Bitzbreaker's Blog

Why We Need A New Telecom Law Now

2006-02-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

"Dr. John Rutledge on why inadequate investment in high-speed telecom networks undermines our competitiveness. For the past decade, policies in Washington have discouraged investment by undermining the return on capital invested in US telecom assets." -clubbin714

Discuss on digg.com

A good read, however my thoughts concerning this are that expecting the government and or the telecoms to change is probably just wishful thinking. Rather the public needs to build new networks which are not backed and operated by corporations, or regulated by governments. The most likely network of this kind would of course be wireless, as it is very unlikely a wired network could be formed considering the massive amount of legal red tape and restrictions, along with other boundries.

How this relates to the internet, currenly in the U.S. most connections provided by isp's are far more costly than they should be even for just 56k dialup, worse yet there is a major conflict of interest spreading amoung isp's as they are intent on being content providers as well as service providers, which I think is something that should be made illegal by law. Average broadband speeds are under 10mb/s both ways, the upstreams often less than 1mb/s. While internet services continue to degrade for customers in the U.S., other countries have pulled far ahead of America, in providing services at far better rates such as 100mb/s both ways for roughly the same monthly rates Americans are being charged for broadband. Is this really alright?

Using current comercial grade wireless products a public wireless could be formed, that would have much higher speeds than 10mb/s both ways. Also by using newer wifi standards and mixing in wimax, both range and performance can be made even greater.

So should not Americans consider just leaving telcoms behind, instead forming a much better internet? One that is completely free to access?

I think a free internet is the future, isp's are soon going to become part of the past, a dinosaur, just something we can tell our grandkids about.

Isp's, the government and corporations have seriously messed things up for too long, why not tell them to shove off?

Granted forming this new free internet won't be easy, there will be hardware and software requirements to be overcome, possibly even international issues. Though any trouble will be well worth it. It will mean no more messing with finding hotspots and hijacking wireless networks through wardriving. Everyone with a computer will be able to connect, freely from anywhere within range of any wireless hub.

Corporate and government agenda's will not decide or influence the future of the network. Instead just the limits of technology will.

The only thing that could prevent such a network being formed would be the spread of cheap fiber to the home connections. Say at a rate of no more than 20$/month. Whatever the future holds, the days of overcharging for highspeed internet are numbered that much is almost certain.

Why this blog has been idle for a little while

2006-02-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

Why? Mostly that I have not had much interest in blogging and really been too busy with other things to bother posting. Much has gone on during that time and has been worthy of being posted here. Most recently the issue with isp filterring and continued antipiracy efforts, also changes and developements with bittorrent. The following post will cover those, additional posts relating to other topics may follow today or soon after.

The future of bittorrent and the internet

2006-02-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Bittorrent clients have already seen some interesting changes since the original client was first released, including the addition of dht networking and more recently the use of encrypted headers.

Unfortunately many people will misunderstand just what the encrypted headers features provide and what they do not. To clear some of the more serious misunderstandings up, first they do not make you anonymous or secure from unfriendly peers. All they do is prevent middlemen such as isp's from as easily identifying clients and traffic. Mostly this feature is just a response to traffic shaping and not an serious effort to protect users privacy.

Also in order to take full advantage of the encrypted headers feature every peer should be using a client which includes it even if they really do not need it. Why? if they do not there will be two groups of peers, the ones with it and the ones without it. Content does not get shared between these two groups so you can just imagine how this will degrade the content distribution process.

Problems facing filesharers

Traffic shaping by isp's is just one problem facing filesharers these days, a problem which is spreading and becoming more common. There are other problems such as the ones in regards to user safety and privacy, some of us that are more familiar with these topics know that they are just as serious and far more costly to users than mere traffic shaping.

So while encrypted headers might be a temporary solution to the traffic shaping problem, peers still face other problems that need to be addressed as well. Since in order to continue sharing they have to start using encryption anyways, why not go all the way and protect themselves from bad peers. Many clients already include blocklist support, such as bitcomet's ipfilter.dat and azureus's safepeer plugin, however that is a far from ideal solution to the bad peers problem, it is not really effective enough to protect peer's privacy. Certainly since dht, trackers and even peer exchange features will distribute peer addresses. So bad peers still get your ip address even if you use such a blocklist, even if they cannot connect to you, do you really think that matters, maybe in some areas of the world, but not the U.S. and possibly many countries in Europe. Some might argue that the peers in the U.K. are safe, that without strong proof they cannot be taken to court, that is really unknown and may or may not be true. Also even if true could be subject to change at any time.

Besides the U.S. and Europe, which are two of the most densely populated areas of peers, the remaining areas with many peers are in similar if not often worse situations when it comes to their local laws.

Now what percentage of peers knowingly share content which is only deemed by copyright groups as illegal? Those groups have already admitted years ago they realize that many peers share content not even knowing they are doing so or that said content is considered as illegal by just those groups. Also those groups have made it very clear they do not care who they target, innocent but technically legally responsible parents, which for the most part know nothing or next to nothing about filesharing, yet when confronted settle out of court as a natural kneejerk reaction to being notified. Targeting minors, even as young as those who are just preteens. Do they really expect such young children to understand the law and complicated issues such as copyrights, certainly since most adults do not and even cannot understand them?

Online copyright enforcement is a morally reprehensible activity, where corporate greed prevails and the public be dammed. It has never been about artists, their rights and putting money in their pockets. Only a few artists who happen to own and operate their own recording groups are effected by online piracy, even then how much it effects them is very questionable, far from anything certain. Even argued that piracy might be good for many artists, that many become more popular solely because of it and end up making more money, since they are not being held down as much by the copyright groups. Of course that is just the music related piracy and not other piracy such as movies and software. For the most part software piracy has been around for about as long as software has, it existed long before the internet and played a major part of the adoption of computer technology, it is mostly misunderstood and wrongfully villianized, certainly not given the credit it is due. Online movie piracy on the other hand is fairly new compared to music and software piracy. Now to point out that online piracy is not very serious at all, it is not very harmful or costly to its supposed victims which for the most part are multi-million or even multi-billion dollar companies, many of which are only too happy to rip off their customers and grossly overcharge for their products.

Piracy

Yes stealing is still stealing, but piracy is not technically stealing, certainly at least not in any classic sense of the term. Yet regardless the real crime surrounding piracy is of course the crimes that copyright enforcers are committing and allowed to commit against the public.

Where is the real pirates anyways, since they are not filesharers? They are where they have always been offline, bootleggers which copy and more importantly sell their illegal hard copies of albums and movies. These bootleggers are having a real and seriously costly effect on content producers.

Also never mind that many people who supposedly download illegal copies of content end up buying the content which they like. That since the copyright groups have started waging this anti piracy war years ago, shutting down the original napster, many people have been put off and just stopped buying content, every year more people join them, some on principal alone, others due to being notified and sued. This is going to eventually have a serious effect on the media providers, at this point their missed profits already are probably in the millions and continuing to increase. This is a loss that they are solely responsible for creating, alienating your customers and driving them away is not a winning money making strategy, regardless what the media providers would like to believe.

