The BPI has reached a new milestone in its ongoing efforts to have pirated content removed from the Internet. This week the music industry group reported its 100 millionth URL to Google. Although the takedown notices are processed quickly, the music industry group believes that Google should do more to prevent piracy. Despite the growing availability of legal music services in many countries, record labels are facing a constant stream of pirated music. In an attempt to prevent these infringements, the BPI and other music industry groups send millions of takedown notices to Internet services every month. Most of these requests are directed at Google. This week the UK music industry group BPI reached a new milestone after notifying Google of the 100 millionth allegedly infringing URL, up from 50 million just 10 months ago. http://pastebin.com/search?cx=013305635491195529773%3A0ufpuq-fpt0&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=https%3A%2F%2Fmega.co.nz%2F%23%21fNFSiJxa%21ePxcgzjVYy6fxt0ep15iUyhnOgedIOcXQUs7U5myurE&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Search As can be seen below, the latest update shows that the 100 million links were spread out over 274,810 separate DMCA takedown notices. BPI’s takedown notices With 100 million requests the BPI has broken a new milestone. Never before has a copyright holder representative reported so many allegedly infringing links to Google. Degban is currently second in this list with 99 million URLs, followed by the RIAA with 57 million. For the BPI this record isn’t something to be proud of though. The music industry group tells us that it shows just how hard it is for copyright holders to have infringing content taken offline. “This milestone makes two things very clear. First, that however much creators do, the system of ‘notice and takedown’ will never be enough on its own to protect them or consumers from the online black market, or to spur growth in the digital economy,” a BPI spokesperson says. “Second, that despite its clear knowledge as to which sites are engines of piracy, Google continues to help build their illegal businesses, by giving them a prominent ranking in search results.” The BPI stresses that Google should do more to lower the visibility of unauthorized content in its search results. Despite promises to do so, the music group still sees very little improvement on this front. “To illustrate: Google’s records show it has been told more than 10 million times that content on 4shared.com is illegal – yet it’s still the very first result today when we search for ‘Calvin Harris mp3′ – ahead of Amazon and every other legal service,” BPI notes. Addressing this issue is pretty straightforward, the BPI argues. Google should work with the entertainment industries to adjust its search algorithm, as the UK Government also highlighted recently. “Google can simply fix this problem by amending its algorithm. We hope they will respond positively to the invitation from Government to negotiate voluntary measures to do so,” BPI says, closing with an iconic lyric. “It’s time the media giant changed its tune – we need a little less conversation and a little more action please.” Google has thus far been hesitant to fiddle with its search results. The company has made several changes to address the complaints of copyright holders. However, it also stressed that the entertainment industries themselves should take responsibility, arguing that piracy is primarily an availability and pricing problem. http://torrentfreak.com/bpi-hits-record-breaking-100-million-google-takedowns-140922/

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Edge Of Tomorrow.' 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' completes the top three. This week we have two newcomers in our chart. Transformers: Age of Extinction is the most downloaded movie. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated 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. 1 (…) Transformers: Age of Extinction 6.1 / trailer 2 (3) Edge Of Tomorrow 8.1 / trailer 3 (9) X-Men: Days of Future Past 8.4 / trailer 4 (1) Maleficent 7.4 / trailer 5 (…) Million Dollar Arm 7.3 / trailer 6 (2) How To Train Your Dragon 2 8.3 / trailer 7 (5) The Fault in Our Stars 8.3 / trailer 8 (4) The Giver 6.9 / trailer 9 (7) Godzilla 7.1 / trailer 10 (10) Divergent 7.2 / trailer http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140922/

