Donations round Q2 2014 now open! If everyone gave a few Euro we would be able to buy a new server and a small island with palm trees, let's not leave it to the staff and the other usual donators to find some cash again!

Pharrell Williams is all set to spread a little happiness during this year’s Oscars ceremony. The acclaimed singer, songwriter, and producer was recently tapped to perform his Despicable Me 2 track “Happy” during the upcoming 2014 Academy Awards. The tune will also compete against “Ordinary Love,” “The Moon Song,” “Alone Yet Not Alone,” and “Let it Go” for the Best Original Best trophy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences let Pharrell Williams fans know about his involvement with the upcoming awards ceremony on Tuesday. Considering the amount of attention the singer’s hat generated during the 2014 Grammy Awards, chances are fans will have their eyes glued to the top of Williams’ skull on March 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=y6Sxv-sUYtM The singer penned the song for the Despicable Me sequel, a film that went on to make a deeply impressive $970 million worldwide. During a conversation with Comic Book Resources last year, Williams gave fans a little insight into how he put the song together. He told the website: “The process is usually the same. They usually do one of two things: They go, “We’ve just written this new scene and we need X, Y and Z.” There’s your criteria – you have directives. Or, sometimes they’ll already have temp music, where the tempo works, and the feeling of the song works, but the song is just overplayed. Or a lot of it is right but they want something new and fresh. So there’s a criteria, and then there’s your mode of inspiration. And ingeniously, these writers and the director chose a different overarching theme for this one, which was in a much more happier place.” Instead of cranking out a traditional clip for “Happy,” Pharrell Williams put together an interactive 24-hour music video that features several people singing and dancing to the song in question. Despicable Me 2 star Steve Carell even shows up at one point during the video. The clip’s interface, which resembles a clock, allows folks to jump around to various points with relative ease. Williams also appears at the start of every hour. Check out the official 24 Hours of Happy website if you’re curious to see the video in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=McIYdE4s-gY If you’re a fan of “Happy” but don’t want to drop your hard-earned cash on the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, then you can acquire the song when Williams releases his solo record for Columbia Records. The label announced last year that the singer’s new batch of tunes should arrive on retail shelves at some point during 2014.

Britney Spears and Lady Gaga will reportedly begin work on their duet very soon. Rumors started swirling about the project last year when the “Toxic” singer said she’d love to work with Mother Monster at some point down the road. When Lady Gaga revealed on Twitter that she was definitely down for a collaboration, it seemed like a sure thing. “I would do a duet with Lady Gaga. I think that would be a lot of fun. I think she’s very different and interesting and intricate, and I like her as an artist,” Britney said during a fan Q&A session. However, everything remained quiet on that front until Britney Spears teased she was going to meet up with Lady Gaga in the very near future. As it turns out, the “Applause” singer recently checked out Spears’ show at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. Lady Gaga even shared a photo prior to attending the recent performance. On my way to #BritneyBitch in #ARTPOPStyle long blond hair, androgynous wear http://t.co/yGVAb440hP pic.twitter.com/GEky1cXzAi — Goddess of Love (@ladygaga) February 2, 2014 According to Us Weekly, Britney Spears had a brief chat with Gaga about the possible duet while hanging out backstage before the show. Although it’s still unclear when or if the collaboration will take place, a source seems to think it’s going to happen sooner than later. “During the song ‘Till the World Ends,’ Gaga walked to the pit and tossed Britney roses. Brit blew her a kiss!” an insider told the website. Check out video of the aforementioned kiss below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=y9w0sWN9pnc The Inquisitr previously reported that Lady Gaga is possibly preparing to unleash the sequel to the commercially disappointing album ARTPOP. Although a release date isn’t readily available, it’s believed the songs could arrive at some point later this year. ADVERTISEMENT In a recent message to her fans, the singer said she’s slowly but surely getting everything back on track following the troubled release of ARTPOP. She also teased that she’s returning to the studio to work with producer DJ White Shadow. “I know you’re anxious for more ‘ARTPOP.’ I am working so so so so hard and the wait will be worth it. We are 100 percent back on track and I’m busy creating behind the scenes. I miss you so much!” she told her fans.