Going after offline bootleggers, is worthwhile and a just endeavor. The copyright groups should not have ever started this online war, a war they are not only losing, but is costing them far more than they can ever hope to gain from it. Not only financially they would be better off if they didn't wage it, but also when it comes to their public image, they would be much better off. So far they are needlessly making fools and villains of themselves and actually seem proud of it.

Does any company that goes after its customers be allowed to stay in business? It is fundamentally stupid and wrong.

Thanks mostly to these clowns, pirates are more like modern day robbinhoods than anything even close to being criminals. Hence they are the publics online heroes, fighting the big evil organizations who wish to rule the world, controlling culture and the public.

Anyhow, the main point here of making these statements concerning the piracy situation, is that people need to understand these clowns are extremely dense, inflexible and not understanding, they do not care about circumstances and will go after anyone, doing whatever it takes. There is nothing reasonable or logical about these groups. They know nothing of mercy and fairness. Have yet to show any sign of such things.

So is it not reasonable to do whatever you can to protect your online privacy? Does it not make sense not to leave your safety from these groups up to mere chance, a roll of the dice? Hundreds of people are being sued all the time, thousands have already been notified and sued, many have settled. Guilt and actual proof have nothing to do with it.

The near future and new Internet

Bittorrent's future and even the future for nearly all online activity will lay in not only using encryption, but also in networking which protects users privacy. Recently the situation with google being told to turn over its records to the U.S. government is a prime example that even using search engines is going to require some measures to ensure your privacy.

We are seeing a new internet age emerging, one where most activities will be conducted through encrypted connections and other networking measures which protect users privacy.

There are both good and bad examples of how to go about anonymous networking, the best example of how not to do this is of course freenet, since it suffers from horrible speeds and clearly is not suited for regular use. For the best example of how to do anonymous networking we look no further than i2p, already far better developed than freenet, tor and gnunet, it has not only the features, but also the performance for regular use, though it still lacks the polish that will make it popular with newbies and the less technologically equipped. Though it is important to note that tor really should not be compared to i2p, since it is merely a stepping stone towards user privacy and not really a full solution.

Bittorrent and all filesharing's future already reside with the i2p network, peers have just yet to adopt this future. Given more time and development they will, certainly as the internet continues to become increasingly hostile and problematic. As filesharers adopt the i2p network, other groups of internet users will as well. More developers will flock to the network and through their efforts will create new applications and help improve the many existing ones.

In the last few months more bittorrent clients have been made for the i2p network and one is now even included with i2p. Also the gnutella client i2phex has seen further development, recently with the addition of webcaches to it.

From the bad something good has come

As the internet continues to become more regulated, restrictive and performance is degraded through filtering, spam and worms, the new internet, i2p's internet will rise from its ashes like a phoenix.

Unlike older attempts at internet anonymity such as freenet, i2p's development efforts are more serious and has a more talented main developer, along with many contributing developers. It already greatly outshines the other similar projects. From the burning ashes that make up the internet this new network and community are rising. Nothing can and will stop this. This network will someday be far bigger than napster, freenet, kazaa, irc and even bittorrent. This is not your parents or commercial internet, it is a new internet, by the people, for the people, it is the people's internet. Though it might stumble and fall, it will always get back up and move forward, though the hardware network may change it will keep going. Though the old internet may self destruct, upon itself, through corporate greed and corruption, this new internet will go on.

Who you can thank and blame for this rant

This rant was brought to you by recent isp trafficshaping and continued antipiracy efforts, by such groups as the riaa and mpaa.

Wtf is going on with the chip sector?!

2006-01-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

This week amd's stock declined due to groups downgrading it based on problems reported by intel. Such reports should cause amd's stock it go up, not down. However this is nothing new, those groups have typically downgraded the entire chip sector based on intel. This is just wrong, for years intel has had serious problems which if anything has been good for other chip companies. Today amd's stock has rebounded and in a big way, which has brought up the entire chip sector. Again this does not make any sense. If anything the rest of the sector should go down if not stay where it is at. For the last few years amd's stock continues to be wrongfully judged and seriously undervalued, it could easily be double where it is at today, without becoming overvalued. While intel's stock continues to be highly overvalued, judged favorably without reason.

Sooner or later regardless of unfair favor and good judgements, intel's stock is heading for a major correction, could even see losses of up to 50% or more.

This is just my take on these stocks, yet are they more illogical than the market judgements concerning the chip sector over the last couple years if not longer?

My statement concerning the gains that amd's stock (not intel's) should be seeing are based on both recent and long term data and possitive reports some of the big names (kramer for example) in stock reporting have given.

There is no possible reason for intel to be up, beyond wrongfully possitive judgements.

Guess my main point remains, wtf is going on? Within the last few years what has intel done to earn such unfair favor? Bad management and the total failure to bring new technology to market are amoungst the reasons against giving intel any favor.

Proxytools Kit For WindowsXP

2005-12-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

Been a little busy, have not had much time to update the blog. Here is something for winxp users who use proxies and need to regularly find them and yes it includes a massive sample list. You will need winrar or something similar to extract its contents. Enjoy and check out the forum post for further details.

Free Proxy Toolkit for windows xp.

Download

sha1 hash:075286611D0B8620334027000427F770198C759C

Filesize 4,084,576 bytes

Forum Post

emule p3p

2005-12-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

No client yet, a development pack released, discussion just starting. Also don't blame me for the name as I didn't pick it. Also I think it is a bad idea.

read more | digg story

Bush Authorized NSA Domestic Spying

2005-12-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

"A new report indicates President Bush may have authorized illegal activity by signing an order allowing the NSA to bypass all provisions of the Patriot Act and spy on US citizens without any authorization or oversight. Scary stuff!"

read more | digg story

Wow imagine that, the tinfoil hat people seem a little less crazy now don't they? Just shows a moderate amount of paranoia is a good thing, while not enough or too much is usually bad.

Just Let Us Play The Movie

2005-12-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

"Great story pushing for a single industry and os wide standard. Also points out about the need to not overcharge for products in the first place as a key against piracy."

read more | digg story

Will media companies take such a sane approach when historically they tend not to? Seems very unlikely.

Latest Anti Filesharing Campain, What Will Come Of It?

2005-12-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

With the flood of new stories in the news and advertisements in various forms of media such as tv. What will come from all of it? Historically the numbers and stats say very little if anything, so why the major costly effort?

There are a few possible outcomes, amongst them being a major win for the anti filesharing groups. However another as unlikely outcome being a win for filesharers everywhere. How could it possibly become a win for filesharers? Well they might finally take the hint that continuing to use unsafe insecure software and networks is bad, their activities legal or otherwise is too risky. Recently with one filesharer in the United States of America losing his internet account due to downloading linux iso's, it seems not even legal filesharing is safe anymore. So that is a clear victory for the anti filesharing groups like the much hated riaa and mpaa, which are well known for going after minors, the elderly and parents.

