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46

P2P - Filesharing / Pirate Bay Takes Bias Claims to Supreme Court

« on: October 17, 2009, 05:25:28 am »

Pirate Bay Takes Bias Claims to Supreme Court
Written by Ernesto on October 16, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-takes-bias-claims-to-supreme-court-091016/

Two of the main judges appointed to the upcoming Pirate Bay appeal have been accused of a conflict of interest, since they have both been members of pro-copyright groups. The appeal court decided that the judges are not biased, but the defense has announced that it will take the case to the Supreme Court, which is likely to delay the trial.

On April 17th all four defendants in the Pirate Bay trial were found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of $905,000 each. Despite this verdict The Pirate Bay continued to operate while the defense filed for an appeal.

The appeal is scheduled to start in November and will be handled by three judges. As with the initial trial, controversy surrounds the appointment of the judges in question. According to defense lawyer Per E Samuelsson, two of them could be susceptible to bias.

One of the judges, Ulrika Ihrfelt, has been a member of the Swedish Copyright Association (SFU). The second controversial judge, Christina Boutz, is a member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (SFIR).

A few weeks ago Samuelsson submitted his complaints to the Court of Appeal, but failed to get the desired result. The Court ruled that the connections of the two judges to the various pro-copyright groups will not influence their judgment.

Samuelsson did not agree with the verdict of the Appeal Court and announced that he will take the bias question to the Supreme Court, and possible delay the appeal schedule.

“There is obviously a possibility that the Supreme Court says no quickly, but it would be strange,” Samuelsson commented, adding that it will probably mean that the current trial planning will be delayed.

The defense team had previously requested the trial to be postponed because of personal reasons, but this request was denied last week. Now, with the question of bias being tested by the Supreme Court, they may get what they want after all.

47

P2P - Filesharing / Demonoid BitTorrent Tracker Could Go Dark For Days

« on: September 02, 2009, 07:31:22 am »

Demonoid BitTorrent Tracker Could Go Dark For Days
Written by enigmax on September 01, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-bittorrent-tracker-could-go-dark-for-days-090901/

Demonoid remains one the most popular BitTorrent sites on the Internet, despite a fairly colorful and turbulent past. Sadly its thousands of users could soon find themselves without their favorite site, as technical difficulties are set to cause possibly extended downtime.
Demonoid is one of the biggest torrent sites around. Now fairly peacefully hosted to the west of Russia in Ukraine, the site has previously received unwanted attention from both music and movie companies. So when the site goes offline a lot of people start to think of the worst, especially if there is little or no warning.

During the next few days, maybe hours, Demonoid may go down due to some serious-sounding technical issues. They have already caused some damage to the site so the operators want to limit further damage.

“We are experiencing power outages that have caused some ram and hard drive issues. We might have to shut down everything to fix and prevent further damage,” they say in a statement.

The downtime could be extended, “…days maybe, until we can change the power circuit,” they add.

Several Demonoid users already report connection issues, but the site is still accessible to most people at the time of writing. The blackout won’t mean much to millions of Russian and Ukrainian BitTorrent users though, since they are already blocked from the site.

Over the years Demonoid has had its fair share of downtime. In June 2007 Demonoid was pressured to leave their host in the Netherlands, mainly because of legal threats from the Dutch anti-piracy outfit, BREIN. The site then relocated to Canada, but after threats from the CRIA, it decided to shut down there as well.

In 2008 the site eventually reappeared in full glory after being offline for six months. This time the downtime shouldn’t last that long. Any Demonoid users stuck for ideas on alternatives if the site goes down, can check http://torrentfreak.com/25-great-pirate-bay-alternatives-090822/.

