Archive for: torrents
- October 26, 2010 10:14 pm
Back in my younger years, Limewire was my Napster. For by the time I was old enough to understand how it all worked, Napster had already walked the walk. Well, Limewire put up a much longer fight, but they too are succumbing to the same organizations as Napster — the recording industry — in response to a court ruling late last year.
Limewire:
While this is not our ideal path, we hope to work with the music industry in moving forward. We look forward to embracing necessary changes and collaborating with the entire music industry in the future.
I doubt the people behind Limewire are “looking forward to working with the recording industry”. Because they know just as much as you and I that once Limewire flips the switch on download/upload/searches, their traffic is going to tank. The final blow to Limewire will take place after the recording industry relaunches a few months to years down the road with some copycat, no-one-is-going-to-remember music store front with crappy prices and poor selection. Aw well. It was great while it lasted. Then again, Limewire and similar services are for kids. Torrents are where the adults play, right?
On the flipside, Limewire’s parent company, “Lime Group” has stated that they have a new music service in the works, and that we can expect to see it within the next month. Optimistic? Limewire CEO official statement after the jump…
- November 17, 2009 10:07 am
The Pirate Bay trackers may be down for the count, but that infamous sailing ship will live on, plastered against countless clothing items from t-shirts and hoodies to sweatbands and underwear. In an odd turn of events, that iconic logo used by The Pirate Bay is in the process of becoming patented. Yes, patented. But it isn’t by founding members or anyone related to the company. Instead, a Swedish clothing and technology retailer called Sandryds Handel is taking it upon themselves to claim ownership. The founding members, with their pretty blanket feels frowning on private ownership, see this as an abomination and have stated that they feel the logo should remain in the public domain — which is the reason they never patented the logo themselves. What’s bringing me to a hearty chuckle is that this company believes a mass following of pirates — who don’t pay up front for stuff — are going to begin throwing money out for gimmicky products trying to cash in on TPB name. We’ll see how well that goes…
Now some other company is going to pick up the pieces of TPB and make some money off of their name. Pretty sad and shady if you ask me. Though from a business stand point, why not rip off someone elses logo and brand image to turn a dollar on your own time? The TPB logo has just been shat upon. Perhaps Sandryds Handel should spend a few dollars designing their own logo hmm?
What do you have to say?
Wired
- November 17, 2009 7:40 am
I usually try to start off each morning with something happy or exciting, but this is neither of those. The Pirate Bay team has announced that starting today, torrent users will no longer be able to use TPB trackers for downloads and will have to rely on other trackers instead. Whether you were for or against PB, you have to admit that in a relatively short time span (since 2003) TPB grew explosively, evolving to a digital giant with upwards of 25 million peers in it’s prime. Sadly that prime is no more. The team says the main site will remain live for now, but it’s but a shell of what it once was. So it is from this point on we must hold our heads high and find a new friend in this vast space of digital junk.
TorrentFreak
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- October 24, 2009 11:08 am
Torrent search engines are a dime a dozen in todays modern world. So much so it is often hard to find new startups as a few larger players dominate the industry. You may be asking yourself what exactly can be done to build upon the current structure that torrent search engines are built upon? As far as actually finding the material you seek, you’re going to get similar results just about anywhere you go. However, the journey to such content is another matter. Personally, I haven’t spent that many hours of my life searching for “the perfect torrent search engine” and I’m sure many of you strive for anything that simply get’s the job done. Perfection in this field doesn’t really have much differentiation between “perfect” and “horrible”. If you’re feeling adventurous, I invite you to try out a relatively new torrent search engine (launched February 2009) called “KickAssTorrents”. While certainly a baby in the grander scheme of things, KickAssTorrents has plenty to offer.
Besides your typical search categories, and “latest/featured” lists, you may notice a few other subtle yet highly appreciated features. The layout of KAT is rather streamlined and void of more heinous design decisions that plague several other torrent search engines. Am I looking for Apple-esque style quality? Not at all. But not having to bandage my eyes because of god awful color choices, navigation that’s a pain, or blinking ads mean I’m a happy camper. Speaking of ads, after a few minutes on KAT you’ll notice that there aren’t any ads! You’re greeted with a clean, streamlined interface without pictures blinking all over the place as is all to common in the torrent world search engine world. Now don’t get me wrong, ads have their time and place as I make use of ads here on Gadgetsteria. But I don’t feel they’re obtrusive and annoying. I think we all know what ads I’m talking about though. When you spend more time zooming, scrolling, and clicking to get past an ad or ads then you do on the actual content you came to, you know there’s a problem. Thankfully you won’t find that here.
Looks and navigation alone are far from the bread and butter of torrent search engines. Rightfully so, KickAssTorrents has features to back up the visual pizzaz. Such features include, but aren’t limited to:
- Real-time torrent stats, seeder, and leacher numbers
- Direct http downloads for select torrents. (Currently in beta) — it’s worth noting, I tried direct http downloads on several torrents and my browser, Safari 4 on OS X 10.6 kept timing out. Your mileage will vary with this one. But as stated, said feature is in beta so bugs and glitches are expected.
- Extras such as ajax comments preview as well as Firefox plugins
To me, the fact that KAT is less than a year old and already pushing well north of 100,000 visitors/700,000 pageviews a day signals that beyond my personal experience with the site, many others are finding their servers to be fairly valuable as well. After speaking with a KAT employee, I was informed that they’re even in talks with larger torrent sites regarding partnership offers. Again, pretty damn good for less than a year in business don’t you think?
