ISPs Have to Identify Alleged Pirates, EU Court Rules

A dispute over whether a Swedish ISP can be forced to hand over the details of one its subscribers to an anti-piracy group has just received its long-awaited ruling from the Europe’s highest court. A few moments ago the ECJ announced that there are no EU barriers which prevent the ISP handing over its customers’ private details to copyright holders.

Not long after Sweden’s controversial IPRED legislation became law in 2009, five book publishers handed a request for information to a local court.

The rightsholders, represented by anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån, wanted to force local ISP ePhone to hand over the personal details of a subscriber who allegedly stored more than 2000 audio books on his server, 27 of which breached the publishers’ copyrights.

In June that year the court ordered ePhone to provide the information but the ISP felt it would be wrong to comply, and instead took their case to the Court of Appeal. The ruling of the lower court was overturned on appeal and the case was sent to the Sweden’s highest court.

In the event even the Supreme Court couldn’t decide and it in turn forwarded the case to the European Court of Justice. A few moments ago the ECJ released its decision, one that is sure to please rightsholders.

The ECJ decided that there are no EU barriers which stop ePhone being ordered to provide the information as requested by Antipiratbyrån and the book publishers. The Court said that Swedish law strikes an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright holders and citizens’ rights to privacy.

Having obtained the decision from the ECJ, the case will now head back to Sweden’s Supreme Court.

“We feel very satisfied with this judgment. It is extremely important that we have received this message,” said Kristina Ahlinder, president of the Publishers’ Association.

“The important next step is that the Supreme Court gives us the authority, that the evidence is sufficient and that we have the right to share this information. The illegal publication that has occurred from this IP address is comprehensive,” Ahlinder added

If Sweden’s Supreme Court indeed decides that ePhone must hand over the information, it is not clear if the publishers are even ready to continue with a civil case against the alleged infringer. But of course, other entities such as the music and movie industries have been watching closely too, since it clarifies their position going forward. IFPI, among others, are welcoming the ruling.

Four Free Tools that every Administrator should Know About

Microsoft Network Monitor
Microsoft Network Monitor is a network protocol analyzer that lets you capture, view, and analyze network traffic. Version 3.3 of Network Monitor is available in 32- and 64-bit versions. Download it now.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
The Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is an easy-to-use tool designed to help administrators of small and medium-sized businesses ensure that their Windows-based computers are secure. You can use MBSA to determine the security state of your computers in accordance with Microsoft security recommendations. MBSA also offers specific remedia¬tion guidance for security problems it detects, such as misconfigurations and missing security updates.
At the time of writing this, the current version was MBSA 2.1. This version is available in 32- and 64-bit versions, but it does not install on Windows 7. A new version that supports Windows 7 is due to be released sometime in the future. You can download the current version and get information regarding the a version for Windows 7 at microsoft.com/mbsa/.

Microsoft IPsec Diagnostic Tool
The Microsoft IPsec Diagnostic Tool helps network administrators troubleshoot network-related failures, focusing primarily on Internet Protocol security (IPsec).The tool checks for common network problems on the host machine and, if it finds any problems, it suggests re¬pair commands. The tool also collects IPsec policy information on the system and parses the IPsec logs to try to determine why the failure might have happened. The tool also provides trace collection for virtual private network (VPN) connections, the Network Ac¬cess Protection (NAP) client, Windows Firewall, Group Policy updates, and wireless and system events. The diagnostic report generated by the tool is derived from the system logs collected by the tool during its analysis phase. Download it now.