Miranda Lambert released her new single “Automatic” today and so far, fans are loving it! According to People, this song is the first off her upcoming fifth solo album. The Examiner stated that the song was co-written by Lambert, Nicolle Galyon (of The Voice) and Natalie Hemby. Lambert reportedly said the song “Automatic” is one about the good life. “It’s about slowing down, taking a breath and remembering what it’s like to live life a little more simply.” “It’s not about going back, but reminiscing about what it was like to hang laundry on the line and wait for it to dry and my dad teaching me how to drive my ’55 Chevy that I still have but don’t drive nearly enough. The song brings back good memories and it reminds me to take a deep breath and to remember that getting there is half the fun,” she said. Just a few months ago, Miranda Lambert made news after winning Female Vocalist of the Year for the fourth time at the 2013 Country Music Awards. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason she made news that night. According to a report by The Inquisitr, Lambert stunned many after debuting her recent weight loss at the CMA’s. Husband Black Shelton made sure everyone knew how he felt about his wife’s transformation when he sent a tweet out before the show which read: “My wife is so hot it’s ridiculous…” What was Lambert’s secret to her weight loss? She told E! Online that it’s “working a lot!” She added “working out and drinking juice and just running, running around.” Finally she said: “You know what, I fluctuate all the time in my weight — it’s really annoying — but I’m going to be 30 in like four days, so I’m like, ‘I need to get ahead of this thing!’ ” And that she did! Now that Miranda Lambert has released her new single, Radio.com said that the singer is both excited and nervous for the release of her new album. “It’s always exciting and little bit nerve-wracking to release a new album,” she said. “We’ve been writing and recording since last summer and I’m ready for the fans to hear my new music.” The Twitter world has exploded with reactions to the singer’s new single. Even husband Blake Shelton shared his thoughts: Just heard @mirandalambert new song “Automatic”… And I felt a change in the atmosphere of country music. #newclassic — Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) February 5, 2014

Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys will also feature on the set, which will include 11 brand new tracks. Earlier this week Pharrell unveiled the artwork for G I R L, which sees him in a white dressing gown and flanked by three attractive females. An accompanying trailer included footage of the star in the recording studio working with a string section. The tracklist for Pharrell Williams's G I R L is as follows: 1. 'Marilyn Monroe' 2. 'Brand New' ft. Justin Timberlake 3. 'Hunter' 4. 'Gush' 5. 'Happy' 6. 'Come Get It' ft. Miley Cyrus 7. 'Gust Of Wind' ft. Daft Punk 8. 'Lost Queen' 9. 'Freq' 10. 'I Know Who You Are' ft. Alicia Keys 11. 'It Girl'

It’s name? “Platinum”. It’s target? To rock country music. As Miranda Lambert said, presenting her new album, her first in more than two years, “I’m ready to rock!” Her fans, however, will have to wait for a little while longer though. The release date is several months away set for June 3. This means that when the album finally hits the stores, two years and eight months will have passed since the songstress released her last LP. The new album is highly personal and narrates Lambert’s life as she reaches the age of 30. It is also highly ambitious as the singer chose to experiment with several different styles and melodies. The singer has written or co-written eight of the sixteen of the album songs and chose the rest based on how they reflected the way she approaches life. Lambert presents a number of interesting collaborations in her new album, one of which with Carrie Underwood on the song “Something Bad,” brings together two of the most popular country artists of the new generation. The fist single will be “Automatic” and Lambert says that she’s excited about the outcome. “We’re really rocking in country music and we’re coming together as a force,” she said. Discussing why she took so much time to release another album – her fifth personal – the singer said that her work with the Pistol Annies trio along with the extension of her tour, kept her busy throughout 2013. At the same time, she wanted to work on her new album long enough in order to fulfill her entire creative vision. Obviously this takes time. “From the day you kinda go I need to start looking for songs and writing songs, it feels like no matter how much time you have, you’re rushed. And so I didn’t want to rush it at all,” she said.