48

P2P - Filesharing / Download a Copy of The Pirate Bay Before It’s Gone

« on: August 17, 2009, 08:19:01 am »

Download a Copy of The Pirate Bay Before It’s Gone
Written by Ernesto on August 16, 2009

http://torrentfreak.com/download-a-copy-of-the-pirate-bay-before-its-gone-090816/

In just a few days The Pirate Bay will be passed onto its new owners, marking the end of an era but not the end of BitTorrent. The nostalgic torrenters among us might want to download a copy of the site for archival purposes. It never hurts to have a backup of important data in place, especially when it’s free.

In common with music and movies, it’s not that hard to copy a website. It might take some serious server power to serve torrents to millions of people every day, but all the torrent files and site code don’t take up that much space.

In fact, every TorrentFreak reader can easily store a backup of The Pirate Bay on his or her hard drive. Everyone can download it straight from The Pirate Bay, conveniently packed into a massive torrent amounting to 21.3 Gigabytes of data.

The anonymous uploader who compiled this huge torrent told TorrentFreak that he wanted to have a backup of the site in case all torrents mysteriously disappear after the site is sold. “I suppose I want us to have assurances. If the TPB deal disappoints us, we can just put it up again,” he said.

The backup includes a mockup site and all of the 873,671 torrent files hosted on The Pirate Bay’s servers. As the uploader also notes, not all of the 2 million torrents tracked by The Pirate Bay are hosted on the site itself.

With this backup everyone can have their own Pirate Bay up and running in a few minutes. “The basic website supplied in the torrent is a working site, where you can browse the index. You just need a lot of hardware to run a database of this size at a decent speed. And thanks to openbittorrent.com, you don’t even need a tracker,” the uploader told us.

Those interested in grabbing a copy of the site have to be warned: patience is required. It might take a few days before the download completes with the seeder’s limited upload capacity, but good things come to those that wait.

49

Computers - Technology / Nero offers free burning utility

« on: August 07, 2009, 08:12:46 am »

   Nero AG has released a freeware data burning utility for the Microsoft Windows platform. The new freeware tool is limited to data discs and CD, DVD copies, but it is totally free and is not time limited (not to be confused with the 15 day trial of Nero 9). A cut down copy of the software might be exactly what some users were looking for in the first place, as Nero's increasingly bulky releases have prompted criticism of the products.

Of course, a tool like ImgBurn can do pretty much everything, and more, compared to the new Nero freeware tool, but the tool keeps the ease-of-use of Nero StartSmart that might be more attractive to users new to burning. The freeware version will work with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/18696.cfm?utm_source=newsletterENG&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20090806

50

P2P - Filesharing / It's a feeding frenzy!

« on: August 03, 2009, 07:56:26 am »

http://torrentfreak.com/us-movie-companies-go-after-the-pirate-bay-again-090728/

http://torrentfreak.com/italian-riaa-suesthe-pirate-bay-for-1-million-euros-090731/

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-ordered-to-close-in-the-netherlands-090730/

http://torrentfreak.com/dutch-court-refuses-to-inform-pirate-bay-defendant-09030/

51

P2P - Filesharing / New Pirate Bay Will Become a Pay Site

« on: July 21, 2009, 07:58:21 am »

New Pirate Bay Will Become a Pay Site
Written by Ernesto on July 16, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/new-pirate-bay-will-become-a-pay-site-090716/

After Global Gaming Factory (GGF) announced its intention to buy The Pirate Bay, the public was left wondering what the site’s future would look like. Today it was confirmed that sharing on the new site will come with a cost, as the new owners plan to charge the users of the site a monthly fee.

Thus far the plans revealed by GGF concerning the future of the site and tracker have been rather vague and uncertain. However, today the freshly appointed Wayne Rosso - who has previous experience with failing P2P services - came out with a few crucial additional details on the site’s future business model.

For years The Pirate Bay’s users have been able to share files without censorship or charges, but this is all about to change. Rosso said that under the new management, the 3.7 million Pirate Bay users (or whatever userbase remains) will have to pay a monthly fee to access the site.

The money collected from user subscriptions and advertising revenue will then be used to pay off the copyright holders. The exact monthly fee is yet to be decided, but Rosso did confirm that the more files people share, the lower it will be.