Windows Sysinternals Suite
The Windows Sysinternals Suite is a set of advanced tools for troubleshooting issues with Windows-based computers. These tools were originally developed by Winternals Software LP, which Microsoft acquired in 2006. Some of the useful and popular tools included in this suite are:

• Autoruns This tool lets you see what programs are configured to start up automati¬cally when your system boots. It also displays the full list of registry and file locations where applications can configure autostart settings.
• BgInfo This tool automatically generates desktop backgrounds that include important information about the system, including IP addresses, computer name, network adapt¬ers, and more.
• Process Explorer This tool lets you find out what files, registry keys, and other objects that your processes have open, which dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) they have loaded, and who owns each process.
• Process Monitor This tool lets you monitor the file system, registry, process, thread, and DLL activity on your computer in real time.
• PsTools This set of command-line tools can be used for listing the processes running on local or remote computers, running processes remotely, rebooting computers, dumping event logs, and performing other tasks.
• RootkitRevealer This tool lets you scan your system for rootkit-based malware.
• ShellRunas This tool allows you to launch programs as a different user using a shell context-menu entry.
• TCPView This tool lets you view active sockets on the computer in real time.

Download the entire Sysinternals Suite now.

Top Torrent Sites Of 2012

1. The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is probably the best known BitTorrent brand on the Internet. The site was founded in 2003 and is still expanding, despite the various legal troubles and blockades that were designed to hurt the site in recent years. The Pirate Bay currently has close to 2 billion page views a month.

2. Torrentz

Torrentz has been the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for years. Unlike the other sites featured in the list Torrentz does not host any torrent files, it merely redirects visitors to other places on the web.

3. KickassTorrents

Founded in 2009, KickassTorrents is one of the youngest sites in the list, and this year it moved up to the top 3. Responding to the increasing worries about domain seizures, the site moved from its kickasstorrents.com domain to kat.ph a few months ago. The site continues to innovate and release new features every other week.

4. IsoHunt

In 2010 isoHunt became the first search engine forced to implement a keyword filter provided by the MPAA. Despite this setback, isoHunt continues to be listed among the top torrent sites. In 2012, isoHunt hopes to get rid of the filter through the Appeals Court.

5. BTjunkie

BTjunkie had to deal with a setback a few months ago when the site was blocked in Italy following a court order. In response to the block, the site’s owners launched an ad-free proxy site for Italians only. Just as last year, BTjunkie settles in fifth place.

6. ExtraTorrent

ExtraTorrent is one of those robust torrent indexes that doesn’t make the news very often. Compared to last year the site has moved up a spot and is now the 6th most popular torrent venue.

7. Demonoid

The semi-private tracker continues to attract a massive audience, also on the new .me domain name. Behind the scenes the site’s owners are working on a new and improved look.

8. EZTV

Unlike the other sites in the top 10, TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Despite its fair share of downtime this year, EZTV has managed to get a spot in the top 10 for the first time in its six year existence.

9. Bitsnoop

BitSnoop is another newcomer that gained a large audience this year. This didn’t go unnoticed by the RIAA, who filed a complaint at the U.S. District Court of Columbia and obtained a subpoena to reveal the identity of BitSnoop’s owner a few months ago.

10. 1337x

1337x is also new to the top 10, and focuses more on the community aspect than some competitors. The site’s owners say they started 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” Its 10th place this year proves that they’re getting the success formula right.

REMEMBER

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on the Net November 2011

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. ‘Our Idiot Brother’ completes the top three.

This week there are four newcomers in our chart. Conan the Barbarian is the most downloaded movie of the week.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	IMDb Rating / Trailer
1	(3)	Conan the Barbarian	5.3 / trailer
2	(…)	Rise of the Planet of the Apes	7.8 / trailer
3	(…)	Our Idiot Brother	6.8 / trailer
4	(1)	Killer Elite	6.7 / trailer
5	(…)	11-11-11	4.5 / trailer
6	(2)	The Hangover Part II	6.8 / trailer
7	(4)	Captain America: The First Avenger	7.2 / trailer
8	(9)	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2	8.3 / trailer
9	(…)	The Devil’s Double	7.1 / trailer
10	(6)	Crazy Stupid Love	7.8 / trailer

BPI and MPA Demand UK Pirate Bay Blockade

Following the High Court ruling ordering UK ISP BT to block Usenet indexing site Newzbin2, it was only a matter of time before that momentum was capitalized upon by the movie and music industries. Today a coalition of companies led by the BPI demanded that BT also block The Pirate Bay, either voluntarily or by consenting to a court order.

