As millions of people wait for the arrival of Christmas in just a couple of weeks time, the festivities have come early for BitTorrent fans. A few hours ago the mighty Demonoid fully returned and the good news is that there appears to be little data loss. Users are feverishly uploading fresh torrents right now.
Mininova, the largest torrent site on the Internet, has removed all torrents except those that were uploaded through its content distribution service. Mininova’s founders took the drastic decision after they lost a civil dispute against Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, and were ordered to remove all infringing torrents from the site.
A few days ago we reported that Lady Gaga earned a measly $167 for more than a million plays on the music streaming service, Spotify. According to new information received from music industry insiders, it turns out that Spotify isn’t ripping off the artists, the labels are.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘2012′ tops the chart this week followed by ‘Gamer’. ‘Funny People’ completes the top three.
2012This week there are four newcomers in the top 10 including ‘Gamer,’ which ended up as the second most downloaded movie on BitTorrent this week.
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 DVDrips unless stated otherwise.
The Pirate Bay’s tracker closure has spurred several discussions about DHT, BitTorrent’s fallback technology for when central trackers are unavailable. According to some, DHT has some problems of its own. Novell, for example, decided to ship openSUSE with the BitTorrent client Transmission, but not before stripping DHT support.
Piracy is without a doubt, truly evil. It doesn’t help the artists, it robs them of their rightful revenue and is such a poor basis for a business model, it’s unworthy of consideration. Of course, new streaming sites are miles better, offering a legal way to listen to free music. Hmm – Lady Gaga got a million plays on Spotify and earned $167.
This week The Pirate Bay confirmed it would shut down its tracker for good, instead encouraging the use of DHT, PEX and magnet links. This move confounded many BitTorrent enthusiasts, who although wishing to adapt, were confronted with hard to grasp terminology and technology. Time for some explaining.
In rather shocking news this morning, The Pirate Bay (TPB) has shut down its torrent tracker. The search engine remains, but instead of dishing up torrents it will instead serve as a magnet-link repository.
TPB cites that the concept of the BitTorrent tracker is dead. "There is no need to run a tracker any more" says their blog. Long-live DHT and PEX -- dynamic, decentralized torrenting technologies!
What this actually means for you and I -- the implications -- is that you need to make sure you have an updated torrent client, like uTorrent or Azureus. Something that supports DHT and PEX. Most of you will already have these technologies enabled by default -- you just don't know about them. In fact, even with this rather dramatic announcement, you probably won't realise any difference in your download speeds.
Piracy will continue as normal, don't worry.
It's simply the end of an era. Perhaps more interestingly, TPB have been talking to other tracker owners and torrent-download sites. They're pushing for everyone to move away from trackers and towards decentralization.
Whether this is simply a 'viva la piracy!' move, or a more sinister strategy by their new owners remains to be seen.
MC Hammer, rap phenomenon and self-confessed geek, has kicked the major music labels in their over-sized pants with regard to their anti-piracy strategy. Hammer said that the labels’ decision to go after individual filesharers and ISPs has failed, because it only alienated paying customers.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Funny People’ tops the chart this week followed by ‘The Hangover’. ‘2012′ completes the top three.
This week there are three newcomers in the top 10 including ‘Funny People,’ is the most downloaded movie on BitTorrent this week.
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 DVDrips unless stated otherwise.
At a recent roundtable discussion, Warner Bros. technology director Ethan Applen commented on BitTorrent and P2P’s bad reputation in the entertainment industry. Applen said that P2P is not the bad guy some Hollywood insiders claim it to be, but actually a great way to transfer TV-episodes and entire seasons.
It’s been more than two months since the popular semi-private BitTorrent tracker Demonoid went offline due to hardware problems, but the site’s full return is now imminent. Demonoid’s tracker is already up and running again and according to an update from the site’s staff, the site will follow soon.
Zombieland co-writer Rhett Reese was shocked when he discovered more than a million people had downloaded his movie illegally on BitTorrent. The Hollywood writer has now penned yet another horror scenario, claiming that this achievement could very well prevent a sequel to the successful movie from being made.
Hollywood often complains about the billions of dollars allegedly lost due to piracy. Indie film makers, on the other hand, tend to welcome the free buzz generated when their film is pirated. The makers of Ink belong to this latter group, and are thanking the hundreds and thousands of people who downloaded their movie on BitTorrent.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Zombieland’ tops the chart this week followed by ‘500 Days of Summer’. ‘Surrogates’ completes the top three.
zombielandThis week there are five newcomers in the top 10. ‘Zombieland’ is the most downloaded movie on BitTorrent with well over a million downloads.
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 DVDrips unless stated otherwise.
Microsoft’s much sought-after COFEE law-enforcement forensic tool has leaked onto the Internet. One user uploaded it to private tracker What.cd to collect a huge 1.6tb bounty. However, in a sensible move, the admins of the site took action to remove the link and ban further sharing of the tool via the site.
Game developer RedLynx has been exploring a novel marketing technique for its products. Instead of trying to get all its titles removed from torrent sites, the company itself is distributing ‘hacked’ copies of the games, hoping to convert torrent site users into paying customers.
With support from the three largest BitTorrent sites and many other well known file-sharing partners, the VODO project offers a novel distribution platform for indie filmmakers. Today VODO presents its second release, the world premiere of In Guantanamo, a critical film about the U.S. detainment facility in Cuba.
It has been many weeks since the popular semi-private BitTorrent tracker Demonoid went offline. The site’s owner claimed the downtime was due to hardware issues and warned of the loss of both torrents and user data. Today, however, there is hope on the horizon, as Demonoid’s tracker is now up and running again.
With the Lisbon Treaty being signed by all European Union member states, the Pirate Party has gained another seat in the European Parliament. The second Pirate Party seat will be occupied by the 22 year old Amelia Andersdotter, who will become the youngest Member of the European Parliament.