Kinect for Xbox One is indispensable, Microsoft has claimed. The console would be incomplete without the motion-tracking device, according to Xbox UK managing director Harvey Eagle. "Kinect is absolutely integral to Xbox One," Eagle told the BBC today (February 24), to avoid speculation that the platform holder has a Kinect-less hardware bundle in the works. An official Xbox One price cut was recently announced for the UK. The cheaper system, which includes Kinect, will be available February 28 for £399. Meanwhile, a Titanfall bundle containing the console and sensor will launch in March.

The Xbox One's 60Hz judder issues will be fixed soon, according to Microsoft's Harvey Eagle. With Xbox One output running at 60Hz and European telecasters using a 50Hz broadcasting system, running Freeview HD, Sky or Virgin Media through the Xbox One is causing the screen to judder.

The Xbox One March update has been previewed in a new video by Microsoft. Hosted by Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb and Xbox engineer Richard Irving, the video primarily focuses on party chat, cross-game chat and friends lists. "I think we've addressed the number one most requested feature, which is turning party chat on by default," Irving explains. Speaking about cross-game chat and parties, Irving said that the UI now makes a clearer distinction between who users are playing with and who they are chatting with. Users will also be able to search for friends, and will be faced with more options when viewing profiles and scrolling through recent players.

PS4's opening weekend sales in Japan have been revealed. 322,083 consoles were bought in the first two days of sale, which is nearly four times the 88,443 PS3 systems sold during 2006, according to Famitsu (via The Verge). It was noted that the impressive margin was due to supply constraints for the PS3, and added that the Wii U sold a similar number - 308,570 - during its launch in 2012. PS4 launched in Japan on February 22 alongside several new trailers for its launch line-up. The PS4's Japanese launch line-up is similar to that of its American and European counterparts, with Nobunaga's Ambition, Capcom's Strider remake and Yakuza: Ishin among the notable differences. In the UK, console supplies will be constrained until April.

The Xbox One March update will include a manual 50Hz option. The feature looks to be a fix for a common reported problem experienced by European owners, in which the picture 'judders' when watching television as a result of Xbox One's default 60Hz refresh rate. Sky, Virgin, BT and Freeview boxes output in 50Hz, resulting in frames being dropped. According to CVG UK, Microsoft's upcoming update will add a system menu option allowing people to switch between 50Hz and 60Hz modes. The Xbox One update was previously previewed by Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb and Xbox engineer Richard Irving in a four-minute video discussing changes to party chat, cross-game chat and friends lists.

Dear users! Speaking Competition Uploader 2014.04.01. up - 2014.03.15. from! The uploaded torrent size min.100MB Should be placed at least 3 torrents downloader seedelni! The competition is all charged - Accepted Staff - torrent participate! Staff members are not eligible to participate in the competition! Prizes: 1 Location: New user uses one month: 225GB unlimited slots, 100 Mbit / s 2 Location: New user uses one month: 100GB unlimited slots, 50 Mbit / s 3 Location: one month "VIP" ranking In addition, every uploader will upload 100GB, and 1,000 bonus points! Good töltögetést! Sincerely, Staff Piggy!

Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed The Last of Us has sold over 6 million copies, Sony has revealed through a blog post. The post-apocalyptic adventure from Naughty Dog was released in June last year and the game managed to sell a whopping 3.4 million copies at the end of 2014. The game was also awarded five BAFTA awards recently including “Best Game in 2014?. Sony also revealed that the game’s Left Behind DLC has become the highest rated ever downloadable content for PlayStation 3 earning a score of 89 on Metacritic. The Last of Us developer will be attending Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2014 to talk about the process and techniques that went into developing the game. “We’re now heading to GDC to talk about some of the techniques and process that went into making The Last of Us, which has now hit over six million copies sold worldwide, as well as what made Left Behind, our first ever downloadable, single player story chapter, so unique”, reads the Sony blog post.