It has always been presumed that the legal action to have Newzbin2 blocked in the UK was just the beginning for the music and movie studios. Today we have that confirmation.

A coalition of the willing, headed up by the BPI and including the major Hollywood studios, approached BT, the UK’s leading ISP, with a demand – block The Pirate Bay voluntarily or consent to a court order.

The self-styled “world’s most resilient torrent site” is no stranger to censorship. It is already blocked by ISPs in Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Denmark and Belgium but the quest to put it completely out of business continues.

“The Pirate Bay is no more than a huge scam on the global creative sector. It defrauds musicians and other creators of their wages, and it destroys UK jobs,” said Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive.

“Unlike legal music download sites, it exposes consumers to the risk of viruses, theft of personal information and inappropriate content. We would not tolerate Counterfeits ‘R’ Us on the High Street – if we want economic growth, we cannot accept illegal rip-off sites on the internet either. We hope that BT will do the right thing and block The Pirate Bay.”

But at this stage PaidContent is reporting that BT will not simply roll over and comply with the demand for The Pirate Bay to be blocked voluntarily.

“BT cannot block web sites willy nilly,” said the BT source.

Voluntary action aside, BT has reportedly been given the chance to consent to a court order. If the ISP refuses it seems likely that the parties will end up in court for a mirrored re-run of the arguments in the Newzbin2 case. If there are no surprises the High Court could order a blockade of The Pirate Bay in the first half of 2012.

After a lengthy legal process the censoring of Newzbin2 finally kicked in earlier this week, but users of the site are reportedly bypassing the block by various means including the use of Newzbin2′s very own anti-blocking software.

A feature to unblock The Pirate Bay in the event that it too became blocked was already added to the client several weeks ago.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, a Pirate Bay insider laughed off the efforts to slow down the site and said that every time there are attempts at censorship the resulting publicity only gives them a boost.

“Thanks yet again for the free advertising,” they conclude.

Reported by http://torrentfreak.com

ISP Eircom Wrongfully Sent 300 Warning Letters To Innocent Subscribers

According to a report which has flown almost completely under the radar, last year an ISP sent out around 300 “first strike” warning letters wrongfully accusing innocent subscribers of Internet piracy. ISP Eircom implemented the scheme in partnership with the recording industry and is now being investigated by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.

In February 2009, IRMA – representing EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner – reached an 11th hour out-of-court settlement with Irish ISP Eircom on the issue of illicit file-sharing. The deal would see Eircom introduce a graduated response system for dealing with errant subscribers.

“Eircom is proceeding with implementation of the protocol which could result in the suspension and ultimately disconnection of broadband service for those customers who deliberately and persistently infringe copyright,” the company said in a December 2010 statement, reiterating their commitment to the scheme.

But little did we know that the fears of “3 strikes” opponents had already come true.

From deep inside the “how the hell did the majority of the media miss this department”, it now becomes clear that by October 2010, Eircom had already sent out around 300 warning letters to completely innocent subscribers.

The company seems to have tried to play down the error saying that computer clocks were incorrectly adjusted to compensate for daylight saving time, some comfort to the unlucky letter recipients.

According to TJ McIntyre at digital rights site EDRI.org, as a result of this failure the Irish Data Protection Commissioner is now investigating the entire Eircom scheme.

“The significance of this case goes well beyond simple technical failings however, as the complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has triggered a wider investigation of the legality of the entire three strikes system,” he writes.

The DPC is said to be not only investigating the complaint but also “whether the subject matter gives rise to any questions as to the proportionality of the graduated response system operated by Eircom and the music industry.”

