The AntiSec movement, which in this case, is headed up by Anonymous, has posted another information dump. It seems apparent that targeting the Arizona Police department twice wasn't enough and they have been exposed a third time.

For the third knockout blow against Arizona law enforcement, we decided to get destructive. We're defacing eight AZ Fraternal Order of Police websites and releasing a master list of over 1200 officer's usernames, passwords, and email addresses. Additionally we are leaking hundreds of private FOP documents and several more mail spools belonging to FOP presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, a police chief, and the FOP Labor Council executive directory and webmaster whose insecure web development skills was responsible for this whole mess. We're doing this not only because we are opposed to SB1070 and the racist Arizona police state, but because we want a world free from police, prisons and politicians altogether. In this batch of emails we found more racist email chain emails, including Springerville's police chief Mike Nuttal forwarding jokes about torturing "ragheads". FOP president Brandon L Musgrave was also forwarding anti-muslim emails while also purchasing large amounts of guns, so we're dumping his paypal and credit card information as well. Other drama includes internal arguments over FOP positions, disputes over arrested FOP member Michelle Preiss, lots of crude anti-Obama jokes, and lots lots more. Amusingly we also were reading James Mann's emails as they were discussing the AZDPS hacks and struggling to send out press releases explaining why they had a sex offender in their FOP ranks. Initially James changed all his passwords and pulled the AZFOP sites down out of fear of impending hacker attacks, but there is no stopping the kind of chaos we bring upon all those who cross our path. Truth be told we've been passing around this password list amongst our black hat comrades for a while now. Much to our amusement we've been reading everybody's emails looking for dirt and personal info, while leaking bits and pieces to expose and instill fear into the crooked cops of Arizona. However the list proved to be too great, and now we are seeking community assistance in going through everybody's inbox to retrieve and expose their secrets. Go forth and bring mayhem to the lives of these corrupt officers, and tell us what you find on irc.anonops.li #antisec. Let this third and crushing blow against Arizona police send a strong message to the ruling class around the world. You will no longer be able to operate your campaign of terror against immigrants and working people in secrecy: we will find you, expose you, and knock you off the internet. Many lulz have been had while we purposefully strung you along slowly and painfully for the past two weeks. We know exactly what we're doing, so think twice before considering crossing us. Hackers of the world, join us as we resist against the governments and corporations of the world, for there is enough bounty for everybody aboard the good ship #antisec.

Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) quietly sued BitTorrent tracker site isoHunt nearly a month before the controversial copyright reform bill (Bill C-32) was proposed, proving that copyright holders do have the proper tools necessary to fight online infringement.

Argues that keyword filtering is overly broad and that copyright holders like the MPAA should provide URLs or hashes to identify which search links should be removed from the BitTorrent tracker site.

It's been an ongoing case against ISOHunt in the US and new court documents were released that shows that ISOHunt has been dealt with a permenant injunction in the US. One report suggests that Gary Fung, the founder of ISOHunt, could face possible prison time if he doesn't comply.

In addition, given the multiplicity of infringements of Plaintiffs’ works caused by a single user downloading a single dot-torrent file from Defendants’ sites, see Order at 6-7, it would be untenable for Plaintiffs to track and proceed against each infringing end-user.

BitTorrent tracker site begins redirecting US visitors to isohunt.hk, a stripped down version that searches the Internet for content instead, after court ordered injunction covering acts of infringement that take place in the US.

Orders site to filter "terms that are widely associated with copyright infringement (for example 'warez,' 'Axxo,' or 'Jaybob')," forcing the site to follows in the footsteps of TorrentSpy, MiniNova, and other defunct BitTorrent tracker sites targeted by copyright holders.

Many people use free music streaming sites like Pandora and Last.fm as quick, convenient, and free alternatives to downloading music either legally or illegally.

Not many are aware however, that there’s a handy Greasemonkey script called PWN Last.fm that adds a “Torrents from IsoHunt” section to artist pages on Last.fm, making it easier than ever to download your favorite music.