People are still getting distracted by the silly question of "how somebody will get paid" if the copyright monopoly is reduced. It's irrelevant, it's a red herring. What this debate is about is bringing vital civil liberties along from the analog environment into the digital - and that requires allowing file-sharing all out. As I travel the world and speak to people from all professions and walks of life about the copyright monopoly, “the letter” is still the story that causes the most pennies to drop about why the copyright monopoly must be reduced. It’s by far the angle that makes the message come across to the most people. “How will the artists make money” is basically just a distraction from the real and important issues at hand, and this story helps bring them there. The story of “the letter” deals with just how big and vital civil liberties have been sacrificed in the transition from analog to digital at the tenacious insistence of the copyright industry for the sake of their bottom line. The analog letter was the message sent the way our parents sent them: written onto a physical piece of paper, put into an envelope, postaged with an old-fashioned stamp and put into a mailbox for physical delivery to the intended recipient. That letter had four important characteristics that each embodied vital civil liberties. That letter, first of all, was anonymous. Everybody had the right to send an anonymous message to somebody. You could identify yourself on the inside of the message, for only the recipient to know, on the envelope, for the postal services to know, or not at all. Or you could write a totally bogus name, organization, and address as the sender of your message, and that was okay, too. Not just okay, it was even fairly common. Second, it was secret in transit. When we talk of letters being opened and inspected routinely, the thoughts go to scenes of the East German Stasi – the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, the East German National Security Agency (yes, that’s how Stasi’s name translates). Letters being opened and inspected? Seriously? You had to be theprimary suspect of an extremely grave crime for that to take place. Third, the mailman was never ever held responsible for the contents of the letters being carried. The thought was ridiculous. They were not allowed to look at the messages in the first place, so it was unthinkable that they’d be held accountable for what they dutifully delivered. Fourth, the letter was untracked. Nobody had the means – nor indeed the capability – to map who was communicating with whom. All of these characteristics, which all embed vital civil liberties, have been lost in the transition to digital at the insistence of the copyright industry – so that they, as a third-party, can prevent people from sending letters with a content they just don’t like to see sent, for business reasons of theirs. The question of “how will somebody make money” is entirely irrelevant. The job of any entrepreneur is to make money given the current constraints of society and technology. No industry gets to dismantle civil liberties with the poor excuse that they can’t make money otherwise. They have the simple choice of doing something else or go out of business. And yet, that’s exactly what we have allowed the copyright industry to do: dismantle vital civil liberties. Dismantle the very concept of the private letter. And they’re continuing to do so under pretty but deceptive words. When I explain the situation like this, the penny drops for an astounding amount of people and they stop asking the learned, but silly, question about how somebody is to get paid if we have the rights we’ve always had – to send anything to anybody anonymously. That’s the Analog Equivalent Right. To be able send anything to anybody anonymously. And that’s what we need to bring to the digital environment, even if an obsolete industry doesn’t like it because it may or may not hurt the bottom line. That’s completely irrelevant. Try telling this story and watch the penny drop, almost every single time. It’s remarkable. http://torrentfreak.com/letter-copyright-monopoly-140921/

Staff Wanted As we are a new site we are currently looking for staff + uploaders No experience is required we will give any training needed If you are interested please contact Neo or Really for more info Thank You

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With several million daily visitors The Pirate Bay is one of the 100 most-visited websites on the Internet. Despite its massive presence the website does not have a giant server park. Instead, it operates from the cloud, on 21 virtual machines that can be quickly moved if needed. Two years ago The Pirate Bay made an important change to its infrastructure by switching its entire operation to the cloud. Instead of buying their own hardware The Pirate Bay decided to serve its users from several cloud hosting providers scattered around the world. This saved costs, guaranteed better uptime, and made the site more portable and thus harder to take down. The operational change also had a downside. Before the move the notorious torrent site had a dedicated page displaying its hardware and server setup, which was something true geeks kept a close eye on. Today the site no longer owns any crucial pieces of hardware. However, it’s worth taking a look at the virtual setup the site is running on now. TorrentFreak asked the Pirate Bay team for an update and they were happy to oblige. At the time of writing the site uses 21 “virtual machines” (VMs) hosted at different providers. This is up four machines from two years ago, in part due to the steady increase in traffic. Most of the VMs, eight in total, are used for serving the web pages. The searches take up another six machines, and the site’s database currently runs on two VMs. The remaining five virtual machines are used for load balancing, statistics, the proxy site on port 80, torrent storage and for the controller. In total the VMs use 182 GB of RAM and 94 CPU cores. The total storage capacity is 620 GB, but that’s not all used. Needless to say, that is relatively modest considering the size of the site. - 8 web - 6 search - 2 database - 1 lvs - 1 stats - 1 for proxy site on .80, - 1 torrents - 1 control All virtual machines are hosted with commercial cloud hosting providers, who have no clue that The Pirate Bay is among their customers. All traffic goes through the load balancer, which masks what the other VMs are doing. This also means that none of the IP-addresses of the cloud hosting providers are publicly linked to TPB. According to the Pirate Bay team the current setup works pretty well. Although small issues pop up every now and then, the site has had no major downtime recently. If the police come knocking in the future the cloud servers can of course be disconnected. However, with the site’s current setup it would be fairly easy to continue operating from another provider in a relatively short time. For now, the most vulnerable spot appears to be the site’s domain. Just last year the site burnt through five separate domain names due to takedown threats from registrars. But then again, this doesn’t appear to be much of a concern for TPB as the operators have dozens of alternative domain names standing by. http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-runs-on-21-raid-proof-virtual-machines-140921/