“Game of Thrones” actor Art Parkinson has come on board opposite Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino and Alexandra Daddario in New Line’s earthquake actioner “San Andreas.” The Irish thespian will portray Ollie, a precocious 10-year-old fleeing for his life as a 10.0 quake hits California. Brad Peyton directing is directing from a script by “The Conjuring” scribes Carey Hayes and Chad Hayes, with a previous draft written by Carlton Cuse. Johnson portray a firefighter who must make a treacherous journey from Los Angeles to San Francisco to rescue his daughter. Beau Flynn is producing through his FlynnPictureCo. along with Village Roadshow. Parkinson has portrayed Rickon Stark in all three seasons of “Game of Thrones.” He also plays the son of Luke Evans’ character in Legendary Entertainment’s upcoming “Dracula Untold,” due out in October from Universal.

Acid-lounge is back "Hi and welcome back to all our members! As you all know we had nearly 2 weeks of down time, this was due to 2 failing Hard Drives. After a few emails to our service provider we got 2 new drives fitted and after a lot of work by our coders, mainly, VibesDonor, smokeditDonor and some help from RevoltDonor, motherbunch And kickDonor (Thanks mate :wink: ) we got our beloved site back. You might notice at times that when you click on a file to download you might get the error, Sorry Pal, that is due to loss of .torrent files from our server and the only way we can remedy this is if we all help out and upload any .torrent files we have using the recover which is here: https://www.acid-lounge.org.uk/rescue.php Finally on behalf of ACiD and all the staff we would like to thank you all for your patience, but let's admit it, it was worth waiting for :-) and for your patience site will be FL till the end of the month. //Acid Staff If you're having any connectability issues give it a couple of days for dns to update. Forum Topic > Acid Is Back"

Yahoo will be terminating the logins through Google and Facebook accounts gradually, new reports have claimed. Users will require a Yahoo ID to access all of Yahoo’s services including Fantasy Sports and photo-sharing site Flickr. According to the Reuters report, Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick’Em, a service focused on the NCAA college basketball tournament which begins later this month, will be the first Yahoo service to require the new sign-in process. “Yahoo is continually working on improving the user experience, which includes our sign-in process for Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick’Em,” said Yahoo in a statement. “This new process, which now asks users to sign in with a Yahoo username, will allow us to offer the best personalized experience to everyone.” The spokeswoman also confirmed that “eventually, the sign in buttons for Facebook and Google will be removed from all Yahoo properties.” Yahoo, however, hasn’t given any time-frame on when the Google and Facebook login buttons will disappear from all the Yahoo services. Yahoo started allowing users to log in to its services with their Facebook and Google IDs in 2011, as the company sought to tap on their huge numbers of users. But, CEO Marissa Mayer seems to take an entirely different route from the one CEO Carol Bartz took in a bid to reclaim native users of Yahoo and revive the stagnant revenue. Since 2012, CEO Mayer has been rolling out new versions of the key products, including Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Finance and also launched Yahoo News Digest. Just in 2013, Yahoo has acquired 30 companies and improvised several apps, along with new magazines launches for food and tech. The company also started a program to free up Yahoo IDs and letting new users claim email addresses that had been inactive for at least 12 months.

In a recent study by coupons website Vouchercloud.net conducted to gauge how knowledgeable Americans are when it comes to tech terms, it was found that one in every ten Americans that is around 11 percent of the people believed HTML, which is a language that is used to create websites, was actually a sexually transmitted disease (STD). The study involved 2,392 men and women over 18 years old who were shown tech and non-tech terms and were then asked to pick from three possible definitions. A company spokeswoman in a statement said that “Technology is a huge interest for our user base, and month after month we see thousands of people visiting our site to look for coupons and deals to use when purchasing their favorite tech products”. “It seems that quite a few of us need to brush up on our tech definitions.” Other interesting results which were shown up in the study report includes- - 77 percent of the respondents were unaware of what SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization,” stood for. - 27 percent of them believed gigabyte, a unit of computer memory or data storage, to be an insect commonly found in South America. - 42 percent of the respondents believed motherboard, a circuit board that holds many of the key components of a computer, was “the deck of a cruise ship.” - 23 percent of them thought an “MP3″, a common audio format, was a “Star Wars” robot. - 18 percent of them believed that Blu-ray, a DVD format used to store high-definition video and data, was a marine animal. - 15 per cent of the respondents thought software, a term used for computer programs, stood for comfortable clothing. - 12 percent believed “USB, a common type of connector,” is the acronym for a European country. Despite the shocking results, the report said 61 percent of the respondents said it is important to have a good knowledge of technology in this day and age.