Notice how it looks before…

and after.

So how do you install it?

1. Download and install Mozilla’s Firefox if you aren’t using it already.

.

2. Download and install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension.

.

It’s similar to other Greasemonkey scripts like “Pirates the Amazon” which embeds links from BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay alongside legal purchase links on Amazon.com product pages.

(OiNK Plus also deserves an honorable mention, though it only enhances browsing on BitTorrent tracker sites)

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Just in time for the holidays the entertainment industry was given a sizable present by US District Judge Stephen V. Wilson.

He found that owner, operator Gary Fung and his BitTorrent tracker site isoHunt had infringed copyright and intentionally encouraged piracy, stating that the “evidence of defendants’ intent to induce infringement is overwhelming and beyond reasonable dispute.”

“The court’s decision establishes a powerful precedent that makes clear, once again, that website operators must respect the rights of content owners and control infringement on their websites, or face liability for their actions,” said MPAA vice president Daniel Mandil in a statement.

The ruling comes three years after proceedings were first opened against Fung.

Throughout the battle he has argued that his BitTorrent portals were comparable to Google in that they simply enabled users to find content. Fung’s lawyers argued that he could not be liable as he did not host any copyright infringing content himself.

Specifically, he centered his defense around three main arguments: first, that BitTorrent technology is different from the other technologies because users do not download content files from one another and not via the site itself; second that users’ conduct is protected by the First Amendment; and third, the fact that users are located around the world, and not just in the US, meaning that any ruling would affect their rights as well.

On the first argument the judge calls it “nothing more than old wine in a new bottle.” Here the judge doesn’t seem to have a full grasp of the technology at hand because he considers BitTorrent to be merely an improvement of earlier Grokster-type Direct Connect-style P2P.

The ruling reads:

Instead of logging into a proprietary network in order to download files from each others’ computers, Defendants’ users access Defendants’ generally-accessible website in order to download those files. And instead of downloading content files directly through Defendants’ website, Defendants’ users download dot-torrent files that automatically trigger the downloading of content files. These technological details are, at their core, indistinguishable from the previous technologies. In fact, Defendants’ technologies appear to improve upon the previous technologies by permitting faster downloads of large files such as movies. Such an improvement quite obviously increases the potential for copyright infringement.

But, BitTorrent really is “new wine.” The site doesn’t host any copyrighted material and should be protected by the DMCA as are other search engines like Google and Bing.

Fung’s second defense, First Amendment protection, is dismissed outright by citing established caselaw.

As for the third, the Judge says it doesn’t matter because the fact is that “millions of United States citizens have accessed Defendants’websites, and a substantial proportion of the files made available to them through those websites contained copyrighted or highly-likely copyrighted works.”

“Further, Plaintiffs have provided undisputed evidence of specific infringing acts done in the United States.” he adds.”

Probably the most damaging evidence used against Fung is the fact that isoHunt lists what the most popular downloads are in different categories, meaning he is well aware of copyright infringement by users and failed to stop it.

“Defendants designed the websites and included a feature that collects users’ most commonly searched-for titles,” says the Judge. “The fact that these lists almost exclusively contained copyrighted works and that Defendants never removed these lists is probative of Defendants’ knowledge of ongoing infringement and failure to stop this infringement.”

What also hurt Fung’s case is Fung himself for having made repeated damaging statements to his cause.

“Morally, I’m a Christian. ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ But to me, even copyright infringement when it occurs may not necessarily be stealing,” ,” reads the ruling, citing an interview Fung gave with another website.

Fung’s attorney, Ira Rothken, says they may appeal the ruling, and it remains to be seen what effect, if any, it will have on the site being it’s not hosted in the US.

“We do think from our preliminary review there are a number of issues for appeal,” Rothken told Wired.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

It was September of last year that BitTorrent tracker search engine isoHunt sued the Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA) in order to preempt threatened copyright infringement litigation.