Hi ethan i can change from fuxor to bibliotik?thanx

2014-09-20 20:41:31 Waffles Staff Picks - September Edition Welcome to the May edition of the Waffles.fm Staff Picks. Please remember we do not look to balance genres or purposely seek out diversity - these are simply albums/tracks by bands that we love, and we hope that you find something you enjoy as well. Note that each pick may be an individual track, or an entire album (for the purpose of the theme). In every case, however, the entire album will be FL. Theme: GOLD izmo Artist: Born Gold Track: Lawn Knives When I first heard this song the project was called Gobble Gobble. They changed the name to Born Gold so that they could be part of this gold edition of staff picks. Get It Here kaishin521 Artist: Thundercat Track: Goldenboy Not gonna lie, I just typed the word "gold" into my iTunes search and picked my favorite album that was returned by the search. That being said, I am not apathetic about Thundercat -- dude's jazz fusion stylings are beastly. Make sure to check him out in Flying Lotus's work too. Get It Here Woodenhead Artist: Haley Bonar Album: Golder The other staff picks may be gold, but mine is Golder. Haley Bonar is a criminally under-exposed artist, and this album is pure gold. (well kinda - my vinyl copy is gold and pink splatter haha) For me, this LP goes down best in the autumn, perhaps while on a nice country drive or a casual bike ride, while the leaves are changing colour... Get It Here nomado Artist: Amplifier Track: Elysian Gold "Amplifier is one of those bands that very few people have heard of, but all of their albums and songs are awesome. Definitely a must have!" Get It Here galador Artist: Adventure Club Track: Gold "Stay gold." Get It Here wozgo Artist: Simple Minds Album: New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) This is one of my desert island albums. The sound they created here is amazing. 80s new wave music at its finest. Get It Here Sowilo Artist: Andy Irvine & Paul Brady Album: Andy Irvine & Paul Brady A little piece of Irish gold; one of the best folk albums ever to be recorded, and there's not much music that suits autumn better than it, either. This is what happens when Andy Irvine and Paul Brady of Planxty fame team up with Donal Lunny and Kevin Burke of The Bothy Band. Get It Here condon313 Artist: Bars of Gold Album: Of Gold Bars of Gold combines some of Wildcatting and some of Bear Vs Shark. For fans of guitars and measured yelling. Get It Here MidniteRockr Artist: You Say Party! We Say Die! Track: Heart of Gold I love this song because it reminds me of my best friend. Get It Here icebox Artist: The Lucksmiths Track: The Golden Age of Aviation This pleasant little ditty about a lover's spat is typical Lucksmiths. Clever lyrics, with a nice catchy indiepop sound. Originally appeared on the EP Staring at the Sky (1999), which is here but in an old rip. If you like Sarah, C86 etc, you probably know about these guys already, but if not, they're a real treat. Get It Here pogglywoggly Artist: Sting Track: Fields of Gold Great relaxing song that just makes you think about walking outside, seeing the leaves change, and all that good stuff that goes along with fall. Get It Here lostsupper Artist: Stay Gold Album: Pills and Advice Great album that spoke to me at a very specific time. Get It Here radicaldino Artist: Infected Mushroom Album: Friends On Mushrooms Vol. 2 Psytrance meets complextro. An example of the maturationrom of the ever evolving Israeli duo Infected Mushroom. If you enjoy, or simply appreciate production value as an audiophile or someone involved with music production themselves, I highly recommend checking out their other works and latest LP as well. Get It Here SUPER SPECIAL BONUS USER PICK! Courtesy of: drummond Artist: Various Artists Track: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 Here in Brazil we don't have our seasons well defined (usually it's either a HOT summer or a less hot winter), so no leaves turning to brown when autumn comes around. Therefore, for the theme gold, I can only think of... gold! Here are nothing less than 118 nuggets that are sure to turn you into a greedy 60's garage and psychedelia gold digger. PS: The 320 CBR torrent has scans of the booklet. Get It Here

