Tuesday, July 27, 2010

TorrentFreak Email Update

TorrentFreak Email Update

BitTorrent Releasers Slice The Top Off Movie Piracy Pyramid

Posted: 27 Jul 2010 05:10 AM PDT

Online movie piracy has largely enjoyed a fairly predictable structure during the last decade. New releases have generally hit the Internet on high-security 'topsites' first and then trickled down to become widely available on peer-to-peer networks. TorrentFreak now takes a look at a new wave of release groups who operate with a fresh and BitTorrent-powered philosophy.

In a nutshell, this is how online movie piracy has worked in recent times. Using their connections, so-called ‘Scene’ release groups – who inhabit secretive and highly exclusive servers, off limits to regular Internet users – obtain copies of freshly released movies. On their ‘topsites’ they share material with fairly close contacts for their own entertainment, usually along with strict instructions not to leak material to the outside world.

By now, everyone knows that the ‘Scene’ is just as leaky as the movie distribution model Hollywood would also like to protect, and within minutes their releases have begun to appear on peer-to-peer networks, especially BitTorrent. For those in the ‘Scene’ this is generally a huge disappointment. For millions of regular file-sharers, it’s a dream come true.

However, increasingly over the last few years, big movie releases have completely bypassed the usual routes to the Internet. In 2005, Star Wars Episode III appeared on the Internet to a fairly surprised ‘Scene’, which led to numerous groups ‘rebranding’ the release as their own, a ‘crime’ usually reserved for those lower down the pecking order.

And who can forget Wolverine? The leak of this unfinished ‘Workprint’ copy generated hundreds of mainstream news headlines. Did it come from the ‘Scene’? Absolutely not. It was leaked straight to the general Internet, bypassing the well-worn structure of the so-called ‘piracy pyramid’ altogether.

This phenomenon has been increasing rapidly, with some normally staunchly pro-Scene news outlets having to admit that times are changing. VCDQuality, a site which for years has been dedicated to reporting how quickly the ‘Scene’ releases movies onto the Internet, recently announced a significant change. They would now begin reporting when the new breed of releasers are first to introduce new movies to the Internet.

After all this time, the dedicated P2P release groups had finally been acknowledged. As can be seen here, their achievement list is growing with big movies and big releases. From Cams, through Telesyncs to DVD Screeners, it seems no format is escaping attention.

Following on from VCDQuality’s decision, a couple of weeks ago P2PElite was quietly launched. Its admin, KoOlWaReZ, told us that the site was designed and created to provide a home, profile and a central location for P2P release groups to get feedback, ratings, and interaction with the public on their releases.

While the site is still in development, the suggestion that release groups could interact with their audience is a major departure from the hide-away attitude demonstrated by ‘Scene’ groups.

Nevertheless, groups are indeed supporting the project. Among others, PrisM, iMAGiNE, Rx, FLAWL3SS, KiNGDOM, Noir, MAGNET and 420Demons (soon to be known as THC) are participating, names which will be familiar to huge numbers of BitTorrent users.

For Scene groups, leaks to BitTorrent and the wider Internet are the last they thing they want. For the new wave of P2P release groups such as the above, this is the main aim.

TorrentFreak has managed to interview some Scene release group members before, so when we had the opportunity to speak with some straight-to-BitTorrent releasers, we jumped at the chance.

In the next part of this series we’ll look at the P2P release scene a little closer and chat with a couple of BitTorrent release groups to see what makes them tick.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

Peter Sunde Banned From Operating The Pirate Bay

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 02:30 PM PDT

Earlier this year The Pirate Bay's co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij were banned from operating the site by a Swedish court. Today, The Pirate Bay's former spokesperson Peter Sunde was added to this list, and now faces a fine of nearly $70,000 if he does not comply with the decision.

pirate bayDirectly or indirectly, The Pirate Bay and its ‘founders’ have been involved in a dozen court cases in the past years, most notably the trial in which four people associated with the site were sentenced to one year in jail and hefty fines.

Despite this unfavorable verdict, which will be appealed later this year, the site itself remains online aside from some incidental hosting issues. To change this course, Hollywood movie studios have been going after the alleged operators of the site in court, and not without success.

In May this year, the Swedish Court of Appeals confirmed an earlier judgement by the District Court, prohibiting two of the site's founding members – Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij – from operating the site. Failure to comply with the court's decision will result in fines of 500,000 kronor (~$70,000) each.

Today, The Pirate Bay’s former spokesperson Peter Sunde was added to this list by the District Stockholm Court and now faces the same fine as his former colleagues for non-compliance.

It is doubtful that this latest decision will have any impact on The Pirate Bay’s operation. Similar to Fredrik and Gottfrid, Peter has previously stated that he is no longer involved with the site. Even more so, in the past Peter only acted as a spokesperson, he was never in charge of technical operations.

Peter Sunde confirmed this stance to TorrentFreak today, and noted that he was surprised by the ruling of the District Court.

“The interesting thing with the ruling is that the Swedish Court feels that they can judge me even though I do not live in Sweden and neither is the system [TPB],” Sunde said.

Indeed, all of the three people who are now banned from operating the site no longer live in Sweden. This also complicates the enforcement of the rulings since it is pretty much impossible to check whether or not Peter, Fredrik and Gottfrid are complying with their demands.

Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak that he will appeal the decision of the District Court. However, this appeal will be most likely scheduled after the appeal of The Pirate Bay trial this autumn so it may already be irrelevant by then.

“I’ve already appealed the decision, so it will have no effect anyhow. The new court case [appeal of The Pirate Bay trial] is coming up even before this will be in appeal…” Sunde said. Until then, Sunde continues to work full-time on his social payment startup Flattr.

Meanwhile, The Pirate Bay is serving torrents to millions of people every day.

Article from: TorrentFreak.
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