TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Torrent Site Launches VPN to Counter France’s Anti-Piracy Law
- LimeWire Shuts Down After Losing Court Battle With The RIAA
- Angry Developer Transforms Anti-Piracy System Into Music Download Site
- BitTorrent Still Dominates Global Internet Traffic
| Torrent Site Launches VPN to Counter France’s Anti-Piracy Law Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:12 AM PDT With the introduction of its three-strikes law, France has positioned itself at the forefront of the 'war on piracy'. Under the new Hadopi legislation, alleged copyright infringers will be hunted down systematically, but not if it's up to France's largest torrent site. In a counter-move the Smartorrent team recently launched a VPN service, and nearly 2500 users of the site have already signed up for an account.
Sites such as Smartorrent are generally loved by the public, but they are also a thorn in the side of the French Government. In an effort to curb the growing number of BitTorrent users, France introduced controversial anti-piracy legislation this year. Under the Hadopi anti-piracy law, alleged file-sharers will monitored, their IP-addresses recorded, and account holders will receive warnings through their ISP. After three warnings, subscribers risk a fine and their Internet connection may even be terminated. Despite these tough measures, the French don’t seem to be holding back on their download habits just yet. Smartorrent traffic remains steady and the site’s users are increasingly looking for options to hide their identities from the prying eyes of the government. To accommodate this growing demand, Smartorrent launched their own VPN service a few week weeks ago. The service – fittingly named SmartVPN – is specifically aimed at heavy BitTorrent users and shields them from receiving warning letters. Since their real IP-address is not shown while sharing, they don’t risk having their Internet connection terminated. “Since the adoption of this new HADOPI law we thought about starting a VPN service,” Smartorrent co-founder Clever told TorrentFreak. “We wanted to give our beloved users the ability to keep downloading safely by using our VPN servers that are located in Canada.” Thus far SmartVPN has been an overwhelming success. Clever told TorrentFreak that nearly 2,500 Smartorrent users have already signed up since they started in September, and dozens of new accounts are being made each day. The torrent site run VPN, which costs 5 euros a month, ironically owes much of its success to France’s anti-piracy law. Clever further said that he doesn’t understand why the French Government voted for the tougher laws, and calls them “insane”. “In my point of view, they have more important things to take care of in France than hunting downloaders, as every week there is a strike somewhere,” he added. The success of SmartVPN follows the global trend where file-sharers increasingly use anonymizing services to avoid being spied on. The SmartVPN service is mainly targeted at French users, but for people from other countries there are plenty of alternatives to torrent anonymously. Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||
| LimeWire Shuts Down After Losing Court Battle With The RIAA Posted: 26 Oct 2010 02:48 PM PDT The Gnutella-based download client LimeWire has ceased all its operations after a U.S. federal judge granted a request from the RIAA. Limewire was ordered to disable all functionalities in the current application to prevent users from sharing copyrighted material. The verdict is expected to have an unprecedented impact on the P2P file-sharing landscape.
The record labels argued that the Gnutella-based download client might have caused billions of dollars in lost revenue and that it's therefore one of the largest threats to the music industry's revenue. Today, RIAA’s request was granted by a federal judge. According to the injunction, Limewire “intentionally encouraged infringement” by Limewire users, it is used “overwhelmingly for infringement” and it knew about the “substantial infringement being committed” by its users. The evidence further showed that Limewire marketed its application to Napster users and that its business model depends on mass copyright infringements. The New York District Court demanded that Limewire shuts down its entire operation, including all searches and uploading and downloading that occurs through the client. LimeWire users who start up their client will immediately notice that it is no longer usable. Limewire’s in-client notice to users.
The outcome of this case could potentially change the file-sharing landscape for good. Despite BitTorrent being the leading file-sharing protocol for several years already, LimeWire is most likely the most installed P2P application on the market. In 2008 LimeWire was the most installed P2P application with an impressive market-share of 37%, compared to 14% for runner-up uTorrent. Now the RIAA has scored a victory in court against LimeWire, millions of people will have to seek an alternative download client, which might mean a significant boost in user numbers for some of the major BitTorrent applications. On the other hand, software that’s similar to LimeWire might be affected negatively by today’s judgment. In the injunction software such as FrostWire and MP3Rocket, but also BitTorrent clients including uTorrent, Vuze and Transmission are described as “similar software”. Could one of these become the next target? In a response to TorrentFreak, the RIAA didn’t want to speculate on future targets. Instead, we were told: “The court has now signed an injunction that will start to unwind the massive piracy machine that Limewire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely.” “In January, the court will conduct a trial to determine the appropriate level of damages necessary to compensate the record companies for the billions and billions of illegal downloads that occurred through the Limewire system,” the RIAA added. Although today’s decision is the end of Limewire as we know it, the brand is expected to reappear soon with a “non-infringing” service. The InjunctionArticle from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Angry Developer Transforms Anti-Piracy System Into Music Download Site Posted: 26 Oct 2010 01:39 PM PDT After failing to do business with some of the leading companies in the entertainment sector, a developer has turned from gamekeeper to poacher. As a protest against what he describes as big business support for online piracy, the dev has transformed his anti-piracy system into a pretty snappy music download site and says he won't turn it off until his demands are met.