“The more of your computer resources you contribute to the network, the less you pay down to zero,” Rosso told Cnet. “The user is in control.”

In addition, GGF hopes to cut deals with ISPs. “We hope to introduce a new BitTorrent technology that will optimize ISP traffic,” Rosso said. “We can save ISPs up to 80 percent of their resources. Half of the Internet traffic is file sharing and half of that traffic is Pirate Bay.”

Rosso conveniently fails to mention that a Pirate Bay where users have to pay for access will not be generating much traffic at all, so this part of GGF’s business model has to be rethought. BitTorrent does not depend on The Pirate Bay, and new trackers have already lined up to take over its job.

Details about the actual acquisition of The Pirate Bay are still scarce. Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak that GGF will get the domain names for thepiratebay (under all the tlds they exist) and a copy of the code and the database. If all goes well the transfer of ownership will take place at the end of July.

GGF has to raise $7.8 million in funding in order to buy the site. After that, the share holders - who’ve seen a drop in the stock price after the announced buy-out - have to vote in favor of the deal.

52

P2P - Filesharing / Big Changes at the Pirate Bay

« on: July 01, 2009, 08:16:52 am »

The Pirate Bay Will Decentralize Its Operations   
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-closes-its-tracker-removes-torrents-090630/


The Pirate Bay Sold To Software Company, Goes Legal
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-sold-to-software-company-goes-legal-090630/


Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde Discusses the Site’s Future
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-peter-sunde-discusses-the-sites-future-090630/

53

P2P - Filesharing / Woman Hit With $1.92 Million Fine in RIAA Case

« on: June 19, 2009, 02:43:34 am »

Woman Hit With $1.92 Million Fine in RIAA Case
Written by Ernesto on June 19, 2009

http://torrentfreak.com/woman-hit-with-192-million-fine-in-riaa-case-090619/

Jammie Thomas-Rasset has lost her retrial against the RIAA and was ordered to pay $1.92 million for 24 songs she shared via Kazaa. The defense had argued that it might have been her children who shared the files instead of Thomas-Rasset, but the jury didn’t buy this and found her guilty.

In 2007 a jury slapped the single mother with a $222,000 verdict in her case against the RIAA, which she later appealed. When the case between Thomas-Rasset and the RIAA was declared a mistrial last year, the judge ruled that the fines were “disproportionate to the damages suffered.”

The case went up for re-trial before a new jury, who found her guilty and surprisingly handed out even harsher fines than in the first trial. Thomas-Rasset was ordered to pay $80,000 per infringement mounting up to a total of $1.92 million in fines.

Thomas-Rasset, like many others, couldn’t believe her ears when the court read out the verdict, and later said that it was “kind of ridiculous”.

Unlike most people, Thomas-Rasset never opted to settle with the RIAA, determining that she had the law on her side. Unfortunately for her the jury in this landmark case ruled she did not.

“We appreciate the jury’s service and that they take this issue as seriously as we do,” said Cara Duckworth, an RIAA spokeswoman. “We are pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable. Since day 1, we have been willing to settle the case and remain willing to do so.”

In the US juries can hand out fines up to an unbelievable $150,000 per infringement on a single song. The average settlement in related RIAA cases is around $3000, which is peanuts considering this recent verdict. In this light many people might be inclined to settle with the RIAA even when they don’t even own a computer.

54

Music - Movies - TV / Careful what you bring into a movie theater these days

« on: June 02, 2009, 07:51:34 am »

Search For Movie Piracy Equipment Was Invasion of Privacy
Written by enigmax on May 31, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/search-for-movie-piracy-equipment-was-invasion-of-privacy-090531/

A Canadian court has ordered a cinema to pay $10,000 damages after staff searched a family’s bags looking for camming equipment, but ended up breaching their privacy. The search by staff also turned up something embarrassing in older daughter’s bag. Mom had no idea. Not impressed.