Should you switch to KickAssTorrents as your sole torrent search engine? That’s hard to say and obviously is best answered by you. For myself, I like to have plenty of options which is why KickAssTorrents will join several other torrent search engines in my journey through this digital world. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.
*This was a sponsored post courtesy of Kick Ass Torrents*
Having a continence based guilt trip because you downloaded that one Hanson song back in the day that you had to have? Or, are you a full fledged pirate who is eschewing old ways of plunder and instead looking for a way to give back? Leak water from your eyes no more as Piracy Payback is here to help. Now, if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking (follow that), yes this is real and no this is not a joke. Aiming to give back to artists and copyright owners, Piracy Payback users can donate to the site and have their donations given to the various labels. Drew K, the Australian proprietor of Piracy Payback got the idea back in the day when he couldn’t find one of his fave TV shows and instead turned to downloading it…illegally. Feeling bad, he wanted a way to repay someone for what he had done. Behold: Piracy Payback.
PP is a relative baby all things concerned as it was just launched in January of 2009. Again, the main purpose of the site is to donate money which PP turns around and gives to “beneficiaries”. Who are they? What label do they belong to? Which artists are actually getting accurately paid? All said details are in the dark as those involved don’t actually want people to know they’ve partnered with PP as they feel it would encourage further illegal file sharing ways. Besides paying back all of those artists you stole from, 12% of donations get held back for site upkeep. Hey, they have to make money somehow don’t they?
Personally I see this as a good idea…on paper. Translated into the real world however isn’t as promising. For one, I’m not about to give money to a company that I haven’t the slightest clue where my money is going. Not to mention such small problems as artist A getting more than artist B all while not knowing extremely important facts such as many times was artist A or B’s songs actually downloaded. You see, this is a an entirely too simple solution for an entirely too complex situation.
Finally, there’s this whole idea that big labels and content owners sipmly can’t get t hrough their think skulls, that is, simply slapping a price tag on any product or service has absolutely no correlation to value. If you’re product is deemed worthless of or little value by the public, no matter how valuable you feel it is, no one will pay. Create something actually worth consumers’ time or money and you have yourself a money tree.
More power to them. But they won’t see a dime of my money. What do you think? Good idea?
Ars Technica
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How about another chuckle on behalf of the entertainment industry and all things nerdy? The sign above is extremely clever and no doubt will turn a few heads/drum up talk about the theater. While torrents may cause some to not go to the theater since they already have the title that they would have gone to go see, I don’t see them being the main cause behind the closing of cinemas across the world. The real reason? Cinema’s aren’t giving people a reason to come there in the first place.
Would I rather torrent an HD movie rip or go to a movie theater and watch it in substandard quality on a massive screen highlighting every little imperfection? Hmmm. That’s a no brainer. More movie theaters adopting HD, 3D, and even more OMNImax…(read: not IMAX) theaters would go a long way in saving this industry. I don’t know about you, but I sure am tired of not having any good/unique theaters in my neck of the woods.
Gizmodo
The interwebs were in a tizzy late last week when The Pirate Bay was taken down and removed from Google search results. Many started speculating almost immediately (myself included) that the end was near for the once great site that defied common laws in countries around the globe. However it appears as if TPB has escaped outright death in the near term. Apparently the whole snafu was nothing more than a simple error on Google’s part. The DMCA takedown notice that was responsible for TPB’s downtime and removal centered around apparent infringement on porn copyrights. After the dust settled and the smoke cleared, it was found that thepiratebay.org address was wrongfully included in the takedown notice, or as it quickly was coming to be known — the prophesied end of the world. Cooler heads have prevailed and TPB lives on for now. Google meanwhile has since apologized for the glitch.
While it may seem like a sigh of relief is appropriate, TPB is currently on weak legs and has a grim outlook. With the potential buyout looking less and less like a finished deal and instead turning into a form of real life “vaporware”, how much longer will TPB remain relevant? Hypothesizing aside, it’s back up. Enjoy those torrents folks.
The Register
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The drama surrounding ThePirateBay and it’s take down, sale, planned purchase, and eventual return have hit another snag. While flow of information from the parent company trying to buy TPB has pretty dried up, “content protectors” are still operating at full speed. Go on over to Google and do a search for the pirate bay. Chances are you won’t find a single link pointing directly to TPB’s homepage. According to Google, a DMCA takedown request is the culprit. While the takedown request and removal from Google’s searches is hardly that big of a deal as everyone knows what it is and how to get to it, it is another notch on big media’s belt. The once great Pirate Bay is looking closer and closer to death with each passing day. The end is near.
On a lighter note, either Microsoft is ignoring the takedown (unlikely) or they simply haven’t been served yet as searching anything Pirate Bay related on Bing will net you some links pointing back to TPB’s home page. So think what you will. Happy/sad?
**Update: It’s back up folks.. crisis adverted.
The Register
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While this shouldn’t have been a surprise, somehow I am still left wondering “why”? You may remember all of the drama circulating around the Pirate Bay trial, verdict, and revealing of Judge Tomas Norström’s membership to the Swedish Copyright Association as well as the motion for a retrial by the Pirate Bay and accompanying camp. I’m sad to say that today, a Swedish court has ruled that simply supporting a particular group/laws does not make you biased. In simpler terms: retrial denied. Looks like the nefarious swashbucklers will have to try their luck at certain upcoming appeal. Again, while there business and tactics before the trial foreshadowed a ruling such as this, the way the courts, judges, and copyright labels all share the same bed is ridiculous. Have anything to say?
Source: Ars Technica, Image Source