After very publicly taking down a number of sites offering music, movies and TV shows without permission, City of London Police appear to have taken down their first ebook-related domain. OnRead is now under police investigation but according to its operators the site operated legally. That seems unlikely, however. This year the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit has built a reputation for being one of the most prolific and aggressive anti-piracy groups operating today. PIPCU, as its more commonly known, has been involved in the closure of dozens of domains, the closure of several sites, and the arrests of individuals up and down the country. Until now PIPCU’s most visible partners, at least in terms of enforcement in the Internet space, have been the Federation Against Copyright Theft (movies and TV) and the BPI (music). However, there are now signs that sites offering pirated ebooks are part of PIPCU’s strategy. Like many movie, music, sports and proxy fans have in recent months, this week visitors to the ebook site OnRead.com were confronted with the ominous PIPCU “seized” notice. “You have tried to access a website that is under criminal investigation by the UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). This site is being investigated for online copyright infringement,” the page reads. The signs suggest that OnRead knew something was coming. After regular and often daily tweets of new literature appearing on the site, on September 2 the account fell silent. TorrentFreak asked City of London Police for specifics on the site’s closure, including whether the domain seizure and shutdown had been carried out together with The Publishers Association, a known PIPCU partner. “As part of Operation Creative PIPCU is working closely with the Publishers Association, as well as FACT, IFPI and BPI to disrupt copyright infringing websites. Since the launch of the operation several illegal film, music and publishing sites have been suspended,” a PIPCU spokesperson said. While it seems more than likely that OnRead was operating without licenses recognized by UK publishers, an archive of the domain reveals that the site’s operators tried to claim that in at least one jurisdiction the site had operated legally. “All materials presented on this site are available for the distribution over the Internet in accordance with the license of the Russian Organization for multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS) and intended for personal use only. Further distribution, resale or broadcasting is strictly prohibited,” the recent archive reads. ROMS was a Russian collective rights management organization that attracted public attention in 2006 when notorious music download site, AllofMP3, insisted it operated legally under ROMS’ remit to collect and distribute statutory royalty payments as allowed under Russian law. In 2007, AllofMP3 closed down for good. While the legal claims made by OnRead are fuzzy and by now years out of date, additional notes do warn users that they have “no right to download any files from the site if this violates the law of his country.” It’s clear that PIPCU and quite probably The Publishers Association felt that OnRead was not in compliance with UK law. As a result the site’s domain, registered with InternetBS, is now in police hands. In 2007, ZML.com, a site that offered movies to US customers, also tried to claim ROMS protection. That domain is now under the control of ICE and Homeland Security after being seized in the very first wave of Operation in Our Sites. http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-police-begin-targeting-ebook-pirates-140921/