A little while ago we reported on a case in the UK where a woman went to the cinema and claimed she was “treated like a criminal.” Searching for movie camming equipment, staff instead found some candy. Because she wouldn’t hand it over, they called security to deal with her and the whole thing descended into farce.

Well, it seems the Canadians have been at it too.

These days cinemas believe that all paying movie-goers are potential Scene pirates, so when a woman took her two daughters to Cinema Guzzo in Montreal to watch Shrek the Third in 2007, they were searched for camming kit. Big trouble ensued.

Finding a stash of illicit smuggled snacks, staff ordered them returned to their vehicle, to be locked securely away so it would be impossible to consume them while watching the movie. The trio complied.

The search of the bags continued and then, jackpot! Although staff didn’t find the latest DV camera, they did find some birth control pills in the older daughter’s bag, an event that didn’t go unnoticed by her mother. Until this point, she had absolutely no idea her child took them. Understandably angry, the mother sued the cinema for invasion of privacy, demanding $60,000 CAD.

Last week a judge ruled that the staff did indeed breach the privacy of the family and ordered the cinema to pay $10,000 CAD ($9,000 USD). Signs at the point of ticket purchase must clearly state that there is a bag search in place and staff must not put their hands inside people’s bags. Cinema Guzzo failed on both counts, not to mention causing sensitive problems within a family and guaranteeing that they never, ever come back as customers. Fail all round then.

55

P2P - Filesharing / Mininova Filters Copyright Infringing Torrents

« on: May 07, 2009, 03:10:04 am »

Mininova Filters Copyright Infringing Torrents
Written by Ernesto on May 06, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/mininova-filters-copyright-infringing-content-090506/

Just a few days before their court appearance, Mininova, the largest BitTorrent site on the Internet, has started to filter content. The site is using a third party content recognition system that will detect and remove torrent files that link to copyright infringing files.

Starting today, Mininova will use a content recognition system that detects and removes torrent files linking to copyright infringing files. The system will also prevent the torrents from being re-uploaded to mininova later on.

Mininova co-founder Niek told TorrentFreak that the system will be tested for 12 weeks with only a few titles. With this trial Mininova collaborates with an association representing several TV/movie content owners. Niek couldn’t tell us which one, but our best guess would be that it’s the MPA(A).

The content removal system should be seen as an extension of the existing copyright policy according to Niek, who also said that the current trial will be used to find out whether the content recognition system is a workable and effective solution.

The system was selected by the copyright holders themselves who want an easier way to get torrent files removed than the current notice and takedown policy, and it is operated by an undisclosed third party. Interestingly, this collaboration does not mean that the upcoming court case against BREIN is off the table.

Later this month BREIN hopes to convince the court that Mininova has to filter its search results, so that all .torrent files which may point to unauthorized content are removed. Up until now, Mininova refused to interfere with the search results, claiming that the DMCA take-down procedure they have is good enough. This has clearly changed now.

The response from Mininova’s users is mostly negative, with one commenter saying “Shame to see such a nice site decide to go hang itself,” and another adding “Wow, guess you guys are caving under the pressure. Too bad its all over now.”

The effectiveness of this filtering system, and how it will affect mininova’s popularity is yet to be seen, but it sure is a radical development.

Breaking story, more info will be added.

56

P2P - Filesharing / BitTorrent Trackers Close En Masse After Pirate Bay Verdict

« on: April 23, 2009, 04:48:26 am »

BitTorrent Trackers Close En Masse After Pirate Bay Verdict
Written by Ernesto on April 20, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-trackers-close-en-masse-after-pirate-bay-verdict-090420/

Several private BitTorrent trackers including Nordicbits, Powerbits, Piratebits, MP3nerds and Wolfbits, have closed down after the Pirate Bay verdict came in last Friday. Other trackers are set to follow this example in what could be the greatest voluntary tracker collapse ever.

