WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today the most far-reaching and aggressive enforcement action ever undertaken against organizations involved in illegal intellectual property piracy over the Internet. Beginning yesterday morning, law enforcement from 10 countries and the United States conducted over 120 searches worldwide to dismantle some of the most well-known and prolific [...]

Torrentz.com, one of the premiere BT sites, has been temporarily forced offline. The closure of BitTorrent and eDonkey2000 sites has accelerated recently, especially since the fall of ShareReactor. The following message appears on their main page: “Due to some serious bandwidth problems and legal issues, I’m forced to take Torrentz.com down for couple of weeks. [...]

EarthStation 5 (also known as ES5 or ESV) wanted to be known for its unrivalled level of anonymity and the organization’s brutal honesty for saying that the software has been made for users to break copyright law. After what was perhaps the worst public relations campaign ever, ESV instead became known for spamming and dishonesty. [...]

Macintosh users have always received the short end of the stick in the file-sharing world. Other than Limewire, there have been few mainstream choices. Since the inception of FastTrack, many Mac users have been demanding an avenue to this large file-sharing network. Until Poisoned came along, there was virtually no way the average Mac user [...]

In the shadow of ongoing high-profile media attention surrounding the digital music marketplace, American downloaders have quietly expanded their once music-centric digital behaviors to an increasingly comprehensive digital entertainment portfolio, according to recently released data from global marketing research firm Ipsos-Insight. New findings from TEMPO, Ipsos-Insight’s quarterly study of digital music behaviors, reveal that in [...]

The Federal Communications Commission has been petitioned by a broad group of entertainment entities, challenging the constitutionality of the FCC’s citation of U2 singer Bono for using an ‘indecent’ term during a live broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards. The 71-page petition was filed in response to the March 18, 2004 FCC ruling that [...]

Federal agents in Phoenix and elsewhere in the country raided schools and other targets in a national crackdown on pirated music CDs and movies. Agents poured through data and records at a computer command center for the Deer Valley School District in the northwest Valley and blocked the office from the public. It was among [...]

My name is Gavin Castleton, of the band Grüvis Malt. Last year we toured with Sage Francis (who just completed his widely publicized “Fuck Clearchannel Tour”) as his band and opener.  When we got back, I released two solo records.  There is a song that is very relevant to much of the content on your [...]

The LimeWire 3.9.4 beta is released, with the pro version available from a link on your Pro download page, and the free version available from the LimeWire download page. This release contains NO BUNDLED SOFTWARE OF ANY KIND. Yes, that means no LimeShop, even in the Free version. (There is still an icon drop, but [...]

Created by software firm Audible Magic, the song-filtering software is backed strongly by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The software has also triggered interest in Washington, D.C., and skepticism in the peer-to-peer world and among some students and universities. Palisade’s new tool is the fruit of a cross-licensing deal struck earlier this year, [...]

Morpheus users who rely on the peer-to-peer service to swap files will soon have another option to get connected: The Morpheus Voicebox, which lets you turn a household landline phone into an internet-based, Voice-over-IP telephone. StreamCast Networks, the parent company of Morpheus, is teaming up with i2Telecom, a provider of VoIP services for businesses, to [...]

BearShare has enhanced the way users download files from other Gnutelle client. This version detects when users aren’t using their cpu and automatically boosts the power dedicated to downloading while the computer remains on. Bearshare lets you search for, download, and share files with everyone on the global Gnutella peer-to-peer information network. This program works [...]

iMesh is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that lets you find, download, share and publish audio and video files, computer games, images, photos and just about any document, within a growing community of millions. Files are located on the computers of other iMesh users who have agreed to share them. Files can be transferred directly from [...]

Napster has been reborn as a legal online music service, but the ghost of its former renegade song-swap self is trailing about $17 billion of legal baggage. Music labels and publishers will face off against Bertelsmann AG in federal court in San Francisco on April 27 over claims the German media company’s 2000 investment in [...]

Hollywood is poised to up the ante in its war against file swappers, with new technology that could make it easier to remove suspected pirates from campus networks, CNET News.com has learned. Movie studios, record labels and technology companies have been testing the system for months, according to sources familiar with the project. Known as [...]

Big Music’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has finally abandoned its “Clean Slate” scam. Billed as an Amnesty Program, it was little more than a way to dupe people into revealing personal and confidential information about themselves. RIAA victims were supposed to contact the music industry enforcement organization admitting they’d done wrong. “[...] those [...]

The LimeWire 3.9.3 beta is released, with the pro version available from a link on your Pro download page, and the free version available from the LimeWire download page. Changes in 3.9.3 include: ID3v2 support! Redesigned themes, and a brand new search interface! Renamed ‘Community Search’ to “What’s New”. Icons showing if a search result [...]

RevConnect is a file sharing program. It uses DC++ as codebase and adds below features: Kademlia to be hub independent and make search more effective Secure user identification to anti leechers Multiple sources download simultaneously Memory mapped files to enhance file I/O and save HD’s life Download RevConnect 0.401a

Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record conglomerate, is revamping its initiative to slash CD prices after months of resistance from cash-starved retailers, people close to the label said. The Vivendi Universal unit, home to such acts as Dr. Dre and 3 Doors Down, plans to raise its suggested retail price for most new CDs [...]

KCeasy 0.12 released [2004-04-17] Please note that from this version on KCeasy will no longer include the plugin necessary to connect to the FastTrack network. On April 14 I received a Cease and Desist Letter from Sharman Networks demanding the immediate stop of KCeasy distribution. While it is perfectly legal under German law to create [...]