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Kim Dotcom's Internet Party has scored just over 1.2% of the vote in New Zealand's parliamentary elections. It's a disappointing result that doesn't come close to the 5% required for a seat in Parliament. Dotcom takes full responsibility for the failure which he attributes to his "poisoned brand." January this year Kim Dotcom launched his Internet Party with an ambition to enter the New Zealand Parliament a few months later. The Internet entrepreneur could not run for election himself, but as the party’s president and visionary he would gain significant political power. Today New Zealanders went out to vote and the Internet Party was listed on the ballots in an alliance with the Mana Party. Voting booths officially closed at 7 PM local time and the provisional results show that Internet Mana failed to win a seat. The party managed 1.26% of the total vote, somewhat short of the 5% required to enter the New Zealand Parliament. A disappointing result after Dotcom spent more than $2 million on the party and its election campaign. Over the past several weeks Internet Mana received a lot of attention in the press. Dotcom actively campaigned against his arch-rival Prime Minister John Key, and earlier this week the party organized the “Moment of Truth” during which Edward Snowden, Glen Greenwald and Julian Assange all criticized New Zealand’s secret spying efforts. Despite the heavy critique of the Prime Minister, Key’s National Party became the overwhelming winner of the elections with nearly half of all votes. Following the defeat Dotcom apologized to Mana leader Hone Harawira and the Maori people. Mr Harawira lost his Parliament seat and Dotcom suggests that he may be to blame for the disappointing result. “I take full responsibility,” Dotcom said in a short speech. “The brand Kim Dotcom was poisoned … and I did not see that before the last couple of weeks.” After his speech Dotcom left the building, declining interview requests from local reporters. In a tweet Dotcom later congratulated the Prime Minister and his National Party on their win. “New Zealanders have chosen National and John Key to lead. I congratulate the Prime Minister. Please do your best for all Kiwis. Good luck,” he wrote. Responding to the results Internet Party leader Laila Harre said that the party’s policy went unreported in the media, which mostly focused on scandals and the dirty games being played. Harre thanked Dotcom for the opportunity to shake up New Zealand politics. She said that Dotcom became the symbol of Internet Mana, but that the party likely underestimated the impact this would have on the campaign. “There’s been a two-year campaign of vilification of Kim and that was clearly impacted on our campaign,” Harre noted. http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-internet-party-fails-to-enter-new-zealand-parliament-140920/

Ratio Free Spotlight September 19 - 26 @ 2014-09-19 22:28:43 GMT New RFS for September 19 - September 26 Stan Winston School - How to Make a Zombie Horde on a Budget Learn how to make a zombie horde on a budget with Makeup FX master Bruce Spaulding Fuller (TERMINATOR 2, PREDATOR 2, ARMY OF DARKNESS). From applying affordable generic prosthetics for featured “hero” zombies, to simple build up and makeup techniques for background zombies, Fuller shows you everything you need to know to create your own undead army on a shoestring. Get It Here: http://theshow.bz/details.php?id=5225

Following anger at the news that Peter Sunde would have to attend his father's funeral while handcuffed, humanity has prevailed. Mats Kolmisoppi says that following all the attention focused on his brother's predicament, Peter was allowed to pay his final respects with dignity. With Peter Sunde being held in a Swedish prison for copyright offenses, outside attention has periodically turned to the conditions of his imprisonment. While most people might presume that seclusion, boredom and a bland diet are an inevitable outcome of incarceration, other unexpected events are perhaps the ones that carry the most impact with the public. This week presented one such occasion. After being seriously ill for some time, Peter’s father sadly passed away but due to decisions at his high-security prison, Peter was warned he would be attending the funeral in handcuffs. The sad news, reported by Peter’s brother Mats Kolmisoppi, struck a chord with thousands of supporters this week, even a group of Hollywood workers. With the funeral now having taken place, Mats has taken time out to update Peter’s supporters on how things went. For once, the news is good. “Many thanks for all the support and attention for my brother and my family’s situation,” he wrote on Facebook. “Yesterday we buried our father. A nice and quiet affair. Peter was eligible to carry the coffin and attend the memorial service. The guards were respectful and kept in the background,” Mats reports. “That does not change the fact that he spent the last week living with the threat that handcuffs could be put to use. But we are thankful that he did not have to endure such humiliation.” Why the prison system chose to treat Peter and his family with compassion isn’t clear – thus far all comment on his case has been declined. But Mats is thankful for those who offered public support and any effect that had on the decision. “Maybe Peter did not have to [appear handcuffed] because of all the attention surrounding the case that you helped to create. Me, my brother and my family are deeply grateful. All credit to you,” he wrote. But while Peter’s week has turned out better than expected, Mats says he hopes the spotlight will remain focused on a flawed system. “I hope for change, that institutions should be required to answer, that a regulator with real powers to change the system is set up. And that transparency will continue to increase,” he concludes. Peter Sunde has less than 50 days left of his sentence for Pirate Bay-related copyright infringement offenses. http://torrentfreak.com/humanity-peter-sunde-attends-funeral-without-handcuffs-140920/

First batch of inactive users with bad ratio is deleted.for any concern contact scenetime.