Operating a BitTorrent tracker from Sweden is not as fun as it used to be, last Friday ruined all that. What was once considered a safe haven for BitTorrent sites, is now a Bermuda Triangle for some previously very active BitTorrent trackers. The harsh verdict against the four individuals involved with the largest BitTorrent tracker on the Internet led to worries among those who operate similar sites in Sweden and elsewhere.

In the days following the verdict, several large and small BitTorrent trackers have decided to close down and more are expected to follow suit in the days to come. One of the sites that has closed its doors is NordicBits, which displays a message citing the verdict as one of the reasons for the closure.

    We have to shut down the site now due all circumstances. We don’t have time to do anything to the code, we don’t have interest in it, we don’t have any more money and the biggest reason is The Pirate Bay info.

Rumors say that at least a dozen trackers will discontinue operations in the days to come including Swebits, who have already shut down their tracker but not the site itself. SeedIT, a relatively small community is another tracker that’s decided to shut - they posted their latest torrent a few hours ago, titled:
“RiP.SeedIT.We.Have.always.been.the.best.of.the.best.Love.love.love.XXX-RIP”

Several of the trackers that are now offline were operated by Swedes, who are worried that they might be facing legal troubles as well. In addition, there are many other BitTorrent trackers hosted in Sweden run by non-Swedes - time will tell how they respond.

The Pirate Bay continues business as usual as the defendants appeal their case, but in the meantime the Swedish anti-piracy lobby will use the verdict to their advantage. Uncertain times.

57

P2P - Filesharing / Pirate Bay defendants get hammered! The Official Verdict - Guilty

« on: April 19, 2009, 07:57:03 am »

The Pirate Bay Trial: The Official Verdict - Guilty
Written by enigmax on April 17, 2009

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/

Just minutes ago the verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four was announced. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.

While only a few weeks ago, it seems like an eternity since the trial of The Pirate Bay Four ended and the court retired to consider its verdict. The prosecution claimed that the four defendants were ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ and demanded millions of dollars in damages. The defense did not agree, and all pleaded not guilty - backed up by the inimitable King Kong defense.

Today, Friday April 17, the court issued its decision: article continuously updated

“The court has found that by using Pirate Bay’s services there has been file-sharing of music, films and computer games to the extent the prosecutor has stated in his case,” said the district court. “This file-sharing constitutes an unlawful transfer to the public of copyrighted performances.”

Peter Sunde (born September 13, 1978) alias ‘brokep’:

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Peter Althin, brokep’s lawyer said, “I spoke to Peter and he wasn’t very surprised. A journalist he’d spoken to knew an hour before it was public that all four would be convicted. The verdict was leaked from the court. I have to think about what effects that can have on the sentence. It is unacceptable that the court is leaking.”

Fredrik Neij (born April 27, 1978) alias ‘TiAMO’:

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Similar to the other defendants, Fredrik Neij was not present to hear the verdict. He currently lives in Thailand from where he manages The Pirate Bay’s servers.


Gottfrid Svartholm (October 17, 1984) alias ‘Anakata’:

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Anakata’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson said, “We’re appealing. It’s very surprising that the court has chosen to treat the accused as a team.”


Carl Lundström (born April 13, 1960)

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Carl Lundström’s verdict came as a surprise to most people since he was only remotely related to The Pirate Bay. His lawyer Per E Samuelsson announced that he has already sent in his appeal and the others are expected to follow soon.

The court said that the four defendants worked as a team, were aware that copyrighted material was being shared using The Pirate Bay and that they made it easy and assisted the infringements. It categorized the infringements as ’severe’. The judge said that the users of The Pirate Bay committed the first offense by sharing files and the four assisted this.

It appears that the court chose to not take any of the technical details into account and only judged based on intent. They find it clear that the intention of the defendants is to facilitate sharing of copyrighted works and based their verdict on this.

While the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s exaggerated estimates of losses, it still set the damages at 30 million SEK ($3,620,000). This a hugely significant amount and the court has ordered that the four should pay this amount between them.

