TorrentFreak Email Update |
- 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites
- Filmmaker Premieres Movie In Theaters and on The Pirate Bay
- The Significance of the Huge European Warez Scene Raids
| 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites Posted: 18 Sep 2010 01:32 AM PDT Following a call to arms yesterday, the masses inhabiting the anonymous 4chan boards have carried out a huge assault on a pair of anti-piracy enemies. The website of Aiplex Software, the anti-piracy outfit which has been DDoSing torrent sites recently, is currently down having been DDoS'd. They are joined in the Internet wasteland by the MPAA's website, also currently under huge and sustained attack. Don’t mess with the Internet they say. Well, actually stronger terms than that are often used, but the end result is the same. When people get organized on the Internet, very strange and powerful things can happen and in few places can this be more true than on the 4chan message boards. Sometimes things need sorting out, and what better way than getting hundreds of thousands of anonymous users of this notorious message board to work together to achieve it. If they’re not trying to bring down Scientology, they’re teaching foul-mouthed pre-teen girls a lesson or using their combined forces to destroy the lives of stupid bankers who think it’s ‘funny’ to throw cats in the trash. Yesterday two new targets hit the radars of ‘Anonymous’, the faceless and powerful hoards who carry out 4chan attacks. The beauty is that anyone can join in the action, 4chan ‘membership’ is not even required. People wishing to participate can simply load up their Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) and enter the IP address they want to attack. The resulting assaults are massively distributed making defending against them almost impossible. Yesterday’s target one was everyone’s favorite Indian anti-piracy company, AiPlex Software. A completely unknown entity until a couple of weeks ago when they stupidly admitted to DDoSing uncooperative torrent sites (then unsuccessfully trying to backtrack), it seems their rise to fame came at a price. Following claims that AiPlex had DDoS’d The Pirate Bay, a few hours ago their website was taken down and remains that way at the time of writing. Along with the downtime came this message (pic):
While it’s claimed that AiPlex was taken down by a single attacker, the ongoing assault on the MPAA.org website is definitely a group effort. The site was attacked on schedule (9pm eastern time yesterday) and taken down in minutes. It remains down at the time of writing. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
| Filmmaker Premieres Movie In Theaters and on The Pirate Bay Posted: 17 Sep 2010 01:48 PM PDT While most filmmakers shy away from anything remotely related to BitTorrent, Swedish director Skina Bergman has partnered with The Pirate Bay for the release of her latest movie. Today the film, titled "Die Beauty", debuts in Swedish theaters as well as on The Pirate Bay.
The film tells the story of a group of girls who are looking for some excitement. They figure that discovering a dead body floating down the river would be ideal, and as in most fairytales, wishes can come true. Tonight the film premiered offline at the Bio Rio theater in Stockholm, Sweden. However, the filmmakers didn’t want to limit the release to an offline venue. With that in mind they are quite possibly the first to have also arranged a premiere on the largest BitTorrent site on the Internet – The Pirate Bay. A dual premiere is quite unusual, and The Pirate Bay fully support the idea as they are actively promoting the release of Die Beauty on their homepage. Obviously, the filmmakers don’t mind being in the spotlight at all. “For me a release on The Pirate Bay was an obvious thing to do because I believe that it, without competition, is the best way to promote a film today,” director Skina Bergman told TorrentFreak commenting on her unusual move. While Hollywood traditionally sees The Pirate Bay as a threat, Skina Bergman recognizes that it may actually benefit the film. “Not only do I get thousands of viewers on the web, I am also convinced that the release will increase the number of people watching it on the big screen,” Skina said. Instead of having a potential audience of a few hundred people, now millions can see it in their own homes at their own convenience. The makers think that the unlimited availability, and the free promotion that comes with it, may actually boost theater visits and thus boost revenues instead of hurting it. “It’s a fact that people watch more movies when the access increases, and that’s a good thing. As a filmmaker I want to take advantage of that,” Skina noted, adding, “I hope to prolong the life of Die Beauty. I want to give the film a fair chance to be seen by as many people as possible.” The film, including subtitles for non-Swedes, just premiered on The Pirate Bay and can be downloaded for free. It is released under a BY-NC-SA Creative Commons License which allows the public to copy and remix the film for non-commercial purposes as long as they give credit to the makers. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
