see a penny? Maybe not, but the studios aren’t giving up yet.

Following their earlier convictions for copyright infringement, Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, former site spokesman Peter Sunde, and financier Carl Lundström owed considerable amounts in damages.

After an appeal which further increased the amount of damages to be paid, together the quartet owed 46 million kronor ($6.99m) to their movie and record company plaintiffs.

Interest has been accruing since the raid against The Pirate Bay on May 31, 2006 and by February 2012 the total owed had reached 73 million kronor ($11.09m). By September 2012 another 3 million kronor had been added and now, 8 months later, the position has worsened by a similar amount.

The founders of the site have always insisted that their adversaries won’t see a penny but the situation for former financier Carl Lundström has always been a little more complex.

At one point Lundström was rich. He made a small fortune in the 1980s when the Wasabröd family crispbread business was sold for around 77 million kronor ($11.7m). He later added another $5.32m when he sold his telecoms company Port80 but other less profitable business deals over the next 15 years saw the entrepreneur lose around $7.5m.

In 2008, Lundström went to live in Switzerland, briefly returning to Sweden last year to sit out a four month sentence.

While his debt to the state is now served, to date Swedish authorities have found just 233,000 kronor ($35,400) belonging to Lundström to put towards his damages bill. According to Sonntags Zeitung, Lundström currently lives in a three story house on Lake Zurich with a Cadillac sitting outside. The publication claims that the businessman previously transferred all of his possessions to his wife Bettina.

Apparently flat broke, last year Lundström filed for bankruptcy in Switzerland. That process is nearly complete.

“It is expected to close in the coming weeks,” says Heiner Scheuble from the Rapperswil Prosecution Office.

The 53-year-old’s financial plight has also attracted the attention of Hollywood who are listed as creditors in his bankruptcy and keen to recover money.

“We are well aware of the various stages of Lundström’s process,” says Sabine Henssler, spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association.

However, the bankruptcy process is still not complete. Investigations into the former Pirate Bay financier’s business dealings continue in the light of earlier revelations that he had money hidden away in the Liechtenstein Global Trust Bank.

The money was found after German authorities bought confidential customer data from an ex-employee at the bank, which in turn generated a response from Swedish tax authorities.

“We have asked Mr. Lundström for 700,000 kronor ($106,250) in additional taxes for the years 2004 to 2007,” a spokesperson said.

Former US prosecutor Larry Klayman and the parents of the killed Navy Seal Team VI member Michael Strange have filed a lawsuit against President Obama, the NSA and several other players connected to the PRISM scandal. Through the class action lawsuit they demand compensation for severe privacy abuses as well as violations of several other constitutional rights.

Over the past days the PRISM scandal has dominated the news. The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald pushed out leak after leak, revealing how millions of people around the world are being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The revelations turned online privacy into a worldwide mainstream discussion. Privacy activists shouted “we told you so,” Orwell quotes were rife, and Kim Dotcom warmed up the public for his PRISM-proof email service.

Following the leaks the NSA and the US Government have been heavily criticized for their disregard of people’s privacy, and perhaps not totally unexpectedly this weekend the first legal action was filed.

TorrentFreak just obtained a copy of a complaint submitted at a federal court in Columbia, targeting President Obama, the NSA, Eric Holder and Verizon who all played a role in the mass surveillance scheme.

The class action lawsuit was filed by Larry Klayman, a former US prosecutor under the Reagan administration, together with the parents of the killed Navy SEAL Team VI member Michael Strange.

The plaintiffs accuse the PRISM participants of violating their constitutional rights, reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, among other illegal and criminal acts. Both Klayman and the Navy Seal parents demand compensation for the damage they suffered.

“This case challenges the legality of Defendants’ participation and conduct in a secret and illegal government scheme to intercept and analyze vast quantities of domestic telephonic communications,” the complaint reads.

While there are plenty of angles to pick, the class action centers around the classified order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordering Verizon to hand over all call details and metadata between the United States and abroad, without any oversight.

“This would give the NSA over one hundred millions phone records on a daily basis. The information would also include a list of all the people that Verizon customers call and who called them; how long they spoke; and perhaps, where they were on a given day.”

“Further, there is nothing in the order requiring the government to destroy the records after a certain amount of time nor is there any provisions limiting who can see and hear the data,” the complaint states.

The complaint goes on to state that those responsible for the PRISM scandal have done very little to explain what it entails. Instead, there are now calls to go after the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, to stop further leaks.

“To date, Defendants have not issued substantive and meaningful explanations to the American people describing what has occurred. To the contrary, criminal charges are reportedly being pursued by Defendants Obama, Holder, the DOJ, and the NSA against the leakers of this plot against American citizens in a further effort suppress, obstruct justice, and to keep Defendants’ illegal actions as secret as possible.”

Former US prosecutor Larry Klayman is a known critic of the Obama administration and believes that his private communications were tapped under the PRISM program. Charles and Mary Ann Strange, the parents of the killed Navy Seal Team VI member Michael Strange, allege the same as they have also challenged the Obama administration.