Really at this point how could it become a victory for filesharers? Well they might finally see not just the point but the great need to use something safe and secure, such as i2phex. Granted the likelihood of filesharers waking up and realizing such things is very low. Instead millions of filesharers possibly as much as up to 100 million or more throughout the US and Europe will likely opt to remain vulnerable and exposed online, mostly completely naked save for the few which use a few minor security settings and software such as peerguardian in a very weak attempt to isolate themselves from the current storm of bots and bad peers.

Granted the US and Europe filesharers are far from being alone, others such as the ones in South Korea and Australia are also starting to become more effected. Adding millions, perhaps another hundred million or more to the tally of those being effected.

When there are completely free ways for filesharers to stay safe online and avoid getting their accounts canceled by their isp's or possibly wrongfully sued by some group like the riaa, how many filesharers will actually choose them? On a purely technical standpoint both i2p and i2phex clearly are ready enough for so many users, it is just a matter of choice, plus overcoming the initial installation and configuration process, which for many is not too tough, in fact it is probably too easy. So while they could do so now, it seems unlikely they will. Many people underestimate how serious these problems are and that they even can happen to them! They think there probably is a better chance of being hit by lightening or hit by a car.

Our reviewer gets banned for downloading Linux torrents

2005-12-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

"Our reviewer in the States Mark Fitch was banned from his internet service provider after writing a bad review of their service on dslreports.com as well as downloading torrents which his internet service provider says that none are legal(interesting eh?)?"

read more | digg story

This story certainly deserves our attention. A ISP in the US did what?! More to the point the customer supposedly did nothing illegal and the ISP was not willing to work with the customer to resolve the issue. So to all the filesharers in the US seems yes your internet access can be dropped for just filesharing, even if you are not breaking the law, just running applications like bittorrent, gnutella, edonkey2000, kazaa, soulseek, winmx and other such older p2p software will get you kicked offline and your account dropped. It has happened and no doubt will happen even more commonly in the near future. Certainly after this last media campain led by the riaa, mpaa and supported by others.

Also seems you have to watch what you say about your isp they are listening and paying attention! Also you can be sure that just writing a bad review on some forum like dslreports is not the only way to lose your connection, others certainly include IM, IRC, Blogs, Websites, Newsgroups and more!

Remind us who is supposed to be the criminal, filesharers or the Riaa?

2005-12-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

The Truth About Piracy

A clear and simple point of view, could also be labeled as Piracy From A Pirates Point Of View, or Rational For Piracy.

Theater-to-DVD Release Window Shrinks

So piracy has had some good results for consumers, what next?

Mom VS. Riaa Loses and we're crying foul

Well who didn't see that coming, even though many of us hoped it would not. Terrible news for peers on Fasttrack, Gnutella, Edonkey2000, Bittorrent and other such networks. A true pirate or not, you are legally screwed.

PIRACY WAR, PATRIOT ACT, ESCALATING?

2005-12-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

"We are being led to believe that sharing information is illegal. We have previously exposed how under proposed expansions to the Patriot Act, which has just been extended, News and information gathering could be deemed to be illegal."

read more | digg story

A Very Cool Bittorrent Search Extension for Firefox

2005-11-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

This extension allows users to search 24 specialized torrent search sites in a matter of minutes for needed files. Includes newsfeeds and a full load of links.

Forget the other bittorrent search extensions and such, this one has it all, a easy, simple and quick to install extension.

Granted it could be nicer if it had options to customize some things, like disabling, adding or removing the newsfeeds and links, maybe even the torrent search sites as well. Still it has so much and is very cool, it is a must have for any bittorrent user.

Do other webrowsers have such cool extensions and features, heck no, only firefox does!

Fix Your Own Firefox Extensions

2005-11-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

By Unbiased_Opinion from the slyck forums, thanks for this great guide.

Ever wanted to upgrade to the latest FireFox to see what's new and improved, but didn't because of compatibility issues with your precious firefox extensions? Well, instead of waiting on the author to update the extension, how about you get off your lazy ass and fix it yourself. Wink

First off, let me say that I have only tried this with about a dozen extensions, so I take no responsibility if you screw your FireFox to hell. Razz Every extension I have edited has worked though, so it should work for most, if not all, other extensions.

Ok, so here we go.

Step 1 Arrow Download your extension to your hard drive. You know like: Right Click>Save As.

Step 2 Arrow Once downloaded go to the folder in which you saved the .xpi extension and open it. Choose WinRAR to open the file. If you already have this (.xpi) filetype registered with another program then use "Open With".

Step 3 Arrow Now extract the install.rdf file to your computer. Leave WinRAR open for later use.

Step 4 Arrow Now open the install.rdf with NotePad. You should see something like this:

Step 5 Arrow If you look closely above you will see the value 0.10. So now all you need to do is change the 0.10 to whichever version you are using (or just put something like 1.9 Laughing ). After you changed the version number then save the file and close it.

Step 6 Arrow Go ahead and go back to the WinRAR window you left open and drag the newly modified install.rdf into WinRAR. You should now have an Archive Name and Parameters window pop up inside of WinRAR. Make sure Add & Replace Files is selected and hit ok. Exit WinRAR.

Step 7 Arrow Open that damn modified extension with FireFox and install.