The judge also stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal. Rest assured, other torrent sites hosted in Sweden will be keeping a close eye on developments.

The defense put it to the judge that he had folded under intense political pressure. The judge denied this stating that the court made its decision based on the case presented.

At one point the judge was asked if he was concerned for his personal safety after handing down this decision. The judge said he hadn’t received any harassment and was quite surprised at the question.

While the judge won’t be getting any flowers for this verdict, Roger Wallis who spoke in favor of The Pirate Bay at their trial and received a mountain of floral tributes in return, noted, “This will cause a flood of court cases. Against all the ISPs. Because if these guys assisted in copyright infringements, then the ISPs also did. This will have huge consequences. The entire development of broadband may be stalled.”

Peter Sunde characterized the verdict as ‘unreal’ and said that he didn’t expect the jail sentence. He briefly spoke with Fredrik and Gottfrid and all were surprised with this outcome. In response to the fines Peter said: “We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay if we could. If I would have money I would rather burn everything I owned.”

Sunde has already explained that this decision does not mean the end of the line in this case. There will be an appeal which means we are still far away from the ultimate decision - possibly years away. Any appeal from either side must be submitted to Sweden’s higher Court by 9th May 2009.

Rasmus Fleischer, one of the founders of Piratbyrån commented, “The sentence has no formal consequence and no juridical value. We chose to treat the trial as a theater play and as such it’s been far better than we ever could have believed.”

As for the fate of the site, Peter has already promised that The Pirate Bay will continue. The site itself was never on trial, only the four individuals listed above.

This is a breaking news story, please check back frequently for updates.

58

P2P - Filesharing / Mininova Trial Due in Two Months

« on: March 17, 2009, 04:22:24 am »

Mininova Trial Due in Two Months
Written by Ernesto on March 16, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/mininova-trial-due-in-two-months-090316/

This year is an important one for the three largest BitTorrent sites. In common with The Pirate Bay and isoHunt, Mininova is also heading to court in a dispute with the entertainment industry. This May, the court will decide if the BitTorrent indexer has to actively filter content from the site.

The top three BitTorrent sites are all involved in at least one court case. The Pirate Bay trial has just ended and isoHunt is involved in a case against the MPAA, and one against CRIA - the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA.

Mininova, based in The Netherlands, is up against local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, which has a reputation for forcing torrent sites offline or to hosting in other countries. Through legal action, BREIN now hopes to convince the court that Mininova has to filter its search results, so that all .torrent files which may point to unauthorized content are removed.

The date for the trial was set today for May 20th, and it will take up only one day. Before it came to legal action, Mininova and BREIN have had lengthy discussions on how to deal with copyrighted content, but they never reached an agreement.

“The case wont say much about the legality of torrent sites, but it will give more insight into what measures BitTorrent indexers and similar services have to take in order to make sure that they don’t link to illegal content,” Mininova President Erik Dubbelboer told TorrentFreak. “In particular, it deals with the question of whether or not website owners have to actively filter content. In other words, is a notice and takedown policy sufficient or not.”

With the Pirate Bay case still fresh in everyone’s memory, a comparison between the two cases is easily made. However, they are more different than most people would assume. First off, Mininova’s case is against the company, not the individuals involved with the site. “The Pirate Bay case is a criminal trial, ours is civil,” Erik told TorrentFreak.

Erik further noted that Mininova doesn’t operate an open tracker and that they, as opposed to The Pirate Bay, take down torrents when they get an appropriate takedown request. “These are all big differences that clearly distinguish the two cases,” Erik said.

There is no doubt that the Mininova trial will set an important precedent for all other BitTorrent indexers hosted in The Netherlands. Erik and the other Mininova founders think they have the law on their side. “We have confidence in the outcome of the case and we don’t think Mininova will cease to exist,” he said.

To be continued.