“[...] particularly since these Plaintiffs have been vocal about their criticism of President Obama as commander-in-chief, his administration, and the U.S. military regarding the circumstances surrounding the shoot down of their son’s helicopter in Afghanistan, which resulted in the death of their son and other Navy Seal Team VI members and special operation forces.”

The complaint demands relief for violations of the defendants’ rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In addition it lists violations of privacy, including intrusion upon seclusion, freedom of expression and association, due process, and other illegal acts.

Thus far, authorities and the technology companies involved in the surveillance scandal have refuted most accusations, claiming that they are operating within the boundaries of the law. Time will tell whether the present lawsuit will arrive at another conclusion.

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again, ‘The Hangover Part 3′ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Dead Man Down’. ‘Jack The Giant Slayer’ completes the top three.

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

The Hangover Part 3 is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

A man from Baltimore in the United States has just been sentenced to 87 months in prison for infringing copyrights on more than 1,000 software programs including Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Mac OSX and Windows XP. The man, a 32-year-old, could potentially lose his freedom until close to his 40th birthday. Is that fair for willful large scale pirating or have the authorities lost touch with how infringement compares to ‘real’ crimes?

Following an investigation carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) assisted by Microsoft and the BSA, a man from Baltimore is just beginning a very long stretch behind bars.

Between February 2003 and June 2008, Naveed Sheikh was a serial pirate, copying more than 1,000 software packages and distributing them via the Internet. Authorities claim that through a network of websites and co-conspirators, Sheikh caused damages to rightsholders totaling $4 million.

Slightly to Sheikh’s credit, the software – including Microsoft Office, Microsoft Money, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Apple Mac OS X Panther and Microsoft Windows XP Professional – wasn’t passed off as the real deal to full-price-paying customers. Sheikh’s contacts knew they were buying illegal “cracked” copies and presumably saved a considerable amount of money over equivalent licensed alternatives.

However, Sheikh wasn’t exactly cooperative with HSI investigators and he also failed to pay tax on his ill-gotten gains which probably aggravated the case against him. Nevertheless, the sentence he’s just been given is a tough one to say the least. Despite a guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett handed Sheikh an 87 month prison sentence and ordered him to pay back $4 million.

For those breaking out the calculators, 87 months converts to more than 7 years locked away for what are essentially non-violent, white-collar crimes. Is that a reasonable response to copying data onto discs and cashing in on the profits or should sentences like these be reserved for the really nasty elements of our society?

For comparison, we looked at a few recent cases in which defendants picked up identical 87 month sentences.

The first involved Harold F. Babb, the former director of contracts at Eyak Technology LLC. In October 2012, Babb was sentenced for stealing more than $9 million from the United States by submitting invoices to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for services that were not provided. Sentence: 87 months.

Next we had a look at the sentencing of Guillermo Briseno, a former leader of the Imperial Gangsters, a gang which according to U.S. District Judge Philip Simon was “terrorizing the city of East Chicago.” Briseno admitted leading the gang’s drug dealing and shootings. Sentence: 87 months.

In late 2012, Jonathan Torres was found guilty of distributing heroin following an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to using children to distribute the drugs. Sentence: 87 months.

Following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), earlier this year Dennis Wayne Baldwin of Vermont was sentenced for receiving, possessing, and distributing child pornography and illegally possessing seven firearms and ammunition. The convicted felon was sentenced to 87 months in prison.

During the course of our searches we found dozens of individuals being sentenced to 87 months in jail for what are undoubtedly serious crimes. The distribution of drugs appeared a lot, as did firearm offenses and those involving sex and violence. In most cases it was difficult to disagree with the length of the sentences.

The question today is this: Does copyright infringement – even on a large scale as demonstrated in the case above – warrant a similar sentence to those handed to individuals selling drugs, running gangs, possessing illegal firearms or stealing from the military?

Is it about time that copyright infringement is recognized as being “theft” and punished on equal terms, or is an 87 month jail sentence for copying and selling data an outrage? You decide.

Confederations Cup Contest!

This Summer there's neither Euro nor World Cup, so for all the true football fans out there a Confederations Cup Contest will be held instead!
Have a look at the Contest's topic over here, on how to join this fine contest and all the little details that you need to know.

Great prizes await for you and can easily be gained.
To top this up, if we succeed in having more than 30 participants, extra awards will be given to the top 3 winners of this contest, (from 1 month VIP status to invites and more) depending on the occasion.

PS: Don't forget to check our Music's Club Contest here.
Post your answers while you still can. Five more days left before closing this contest!

A Gentle Reminder to Support Our Community

Dear Friends, Hope you all are doing good.

4 months back, when I ask to support our community, you guys did a great thing. So I hope you know the story, and not repeating that. This is a small remainder.

Please do support our awesome community in the best way possible for you.

http://elbitz.net/donate.php

Thank you
With love and regards

Dev Updates

As many of you already know, we're experiencing some problems with bonus points; some people are getting way too many and others are not getting any at all. We're definitely looking into these issues, and they seem to be related to the tracker upgrades. The issue regarding upload is also related to the tracker upgrades.

We're almost finished with the tracker, but there is still work to be done, so we can't give an ETA at this time.
In addition, I'm going to be revamping the internal BP calculation system in the coming week(s) so this doesn't happen anymore:

Please use this post so all information is centralized and we can communicate with you guys while the issue is still here.