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A new report which brands Mega.co.nz a "shadowy cyberlocker" has drawn a fierce response from the cloud storage site. CEO Graham Gaylard informs TorrentFreak that should the Digital Citizens Alliance refuse to remove Mega from its entire report and issue a public apology, further action will be taken. Yesterday the Digital Citizens Alliance released a new report that looks into the business models of “shadowy” file-storage sites. Titled “Behind The Cyberlocker Door: A Report How Shadowy Cyberlockers Use Credit Card Companies to Make Millions,” the report attempts to detail the activities of some of the world’s most-visited hosting sites. While it’s certainly an interesting read, the NetNames study provides a few surprises, not least the decision to include New Zealand-based cloud storage site Mega.co.nz. There can be no doubt that there are domains of dubious standing detailed in the report, but the inclusion of Mega stands out as especially odd. Mega was without doubt the most-scrutinized file-hosting startup in history and as a result has had to comply fully with every detail of the law. And, unlike some of the other sites listed in the report, Mega isn’t hiding away behind shell companies and other obfuscation methods. It also complies fully with all takedown requests, to the point that it even took down its founder’s music, albeit following an erroneous request. With these thoughts in mind, TorrentFreak alerted Mega to the report and asked how its inclusion amid the terminology used has been received at the company. Grossly untrue and highly defamatory mega“We consider the report grossly untrue and highly defamatory of Mega,” says Mega CEO Graham Gaylard. “Mega is a privacy company that provides end-to-end encrypted cloud storage controlled by the customer. Mega totally refutes that it is a cyberlocker business as that term is defined and discussed in the report prepared by NetNames for the Digital Citizens Alliance.” Gaylard also strongly refutes the implication in the report that as a “cyberlocker”, Mega is engaged in activities often associated with such sites. “Mega is not a haven for piracy, does not distribute malware, and definitely does not engage in illegal activities,” Gaylard says. “Mega is running a legitimate business alongside other cloud storage providers in a highly competitive market.” The Mega CEO told us that one of the perplexing things about the report is that none of the criteria set out by the report for “shadowy” sites is satisfied by Mega, yet the decision was still taken to include it. Infringing content and best practices One of the key issues is, of course, the existence of infringing content. All user-uploaded sites suffer from that problem, from YouTube to Facebook to Mega and thousands of sites in between. But, as Gaylard points out, it’s the way those sites handle the issue that counts. “We are vigorous in complying with best practice legal take-down policies and do so very quickly. The reality though is that we receive a very low number of take-down requests because our aim is to have people use our services for privacy and security, not for sharing infringing content,” he explains. “Mega acts very quickly to process any take-down requests in accordance with its Terms of Service and consistent with the requirements of the USA Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) process, the European Union Directive 2000/31/EC and New Zealand’s Copyright Act process. Mega operates with a very low rate of take-down requests; less than 0.1% of all files Mega stores.” Affiliate schemes that encourage piracy One of the other “rogue site” characteristics as outlined in the report is the existence of affiliate schemes designed to incentivize the uploading and sharing of infringing content. In respect of Mega, Gaylard rejects that assertion entirely. “Mega’s affiliate program does not reward uploaders. There is no revenue sharing or credit for downloads or Pro purchases made by downloaders. The affiliate code cannot be embedded in a download link. It is designed to reward genuine referrers and the developers of apps who make our cloud storage platform more attractive,” he notes. The PayPal factor As detailed in many earlier reports (1,2,3), over the past few years PayPal has worked hard to seriously cut down on the business it conducts with companies in the file-sharing space. Companies, Mega included, now have to obtain pre-approval from the payment processor in order to use its services. The suggestion in the report is that large “shadowy” sites aren’t able to use PayPal due to its strict acceptance criteria. Mega, however, has a good relationship with PayPal. “Mega has been accepted by PayPal because we were able to show that we are a legitimate cloud storage site. Mega has a productive and respected relationship with PayPal, demonstrating the validity of Mega’s business,” Gaylard says. Public apology and retraction – or else Gaylard says that these are just some of the points that Mega finds unacceptable in the report. The CEO adds that at no point was the company contacted by NetNames or Digital Citizens Alliance for its input. “It is unacceptable and disappointing that supposedly reputable organizations such as Digital Citizens and NetNames should see fit to attack Mega when it provides the user end to end encryption, security and privacy. They should be promoting efforts to make the Internet a safer and more trusted place. Protecting people’s privacy. That is Mega’s mission,” Gaylard says. “We are requesting that Digital Citizens Alliance withdraw Mega from that report entirely and issue a public apology. If they do not then we will take further action,” he concludes. TorrentFreak asked NetNames to comment on Mega’s displeasure and asked the company if it stands by its assertion that Mega is a “shadowy” cyberlocker. We received a response (although not directly to our questions) from David Price, NetNames’ head of piracy analysis. “The NetNames report into cyberlocker operation is based on information taken from the websites of the thirty cyberlockers used for the research and our own investigation of this area, based on more than a decade of experience producing respected analysis exploring digital piracy and online distribution,” Price said. That doesn’t sound like a retraction or an apology, so this developing dispute may have a way to go. http://torrentfreak.com/mega-demands-apology-over-defamatory-cyberlocker-report-140919/