59

P2P - Filesharing / Mininova Hit By Massive DDoS Attack

« on: March 08, 2009, 04:22:05 am »

Mininova Hit By Massive DDoS Attack
Written by Ernesto on March 07, 2009

http://torrentfreak.com/mininova-hit-by-massive-ddos-attack-090307/

Mininova, one of the leading BitTorrent sites, has been suffering from a massive DDoS attack over the past few days. Originating from a botnet spanning three continents, the attacks vary in strength and are causing the site to be completely inaccessible at times. The Mininova team is working on a solution.

DDoS attacks are not an unusual event for BitTorrent sites, with smaller sites suffering the effects more often than they’d like. However, to take out one of the big players requires some serious power, and that is exactly what Mininova is up against right now.

Mininova co-founder Niek confirmed to TorrentFreak that they have been suffering from a DDoS attack over the past few days. The site is currently being pounded by a botnet of hundreds of computers which is slowing the site down significantly and at times making it completely inaccessible.

Niek said that he has no idea who’s behind the attack or why they chose to target Mininova. This is not the first time the site has had to deal with a Denial of Service attack, but they haven’t witnessed one of this magnitude before.

It started on Thursday originating from three different continents, but seemed to wear off in the hours that followed. Today it’s back in full force. Mininova is used to serving millions of visitors a day, but even they are not equipped to handle an attack like this.

Today’s attack originates from Germany and Argentina and is 2 Gbit strong. The DDoS attack is maxing out the entire uplink and is hard to filter since it uses UDP connections.

Niek told TorrentFreak that they are working on a solution at the moment, and he hopes things will be back to normal soon.

60

P2P - Filesharing / The Pirate Bay Demand Webcast of Trial

« on: February 08, 2009, 04:45:44 am »

The Pirate Bay Demand Webcast of Trial
Written by enigmax on February 07, 2009
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-demand-webcast-of-trial-090207/

Set to start in just a few days time, the trial of The Pirate Bay will be one of the most important cases the file-sharing community has ever witnessed. However, due to restrictions, the number of people viewing it first hand could be very limited indeed. “Time to make demands,” says Peter Sunde.
On February 16th 2009, one of the biggest trials in P2P history begins. The case of the largest BitTorrent tracker, The Pirate Bay, will be followed by millions around the world.

The Pirate Bay team have been preparing for the media battle, in part by designating their tour bus as the site’s official media center. But already there are complaints about how accessible the trial will be to the public, with TiAMO and Brokep demanding changes to how it will be made available. In true Pirate Bay style, they want everyone to have access, one way or another.

According to Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij (aka TiAMO) the case will be heard in room 9 of Stockholm’s District Court. This room has space for maximum 35-40 people to view the case. At least 20 of these seats will be reserved for the press and, you can bet, these will be taken up by the mainstream press, many of which are unsympathetic to the site’s cause, a point not lost on Peter Sunde, aka Brokep.

“Traditional media is 90% owned by the opposition in this case and that is something that really must be taken into account,” he notes.

The court will provide another area which will have the trial’s audio fed in. “There will be a room where you can hear the sound from the trial,” says TiAMO, “this room can hold 20-25 people,” but the space allocated just isn’t enough.

“So this does not work,” says TiAMO. “I want a request for real premises immediately so they have time to fix the problem.” He’s very unhappy at the space allocated, noting that the case is one of the biggest political cases in recent times and since there are four people on trial, there isn’t even enough space for their family members to be present.

“I NEED a room for at least 150 people, 20 reserved for the family and 80 to 100 reserved for the press and public. It need not be in the same room, but we need several rooms REQUIRING video too, not just sound,” he demands.

Brokep says that in addition to the seats held back for the traditional press, he is set to demand that the court reserves seats for bloggers too.

As the discussions continue over the proposals do a live webcast of the court case of a Boston University student versus the RIAA, Brokep wants similar for the Pirate Bay. They want the case transmitted live on the web.

“We want to show how it works. Cards on the table, everything should be transparent!”

And why not?