EZTV comes back online, will The Pirate Bay be far behind?
Recently a raid took down the famed Torrent site, The Pirate Bay. With it went another popular service called EZTV. Soon after, I wrote that I felt this did little to obstruct piracy, only cause a brief slow down in the flow of files, and I predicted the Bay would come back.
It hasn't yet risen from the dead, though I still expect it will. However, fellow victim EZTV has returned to the land of the living and is now functioning as normal -- well mostly, it's up and down. In fact, it's even located at its old address of EZTV.it like nothing ever happened.
Sony leaks show plans to trick pirates into downloading fake episode torrents
The hacking of Sony Pictures was quite a revelation. It led not only to the leaking of several yet-to-be released movies, but also the private details of many employees. A cache of documents and information was made available, and as time goes by we get more chance to sift through what's there. The latest revelation comes from TorrentFreak which reports about the Sony Pictures' plans to thwart piracy of its TV shows.
The company's AXN TV network was apparently toying with the idea of using honey traps to trick pirates into downloading fake torrents of popular shows such as Hannibal. The plan was not to just prevent downloaders from getting hold of the videos they were looking for, but also to use torrent sites as a means of free advertising.
The possible demise of The Pirate Bay does little to stem piracy
Perhaps the biggest news of the past week came out of Sweden, where police raided and shut down The Pirate Bay. The site was the most enduring symbol of BitTorrent, though not necessarily in the best of ways, given the technology can be used for many good things. Still, the site stood for much of what, to some, seems right about the internet -- the free and open access to what you want.
Since the raid, several mirrors have popped up, and yesterday a fake substitute had people talking, and some fooled. We'd advise you not to use that, though we also don't advocate piracy in general. It likely will not be the last such site to crop up, as there is really no end to either piracy or online crooks looking to get malware distributed to unsuspecting victims.
The Pirate Bay is offline following Swedish police raid
The Pirate Bay has hit turbulent seas once again. Earlier today torrent users noticed that the site appeared to be offline. This in itself was nothing particularly unusual -- all sites have occasional downtime -- but it soon transpired that the site was down around the world. The Pirate Bay has already been blocked by many ISPs around the world, but it was clear that this was something different.
Now it seems that the reason for the disappearance of the Pirate Bay is a raid by Swedish Police. And it is not just the main site that's gone -- the same fate became the site's forum (Suprbay.org) and associated sites Bayimg.com and Pastebay.net.
UK High Court orders ISPs to block a further 53 piracy sites
If you live in the UK it’s getting ever harder to access pirated music and movies on the web. After years of trying to defeat pirates in various ways, including suing downloaders, representatives of rights holders have found that the easiest and most effective solution is to take their complaints to the high court and ask for the infringing sites to be blocked.
The process, which started with the banning of The Pirate Bay in 2012, is now so straightforward for the likes of the Motion Picture Association and BPI (British Phonographic Industry), that whole batches of sites are getting outlawed at a time. Yesterday there were 40 copyright infringing sites blocked in the UK, today that number more than doubles to 93.
How content providers can take on piracy in emerging markets -- and win
The recent news that musicians in Europe are making more from Spotify royalties than via iTunes is a big deal for all content producers. It may be a defining moment in the ongoing competition between subscription services and pay-as-you go digital downloads in the West.
The same struggle is going on right across the film, TV, music and eBook industries. However, in emerging markets, subscription-based services are having a much tougher time.
Microsoft's Satya Nadella: 'We've always had freemium. Sometimes our freemium was called piracy'
Microsoft is committed to the cloud. CEO Satya Nadella is starting to hit his stride and his vision is coming into focus. The new leader seems to see the future in OneDrive and he isn't shy about explaining his reasoning.
In a lengthy interview with CNBC's Jon Fortt, Nadella tackled the concepts and ideas he has for the company. In discussing OneDrive, the CEO made it clear that the product would remain free to everyone. The model involves monetizing for those who need more than what is offered for the price of zero.
