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| Politician Tied Up In Warez Scene Piracy Investigation Posted: 09 Oct 2010 04:29 AM PDT Following last month's chaos as police around Europe moved to take apart the higher levels of the so-called Warez Scene, an interesting individual has become entangled in the investigation. In Sweden, a suspicious IP address was linked to an account operated by a "top politician." Although he has apparently denied any involvement, yesterday a court ordered his computers to be sent for examination. Early September, police in more than a dozen countries around Europe coordinated to carry out raids against so-called Warez Scene topsites. From our analysis we discovered that the impact of the operation was significant as it hit some of the most important sites in the European piracy Scene. One would never expect a case as complex as this to be over in such a short time so now, more than a month on, it’s no surprise that the investigation is continuing. However, while it hardly comes as a shock to hear that server administrators and datacenter operatives have been questioned in connection with the case, an eyebrow or two will certainly be raised at the questioning of someone being described as a “top politician”. After tracing an IP address to a physical location, on September 7th (the day of the raids) police went to a property in Eskilstuna in Sweden. At that address lived a still unnamed 32 year-old politician. After seizing seven computers, four hard drives, various USB drives and memory cards, the man was taken for interrogation. “I told them that I am not a part of these file-sharing networks and they believed me,” the man told news portal Ekuriren. Frederick Ingblad from the Prosecution Office in Stockholm later confirmed that after around a week the man, who is said to be a leading representative of his party, was no longer a suspect. The politician confirmed this but added that he did not know if the claims against him could return at a later date. So how did this politician come under suspicion? “I will not go into details of the investigation,” said Inglblad. “But to be a suspect, intent is required. The fact that people know what they’re doing,” he added. But despite the prosecutor making it clear that the man is no longer a suspect, it does seem that the authorities are continuing with the investigation in connection with the politician’s equipment. Following a request from the Stockholm Prosecution Office, yesterday a district court ruled that two of the politician’s computers could be sent over to the hub of the investigation in Belgium for further analysis. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
| Musician Mourns aXXo’s Absence, Defends Piracy Posted: 08 Oct 2010 01:35 PM PDT Drama struck parts of the BitTorrent community last year when the popular DVD ripper aXXo shared his last torrent with his millions of followers. At the height of his stardom aXXo suddenly went silent. Thousands have meanwhile begged for his return, and this week they're joined by Norwegian musician Binärpilot, who has dedicated a track to aXXo on his latest album.
In the years that followed the aXXo brand went on to achieve cult status. For many it became synonymous with quality, dominating the searches on all public torrent sites. As a result, aXXo has grabbed the attention of scammers, the mainstream press and even documentary makers. For reasons unknown, aXXo stopped uploading torrent files to the usual places in March 2009, leaving millions of desperate followers behind. One of the people who appreciated aXXo’s contributions is Alexander Støver, a Norwegian musician who produces electro under the name Binärpilot. In a newly released album, Binärpilot has dedicated the first track to mourn aXXo’s absence with the following lyrics:
In true aXXo spirit, the track and the entire album can be downloaded for free of course. This is the business model Binärpilot has embraced since he started making music. Instead of asking people to pay for his music, he makes money through donations, bookings and merchandise. Aside from publicly showing his appreciation for a DVD-ripper like aXXo, Alexander has been very vocal about how piracy is affecting the music industry. “I’ll sum it up for you,” he wrote in a blog post on the topic. “It’s not hurting the artists, it’s hurting the industry behind the artists. And that is, in my opinion, the beauty of it; Contrary to what they want you to believe, piracy is (if anything) saving music, because it’s bringing a corrupt and exploitative machine down to its knees.” As an artist, Alexander personally has very little to worry about illegal downloads, since he’s not charging for his music in the first place. Instead of complaining about the lack of income from music sales, he attributes most of his success to the people who are sharing his work for free. “I’ve never charged a dime for any of my music, but thanks to the internet I’m making a fair amount of money through donations and ad revenue. Money I never would have seen if it wasn’t for so-called pirates downloading and uploading my music,” Alexander says. “And most important of all, this is money I can spend with a clear conscience, knowing I never sacrificed my artistic integrity to fit some sort of corporate formula. Now, I’m not making a living with my music, and with the status quo I don’t think I ever will, but that’s not because of pirates, and it never will be. In fact, I salute them.” Binärpilot’s latest album Nordland, including the track aXXo, can be downloaded for free on his official website. If you like it, please consider chipping in a few bucks so he can buy some bread. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
For all those who visited a BitTorrent site prior to 2010, the name aXXo probably rings a bell. Since the fall of 2005, those four iconic letters have been attached to hundreds of torrent files that linked to pirated movies.| 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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