Some Info About I2Phex and New I2P Version Released Today

2005-11-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

I2P

Version 0.6.1.6

Changelog

* Update the sorting in Syndie to consider children 'newer' than parents, even if they have the same message ID (duh)
* Cleaned up some nav links in Syndie (good idea gloin, spaetz!)
* Added a bunch of tooltips to Syndie's fields (thanks polecat!)
* Force support for nonvalidating XML in Jetty (so we can handle GCJ/etc better)
* Be more explicit about what messages we will handle through a client tunnel, and how we will handle them. This cuts off a set of attacks that an active adversary could mount, though they're probably nonobvious and would require at least some sophistication.
* Added support for 'dynamic keys' mode, where the router creates a new router identity whenever it detects a substantial change in its public address (read: SSU IP or port). This only offers minimal additional protection against trivial attackers, but should provide functional improvement for people who have periodic IP changes, since their new router address would not be shitlisted while their old one would be.
* Added further infrastructure for restricted route operation, but its use is not recommended.
* Further Syndie UI cleanups
* Logging cleanup
* Fixed link to fproxy.tino.i2p (thanks zzz!)
* Don't publish stats for periods we haven't reached yet (thanks zzz!)
* Cleaned up the syndie threaded display to show the last updated date for a subthread, and to highlight threads updated in the last two days.
* Fix to save syndication settings in Syndie (thanks spaetz!)
* Removed spurious streaming lib RTO increase (it wasn't helpful)
* Streamlined the tunnel batching to schedule batch transmissions more appropriately.
* Default tunnel pool variance to 2 +0-1 hops
* IE doesn't strip SPAN from button form fields, so add in a workaround within I2PTunnel.
* Increase the maximum SSU retransmission timeout to accomodate slower or more congested links (though SSU's RTO calculation will usually use a much lower timeout)
* Moved the streaming lib timed events off the main timer queues and onto a streaming lib specific set of timer queues. Streaming lib timed events are more likely to have lock contention on the I2CP socket while other timed events in the router are (largely) independent.
* Fixed a case sensitive lookup bug (thanks tino!)
* Syndie cleanup - new edit form on the preview page, and fixed some blog links (thanks tino!)
* Implemented a trivial pure java PMTU backoff strategy, switching between a 608 byte MTU and a 1350 byte MTU, depending upon retransmission rates.
* Fixed new user registration in Syndie (thanks Complication!)
* More cautious file handling in Syndie
* More aggressive I2PTunnel content encoding munging to work around some rare HTTP behavior (ignoring q values on Accept-encoding, using gzip even when only identity is specified, etc). I2PTunnelHTTPServer now sends "Accept-encoding: \r\n" plus "X-Accept-encoding: x-i2p-gzip\r\n", and I2PTunnelHTTPServer handles x-i2p-gzip in either the Accept-encoding or X-Accept-encoding headers. Eepsite operators who do not know to check for X-Accept-encoding will simply use the identity encoding.

I2Phex Information

Legion's I2Phex Webpage

I2Phex CVS Changelog

Latest version - 0.1.1.36, release date nov 15, 2005
Developer - sirup
Platforms - windows, linux, mac

Look at this nice new logo legion made for the client.

Seems the client and network are really coming along well.

Version and Changes history
Date ported and cvs checkin - may 2, 2005

Sirup 0.1.0.17 - 0.1.1.25
network and client status - very alpha, poor

Legion 0.1.1.26
network code update by jrandom, settings tweaks

CVS 0.1.1.27
CVS 0.1.1.28
Legion 0.1.1.29
new integrated launcher

Legion 0.1.1.30
added systray4j, striker's timing changes, disabled broken upload queuing by default

CVS 0.1.1.31
imported 0.1.1.30 code into cvs, unknown changes, new izpack installer

CVS 0.1.1.32
striker's mods

CVS 0.1.1.33
striker's changes, full upload bug fix, updated uploadengine, changed settings back to near defaults

cvs 0.1.1.34
leaking file handle closed thanks to complication, security fix thanks to GregorK

cvs 0.1.1.35
gui synchronization fix

cvs 0.1.1.36
legion's drive letter fix, another gui fix

Network status history
aug 9, 2005
as of i2p 0.6.0.2 i2phex working well, new network up and peers joining.

sep 19, 2005
legion releases new version

sep 20, 2005
legion releases another new version, drops old launcher and adopts the new integrated one.

oct 1, 2005
client and i2p network working much better, thanks to i2p 0.6.1

oct 4, 2005
legion releases 0.1.1.30

oct 29, 2005
new cvs released, 0.1.1.30 now outdated

nov 16, 2005
new cvs released, gui fixes

nov 26, 2005
new i2p update released, expect i2phex peers to come and go as they are being updated for the next 24 to 48 hours.

Current Client age
6 months old, 14 releases so far, which averages more than 2 per month.

Code Status
Seems to be close to beta, there are just a last few big features to be fixed and importing new cvs code from phex before it could be considered as beta. Still it is finally in good shape as of 0.1.1.36

European Union Changes and how they might effect filesharers

2005-11-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

No I'm not going to go into the exact details of the changes, just provide a simple analogy of the current situation and how these changes effect it.

First a short rant about taking this type of thing seriously.

Often serious problems downplayed and quickly dismissed by many people in the p2p community. Threats which deserve attention and action, go on mostly ignored by the majority.

People that should know better tend to only help to encourage others to remain vulnerable.

Just because there are millions of vulnerable filesharers out there on fasttrack and other unsafe polluted networks, does not mean that it is ok and safe to continue using them.

Analogy

Think of the p2p networks like being in a neighborhood, just about everyone on your block is in a straw hut and the evil empires, hackers and others are like gangsters. They keep circling your block doing drive by's. Many people who are not even using applications like peerguardian, are basically just standing up in front of a window. The few that do use such applications are hiding behind a wall. Now consider the very few that use something like i2phex, they are hiding out in a bomb shelter.

Now granted bittorrent is not exactly the same. Instead of there being one block there are many, so it just takes the gangsters more time to cover them, however that only buys a little time, not nearly enough and there are a few blocks which are more enticing to the gangsters than others.

Also consider that now the European Union and others are considering changing things. Instead of the drive by's, the gangsters are just parked outside everyone's house and are armed with chainguns.

So how safe do you feel in your straw hut?

What about pay services?

Though also there are pay networks like itunes, napster and more on the way, they are like gated communities. You have to follow very restrictive community rules, only share and download the content they allow. Of course that being only drm music.

However there are also many scam sites which mislead people and charge for access to free clients and networks.

So straw hut or bomb shelter which is right for you?

Well if you are just sharing content like linux iso's and freeware, yes you could use a straw hut, though be careful you might get hit by a stray bullet.

If you don't know with absolute certainty what is and is not ok to share, then better safe than sorry, hiding out in a bomb shelter is your best option for online filesharing.

Stray bullets?

The gangsters are wildly spraying bullets every which way, anyone can be hit, not just the intended targets. Even people that do not engage in filesharing, get hit, notified and sued. There are no standards, nothing restricting the bullets to just hit who they are supposed to. Nobody offical that looks over the targets and approves them before hand.

Just random violence and terrorism from the gangsters. They hold all the cards and no matter which one is picked it is always the correct card, without any question.

Renewed Warning of Bandwidth Hoarding

2005-11-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

By Jonathan Krim

Thursday, November 24, 2005; washingtonpost

A couple of years ago, a group of big technology companies got together and issued a public alarm about the future of the Internet:

Those who own the wires that get us online, the companies said, should not be able to pick and choose what Web content and services we can see and use.

Vinton G. Cerf is worried about the power of Internet service providers over content. (By Reed Saxon -- Associated Press)

Just as electric companies can't cut deals with electronics makers to allow only some products to work, the Internet should have similar, guaranteed "network neutrality," argued tech firms such as Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

The telephone and cable companies that provide most Internet access dismissed the warning as a pro-regulatory, paranoid rant. It was a solution in search of a problem, they said, and they vowed they would never, ever do such a thing. And the issue receded.

But now it's back in a big way, and the question is: How will the tech industry respond?

Consider:

On March 3, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it settled a case against a small North Carolina-based telephone company that was blocking the ability of its customers to use voice-over-Internet calling services instead of regular phone lines.