File-hosting site UltraMegabit has settled a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office over allegations it engaged in deceptive business practices when it provided recurring subscription access to pirated content. It's a novel approach, but who stirred the matter up? In the wake of the Megaupload shutdown many file-hosting services reconsidered their options, with some opting to drastically change their business models or even shut down. Whatever the response, the general consensus was to think twice before running a ‘cyberlocker’ in the United States. Some, however, shrugged off the naysayers and elected to operate from the U.S., putting faith in legislation designed to protect them, such as the DMCA. One such site, UltraMegabit.com, a file-hosting service operated by former EliteTorrents staff member Rudy Corella, has been doing business there ever since. Just recently it became clear the authorities had been watching the service, but the situation is unlike most other complaints against file-sharing sites. The problem stems from alleged breaches of Washington State’s Consumer Protection Act, legislation put in place to protect people against fraud and unfair business practices. According to the Attorney General’s Office, UltraMegabit “engaged in a number of deceptive business practices” contrary to the Act. These allegations admittedly looks pretty serious on first view but drilling down into the details reveals an interesting picture to say the least. First off, UltraMegaBit (UMB) is owned by a California-based corporation with thousands of customers, but only a few based in Washington State are affected by the allegations. Like many file-hosters of its kind, UMB has both free and premium customers, the latter purchasing monthly or annual subscriptions for unlimited use of the service. It is these subscriptions that form the basis of the complaint. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) says that UltraMegaBit failed to “adequately disclose” that these subscriptions renewed without members’ express approval. Countering, UMB say that members receive an email one week before renewal takes place. Perhaps unsurprisingly the issue of copyright eventually raises its head, although not in the form of any obvious rightsholder complaint. Like the majority of file-hosting services, YouTube included, users sometimes upload unauthorized content to UMB, meaning that other users of the service gain access to infringing material. For its part, UMB says that it fully complies with the DMCA to remove such content. However, the AGO says that by failing to inform users that some of the content available from UMB may be copyrighted, UMB had engaged in “deceptive business practices” contrary to the Consumer Protection Act. Furthermore, the AGO said that by charging a subscription fee to use the service, UMB had been “implicitly leading members to believe” they were accessing content legally, something that was likely to confuse customers and lead them to unwittingly break the law. “Ultra Mega Corp’s business model was confusing to consumers who are familiar with companies like Netflix or other companies that charge consumers a monthly fee to legally watch TV shows and movies,” said Assistant Attorney General Jake Bernstein. “The AGO investigation revealed that the most popular files stored on UMB are copyrighted works, such as TV shows and movies, that members can not legally download,” Bernstein added. “UMB members were unknowingly downloading copyrighted content illegally, opening themselves up to potential lawsuits by content owners, as occurred with Napster and the music industry.” While the AGO says that UMB’s Rudy Corella agreed to pay $20,000 to settle the case, a statement by UMB support staff suggests that the payment was only made to allow the site to move on. “We are and always have been compliant with DMCA, and our rebilling model will send an email out one week prior to rebilling. As it is now, any member can cancel their rebill at any time. Rather than drag anything on, we as a company felt to just pay them, so they would get off of our back, and not hound any of our various other ventures we are involved in,” UMB said. As this process has played out, questions were being asked about who filed the original complaints with the AGO. Many accusatory fingers were pointed at Robert King of the StopFileLockers anti-piracy group, who over the course of the past 18 months has endlessly and publicly accused Corella of copyright-infringement “crimes”. However, UMB staff say that the Attorney General’s Office probably initiated the case on its own as payback for an earlier case that didn’t conclude to its satisfaction. “One of the [uMB] owners used to have a business which was sued by Washington, and they never collected anything from that owner; once they heard news about his involvement in a new company, they looked for anything they could to threaten us with a lawsuit,” the staff member said. “I’m sure [there are people] who will try to profit from this news [thinking] they have something or anything to do with it. Fact of the matter is, they don’t.” TF spoke with Robert King, who would neither confirm nor deny the accusations. “In regards to this particular case I cannot comment on this as doing so may impede the advancement of other matters,” he said.