In a series of letters the CRIA claimed isoHunt served no purpose other than to engage in copyright infringement of its members’ music catalogues.

“We intend to take this all the way up to the Canadian Supreme Court unless CRIA settles with us out of court in any reasonable way,” Gary Fung, President of isoHunt Inc., said at the time.

So far his efforts have been in vain with the most recent ruling by Judge Curtis denying his petition as “improper form” and ordering that he pursue the case using the “normal, lengthy, and costly” legal process.

Fung’s attorneys have have now filed a petition with the Supreme Court of British Columbia asking that declare the site “does not violate the Copyright Act, RSC 1985, c. C-42 insofar as CRIA Files are concerned.”

Specifically, it argues the following:

1. It is the user having activated BT Client Software, and not the Plaintiff isoHunt, who selects which dot-torrent file and the associated BT Content File to obtain;
2. The Other Websites are indexers of dot-torrent files and do not provide any BT Content Files;
3. Without sufficient information from the user and a person claiming to be the copyright holder, the Plaintiff isoHunt cannot effectively determine in respect of a given dot-torrent file selected by the user and the associated BT Content File: (a)whether the name of the selected BT Content File accurately describes the material contained in the selected BT Content File; (b)whether the selected BT Content File associated with the dot-torrent file in fact contains material that may be protected by copyright; (c)if the material in the selected BT Content File is protected by copyright, which country’s copyright laws are applicable; (d)if the material in the selected BT Content File is protected by applicable copyright laws, whether under such applicable copyright laws, the user’s copying or distribution of such BT Content File is a permitted or licenced activity; and (e)if the material in the selected BT Content File is protected by applicable copyright laws, whether under such applicable copyright laws, the user’s copying or distribution of such BT Content File is an exception to infringement.
4. The Plaintiff isoHunt expressly provides for and implements a “notice and take-down” policy for a person claiming that a dot-torrent file is related to a BT Content File containing material in respect of which the person holds the copyright.

It’s an interesting test case for the both the BitTorrent community and the CRIA because it’ll force the issue of the legality of tracker sites to be discussed once and for all, especially mere search engines like isoHunt who mainly index trackers hosted by other sites.

It’ll also force the CRIA to explain why the country needs additional copyright enforcement legislation if it’s able to successfully seek redress in court.

Moreover, Fung thinks sites like isoHunt provide an invaluable marketing and distribution tool for copyright holders and that it’s important they put “their differences aside” and “figure out how we can utilize P2P distribution and social media for the benefit of all.”

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

After 2 years of development, isoHunt founder Gary Fung has managed to push the boundaries of BitTorrent tracker sites a bit further with the advent of Hexagon.cc, a “social file-sharing site” that allows users to share content within groups you either join or create yourself.

“These groups can be public, based on interests or made by independent bands, film makers, game studios, etc. for promotional purposes,” says Fung. “They can also be made private, so you can very easily and comfortably invite your friends to a private group for sharing your private videos and such. You can do this on Youtube and similar sites, but with BitTorrent, you can share any type of file and not only video, and there’s no restriction on file format or size (as much as you can seed).”

So after registration users can browse through preexisting groups…

Or create their own…

Fung notes that one of the real benefits is quality of content aside from obvious privacy protection concerns. Since Hexagon groups are invite only, spammers can easily be prevented from introducing the usual glut of fake torrents and adware/malware nonsense.

Another cool feature is that you can tag uploaded torrents (think Waffles.fm) so that it’s much easier to browse content unlike the proverbial audio vs video rigidity of most BitTorrent tracker sites.

Hexagon.cc’s currently invite only, but the following link can be used 10 times.

http://lobby.hexagon.cc/invitations/Ky9Afa9kZV

If I get more I’ll add additional invite codes.

There’s also good old-fashioned IRC > irc://irc.p2p-network.net/Hexagon

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com