On Sept. 15, the first major draft of proposed changes in the nation's telecommunication's laws was circulated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The draft said Internet service providers must not "block, impair, interfere with the offering of, access to, or the use of such content, applications or services."

On Nov. 2, another draft of the bill came out, with language specifically addressing the Internet video services that are proliferating as connection speeds increase and the phone companies get into the digital television business. In this draft, the prohibition on blocking or impeding content was gone.

If the bill passes as is, tech companies say, the Internet could be forever compromised.

"Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity," Vinton G. Cerf, a founding father of the Internet who now works for Google Inc., wrote in a letter to Congress.

The phone companies argue that with their new fiber-optic systems capable of handling huge amounts of bandwidth, they simply want the ability to set aside some of it for their own services, be it television, gaming or anything else.

Unfortunately for them, the head of phone giant SBC Communications Inc., Edward E. Whitacre Jr., was a little more plain-spoken in an interview in Business Week.

"Now what they [Google, Yahoo, MSN] would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it," Whitacre said. "So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using."

Like his predecessor, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin favors network neutrality "principles," but not codifying them as rules.

The FCC did add them as conditions of planned mergers between SBC and AT&T Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI Inc. But those conditions apply only for two years, and only to those companies, so Congress will have to wrestle with this beast.

A coalition of tech companies that includes Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Ebay Inc. and IAC/InterActive Corp., argues that the issue is bigger than straight-up discrimination.

What if, they say, the Internet service providers decide to reserve 90 percent of their bandwidth for their own services, and leave 10 percent for the rest?

"Allowing broadband providers to segment their . . . offerings and reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy need," Cerf wrote.

Another wrinkle: What if Internet service providers decide to provide lots of bandwidth to customers who buy their other services, such as cellular or voice-over-Internet telephony -- but less if the customer uses rival providers of those services?

That would be similar to the kind of bundling that occurs now, under which, for example, cable Internet service is cheaper if a consumer also buys a cable-television package. That, they say, is the free market at work.

With tech firms and the Internet providers engaged in many joint business relationships, it is unclear how much artillery the technology group is willing to roll out on this issue.

If they hope to succeed against the powerful cable and telephone lobbies, it will require more than some letters and public testimony to Congress.

Jonathan Krim can be reached at krimj at washpost dot com

digg story

Azureus 2.3.0.6 is out

2005-11-22T23:50:00.000-08:00

The long awaited 2.3.0.6 is out, grab it from the dowload page or use the auto updater to grab it from a torrent in azureus.

read more | digg story

Maxell Introduces Future Optical Storage Media With Holographic Recording

2005-11-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Holographic data storage is superior to existing disc and hard drive technologies, and is also competitive against tape technologies in capacities and transfer rate. In addition, it offers a 50+ year media archive life and random data access.

read more | digg story

RIAA prez: Lots of companies secretly install rootkits! It's no biggie!

2005-11-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

RIAA President Cary Sherman gave a recent college press-conference where he addressed Sony's rootkit fiasco (among other things -- the whole trascript is worth reading for a quick visit to the planet greed). His take? Other companies do the same thing all the time!

read more | digg story

Copy-protected CDs Turning Music Fans Off Record Buying

2005-11-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

It's becoming a regular occurrence in CD shops across the country: an irate customer comes in complaining the CD they bought won't play on their computer, and worse yet, they can't transfer the tunes to their IPod.

read more | digg story

P2P Safer Than Buying The DVD?

2005-11-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

Sony BMG's rootkit bungling has brought suspicion to the entire entertainment industry. Email Battles asks, "If Sony BMG can be this stupid, why not the rest? And what makes you think they stopped with rootkits?"

read more | digg story

Microsoft Warns Of New Windows Exploit, No Patch Available

2005-11-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

Microsoft late Wednesday warned Windows users that proof-of-concept code was in circulation that could be remotely and anonymously exploited on Windows 2000 machines. Windows XP SP1 is somewhat less vulnerable, said Microsoft.

read more | digg story

Fighting To Win In The War On Drugs - New Battle Plan

2005-11-16T11:27:00.000-08:00

"If we estimate each gram of marijuana costs $20, of which the government enforced a 25 percent per gram tax, the U.S. government would have received an additional $635 million in revenue last year."

read more | digg story

U.S. Wants Wiretap Ability on Internet Calls Expanded

2005-11-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

"U.S. law enforcement authorities want expanded ability to tap any phone call between an Internet phone and a traditional phone if needed for an investigation, according to documents filed this week."

read more | digg story

Pictures of the infection of Sony's DRM infection

2005-11-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

How widespread is the sony rootkit infection? See for yourself.
USA
Asia
Europe

The infection is probably only going to get worse as worms and malware adopt and abuse the rootkit.

MPAA: pirated DVDs are "NEW DRUG ON THE STREET"

2005-11-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

In an announcement released today the Motion Picture Association of America claims pirated DVDs have become "The New Drug On The Street." Give me a break...

read more | digg story

Google to offer web traffic analysis services

2005-11-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Google has officially launched Analytics, a robust new web analysis system that provides site owners with traffic metrics and massive amounts of useful marketing data.

read more | digg story

Top 50 Companies of 2005

2005-11-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Includes Redhat, Apple, IBM, and MS. A detailed breakdown of who are the bad boys of tech business in 2005.

read more | digg story

VoIP numbers jump in the US

2005-11-15T12:28:00.000-08:00

With VOIP on the rise is the end of copper lines near?

read more | digg story

US Ready For International Internet Governance

2005-11-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

The United States has agreed to recognize the necessity to enhance cooperation to enable governments, on an equal footing, to carry out governmental roles and responsibilities in the Internet governance issues

read more | digg story

Piracy on the Rise in the U.S. and U.K., says Research Firm

2005-11-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

We received a press release from XTN Data today, stating that despite the inception of legitimate peer to peer file sharing programs, piracy was still on the rise.

read more | digg story

Music industry's new piracy crackdown

2005-11-15T12:18:00.000-08:00

The music industry's top lobby group said on Tuesday it was launching new legal action against those who illegally share files over the Internet, which it blames for diminished sales.

read more | digg story

Irish Recording Industry Action Against Music Sharers

2005-11-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) today announced Phase II of its legal action against "serial filesharers" in Ireland who illegally make copyrighted music available on the Internet.

read more | digg story

IFPI Announces Large Scale P2P Crackdown

2005-11-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

The IFPI has initiated the largest singular P2P lawsuit action against thousands of users of several major P2P networks.

read more | digg story

Sweden To Battle Illegal File Sharing

2005-11-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sweden is no longer neutral...

Record companies in Sweden and in four other countries will take legal action against illegal music file-sharing on the Internet for the first time, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said.

read more | digg story

Sony rootkit infects more than 500k networks, including military and govt.