Hello,

Just a friendly reminder to help out by donating towards server costs, this months donation bar had not been reset so you can see in over a months time we have barely reached 15% of out goal, with this situation it is very difficult for me to keep the site up and running smoothly.

That's why we are once again offering 3 x the upload credit on all donations of 30eur and above, now is a good time to get your ratios high

regards
HKR

Global Freeleech: Sorry! I forgot to restart the tracker, it should be working fine now.

With the SP system being down I have decided to make the tracker Global Freeleech, as Freeleech means no download is counted at all, then SP is null and void, If altinertia wants to test the SP system he may have to turn Freeleech off and on, but it may be just for 1 torrent not the whole site. As for when SP is going to be fixed, we have no idea I am afraid.

When a new torrent is uploaded it is not made freeleech auto, a staff member has to do it, if it has not got [FL] on the torrent then it is not Freeleech yet.

BG|UG|GGn closures:

I merged 5 threads into 1 so it may look a bit confusing. but you can discuss this latest news https://www.blackcats-games.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=52397

Forums:

Lots of people have been saying too many subforums for years now, I did resist but i have had to give in eventually, now the Games|Software|Homebrew|Hardware are all lumped into 1 forum for each platform (I hate it but if it gets it busy then I can live with it).

and a welcome to all the new members, we are not open but members still have referrals to give out to GGn and UG refugees.

Edit: Referrers upload bonus back on, you can read about it at the link below.

https://www.blackcats-games.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=52941&st=0&#entry430721

The UK’s aggressive stance towards online piracy was taken to new heights this week through a combination of police threats and backroom deals between industry groups. One of the main targets identified were Pirate Bay proxy sites and TorrentFreak has been informed that the police and FACT recently turned up on the doorstep of one called PirateSniper in the UK. According to a report from the site’s owner he was handed a letter and ordered to shutter the site or face criminal action.

It’s been a turbulent week in the UK with regard to anti-piracy initiatives.

It began with Internet provider Sky blocking access to Pirate Bay proxies, then the UK police sent out letters to torrent site owners threatening them with a 10 year prison sentence. This was followed by a backroom discussion between the Government, rightsholders and Google who explored options to de-list infringing sites.

On a smaller scale police and rightsholders carried out actions as well. Cooperating with the anti-piracy group FACT, local police visited the home of a local Pirate Bay proxy operator. While we’ve reported on similar actions against torrent site owners in the past, to our knowledge this is the first time that a proxy has been targeted.

After The Pirate Bay was blocked in the UK last year hundreds of proxies were launched, which are nothing more than a front for the regular Pirate Bay site. Running a proxy requires relatively few resources and one can be put online in a matter of minutes. But despite the easy setup they can also have serious consequences.

TorrentFreak talked to Tom, the operator of the PirateSniper proxy, who says he was visited by the police and anti-piracy group FACT for the second time recently, strengthening a message they delivered earlier.

“Two weeks ago I received a second knock on the door with the police standing on my doorstep. They had another letter and a further warning, ‘demanding’ that I shutdown PirateSniper.net before they take ‘criminal’ action against me,” Tom told TorrentFreak.

Tom was baffled by the surprise visit, to say the least. His proxy site has been active for a few months but has never been advertised and receives virtually no traffic. In addition, the site is not listed in Google’s search results.

“I cannot understand why I am a target. Yes, PirateSniper was recently removed from Google’s indexing list, but I can’t conceive the idea of police at my doorstep. Why?” Tom says.

In a pattern that fits with previous door knockings, the police were mainly there to assist FACT, who did most of the talking. According to Tom, FACT handed over some paperwork along with a warning that he could end up in jail if he continued operating the proxy.

“The police didn’t say much at all, they only asked me to confirm my identity then handed the conversation to a representative of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. It all happened quite suddenly and this time they were a little more aggressive than the first time they came.”

“They threatened me by saying things like ‘You could be sentenced to jail for a minimum of 4 years for the distribution of copyrighted material’. This time they were on a very personal level, not bothering with minor manners and such and just shoving information down my throat without any explanation whatsoever.”

Without receiving an ultimatum, Tom says he was asked to shut down the proxy, or else. The PirateSniper operator has contacted a solicitor and is prepared for the worst. However, the site will remain online for the time being.

“No, this is my stand, we have to show companies that we will not get bullied into doing their bidding. Censorship is like a cancer, we must kill it before it spreads,” Tom says.

Aside from detecting intrusive and harmful software on people’s computers, the anti-malware application Malwarebytes is also able to detect which users are running a pirated version. While some software vendors might respond aggressively to unauthorized users, the San Jose company takes a more gently approach in the belief that every user contributes to the success of the software, pirates included.

Like most other software packages the popular Malwarebytes application is heavily pirated. Instead of paying for an upgrade some people choose to download a keygen or crack to activate the program.

To confront unauthorized users the makers of Malwarebytes decided to add these circumvention tools to their standard malware scan. This means that pirates, in addition to any spy- or malware, will also see keygens and cracks listed in the scan results.

