bittorrent

Ever since the end of the original Napster, it's been a known fact that music labels and movie studios watch and monitor what Internet users download. What's less known is how closely they are doing that.

According to TorrentFreak, Twitter user Amanda Music got a nice surprise Monday when Miramax contacted her to offer two free tickets to the film "Adventureland."

It all started Sunday with her twit that read, "Ugh WHY IS ADVENTURELAND NOT ON TORRENTS YET?." Apparently, she was looking to download a pirated copy (recorded by a camcorder inside a movie … Read more

If you're not interested in BitTorrents, this free toolbar won't offer anything the standard toolbar doesn't already have. If you are familiar with BitTorrents, you may be disappointed in this toolbar's relatively meager offerings.

The BitTorrent Toolbar adds a customizable toolbar to Internet Explorer. At first, only BitTorrent-related features appear, and they include a standard search field, and links to see sites related to BitTorrents or to sites that have them. The toolbar is on the plain side, but you can customize it with shortcuts to frequently used applications and programs, and all of the typical … Read more

Continuing to stake out a different approach to torrents, the latest version of Vuze integrates an auto-conversion feature for both portable screens and your television. Available for Windows and Mac, Vuze 4.2 offers a device drag-and-drop feature that automatically converts a video torrent from its native format to an appropriate one for iTunes, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and then pushes it to your device.

Still in beta, the new Devices tab on the left nav will ask you to install a transcoder and a plug-in. Devices then detects iTunes or any of the devices when they're connected … Read more

The trial against The Pirate Bay site began Monday in Sweden. And while Sweden is depicted by copyright-enforcement groups as piracy's promised land, it is also a nation that experiments with legal music-service alternatives.

The case against the founders of Piratebay.org--one of the world's three major BitTorrent sites--is expected to last 13 days, which would make it Sweden's longest-ever trial dealing with copyright issues. The case is the result of the search and seizure of servers by Swedish police at Pirate Bay's offices in May 2006.

For years, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry … Read more

File swappers are expected to be keeping their eyes on a court in Sweden this week as a landmark copyright-infringement trial gets under way.

The four men behind the popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay go on trial Monday in Stockholm, accused of helping millions of Internet users illegally download protected movies, music, and computer games. The defendants--Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundström--face up to two years in prison and a fine of 1.2 million kronor ($143,529) if convicted of being accessories and conspiracy to break Swedish copyright law.

Two of … Read more

Today we have a new president to lead a new American path through what will be a tumultuous time. But President Obama won't be able to do it alone. He and his administration need to work together, and communicate with one another and the country, to ensure everything is running well.

That's why I've compiled a "cheat sheet" for the Obama administration, listing five services it should use in the White House. Sadly, it probably won't. Record-keeping laws and security concerns will ensure that none of my suggestions take effect.

AIM for White House … Read more

The journey is over for Pirates of the Amazon, a new Firefox extension that let users illegally download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s for free by cross referencing Amazon.com's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.

On Thursday, a day after Webware reported on the plug-in, lawyers for Amazon.com took action. They served the Internet service provider of the two students who released the extension with a take-down notice--and the students complied and removed the tool, according to The New York Times.

However, on their Web site, the students now say the plug-in was … Read more

A new Firefox extension called Pirates of the Amazon lets users download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s free of charge by cross referencing Amazon's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.

If the content can be found on the Pirate Bay's search index it shows up as a "Download 4 Free" link on the top of the Amazon product page. This links directly to the hosted .torrent tracker file, letting the user avoid having to make a purchase from Amazon in place of acquiring it illegally via BitTorrent.

The extension developer's site, … Read more

Calling for the separation of Google and State.

The news that President-elect Barack Obama will be using YouTube to distribute his weekly "radio" address has been met by general fanfare among the digerati.

This might seem like a bold move--and compared with the relatively boring podcast MP3s of Bush's weekly speech hosted at Whitehouse.gov, it is. However, putting President-elect Obama's video podcasts on YouTube is hardly Change We Can Believe In.

By exclusively hosting his videos at YouTube, the Google-owned dominant player in the user-generated video industry, the Obama campaign has effectively issued its first … Read more