News Corp: Google is a 'platform for piracy' with 'cynical management'
News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's media behemoth, is the latest source of criticism of Google. Robert Thomson, the chief executive of the company -- responsible for the Times and the Sun in the UK as well the book publisher HarperCollins -- has written to the European Commission to complain that the search giant is "a platform for piracy". Thomson pulls no punches as he lays into Google, saying that the company was in the hands of a "cynical management" and was "willing to exploit its dominant market position to stifle competition".
The letter, addressed to Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, is bitter in tone as Thomson complains of Google's "egregious" practices. It is Google's dominance of the search market that is seen as particularly problematic. News Corps feels that Google's power "increases with each passing day" -- a claim that many have leveled at Murdoch's corporation in the past -- and fears that this "will lead to a less informed, more vexatious level of dialog in our society". But this is far from being the only accusation that Thomson fires at Google.
Wil Wheaton wants ratings, but won't complain if you pirate his new show
Last year we were somewhat amazed when HBO and the Game of Thrones producer went on record saying that piracy was not hurting the show, and they were just happy it was so popular. Now Wil Wheaton, who is famously a friend of geeks, is taking a similar stance.
Wheaton's new show, aptly named The Wil Wheaton Project, will require access to the SyFy network, which leaves out many potential viewers. Those who have cut the cord can still catch the debut episode via Hulu, but there is a catch to that as well -- it will not stream to the Hulu Plus service, blocking it from set-top boxes like Roku and Fire TV. You will have to watch it on your computer.
Most organizations are accidental software pirates
A majority of enterprises are using software that they've unintentionally failed to pay for according to a new report by Flexera Software prepared in conjunction with IDC.
The report reveals, among other things, that 85 percent of organizations are out of compliance with their software license agreements. In addition 63 percent were audited by their software vendors in the last 18-24 months (58 percent by Microsoft, the most aggressive auditor), and 56 percent were handed bills to regularize their licenses.
UK set to make ripping your CDs and DVDs legal
Although you weren't ever likely to be the subject of a dawn raid from the Sweeney for doing it, until now it has been illegal under UK copyright law to make copies of digital media.
From this summer though the government is changing the current legislation so that you'll be able to transfer music to your MP3 player or make backup copies of your movies without any risk of getting your collar felt.
Malware in pirated software costs billions
Enterprises worldwide are expected to spend $500 billion in 2014 to deal with issues caused by malware in pirated software. Consumers are set to spend $25 billion and waste 1.2 billion hours on security threats and fixes.
These are among the conclusions of a study carried out by IDC and the National University of Singapore, released today by Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit as part of its annual Play It Safe campaign.
Dutch court rules it’s not legal for ISPs to block The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay seems to be a never-ending controversy, as we have discussed here many times. The site has been hounded by the law all around the world, although it always seems to manage to survive. Now the service has achieved a major victory, at least in the Netherlands.
A three-judge panel in The Hague has ruled that the blocking of The Pirate Bay by ISPs is not legal. The case had been filed by two providers -- Ziggo and XS4ALL.
The top 10 most pirated movies of 2013
Movies are very important to me and to society overall. Seeing popular films gives the moviegoer a shared experience with other members of the community. This in turn allows you to understand references to the film in jokes and documentaries. For example, if you've never seen a film such as Star Wars, you would not understand the Family Guy and Robot Chicken parodies of it.
Sadly, for many people, a trip to the movie theater is not achievable due to extremely high prices. Where I live, New York, a couple going on a date to the movies can easily spend over $30.00 when drinks and snacks are factored in. Those same people may not be able to afford the premium movie channels. I am one of these people -- I typically wait years for a film to hit FX, USA or something similar, so I can see it in all its censored, commercial-riddled glory. The alternative is movie piracy -- something I do not condone nor take part of, for more reasons than one.
The most pirated shows of 2013 -- no surprise at the top of the list
To perhaps nobody’s amazement, piracy has not diminished in 2013, despite the recent and frequent woes of high-profile sites such as The Pirate Bay. The data is not all that difficult to track, which is one reason that various users have found themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit.
Each week, Torrent Freak posts statistics, showing the most popular files and, earlier this year BetaNews talked about the HBO hit Game of Thrones, and the network and producer’s strange lack of concern about the rampant downloads of each episode.
Recent Headlines
Most Commented Stories
Betanews Is Growing Alongside You
Only a fool still uses Windows 7
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.