Flexcoin, an Edmonton-based Bitcoin bank, has been forced to close after a theft of 896 Bitcoins to a hacker attack on Sunday equalling £365,000. The company reported that the entire stock of Bitcoins stored on-line or in “hot wallet” were wiped out by the hacker. Canadian police are investigating this theft of digital currency worth £365,000 from the Bitcoin bank. “On March 2nd 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet,” read the Flexcoin’s statement. “As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately.” Flexcoin confirmed that the Bitcoins in “Cold Storage” or offline are safe and customers will be contacted by the company. Upon verification of their identities, the Bitcoins will be sent to customers free of charge. The company said that it “will work with law enforcement to decipher the source of the hack.” This closure comes just a week after the Japan-based Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection reporting a massive loss of 850,000 Bitcoins, resulting in $63.6 million in debt, about twice of its assets. Flexcoin, on Wednesday, posted more details on exactly how the hacker has managed to transfer the virtual currency - The attacker logged into the Flexcoin front end from IP address 207.12.89.117 under a newly created username and deposited to address 1DSD3B3uS2wGZjZAwa2dqQ7M9v7Ajw2iLy The coins were then left to sit until they had reached 6 confirmations. The attacker then successfully exploited a flaw in the code which allows transfers between Flexcoin users. By sending thousands of simultaneous requests, the attacker was able to “move” coins from one user account to another until the sending account was overdrawn, before balances were updated. This was then repeated through multiple accounts, snowballing the amount, until the attacker withdrew the coins. Also on Tuesday, a small Bitcoin exchange, Poloniex, reported a theft of 12.3% of its reserves by hacker using a technique that resulted in overdrawn accounts.

While an Internet user's IP address is often visible, significant effort is required to convert that into a real-life identity. So imagine what would happen if you could type the IP address of an Internet user into a web browser and receive his phone number in return. Unbelievably, that happened this week. Websites can’t function without them and a user must be allocated one before he or she can begin using the Internet. Without doubt, IP addresses one of the most important elements underpinning today’s online experience. While website IP addresses are necessarily public information, IP addresses of individual users are by their very nature a lot more sensitive. Rather than identifying a web server designed to attract traffic, IP addresses operated by regular Internet users are often considered personal information. Of course, it’s fairly common knowledge that the IP addresses of file-sharers become publicly visible when they enter BitTorrent swarms for example, but matching those IP addresses to real-life identities is a complex process wrapped up in privacy laws designed to protect the consumer. During the past week, however, it became evident that users of a Scandinavian ISP could be traced back to their real-life identities simply by using their IP address. Discovered by Norwegian site Dinside, this privacy disaster stems from the software installed on routers supplied by local ISP NextGenTel. By simply entering the IP address of another NextGenTel user into a standard web browser, users were presented with a webpage containing router status information. The page also revealed the telephone number of the user behind the entered IP address. Armed with a telephone number and a directory site such as 1881.no, all it took was a few clicks to find out the name and address of the person behind not only the telephone number, but also the original IP address. After being alerted to the issue NextGenTel took action to fix the security hole by updating the relevant software, but the episode is a shining example of how years of care over personal information can be undone in an instant. One of Norway’s biggest privacy cases in recent times involved a BitTorrent user who allegedly leaked a hit local movie to The Pirate Bay. Law firm Simonsen had the IP address of the leaker but desperately needed to convert that into a real-life identity in order to pursue legal action. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court when the ISP behind that IP address refused to hand over its customer’s private details. Needless to say, that lengthy process would have been endlessly easier if that customer had been a NextGenTel customer. Simonsen could’ve accessed the Internet via NextGenTel, entered the IP address into their web browser, and used the telephone number to reach their target there and then – or called round for a visit, whichever was easier. In a comment to Dinside, NextGenTel CTO Jørn E. Hodne said his company were taking the matter seriously and were attempting to put things right by fixing software and reporting themselves to the country’s Data Inspectorate. “We’ve started the [software] update and even reported the matter to the Inspectorate,” Hodne said. “The world we live in is very complex, but this is our responsibility.”