The company lists the circumvention tools under the vendor name dont.steal.our.software, hoping to send a gentle but clear message to those who chose to pirate instead of pay. Curious about this anti-piracy approach, TorrentFreak reached out to the San Jose company to learn more.

Malwarebytes’ Bruce Harrison told TorrentFreak that the detection works through heuristic and direct means. The program’s functionality is not affected in any way but in some cases Malwarebytes also displays a prompt reminding users that they are running a pirated version. This second notification can be cancelled by the user.

The software vendor says it prefers this softer approach over the more aggressive option of locking Malwarebytes down completely.

“Long ago we figured that being super aggressive against piracy is one of the quickest ways to alienate your fans as it so often backfires and makes legitimate usage a problem,” Harrison says.

Malwarebytes is aware of the fact that there are a lot of pirates out there who don’t want to pay. However, rather than cracking down on them they chose to view these as people who can promote their product to others.

“Piracy is not really a huge problem for us in my opinion. There are a lot of people who simply won’t pay for our software and being aggressive against them won’t change that,” Harrison told us.

While Malwarebytes doesn’t have a huge problem with people pirating their software, the company does believe that there are security risks attached to online piracy. In particular Harrison warns people who use pirated operating systems as these often can’t be updated, leaving users more vulnerable to malware and viruses.

As for the Malwarebytes pirates, they can expect more gentle reminders in the future. However, despite their deviant behavior the company recognizes that even the pirates have contributed to the rapid growth of the software.

“Taken together we had one hell of a word of mouth push that really got our business going. Our fans have been an integral part of putting us on the map and yes, this does include the pirates.”

2013-06-09 - Tracker Down! Tracker is Down!

Dear IPTorrents users,

The tracker is currently offline for maintenance and will be repaired soon. We are aware of the issue and are working to rectify this as quickly as we can.

Whilst the Tracker is offline, anything you are seeding will not be counted, and anything you are seeding that has not hit 1:1 in your client will be seen as a H&R by the site.

Do not worry, no warnings are sent during this time, and you will not be penalized for this down time.

Your patience and understanding is required during this time.

Regards
IPT Staff

Tracker's name : SceneHD
Tracker's URL : http://scenehd.org/
Sign up : Invite only

Millions of Internet users every week are using websites that are hijacked, cloned or faked versions of one of the world’s most-visited streaming sites. In fact, the situation has gotten so bad for LetMeWatchThis that its owner is dumping the domain altogether in an effort to differentiate his site from more than a dozen imitators.

For the past decade, Internet users on the lookout for video have turned to the many torrent sites out there. In a bandwidth-limited online world, they have served their purpose well.

However, in recent years bandwidth has become more easily available at the right price and as a result streaming sites of all kinds have flourished. One only has to look at YouTube for the Internet’s best example.

But in the backwaters of the Internet less official sites have been flourishing. Streaming portals offering all of the latest movies and TV shows have grown from a niche experience into one enjoyed by millions of people everyday.

One of the biggest sites around is 1Channel.ch. The site is used by millions of people every week – probably every day – but most of its users have no idea of the site’s recent history. If they did, they may not feel so comfortable visiting the domain.

Early May, 1Channel.ch (which at the time was also known under its former name of LetMeWatchThis.ch) disappeared from the Internet without warning.

“We are having some issues with the 1channel.ch domain, please use letmewatchthis.ch domain in the mean time,” the site announced.

Behind the scenes all was not well.

“The [1Channel.ch] domain was hijacked from our registrar with a combination of falsified documents and a major security exploit in the registrar’s control panel, that allowed attackers to access any account in their system without a password,” the admin of the site told TorrentFreak.

From this point, 1Channel.ch – which is still running today – became a cloned site using a hijacked domain. Browsing through the site’s forums it’s clear that sections of the site are missing or have been removed while other errors persist. Obviously things are still not working properly for the domain’s new ‘owners’.

With no chance of getting the domain back, the real site was forced to revert to LetMeWatchThis.ch exclusively. As can be seen from the Alexa stats below, the hijackers are doing very well indeed.

On the other hand, the real site – LetMeWatchThis – has taken quite a hit. The site’s global rank with Alexa is now 5,527 while the fake is enjoying its status as the world’s 347th most popular site.

The woes don’t stop there. Anyone attempting to do a Google search for LetMeWatchThis draws a complete blank. Not only is the site completely absent from at least the first 10 pages of results, an even worse problem soon becomes apparent.

The first result for the domain is a link to 1Channel.ch, the hijacked site. What follows are results for perhaps a dozen or so other sites trying to pass themselves off as LetMeWatchThis with varying degrees of success. Some are very convincing indeed and most would easily fool a casual user.

So, faced with hijackers, clones, fakes and damn, damn pirates, LetMeWatchThis has decided to make a clean break to end all the confusion with a complete renaming of the site to PrimeWire.ag.

“We have switched to the new domain name to differentiate ourselves from all the clone sites out there,” the admin told TorrentFreak. “We would like to ask our fans not to use 1channel.ch as it is potentially spreading malware and collecting users personal log in information.”

Whether 1Channel is doing either of those things is a matter for debate, but it seems clear that so far its users either don’t know or don’t care about the hijacking situation. The site is doing very well and appears to have momentum that won’t be held back anytime soon. After all, going to the police for help is hardly an option.