| The Significance of the Huge European Warez Scene Raids Posted: 17 Sep 2010 06:13 AM PDT At the behest of Belgian authorities, two weeks ago police around Europe conduced coordinated raids on so-called Warez Scene topsites. Hailed as some of the most important raids of their type in recent memory, the action generated hundreds of headlines. But just how significant were the raids? To find out that, first we should look at how the Scene is organized. In early September, police in more than a dozen countries around Europe coordinated to carry out raids against suspected file-sharing servers. The servers, ‘topsites’ in the so-called Warez Scene, were hit particularly hard. A day later and using several Scene sources, we tried to piece together what had happened and which sites had been affected. Certain rumors that we were unable to confirm at the time, such as those suggesting that a UK topsite had been busted, appear to have been unfounded. It seems that servers did go down at times, but merely coincidentally or as a precaution. While it’s proven immensely difficult to validate many of the tips we’ve received (as we’ve said before, reporting on The Scene is somewhat of a black art), some have proven very interesting. Right now we would like to share one in particular with you, which not only describes in part how the Scene is structured but also goes some way to illustrating just how important these raids were. Structure – How the Scene selects which sites are the best in the world
How the globally ranked sites are organized
Traders Traders are Scene members who move files around the 27 globally ranked sites and others in the Scene. They are motivated to do so by winning points. In order for a trader to become ‘globally ranked’ he or she needs to be in the top 20 uploaders overall. Their point rewards for positioning in this list work as follows: Deciding the best traders in the world All points accrued are placed in a global ranking chart for measuring which trader is the best each week. The winner is naturally the one with the most points The European Scene raids and how this affects trading and structure We mentioned several topsites in our earlier article which were busted or otherwise affected by the raids. At the time we redacted some site names to keep our sources happy but we are now able to publish most of them. Group affiliates are reported but unconfirmed. BAR Confirmed as busted, BAR was one of the top two sites in the Scene with a ranking of 3.0. As we’ve seen from the explanation above, it’s impossible for a site to be more important than this. Groups affils: MARVEL, EPTiSO, RELOADED, Clue, ESPiSE, DASH, Metis, REV0, CBGB, XII, Heirloom LOST A highly respected 2.5 site which was ranked 3.0 for a long time. One of the five most important sites in the Scene. Without being overly specific, police managed to obtain certain hardware connected to the site but completely missed other more crucial elements. Site staff have made announcements which stated that tight security and encryption on the site meant that users should be fine. Group affils: Refined, FQM, CiNEFiLE, SPARE, Hatred, SUBMERGE, Felon, ALLIANCE, Pellucida, Sinners, MACRO DLR DLR is one of the sites we mentioned but not by name in our earlier article. DLR is/was ranked as 2.5, meaning that along with LOST it is one of the top 5 most important sites in the Scene. While the ISP where DLR was hosted was visited by the police, our sources believe that DLR’s server was missed and may not even have been the prime target. As of last week, no announcement had been made about the site’s future. SC SC is proving a very difficult site to find information on. Ranked as 2.0 and therefore one of the nine most important in the Scene, the site had some very high profile affiliate groups. The site appears to have been small, but particularly elite. Group affils: Hubris, RELOADED, Jumanji, MPTDVD, Magnitude, DAGGER, ETHOS, Clue, AAOCG Still unamed site, Italy We mentioned another European site in our earlier article as being permanently down, and we can now reveal that site was in Italy. Although we are told it is very important, we have been unable to find out its ranking in order to show its significance. Conclusion While there is much talk of the piracy pyramid (in its wider sense, with the Scene at the top and general file sharing and BitTorrent-type activities providing the broad base) the Scene also has a pyramid structure too, at least in terms of kudos. As can be seen by the above, these raids clearly hit some very important sites at the top of that pyramid. An interesting piece of information came out during the last few days. According to authorities speaking on the matter this week, they have not infiltrated the Scene themselves, but have instead recruited some high-level trusted informers in the Scene. There can be little doubt that on some level at least, these claims must be true. Finding and ejecting those individuals will be a top priority for the Scene. While it’s too early to say how things might recover in the longer term, one thing is certain. Raids like this in the past have disrupted but never stopped the Scene. And, as we highlighted in our earlier article, P2P release groups are starting to show their significance. One thing is for sure. Virtually all movies, music, software and games will continue to be pirated and no one will have any problem at all putting their hands on them. To most on the Internet, nothing will have changed. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
Die Beauty is described by its makers as a surreal thriller set in a feverish fairytale world. A story about friendship and alienation, family ties and kindred blood.| 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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