Despite killing more than 200 in 2013, BREIN has decided to end its legal battles against Pirate Bay proxies. A recent court ruling, which undermined the anti-piracy group's legal basis against the services, has also forced the discontinuation of legal action against several ISPs, BREIN said yesterday. Faced with a Pirate Bay website that simply refused to die, in 2010 Hollywood-linked anti-piracy group BREIN decided to take a different approach to the problem. If The Pirate Bay wouldn’t disconnect itself from the Internet, BREIN would force ISPs to disconnect their customers from the site instead. The initial action, against Ziggo, the Netherlands’ largest ISP, soon encompassed another. XS4ALL decided the case was too important to stay out of and joined its rival to fight against BREIN. The case took many twists and turns, with victory first for the ISPs, then for BREIN. Refusing to give in, the ISPs fought back and in January The Court of The Hague delivered a huge blow. That ruling, which deemed that ISPs did not have to block their subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay, threw BREIN’s whole strategy into turmoil. With no ruling against Ziggo and XS4ALL, BREIN would be unable to get any kind of victory against KPN, UPC and Tele2, the other ISPs the anti-piracy group had unfinished legal business with. Things soon started to unravel. Within days UPC said it had lifted its Pirate Bay blockade and KPN and Tele2 quickly followed. Agreement with BREIN had been reached in private, with most other details unavailable. Now, in a fresh announcement, it’s clear that BREIN will back away from all legal action against ISPs pending the Supreme Court ruling it seeks against Ziggo and XS4ALL. “BREIN has laid the case against the other providers to rest in anticipation of the outcome at the Supreme Court,” said BREIN lawyer Joris van Manen. “The ISPs have a golden rule that they will only block under judicial coercion. BREIN, however, is reasonable.” While the ISPs will be breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect of around 18 months respite from legal action, they aren’t the only ones in the clear. BREIN says that it will also end hostilities against Pirate Bay proxies. These services, including Kuiken.co and one operated by the Pirate Party, worked hard to circumvent the now-defunct ISP blockades but were attacked for their actions. “We’re not Don Quixote,” van Manen told Webwereld. “If there is no blockage of the Pirate Bay any more then a proxy makes little sense, and also any lawsuit against one.” The fact that BREIN feels it has no legal basis to force proxies into compliance is very interesting. Earlier this week the anti-piracy group said it had killed in excess of 200 such sites in 2013. Whether any will now return to their former glory remains to be seen but given that their services aren’t just of use to Dutch citizens (proxies are also very useful to Internet users in the UK) some are likely to restart their engines to operate legally from the Netherlands – at least until the Supreme Court ruling, that is.

That's the plan, anyway, creating the biggest superhero box office showdown in history. (Marvel Studios and parent company Disney staked out the date first.) Shooting schedules and postproduction could always impact the current blueprint, however. Also, Marvel and Disney have a second untitled movie scheduled to open that summer on July 8, so there is wiggle room. Marvel films have all but owned the first weekend of summer for the past decade to enormous success, so all of Hollywood was surprised when Warner Bros. announced in January that it would open Batman-Superman on May 6, 2016 as well. Batman-Superman stars Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill once again as Superman. It was originally supposed to hit theaters in summer 2015, but its release was pushed back nearly a year. There's no doubt that Warner Bros. is hoping to replicate the blockbuster returns Marvel has enjoyed with its multihero Avengers universe. This week, when promoting the upcoming sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige threw down the gauntlet, saying he had no plans to move off the May 6 date. He still wouldn't reveal the identity of the film; however, insiders confirm it will indeed be Captain America 3. The world premiere of Winter Soldier is Thursday in Hollywood. Warner Bros. may have been waiting to see what the Marvel title was before considering a date change for Batman-Superman, if the studio blinks. There are still weekends available that summer, including the first two after Captain America 3 and Batman-Superman are set to open. Zack Snyder begins shooting Batman-Superman in the coming weeks. Veteran box office observers doubt that the two films will ultimately open opposite each other. Marvel and Disney are incredibly high on Captain America 2, which opens in north America on April 4 and is garnering huge interest, according to prerelease tracking. They believe Winter Soldier, with Chris Evans returning in the title role, will benefit from the same halo effect from The Avengers that Iron Man 3 and sequel Thor: The Dark World enjoyed, as well as firmly establishing Captain America as a standalone franchise. Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo directed Winter Soldier and are in talks to return for Captain America 3. The first, Captain America: The First Avenger, took in $371 million worldwide, compared to $668 million for Man of Steel. However, Winter Soldier has a shot at matching the $641 million grossed worldwide by fellow Marvel sequel Thor: The Dark World late last year.