Hi guys,

Just a quick update from the staff regarding the changes to the site. The bedding issues from the hit and run tool being implemented have been resolved, and I hope you can all appreciate that it's a necessary evil in terms of preventing torrents going dead, especially for a site this small. We are on a major recruiting drive at the moment, so please invite anyone who you think would be interested and would be a good user. We will be closing invites when we hit 5k users, so now is the time to invite your friends in. We have a lot of big stuff planned on the content end of things, and lots more exciting community projects en route, so please spread the beathau5 gospel to anyone who will listen.

The more observant amongst you will no doubt have noticed the donations counter has gone down to 13.33%. This is because we have moved servers and added some new IRC shells etc, and the new target is $300. All donations are hugely appreciated, and the response we have got so far to the donations for a new site have been staggering. The more you donate, the more we can offer as a site, and we already have an incredibly loyal fanbase. Our aim is to become a complete electronic music base providing a better service for the end user than any alternative, including Beatport, and you can help us in this struggle.

Anyway, Viva La Beathau5, and keep the uploads and forum posts coming.

Much love from your beautiful sysops,

//Diabolik, N0M4D and trouto

Discuss here

Over one thousand Does were sued by AF Holdings for downloading some of their adult-oriented movies. It was suspected that, in fact, AF Holdings is a front for Prenda Law, and that the massive lawsuit is just another case of copyright trolling. As it so happens, those suspicions are becoming facts.

After filing suit, the studio had asked the court of law to force down Verizon, AT&T, Bright House, and Cox to give up the names and addresses of their subscribers; although the request was initially granted, the ISPs took a stand and appealed the decision (you can read more about it here).

After managing to earn millions out of legal settlements throughout the years, the law firm stumbled upon the same legal system it was trying to abuse. Four of the lawyers associated with the case received penalties that summed up to $80.000, as the federal judge said that Prenda Law “outmaneuvered the legal system.”

Furthermore, the judge ordered an investigation on the firm’s principals, referring them to state/federal bar disciplinary panels, and to federal prosecutors and the IRS.

The best of this case, however, is yet to be revealed. Graham Syfert, a lawyer representing defendants in lawsuits filed by the rogue law firm, had a thought – who uploaded those movies in the first place? Well, he noticed that nearly all of those who shared the files in question came from the same place – sharkmp4 – an unknown user that’s been linked to a handful of videos, all serving as a base for Prenda’s copyright lawsuits. So, who is this mysterious user? To find out, Graham asked the help of Delvan Neville – the tech-head who developed a BitTorrent monitoring device.

By inspecting the hash values associated with the files, Neville found that they all point to one person. It’s suspected that this sharkmp4 has strings, strings that belong to 6681 Forensics.

The puppeteer is none other than Peter Hansmeier, brother of Paul Hansmeier, and the one who had monitored the BitTorrent traffic and pin-pointed the infringement. How convenient, isn’t it? Oh, and just so you know, Hansmeier and John Steele are the founders of Prenda Law.

Neville is suspecting that 6681 Forensics and sharkmp4 could be one and the same person. Proofs that the law firm was uploading the movies pile up – sharkmp4 shared the movies via The Pirate Bay, and the file-sharing portal stores its users’ IP addresses. As such, Neville discovered that some of the IP addresses belonging to Steele’s Go-Daddy website are identical to those used by sharkmp4.

“It appears from all the evidence that John Steele (or someone under his control or with access to his GoDaddy account records with authorization to make changes to domain names) is the most probable candidate for the identity of Pirate Bay user Sharkmp4,” Neville said.

“It’s the equivalent of jumping in front of a car to collect a settlement,” Syfert said.

“I have a friend who just released a music record. If he’s lucky he’ll make $3,000 off it, but if this [is legal], he can put it up online, hire someone to monitor the downloads, and then suddenly his album is worth $1 million,” he continued.

Contacted by telephone, Steele denied the accusations.

“I’ve categorically denied uploading a single torrent in my life,” he said.

“Nor do I know anybody who’s ever used the shark thing.”

“If someone were to be found uploading the torrent that they owned, I don’t know what the legality of it would be,” he concluded.

The whole fiasco is clearly an eye-opener, and we can only hope that Prenda Law will get what it deserves!

Stay tuned!

Customers of ISPs not involved in the so-called ‘Six Strikes’ anti-piracy scheme in the United States might be under the impression that warning notices are something they can avoid. However, TorrentFreak has learned that Warner Bros. are specifically targeting users of non-participating ISPs not only with warnings, but also with fines to settle the alleged copyright infringements.

After much preparation the MPAA and RIAA teamed up with U.S. Internet providers this February to launch their so-called “six strikes” anti-piracy notification system.

AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon are all on board but countless other ISPs either weren’t asked to join or decided not to participate in the project.

Needless to say, customers of ISPs such as Charter, CenturyLink and Cox have been comfortable that the entertainment companies won’t be sending warnings to them. Today they will have to think again.

It is not unusual for customers of any ISP to receive copyright infringement notices via email, in fact they are legally obliged to forward them at rightsholders’ request. However, in recent weeks there have been reports of customers of non-participating ISPs receiving DMCA notices with a special twist.