The Popcorn Time app brought BitTorrent streaming to the mainstream earlier this year. The idea was to have a free and open source project that anyone can build upon. Despite this open nature a developer has now filed a trademark application for the "Popcorn Time" name to protect it from abuse. popcornThe Popcorn Time phenomenon is one of the biggest piracy stories of the year thus far. The software amassed millions of users by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy-to-use Netflix-style interface. The original app was shut down by the developers after a few weeks, but the project was quickly picked up by others. This resulted in several popular forks that have each developed their own features, with most releasing their source code in public. In recent months there has been some competition between the various forks. Several spin-offs have claimed the name “Popcorn Time” but thus far that hasn’t resulted in any serious issues. Recently, however, one developer made a move to formalize his claim on the Popcorn Time brand. An application for the trademark was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and this week the case was assigned to an examiner. The proposed trademark describes Popcorn Time as follows: “Downloadable computer software used for streaming multimedia content images, videos and audio from peer to peer.” The trademark application lists the Canadian developer David Lemarier who filed his application through Legalforce. While some are worried about the development, it appears that Lemarier doesn’t have any nefarious plans. A source at the main fork Popcorntime.io familiar with the reasoning behind the trademark application told TF that it was filed as a defensive move. “We strongly believe in the open contributions to the Popcorn Time project and the filing of the trademark wasn’t designed to hinder or prohibit the further development of the official Popcorn Time or any other related forks,” the source says. “It’s wise to attempt to protect the trademark from ‘giants’ who might come along, sweep up the name, and then bully contributors into non-existence.” The nature of the ‘giants’ the Popcorntime.io team are concerned about is left open. Time4Popcorn, one of the popular forks, is not happy with the trademark application. They describes it as “rude” and stress that the Popcorn Time name doesn’t belong to anyone. “This is news to us and we’re still figuring out how to respond to this, but this is rude and it is something we take very seriously,” the Time4Popcorn team notes. “We assure you that we will never ever do something like this, and we will not let this happen that someone else will claim that it is their trademark. Never. An open source project is for everyone. It does not belong to us or to anyone else!” Then again, even if someone with bad intentions did obtain the trademark, not much will change. Given the nature of the Popcorn Time application it is unlikely that any of the popular forks will shut down over a trademark dispute. http://torrentfreak.com/developer-registers-popcorn-time-trademark-to-prevent-abuse-140919/