2005-11-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

This story really puts Sony's recent rootkit misdeeds into perspective.

read more | digg story

Marines Get Brutal New Weapon

2005-11-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

The Marines have begun using a weapon that is easily capable of turning buildings and humans into bits of rubble. This is called the SHAW-NE (shoulder mounted assault weapon a novel explosion) and it uses a thermobaric mixture that produces a shockwave in the air easily crushing walls and sending entire buildings collapsing to the ground.

read more | digg story

i2hub is shut down

2005-11-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

College DC++ network, i2hub, has been shutdown by "the industry." I2hubs website now just says "R.I.P. 11.14.2005". The program is unable to connect to the network and message was sent out to those on the network at 5:20pm today stating, "[17:20] RIP i2hub 11/14/2005. It was a good run. Forced to shut down by the industry."

Looks like lots of filesharers will be looking for a new home. Maybe they will consider i2p and its i2phex filesharing client.

read more | digg story

The table of equivalents of Windows software in Linux

2005-11-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

"Newbies usually search for Linux analogs of Windows software, and advanced Linux-users cannot answer their questions since they often don't know too much about Windows. This list of Linux equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software is based on our own experience and on the information obtained from the visitors of this page."

If the site is dead, here is the google cache link.

read more | digg story

Sun Unveils New Server Processor

2005-11-14T14:07:00.001-08:00

Sun is finally ready to put its money where its mouth is, with the formal unveiling of its long-awaited Niagara server processor.

read more | digg story

Sourceforge.net gets a facelift

2005-11-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

And it's about time. There appears to be plenty of new functionality. Looks good, too.

read more | digg story

Stiffer Penalties for Copyright Violations

2005-11-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has proposed much harsher punishments for copyright violations, including jail time. The Intellectual Property Protection Act doesn't appear to change the fundamentals of US copyright law but does allow more leeway for the police when investigating suspected crimes, and harsher punishments for those convicted.

read more | digg story

Feds Using ISPs to Spy on Internet Users

2005-11-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

The USA stands on the threshold of a far more ominous threat to privacy that will force ISPs to allow a wide range of law enforcement agencies direct real time access to their own systems.

read more | digg story

Imesh, edonkey, limewire and others giving in, where should p2p users turn now?

2005-11-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

What options do p2p users have?

Something old like kazaa?
Or new like i2phex?
What about antsp2p?
How about rodi?

Why not an old client like kazaa?

Kazaa's network is heavily infected with unfriendly peers, viruses, trojans and fakes. Also kazaa hashing is weak and can easily be corrupted, which only reduces the amount of good content on its network. The official kazaa client comes with adware and many people agree klite is much better, though not a legal client and technically not much better off than the official client. Other networks similar to kazaa's fasttrack network, such as gnutella and edonkey are not much better off, though they do have better hashing, they still are technically no safer.

Why pick i2phex?

The client itself is just like what you are already used to, only the network it connects to and works over is different. So there is not too much of a learning curve. Once it is up and running it is easy enough to use on a regular basis.

I2phex does Not suffering from many of the major problems that plague kazaa and other clients, it offers the same style of client without firewall, router and source problems that clients like shareaza commonly encounter. Users don't need to go through anything too complicated or that requires frequent updating of ipfiltering such peerguardian, which is not nearly as safe.

How about kazaa and peerguardian wouldn't that be good enough?

No users that do use peerguardian still have been notified and sued, while using it can limit your exposure, helping you to hide from bad peers and block bad content, such methods also block the good along with the bad, so that means less sources and slower transfers as well. Also it does nothing concerning logging by isp's and other middlemen.

What about antsp2p who needs or would want it?

Basically dialup users and others on such limited connections. Cable and dsl users would be much better off with i2phex. While not as safe as i2phex, and still potentially risky due to its non-anonymous mode, if properly configured could be the next best thing to using i2phex.

How about rodi, whatever that is?

Rodi is a dark client which makes use of methods which are probably illegal in most areas of the world to anonymize its users, while not using real proven security methods and features. Last know state was not very user friendly or simple enough for even advanced users. As of now it is already far easier to just use either i2phex or the much less ideal antsp2p.

What about staying put?

Are users just going to stick with the old clients which are no longer being developed? So far it seems like they are not, network estimates strongly suggest they are not.

Legal music downloading

2005-11-12T13:58:00.000-08:00

"Yes, you can download music from the Internet legally, all you have to do is follow this tutorial on how to rip music off streaming stations and you are set to go. The RIAA won't be able to track you down."

read more | digg story

Note, that technically could be considered illegal by the riaa and others. I don't recommend it. Though it would be safer than p2p.

FCC Seeks to Force ISPs to Build Surveillance Backdoors

2005-11-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

Big Bro forced telephone service providers to make it easier for Federal agencies to tap conversations. The Act did not regulate Internet data, but now the pains( in the beep) are trying to make it easier to tap all internet traffic and data by going straight through a door that your ISP would have to set up & without a warrant.

read more | digg story

More than One Million Music Tracks from Different Sources

2005-11-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to SlyckScratch for making and starting this list.

read more | digg story

Sony Halts Production of DRM CDs

2005-11-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

"As a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology" - Sony BMG

read more | digg story

Bush seeks tough new piracy laws

2005-11-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON -- Widening its war on copyright pirates, the Bush administration asked Congress on Thursday to enact new laws for protecting intellectual property and make it easier for authorities to put violators behind bars.

read more | digg story

Sophos Releases Sony DRM Removal Tool

2005-11-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

This version of the tool detects and disables the Sony DRM copy protection technology (which Sophos refers to as Troj/RKProc-Fam) and other Trojans, including Troj/Stinx variants, which are stealthed by Troj/RKProc-Fam.

read more | digg story

Boycott Sony Button for Blogs

2005-11-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

Want to show Sony what you think? Sign the petition and use this code (in article) on your blog to show support for the Sony Boycott.

read more | digg story

Trojan horses targeting Sony DRM rootkit found

2005-11-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

Two Trojan horses have been discovered that exploit Sony's copy-restriction software, as F-Secure tries not to say 'I told you so'

read more | digg story

Is Privacy No Longer a Right but a Luxury?

2005-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

"Current media coverage would indicate that there is now less concern for the right to privacy, which is increasingly seen as a privilege or luxury."

read more | digg story

Digg (almost as) big as slashdot

2005-11-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

"Judging by traffic stats, Digg is set to match, if not overtake Slashdot within a month."

read more | digg story

Great news, digg on my diggers.

Dell is Dying

2005-11-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

Is Dell dying? This certainly looks like the beginning.

read more | digg story

Great news, maybe they will cave in and start selling amd machines in an effort to save their company.

The FBI is Watching Us More Than Ever Before.r

2005-11-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

"The Bush administration has quietly rewritten Justice Department rules so it can keep records indefinitely, even when they prove irrelevant to an investigation. The government can also share the records broadly, enabling the FBI to build what amounts to electronic dossiers on untold numbers of Americans."

read more | digg story

While I still support President Bush, actions such as these make me regret doing so, when it comes to domestic issues, he is failing America and should be ashamed. Profiling and snooping on citizens is not good and is a betrayal of the publics trust. The government should serve and protect its citizens, not abuse and spy on them. Such actions can lead to civil wars and revolution, which is certainly not in the publics best interest.