“Your ISP has forwarded you this notice. This is not spam. Your ISP account has been used to download, upload or offer for upload copyrighted content in a manner that infringes on the rights of the copyright owner. Your ISP service could be suspended if this matter is not resolved. You could be liable for up to $150,000 per infringement in civil penalties,” the notices begin.

What follows next is not a “strike”, but an offer of cash settlement to make any nasty legal proceedings go away.

“If you click on the link below and login to the Rightscorp, Inc. automated settlement system, for $20 per infringement, you will receive a legal release from the copyright owner,” the notice adds.

TorrentFreak has reported on Rightscorp’s activities before 1, 2. The company is not operating a scam, even if some people do find their activities unsavory.

However, what really piqued our interest are claims that Warner Bros., a company involved in the six-strikes campaign, are also working with Rightscorp on these cash settlement schemes. So we asked the studio if the reports are true.

“Yes. Warner Bros. is working with Digital Rights Corp on a test ISP/subscriber notification program to many ISPs that are not participating in the Copyright Alert System,” a Warner spokesman told TorrentFreak.

Although not mentioned specifically, the company said that the warnings being sent by Digital Rights Corp are for content that is already available through various authorized channels.

“The notices inform consumers that our content is readily available legitimately through multiple channels, including electronic sell through and video-on-demand services,” Warner add.

“The notices give consumers an opportunity to settle the identified infringement for a very nominal sum of $20 per title infringed–not as a measure of damage, but as a concrete reminder that our content has value and as a discouragement of future unauthorized activity.”

The warnings and demands for settlement are being tagged onto the end of regular DMCA notices and forwarded by ISPs. What this means is that although Warner and Rights Corp are managing to get a message to an account holder, they have absolutely no idea who that alleged infringer is. This means that if the account holder refuses to pay, it’s almost certain that no further action will be taken.

Some people, however, do pay. This post on Reddit details a case where an account holder paid Rights Corp $20.00 for an infringement of Warner copyrights but discovered that the matter was far from over.

After the initial payment, Rights Corp matched the notified (and settled) infringement with two others already on file. Since the guy had filled in his phone number, the company then called him up and asked for another $40.00 to clear his file.

TorrentFreak has discovered a few instances of these cash settlement demands, including the one above, which were sent by Charter Communications. It’s worth noting that while Warner stood by their actions and gave a statement, Charter failed to respond to multiple emails requesting comment.

Have you received a Rights Corp notice? If so, please forward them to the usual address in complete confidence.

Gaming Torrent Trackers Shut Down Citing Legal Threats

This week two of the largest gaming oriented BitTorrent trackers pulled the plug to prevent legal trouble. GazelleGames shut down permanently while Underground Gamer is leaving the door open for a possible restart. At this point it’s unclear which industry group is behind the legal pressure, but it appears to go beyond the occasional DMCA notice. Thousands of members, meanwhile, are looking for alternatives to resume their torrenting habits.

Founded early 2010, GazelleGames quickly grew out to become one of the larger private BitTorrent trackers dedicated to games.

Before the end of its first year the site amassed thousands of members, and this number continued to increase until a surprise message was posted by the site’s owners yesterday.

After three years it’s Game Over for GazelleGames. The decision to close the site comes a few days after the closure of Underground Gamer, another popular gaming tracker. While the exact details of the closures remain unknown to the outside world, both trackers have mentioned legal threats as motivation.

In a goodbye notice posted on the site’s frontage, GazelleGames says it wants to protect staff and users from running into trouble with the law. The site also assures its members that all personal information will be wiped.

“GazelleGames will be closing its doors. This came as a surprise to all the staff team, but it’s a move not unexpected. In light of UG’s closing five months after BG, it seemed like a prudent move to keep any legal actions from being taken upon anyone.

“So yes, it’s a precautionary measure taken in reaction to the recent movements in the torrent world. All of your contact data such as IP addresses and emails will be wiped along with the server itself.”

Gazelle Games’ goodbye note

Unlike Underground Gamer, the shutdown of GazelleGames is said to be permanent. Underground Gamer is leaving the door open for a comeback but notes that all non-essential data was wiped out to protect staff and members, a fact relayed to TorrentFreak when we spoke with a tech admin at the site.

Counting in bitGAMER, this is the third large gaming tracker to shut down in a matter of months. While it’s unclear which industry group is behind the legal pressure, there have been some rumors that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is involved.

In an IRC chat Underground Gamer’s Lenk mentioned that there were complaints regarding games from major publishers, including FIFA 98. However, the threats came from a “watchdog,” not EA or any of the other game makers themselves.

“That’s what you get when you have organizations whose sole purpose is scoring points by taking down sites. They don’t care about what they take down. They just do what they are paid for,” Lenk wrote.

“Companies don’t care about UG. Copyright watchdogs make it their job though,” he added.

Whoever is behind the pressure, it appears to be serious enough for the two trackers to cease their operations. The question remains whether the shutdowns will stop people from sharing games.

There are already talks to re-spawn the fallen communities at new BitTorrent trackers, as is often the case when large sites die. Other members will simply resume their sharing habits at one of the trackers that are still in the game.