McIntyre says that when the Eircom/IRMA deal was being agreed, the DPC expressed concerns with it, not least over the question of whether or not IP addresses are personal data. However, until someone raised a complaint, that issue was put on the back burner. The delivery of 300 false “first strike” warning letters appears to have met that criteria.

“The complaint in this case has now triggered that action, and it seems likely that the Commissioner will reach a decision reflecting his previous views that using IP addresses to cut off customers’ internet connections is disproportionate and does not constitute ‘fair use’ of personal information,” McIntyre explains.

“If so, the Commissioner has the power and indeed the duty to issue an enforcement notice which would prevent Eircom from using personal data for this purpose – an outcome which would derail the three strikes system unless Eircom successfully challenges that notice before the courts, or unless the music industry were to succeed in its campaign to secure legislation introducing three strikes into Irish law.”

The way this story has flown largely under the mainstream tech news radar will have been a relief to Eircom and IRMA. Something tells us that is about to change.

For the latest torrent news visit Torrent Freak

Top 10 Torrent Sites

1 – The Pirate Bay

2 – Torrentz

3 – IsoHunt

4 – Kickass Torrents

5 – btjunkie

6 – Demonoid.me

7 – ExtraTorrent . com

8 – TorrentDownloads . NET

9 – TorrentReactor

10  – Lime Torrents.com

Your Privacy is at an End: Creepy App

Creepy is a software package for Linux or Windows – with a Mac OS X port in the works – that aims to gather public information on a targeted individual via social networking services in order to pinpoint their location. It’s remarkably efficient at its job, even in its current early form, and certainly lives up to its name when you see it in use for the first time.

 

 

Screenshots:

Map with results

Features

Map providers available :

• Google Maps
• Virtual Maps
• Open Street Maps

Location information retieval from :

• Twitter’s tweet location
  • Coordinates when tweet was posted from mobile device
  • Place (geographical name) derived from users ip when posting on twitter’s web interface. Place gets translated into coordinates using geonames.com
  • Bounding Box derived from users ip when posting on twitter’s web interface.The less accurate source , a corner of the bounding box is selected randomly.
• Geolocation information accessible through image hosting services API
• EXIF tags from the photos posted.

Social networking platforms currently supported :

• Twitter
• Foursquare (only checkins that are posted to twitter)

Image hosting services currently supported :

• flickr – information retrieved from API
• twitpic.com – information retrieved from API and photo exif tags
• yfrog.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• img.ly – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• plixi.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• twitrpix.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• foleext.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• shozu.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• pickhur.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• moby.to – information retrieved from API and photo exif tags
• twitsnaps.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
• twitgoo.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags

Automatic caching of retrieved information in order to reduce API calls and the possibility of hiting limit rates.

GUI with navigateable map for better overview of the accumulated information

4 Maps providers (including Google Maps) to use.

Open locations in Google Maps in your browser

Export retrieved locations list as kmz (for Google Earth) or csv files.

Handling twitter authentication in an easy way using oAuth. User credentials are not shared with the application.

User/target search for twitter and flickr.

Creepy is the brainchild of Yiannis Kakavas, a 26-year-old academic working on his thesis on critical infrastructure protection at Technischen Universität Darmstadt in Germany following his completion of an MSc in information and communications security at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

To try this totally free application go to http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy it is totally worth it.

What Type Of Gamer Are You?

There are three types of gamers in this world the casual gamer, the serious gamer and the dedicated gamer.

• The casual gamer – Sees a game trailer on the net or sees a great looking front cover on the shelf of the gaming store and thinks ‘That looks ok, I’ll have a go at that’.
• The serious gamer – Plays games types they prefer like MMO’s, FPS or RPG’s. Joins gaming clans and spends their social time reading forums about the games they are playing.(If you know what even one of those acronyms were you are not a casual gamer)
• The dedicated gamer – Now the dedicated gamer is a strange beast, they are a mix between the serious gamer and the geek. These gamers know what they like and are very good at playing, all be it not as good as the serious gamer but always finish in the top 5. Now these gamers like to know how the game physics work and how maps and textures are made in the game environment.