Talking figures, Dominic believes his “patent-pending anti-piracy platform” could “eliminate up to 90% of music, film, TV, software and video game piracy” online. That’s a huge claim, even given the use of the all-important words “up to”, although hardly one not to have been made before. No doubt excited by his product, Dominic says he has presented his platform to the world’s leading media companies. In the movie sector they include the MPAA, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, AFACT and Village Roadshow. In music Dominic told us he has spoken to IFPI and Australia’s MIPI. For some reason none of them were interested in the platform. This rejection seems to have prompted a radical shift in Dominic’s strategy. Dominic went on to explain to us that he has ad crawlers in 4 continents which are able to monitor specific sites to report on any controversial ad placements. He used this system to monitor advertising on “pirate sites” and claims that from his analysis he discovered that the bulk of the ads came from companies owned by InterActiveCorp. IAC is run by Barry Diller, the ex CEO of both Fox and Paramount films. “Other prominent advertisers include Fox Sports and Fox Mobile, both owned by NewsCorp, who regularly sue end-users and websites for piracy,” says Dominic, while adding that he also traced US Government departments – smallstep.gov and mypyramid.gov. But of course, this phenomenon is not new. We’ve seen many times before that adverts from all sorts of companies end up on sites without their knowledge because their ads are placed by 3rd parties, so we put this to Dominic. “You are absolutely right about some companies ads slipping in because of ad agencies several layers down filling those spots, however the ads of IAC group companies account for upto 40% of all ads on these sites, TigerAirways over 5% of all ads on pirated sites for traffic coming from the Asia Pacific region and so fourth,” he explained. “Also with such an industry and US legal push against advertising on piracy related sites at the moment, you would presume these companies/governments would ensure they themselves are not engaging in this practise, whether intentionally or not.” However, Dominic is visibly annoyed that these companies are “funding piracy” so has decided to protest until something is done about it. Turning somewhat from gamekeeper to poacher, Dominic has transformed his anti-piracy platform into a music search engine and download site. It seems to work pretty well and there’s even a list of top downloaded songs at the bottom of the page along with cover artwork. “Each and every time a search is run or download initiated our servers locate a match on the web and serve it back,” Dominic explains. “Hence results could change every time you ran a search or downloaded a file. Even the popular results on the home page are not indexed on our servers, we go out and obtain this data EVERY single time our home page is loaded.” Dominic wouldn’t reveal where his site is pulling music from but told TorrentFreak: “My platform has the capability to index, crawl, monitor and analyse any page/site it comes across,” and further claims that “this is the fastest and easiest way to download any song you can think of, on the web.” However, it appears that Dominic is prepared to take down his MP3 free-for-all if certain conditions are met. “When these organizations decide to stop advertising on pirated sites and stop funding piracy, and take responsibility for the problem, I have a platform that has the ability to counter almost all forms of piracy today, and will be happy to take this site down.” Dominic explained to us that he’s not a supporter of piracy, but a supporter of innovation. “I believe that the work of artists of all industries and classifications should not be ripped off without dues paid to the creators. However, I believe the monopolies behind these artists are themselves aiding the problem, and as such changes are needed. I would love a harmony between consumers and content produces, which is absolutely possible.” Dominic’s protest site, imovi.es, can be found here (not working, see update below) and includes a list of 10,000 alleged “piracy supporting” advertisers. Whether or not his anti-piracy platform will ever see the light of day remains to be seen but from details shared with TorrentFreak it seems to be a fairly comprehensive affair, albeit one that does no tracking at all of file-sharers. Finally, Dominic told us that he is quietly hoping for an incoming email from Ireland. If you’re reading this Bono, he means you. Update: Due to attempts to shut down imovi.es, the URL of the site has changed to http://dmnic.me Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||
| BitTorrent Still Dominates Global Internet Traffic Posted: 26 Oct 2010 06:56 AM PDT A new Internet traffic trends report released by the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that global P2P traffic is expanding, with BitTorrent as the key player. In North America, more than half of all upstream traffic (53.3%) on an average day can be attributed to P2P. The report further signals some really interesting regional differences in P2P use, such as the dominance of Ares in Latin America. Sandvine, the company that’s best known for manufacturing the hardware that slowed down BitTorrent users on Comcast, has released their latest Internet traffic report. The company has looked into the traffic consumption of Internet users all around the world, and in this article we’re going to highlight some of the emerging trends in the P2P landscape. The overall conclusion we draw from the data is that BitTorrent, and P2P traffic in general, is still dominant in all geographical regions. In North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, P2P traffic is responsible for the vast majority of all upstream traffic. The percentage of downstream traffic is significantly lower, thanks to the streaming video sites that have gained popularity in the last years. Despite the global nature of P2P there are some striking differences in the preferred applications and protocols that are used. We’ll discuss the various trends and statistics below, starting with North America. P2P in North AmericaBitTorrent remains the most used file-sharing