Title: Invitations!!

We have had a lot of requests from members for invites to the site, so, every person from Power User and above has been given 1 invite each, this will expire at the end of the month, so if you have friends or family you would like to invite to the site then now would be the best time to do it, as the chances are that invites will only be given to donors in the future.

Please make sure that you do NOT invite previously banned members, or create yourself a 2nd account, as you will risk your own account by doing so.

Note: for those who doesn't know --> RTN it's the ex LL [ LeechersLair ]

This week the trial of Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm concluded in Sweden, but before the verdict is announced more trouble awaits the 28-year-old. Authorities have revealed that Denmark has requested the extradition of Svartholm, who is suspected of similar hacking-related crimes in the neighboring country. Gottfrid’s mother tells TorrentFreak that she is surprised by the new allegations.

Following a lengthy investigation the trial of Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm kicked off in the Stockholm District late last month.

The charges relate to the hacking of Logica, a Swedish IT company working with local tax authorities. Much of the prosecution’s evidence was obtained from a computer seized from Gottfrid when he was detained last year in Cambodia.

Gottfrid denied the charges and when confronted with evidence found on his computer he said that someone else must have gained access while he was in Asia. Prosecutor Henrik Olin described this explanation as “not credible” and asked the court to hand down a tough sentence.

After nearly three weeks the trial has now concluded. However, as the case was winding up the authorities revealed that Sweden is not the only country that wants to prosecute Gottfrid. According to new information, Denmark has put in a request to extradite the Swede for “similar” hacking related offenses.

At this point it is unclear what the Danish hacking charges entail or when the alleged crimes took place. Negotiations between Sweden and Denmark have been going on behind closed doors and the investigation is shrouded in secrecy.

However, the Danish police issued a press release today regarding a police investigation into the hacking of CSC, a Danish IT company that works for the Government. The hacks were carried out between April and August 2012 and among other things the hackers accessed police records. One of the suspected hackers is referred to as a Swedish citizen who is currently in custody.

TorrentFreak talked to Kristina Svartholm, Gottfrid’s mother, who told us that her son is being kept in solitary confinement until Danish investigators come over to question him. She doesn’t know the exact nature of the new allegations, but believes they are unrelated to the Logica case.

Kristina further points out that the timing of the announcement is suspicious, and that it wouldn’t surprise her if it was made public at this specific time to influence the court’s opinion of Gottfrid.

Talking about the Swedish trial Gottfrid’s mother says that it wasn’t a fair process, as Gottfrid had very limited resources to prepare his defense.

“There is a striking unbalance between the enormous resources that the authorities and private companies involved have had available for their investigations, and the resources Gottfrid had. It’s undemocratic and shows how unequal the justice system is.”

One of the problems was that Gottfrid had very limited options to communicate while being in detention, which made it hard to prepare for his defense. All communication went through his lawyer and mother, and the latter was not able to make any notes of what was said during their conversations.

“Gottfrid could only contact people indirectly through me or his lawyer. Since I was denied to bring paper and pencil into custody to make notes while visiting him, I often felt rather helpless during this process,” Kristina told TorrentFreak.

“I can’t memorize all technicalities and his lawyer lacks these technical skills as well. Gottfrid had no opportunities whatsoever to discuss the technical matters with anyone else,” she adds.

In addition to limited resources, Kristina points out that it was extremely difficult to find an expert who would agree to testify on the technical details, as many excused themselves for having ties to the authorities or companies involved. One was eventually found, but Kristina doubts whether the court can make an accurate assessment of the presented evidence because of its technical nature.

“I am absolutely sure that there is no judge and no jury in Sweden that has the technical skills to handle a case like this, and correctly weigh and assess the evidence that was presented. You can’t expect any lawyer to have these skills either.”

Next week the court is expected to deliver its verdict in Gottfrid’s Swedish trial, and around the same time the authorities will announce their response to the extradition request.

Gottfrid, meanwhile, remains in custody as he’s still considered a flight risk. He is kept in solitary confinement upon request from the Danish authorities.

The UK Minister for Culture plus representatives from the MPAA, BPI, Google and four major ISPs met for a roundtable discussion on the issue of online piracy last month. The minutes of the meeting suggest that not only are the parties keen for site blocking to continue, but are considering whether the same High Court mechanism could be used to provide Google with a legal basis on which to delist sites.

Following the passing of the UK’s Digital Economy Act in 2010, one of the remaining big questions is when ISPs will begin sending out warning letters to subscribers suspected of illicit file-sharing.

There has been delay after delay, but yesterday Mark Jackson of ISPreview broke the news that the Department for Culture, Media & Sport had confirmed that the previous target of early 2014 will no longer be met. The notices are now expected to go out during the second half of 2015.

However, the revelation didn’t come from any official announcement but from the minutes of an anti-piracy roundtable held in May and hosted by UK Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey. A copy obtained by TorrentFreak shows that the meeting was attended by a who’s who of rightsholders, anti-piracy groups and ISPs, including the MPAA, BPI, FACT, Google and the Premier League, plus BT, Virgin, TalkTalk and Sky.