You would think with all the protesters and opposition, the American government already is facing worldwide it would not want to lose support of its own people. I'm very unhappy and disappointed in them concerning this and other actions.

RIAA issues copy of suit to university

2005-11-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

The Recording Industry Association of America released a copy of its most recent lawsuit, which includes potentially four members of the Boston University community, according to Associate General Counsel Crystal Talley.

read more | digg story

Let's test the RIAA logic

2005-11-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

Dallas Maverick's owner speaks out: "So, using Mitch Bainwol/RIAA logic. If 5 digital based products sold since filesharing came on the scene are showing flat at worst, up huge at best sales, doesn't it hold true that filesharing can't hurt and must BENEFIT digital product sales?"

read more | digg story

List of Sony CD's with root-kit

2005-11-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

A list, albeit not a complete list, of CD's with the root-kit from Sony and BMG.

read more | digg story

Badcomedown - Darknet War

2005-11-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Badcomedown blog on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 had a great post concerning darknets, mentioning i2p, labeling it as a darknet. While I would not say that i2p is a darknet, a better label for it would be lightnet. As I consider freenet and its fast replacement entropy to be darknets. Those two darknets and the various other minor ones have less features, uses and probably far more legally risky to be part of.

However badcomedown did layout some great points. A war is unfolding, the battles rage on, continuing to heat up. New heroes and celebrities are emerging. I2p is a fast growing and technologically capable network, already sporting hundreds of nodes and ready to take on more.

"...The one thing still missing is content." Well there is some content up to over 1 terabtye of it be shared between i2p's i2phex peers. In addition there is more content being shared from i2p based websites and of course whatever it being shared amoungst i2p's bittorrent peers, that are using azureus and some other ported clients, which could make up another half terabyte or more.

"When a network is so young, it's not hard to become an online celebrity with some well-presented, well-executed content publishing. But most importantly, greater user numbers strengthen the network's anonymity... And right now, the 'net needs a system like I2P - to take back all that's being eroded from the Internet..."

Very true, the 'net does need i2p. Given how easy it is to put together and publish content, i2p's network size and amount of content is likely to soon grow much larger.

The Entertainment Industry Is Out To Get You

2005-11-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

An amazingly talented writer breaks down the Sony DRM rootkit doings, the MPAA suing the elderly, and the software industries move to fight "pirates." He's forced to conclude the entertainment industry is out to get him.

read more | digg story

Paypal to disclose names to IRS

2005-11-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

PayPal, the internet money-transfer arm of eBay, is to disclose the identity of customers who use the service to evade paying US taxes.

read more | digg story

Windows Update Trojan causes havoc

2005-11-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

Two newly discovered virus threats are circulating on the web, one attacking client machines and the other targeting web servers, web monitoring firm Websense warned today.

read more | digg story

File-Sharing Lawsuits Fail to Deter P2P Downloaders

2005-11-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

'Let's recap: Despite the lawsuits, the DRMs, and now rootkits being used as weapons against the "evil file sharers", P2P is MORE popular than ever....They're rapidly running out of fingers to use to plug the holes in the damn....soon the damn will burst and the record industry as we know it will cease to exist...'

read more | digg story

These days just connecting to unsafe filesharing networks. Is too risky and automatically paints a target on your system, for bombardment from evil agents, rootkits, bots, viruses and other such things.

Here is a breakdown of many such networks and the major clients which connect to them. Note this may not be a perfect or complete breakdown. Also bittorrent isn't exactly a network per say as it is a protocol. Also I do not recall if there is just one dht (bt) network or more than one.

Gnutella 1 and 2 | shareaza, limewire, bearshare, morpheus, kceasy
Edonkey2000 | emule, mldonkey, morpheus
FastTrack | kazaa, klite, morpheus kceasy
BitTorrent | shareaza, mldonkey, azureus, bitcomet and numerous other clients
Ares | Ares
dht (kad) | emule
dht (neo) | morpheus
dht (bt) | azureus
dht (bt) | bitcomet

Granted there are a number of other smaller networks, and even different additional unsafe ways of filesharing, such as irc|fserve, and usenet|uuencode,uudecode. Even serving up and sharing content through email, IM, websites and ftp.

Yes the risky and dangerous ways to share content online are easy and often simple. These days all filesharers have significant enough reason to avoid these methods and tell others not to use them. Now even filesharers which are not abusing them for "illegal filesharing" have plenty of reason to avoid them as well.

Whatever you personally decide, I hope you try and be safe, careful, take measures to protect yourself and your families. Even if you can afford to pay thousands to some large extremely wealthy organizations, companies, people, or even not care about possibly spending time in jail, guilty or not.

If you do decide to protect yourself you can head over to planetpeer to find out how to join the new invisible net. There might be other sites you can go to, however planetpeer is currently the best.

Peyote is Good for the Brain

2005-11-08T09:41:00.001-08:00

Peyote has been studied by Harvard researchers to cause no mental health problems, but actually improve Native Americans who take the hallucinagenic substance regularly.

read more | digg story

AMD passes Intel

2005-11-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

Advanced Micro Devices sold more chips than industry giant Intel in U.S. retail stores in October, according to a report released Tuesday by market researcher Current Analysis.

read more | digg story

Google Gets More Cozy with Firefox

2005-11-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

As the default start page and built-in search utility, it's no surprise that Google wants Firefox to succeed in a market dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But the company has recently pulled closer to the open source Web browser, funding usability testing and launching a Firefox affiliate program.

read more | digg story

WhoLockMe Explorer Extension

2005-11-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Ever get sick of seeing this message: "Error Deleting File or Folder, ... There has been a sharing violation. The source or destination file may be in use." when you try to delete, move or rename a file? WhoLockMe is a little extension for Windows Explorer that allows you to see all the processes that have a file locked.

read more | digg story

Shaw Cable secretly limits BitTorrent Bandwidth

2005-11-07T23:15:00.000-08:00

Shaw Cable, a Western-Canadian ISP has begun to roll out technology that will limit the bandwidth given to BitTorrent users and P2P alike. Considered I was guaranteed up & down speed as well as "unlimited" Data transfer, I find this a tad ridiculous.

read more | digg story

Help Amanda Tapping get some mainstream exposure!