China has suspended or shut down at least a dozen WeChat messaging accounts, some linked to journalists and news outlets. The popular public messaging platform, owned by China-based Internet platform Tencent, allows users to send voice, video, photo, and text messages, as well as participate in group chats, via iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, and BlackBerry devices. Available in the U.S., WeChat has gained most of its acclaim in Asia, where a number of media outlets and columnists boast hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and often discuss political issues. Many of those users, however, have been blocked from the social network, the South China Morning Post said. Citing "industry insiders," the paper said suspensions were dispensed Thursday for a handful of public accounts, most of which were known for posting commentary on current affairs—a big no-no in censorship-heavy China. Without warning, the affected accounts received a message saying they have been shuttered "for violating regulations," the Post said. China has a long history of restricting citizens' access to the Internet. Its tight grip on networks like Sina Weibo has inspired users to migrate to other services, including WeChat. In fact, according to the China Internet Information Centre, 37 percent of those who quit Weibo last year started using WeChat. But it didn't take long for the government to crack down on the service. China Digital Times published a "partial" list of almost 40 accounts that have been closed, as of Thursday. Among them are "self media" outlets like the Observer, Elephant Magazine, Phoenix We Media, China50Plus, and Cloud Thinking. WeChat did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment. Just this week, Google announced extended routine encryption of Web searches made by users in China. The expansion of this program is not specifically aimed at China, which is known to censor the Internet and track online activity of its citizens. Rather, it is "part of a global expansion of privacy technology designed to thwart surveillance by government intelligence agencies, police, and hackers," Google said.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg today said he called President Obama to express his frustration over government spying, but does not believe the feds will make any meaningful changes in the near future. "The U.S. government should be the champion for the Internet, not a threat," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "They need to be much more transparent about what they're doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst." In speaking with Obama, Zuckerberg said he shared "my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform." Obama has pledged to make changes to U.S. surveillance programs, particularly as it relates to the collection of phone metadata, but like most things in Washington, it's slow-going. "At Facebook we spend a lot of our energy making our services and the whole Internet safer and more secure," Zuckerberg said today. But "when our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're protecting you against criminals, not our own government." Zuckerberg's post comes shortly after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked details of NSA surveillance programs to the press last year, appeared remotely at the SXSW conference in Austin. There, he encouraged the tech community to develop secure tools that would make such spying more difficult, since developers would likely have more luck thwarting spies than Congress. Zuckerberg had a similar message today. "Together, we can build a space that is greater and a more important part of the world than anything we have today, but is also safe and secure," he wrote. "I'm committed to seeing this happen, and you can count on Facebook to do our part." The Facebook chief was similarly critical of the NSA back in September, when he said that the government "blew it" when it came to communicating with the public about its spy programs. The latest revelation from leaked NSA documents, meanwhile, is that the agency has been hijacking botnets for spying purposes, according to Reuters.

Hello all, We have more good news for you:) In the spirit of filesharing, starting with this weekend we will run Weekend Freeleech which means that all torrents uploaded in weekend will be free to download. Happy torrenting!