Perhaps unsurprisingly at this point is how rightsholders and the authorities are increasingly putting pressure on Google. Ed Vaizey said the UK Government now wants to see the issue of infringing search results “addressed and producing tangible results.”

The usual complaints came from Ian Moss, the BPI’s Director of Public Affairs, over the apparent lack of progress demonstrated by Google following the earlier tweaking of its search algorithm. Autocomplete, Moss said, is still suggesting illegal sites in response to user searches.

Theo Bertram, UK Policy Manager for Google, countered that progress had been made but conceded there was more to be done. Over time the algorithm would yield better results, Bertram said.

While the wrangling over algorithm adjustment has been heard many times before, what followed next appears to be something quite new. Noting that an analysis is under way to investigate the role of search engines on infringement, the discussion turned to how the law might have a role to play in manipulating search results.

Section 97a of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is currently being used by the MPAA and BPI to have sites such as The Pirate Bay and KAT.ph blocked by UK ISPs, but could it have additional usefulness when it comes to dealing with search?

The meeting suggested that s97a could provide Google with a legal basis on which to remove sites from its search rankings.

Rightsholders could “apply to the courts to establish principles on which Google could base decisions to remove sites from rankings,” the MPAA’s Chris Marcich said.

New uses for S97a aside, the current process appears to be going quite well, at least as far as the rightsholders are concerned.

The BPI and MPAA told the meeting that the court procedure to have sites blocked in the UK had become “increasingly efficient and quick” on the back of ISPs becoming more comfortable with the process and copyright holders getting a better grasp on the kind of evidence required by the court.

However, for reasons not made clear, the MPAA doesn’t consider the process quick enough to deal with “streaming websites.”

Another area discussed was the advertising being placed on unauthorized content sites. Peter Szyszko of whiteBULLET said his company has a system in place funded by ad networks looking to protect their brands. It contains a database of 150,000 sites which have been scored for ad suitability.

Szyszko said that rightsholders could use his company’s system to measure the advertising on “high-risk” sites so that decisions could be made on “compliance action.” Lavinia Carey of the Federation Against Copyright Theft expressed support for such independent automated systems and said they could prove useful for evidence purposes.

Bill Bush, Director of Communications and Public Policy at Premier League, raised the issue of online gambling sites advertising on sites illegally streaming live sport. He questioned whether this problem could be addressed not via copyright legislation, but through the Remote Gambling Bill. Ed Vaizey said he would follow this up through the Minister for Sport and Tourism’s office.

Finally, as revealed earlier this week, the music and movie industries are working more closely than ever with police in the UK. FACT’s Lavinia Carey told the meeting that copyright owners had been working with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to compile a register of infringing sites. That work, she said, would be completed soon.

Dotcom’s Mega Pushes More Bandwidth Than New Zealand

Kim Dotcom’s Mega has grown exponentially since its launch earlier this year. According to Dotcom, the bandwidth generated by the encryption-focused file-hosting platform has now exceeded that of the entire country of New Zealand. At the same time, the number of complaints by copyright holders remains remarkably low at 80 to 100 DMCA requests per day.

The introduction of Mega has been one of the most successful tech launches this year.

In a matter of days the site’s membership went from zero to more than a million and in the weeks that followed the site continued to expand its user base.

Thus far Kim Dotcom and his colleagues have kept most of their statistics under wraps. However, earlier today Mega’s founder said that “the privacy company” now pushes more bandwidth than the entire country of New Zealand.

“Only 5 months after the #Mega launch we are now pushing more bandwidth than the entire country of New Zealand,” Dotcom tweets.

Mega’s founder doesn’t specify any numbers but Mega’s bandwidth should be well over 100 million petabytes at this point.

While the site’s traffic still pales in comparison to the defunct Megaupload and several other file-hosting services, it’s still a force to be reckoned with. The company certainly doesn’t lack any ambition and hopes to go public on the New Zealand or Australian stock markets in the near future.

Those not sharing in the Mega excitement thus far are Hollywood and the major music labels. The RIAA has devoted part of its website to tell the(ir) “real story” about Megaupload and would prefer it if Dotcom disappeared from the limelight.

Interestingly, however, copyright holders haven’t had much to complain about during Mega’s first few months of business. Although Hollywood studios have tried to get Mega de-listed from Google on copyright grounds, not many complaints have been sent to the cloud hosting company itself.

Dotcom informed TorrentFreak that the number of DMCA notices per day doesn’t exceed double digits, yet more than a million files are uploaded per day.

“We currently receive between 80 – 100 notices per day. That’s tiny considering the 1.6 million uploads we receive daily and compared to the takedown volume of sites like Dropbox & YouTube,” Dotcom informs TorrentFreak.

“We are reacting swiftly to these takedown notices, just like we did at Megaupload,” Dotcom adds.

Indeed, Mega’s numbers are nothing compared to the tens of thousands of notices other service providers receive. In part this difference can be explained by the fact that unlike Dropbox and YouTube, Mega doesn’t allow Google to index its files.

One thing is clear though, U.S. authorities and copyright holders will have a hard time portraying Mega as a criminal operation setup to infringe on content owners’ copyrights.

It will be interesting to see whether Mega can keep up current growth in the future and “take over” a few other countries in the process.