2005-11-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

SG 1 can't last forever, and I'd like see Amanda Tapping stay on TV, some mainstream exposure should help. She made it on to MSNBCs HIT list, let's vote her to the top!

read more | digg story

Grokster Downloading Service Shuts Down

2005-11-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Grokster Ltd., a leading developer of Internet file-sharing software popular for stealing songs and movies online, agreed Monday to shut down operations to settle a landmark piracy case filed by Hollywood and the music industry, The Associated Press has learned.

read more | digg story

BitTorrent Seeder Gets Three Month Sentence

2005-11-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong resident Chan Nai-ming gained the distinction of being the first individual convicted for seeding three movies onto the Internet via BitTorrent. It was also the first time criminal charges, as opposed to civil charges, were brought up against an individual.

read more | digg story

SOURCES: SETTLEMENT IN LANDMARK FILE SWAP CASE

2005-11-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

Grokster, lead defendants in the most important entertainment industry case to reach the Supreme Court in decades, is settling the three-year-old legal case with the nations major record companies, motion picture studios and music publishers. Settlement details coming at end of court session...

read more | digg story

You Deserve Your RiVo

2005-11-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

File under "No Surprise": The RIAA wants to take away your right to record songs off the radio

read more | digg story

DMCA up for review (Speak your mind)

2005-11-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

The DMCA often called the killers of Beta Max laws, and companies like Napster is up for review. Please speak you mind and let the govt. know that we like to keep the things that we buy and don't like being told what we can and can't do with them.

read more | digg story

FBI increasingly using Patriot Act for domestic spying

2005-11-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

Because the Fourth Amendment doesn't matter anymore.

read more | digg story

Firefox 2 Less Than One Year Away...

2005-11-04T12:19:00.001-08:00

Some of the goodies to expect in Version 2.

Support for hardware accelerated graphics.
Javascript 2 support
Python for XUL.
Better extensions support.

Wo0t

read more | digg story

Is Any Computer Crime Not Legal In The UK?

2005-11-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

"It looks like the UK is having a bad, bad week when it comes to fighting computer crime."

read more | digg story

Videos showing how to Tunnel Exploits via SSH and much more

2005-11-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

Great site run by See Security with demo videos showing how to sniff traffic via GRE tunnels, tunnel exploits through SSH, crack WEP, and more.

read more | digg story

AMD's Legal Chief Lays Out Intel Antitrust Suit Strategy

2005-11-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

IDG interview's AMD's legal chief Thomas McCoy. One of the questions asked: Where is the line between illegal behavior and fair competition? Look behind you Intel... you just crossed it!

read more | digg story

ISPs Now Spying on Users

2005-11-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

The regulation of ISPs in the UK was originally a matter for a voluntary Code of Practice, established back in 2003 presumably as a mechanism to allow the Echelon eavesdropping project time to catch up with intensifying internet usage.

It included a requirement for ISPs to maintain comprehensive records of customer activities for 12 months

read more | digg story

fbi arrest botnet master

2005-11-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

The suspect made about $60,000 by installing adware on some 400,000 compromised computers, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Among the systems affected by the botnets were computers at the Weapons Division of the United States Naval Air Warfare Center, as well as machines operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.

read more | digg story

Scientists: 'The Matrix' is a step closer to reality

2005-11-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

In the sci-fi movie "The Matrix," a cable running from a computer into Neo's brain writes in visual perceptions, and Neo's brain can manipulate the computer-created world. In reality, scientists cannot interact directly with the brain because they do not understand enough about how it codes and decodes information. Not anymore.

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3 re-recordings and you're done, 2 big labels say

2005-11-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

Two of the nation's four major music companies have introduced CDs to the U.S. market that can be copied only three times and that, in some cases, prohibit the CD from being directly "ripped" onto Apple's popular iPod music player.

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10 gigabit Ethernet runs on copper wires

2005-11-02T04:31:00.000-08:00

Dynatem is shipping a 10 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) NIC (network interface card) claimed to offer the world's "highest throughput Ethernet performance." In contrast to today's fiber-optic 10GbE NICs, the MAX Copper enables 10GbE transmissions at distances up to 10 meters using standard CAT5e or CAT6 cabling and RJ-45 connectors.

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MPAA looks to bolster its dominance by plugging the analog hole

2005-11-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Ars Technica looks at legislation proposed by the MPAA that would close the so-called "analog hole." Not only would it deal a severe blow to Fair Use, but some of the copy protection "features" border on the ridiculous. In addition to covering the legislation in some detail, Ars also looks at the future envisioned by the content creation industry.

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CyberPunk-esque Eye Implant Gives Up To 3X Zoom

2005-11-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

The prosthetic telescope, together with the cornea, acts as a telephoto system to enlarge images 3X or 2.2X, depending on the device model used.

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AIM Worm Threatens with Rootkit

2005-11-01T11:51:00.001-08:00

A Web security firm that specializes in IM and P2P security said on Friday that a new worm spreading through the AOL Instant Messenger network might cause more problems than the average IM worm.

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FireFox usage keeps growing, more popular now than ever

2005-11-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

OneStat.com, a provider of real-time web analytics, reported today that Mozilla's Firefox has a total global usage share of 11.51%. In the USA, it's up to 14.07%, and in Canada it's up to 16.98%. Only at 4.94% in the UK? Not for long.

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DRM Crippled CD: A bizarre tale in 4 parts

2005-10-31T14:22:00.001-08:00

"DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: Ever come across something that only gets stranger and stranger the deeper you delve into it? That was my experience when I almost purchased a new CD -- a DRM crippled CD -- this weekend."

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FoxTrot pokes fun at the RIAA and MPAA

2005-10-31T14:22:00.000-08:00

Another cool little tech related strip from the guys at foxtrot, check it out.

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Google throws bodies at OpenOffice

2005-10-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

Google plans to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org, a demonstration of its affinity for open source initiatives and one the company believes also shows sound practical sense.

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Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

2005-10-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

Mark Russinovich finds that a recent CD from Sony installed had not only, "...put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Yes folks, Sony had used rootkit technology to hide its DRM software.

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RIAA sues 4 students for illegal filesharing in a new wave of lawsuits

2005-10-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

"If students are not already wary of the repercussions of illegal file-sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is pushing its point with a new wave of lawsuits."

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Intel Self-Destruct Mode Aids AMD Momentum

2005-10-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe a company that controls more than three-quarters of perhaps the most profitable segment of the electronics industry can simultaneously look vulnerable and weak even while posting "banner" operational results. Intel, in reshuffling its processor roadmap this week has ensured that the momentum rival AMD has built...

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A perfectly free way to create and use an XP Virtual Machine

2005-10-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

All free. All Legal.

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Microsoft taken to court - for PIRACY!

2005-10-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

SOFTWARE GIANT and music industry friend Microsoft was dragged squeaking before a court and accused of music piracy. Ryan McLaughlin, a drummer for a small band, had filed a lawsuit against Vole for allegedly stealing his band's songs.

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"The RIAA shouldnâ��t stop â��piracyâ��"

2005-10-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is engaged in a fierce battle with swarthy pirates. The kind of mean, nasty criminals that make children shudder with fear. You are that pirate."

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Skype fixes three critical flaws

2005-10-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

Skype has patched three security holes in its software, rated 'highly critical' by vulnerability testing organisation Secunia.

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