protocol in North America, and the total amount of P2P traffic is still very significant. Sandvine’s research reveals that on an average day, 53.3% of all upstream traffic can be attributed to P2P applications. P2P is less dominant on the downstream side. It is currently at 13.2%, following real time entertainment (45.7%) and web browsing (24.3%). The bandwidth usage patterns during peak hours are slightly different, but still a massive 34.31% of all upstream traffic can be attributed to BitTorrent at these times. The BitTorrent percentage of downstream traffic lies at 8.39% during the busiest time of the day. What’s further noteworthy is that the Gnutella protocol (used by Limewire, Frostwire etc.) is still fairly large in North America. It currently lies at 11.18% of upstream traffic and 2.12% of downstream traffic during peak hours. In most other parts of the world Gnutella has vanished completely. The normalized aggregate of all traffic (up/down) during peak hours puts P2P traffic at 19.2% during the first months of 2010. Interestingly, this is up from 15.1% in 2009, which shows that P2P traffic is growing strongly, not only in absolute numbers but also as a share of total Internet traffic in North America.  Overall, it can be concluded that P2P traffic is still on the rise in North America, with BitTorrent being the dominant protocol. P2P in EuropeIn common with North America, BitTorrent also remains the most used file-sharing protocol in Europe. The report doesn’t give any exact stats, but roughly 40% of all upstream traffic and 10% of all downstream traffic can be attributed to P2P applications on an average day. Bandwidth usage patterns during peak hours show that of 29.97% of the upstream traffic can be attributed to BitTorrent during these times, versus 8.29% of downstream traffic. PPLive, the popular peer-to-peer streaming video network, also has a significant share with 11.76% of all upstream traffic and 4.41% of downstream traffic during peak hours. Strangely enough, Sandvine categorizes PPLive as real-time entertainment rather than P2P file-sharing. In Europe, the normalized aggregate of all traffic (up/down) during peak hours puts P2P traffic at 11.0% during the first months of 2010. This is down from 22% in 2009, which indicates that P2P has lost half its share of the total Internet traffic there.  The relative downward trend of P2P traffic during peak hours does not have to mean that the absolute traffic has gone down as well. What is clear, however, is that relative to other traffic sources P2P has decreased in Europe, while it has increased in all other regions. P2P in Latin AmericaLatin America is the only region where BitTorrent is not the preferred protocol to share files. Even though BitTorrent has a pretty decent market share there also, Ares is the most used file-sharing protocol. Overall, P2P traffic is huge in Latin America. On an average day, 73.3% of all upstream traffic can be attributed to P2P applications. P2P is less dominant on the downstream side. It is currently at 23.1%, following real time entertainment (35.2%) and web browsing (28.3%). The bandwidth usage patterns during peak hours of the day show that 11.91% of all upstream traffic can be attributed to BitTorrent at these times. This is dwarfed by the 54.74% Ares is credited for. The BitTorrent percentage of downstream traffic lies at 6.80% during the busiest time of the day, compared to 12.98% for Ares. What is further noteworthy is that eDonkey is still fairly large in Latin America. It currently lies at 6.29% of upstream traffic and 1.82% of downstream traffic during peak hours. In most other parts of the world eDonkey has vanished completely. The normalized aggregate of all traffic (up/down) at peak hours puts P2P traffic at 36.7% during the first months of 2010. Interestingly, this is up from 31.9% in 2009, which shows that P2P traffic is growing strongly, not only in absolute numbers but also as a share of total Internet traffic in Latin America.  We can conclude without a doubt that Latin America is the winner when it comes to the share P2P has of overall Internet traffic. P2P in Asia-PacificBitTorrent is the most used file-sharing protocol in Asia-Pacific, where P2P has a traditionally high market share. The report doesn’t give any exact stats for this region, but roughly 60% of all upstream traffic and 25% of all downstream traffic on an average day can be attributed to P2P applications. The bandwidth usage patterns during the peak hours show that 37.63% of the upstream traffic can be attributed to BitTorrent, versus 16.91% of downstream traffic. PPLive and PPStream, two popular peer-to-peer streaming video networks, also have significant shares with 18.83% and 11.06% of all upstream traffic respectively, and 7.90% and 7.14% of downstream traffic during peak hours. In Asia-Pacific, the normalized aggregate of all traffic (up/down) puts P2P traffic during peak hours at 25.7% in the first months of 2010. This is up from 8.4% in 2009, which indicates that P2P is still increasing its share of total Internet traffic there.  As can be seen from the table below, at the busiest time of the day BitTorrent has the largest market share of Internet traffic in Asia-Pacific compared the other regions.
In conclusion, we can say that Sandvine reveals some intriguing statistics, with the overall conclusion that BitTorrent and P2P in general are still going strong. Although there are regional differences, BitTorrent is responsible for a significant share of total Internet traffic in all regions. That said, we have to keep in mind that Sandvine might benefit from overestimating the percentage of P2P traffic because they sell the traffic shaping applications. Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||
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A few months ago the RIAA asked a New York District Court to shut down the world's most installed file-sharing application, LimeWire. 
Early today a software developer called Dominic contacted TorrentFreak with a very unusual story. Dominic says he has created an anti-piracy system which he believes has the potential to wipe out a significant amounts of online piracy.| You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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