This article is focused on dedicated gamer and as one myself, I know that all dedicated gamers love and need to try betas.

When a new product is created or upgraded, there are several stages in development before the product can be sold in the commercial marketplace. The first stage is the alpha stage, in which the product is tested by software testers within the company and debugged as necessary. A beta version is the name for the second stage of software testing, in which it is released for free or a reduced price to a group of users.

The beta version of a software release is considered to be a preview. It has all the standard features, but is not yet ready for wide release or sale. During this point, the company will collect feedback from users about the product’s usability — what they like and what should be changed — before the product’s wide release. A beta version of a program can be either a closed beta, which is limited to a specific group of users, or an open beta, which is available for the general public to use.

Though beta version products will often have all the features available in the final version of the product, they generally have limited, if any, technical support available to users. However, many products will often remain in beta version for years, during which time they are used by a wide audience as if they were full versions of products.

So lets have some open betas – these are beta versions open to the general public for FREE.

All Betas
Title	Phase	Genre	Site	Date Added
League of Legends	Gone Gold	RTS	Web Site	1/18/2011 4:14:00 PM
Rift: Planes of Telara	PreBeta	MMORPG	Web Site	11/7/2010 12:00:00 PM
Darkspore	PreBeta	RPG	Web Site	11/5/2010 6:06:00 PM
FireFall	Signup	MMOFPS	Web Site	9/30/2010 11:26:00 AM
World of Tanks	Closed	Other	Web Site	8/1/2010 6:21:00 AM
Bloodline Champions	Signup	MMOFPS	Web Site	8/1/2010 6:05:00 AM
Fallout Online	PreBeta	MMORPG	Web Site	8/1/2010 5:58:00 AM
Dawntide	Open	MMORPG	Web Site	6/2/2010 8:09:00 AM
TERA Online	Signup	MMORPG	Web Site	6/2/2010 8:00:00 AM
Adventure Quest Worlds	Gone Gold	MMORPG	Web Site	4/17/2010 6:50:00 PM
Alien Breed Evlolution Episode 1	Gone Gold	FPS	Web Site	1/27/2010 10:10:00 AM
Port Galaxy	PreBeta	MMORPG	Web Site	1/14/2010 11:27:00 AM

There are many site that allow you to sign up for free betas www.betawatcher.com being one of the best

Another being bigdownload.com

After looking at the above sites and maybe even trying some games, what type of gamer are you?

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Season of the Witch’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘TRON: Legacy’. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ completes the top three.

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	Rating / Trailer
1	(5)	Season of the Witch	5.5 / trailer
2	(1)	TRON: Legacy	7.2 / trailer
3	(3)	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	6.6 / trailer
4	(…)	Battle: Los Angeles (CAM)	6.5 / trailer
5	(2)	The Next Three Days	7.4 / trailer
6	(4)	The Fighter	8.1 / trailer
7	(…)	Rango (TS)	7.8 / trailer
8	(…)	Hereafter	6.9 / trailer
9	(7)	The King’s Speech (DVDscr)	8.5 / trailer
10	(…)	London Boulevard	6.4 / trailer

For more info on all torrent related news take a look at torrentfreak

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies 7th November

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	Rating / Trailer
1	(…)	Inception	9.1 / trailer
2	(…)	The Social Network (DVDscr)	8.4 / trailer
3	(…)	Scott Pilgrim vs the World	8.2 / trailer
4	(1)	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (R5)	6.7 / trailer
5	(2)	Resident Evil: Afterlife (R5)	6.4 / trailer
6	(3)	Red (DVDscr)	7.6 / trailer
7	(…)	Eat Pray Love (R5)	5.0 / trailer
8	(8)	Knight and Day (R5)	6.6 / trailer
9	(…)	Lottery Ticket	2.6 / trailer
10	(4)	Jonah Hex	4.4 / trailer