It seemed almost unfathomable right up to the announcement of the website being sold, but it has indeed happened. While sites like the once mighty SuprNova fell in it’s wake, The Pirate Bay stood proud long after other sites succumbed to pressure from copyright entities. The length the site lasted seemed like the site became very symbol of defiance toward the copyright industry as a whole. Really how many sites can be named that lasted as long as The Pirate Bay? To drive the point home, the admins even created a page of legal threats they received and included responses which became a sensation all in its own primarily for the audacity of the responses, but also for the humour in it all. The Pirate Bay was the biggest ’stick it to the man’ kind of sites. As a result, many other sites may have been emboldened by the efforts of The Pirate Bay – perhaps because the site lead the way in resilience, or maybe because the site took most of the flack from the copyright industry to name two possibilities.

For these and many other reasons, the loss of such a site in the eyes of many would lead to a huge hole left behind. While the fact that it was such a large site where users went to was, in and of itself, is a large reason for the hole left behind, many would agree that the spirit behind the site being removed can be felt by many file-sharers – how many users out there who never used the site or rarely used the site felt at least one bit emotional about the sale?

While the admins reassured their users that the site isn’t dying, just changing hands, many users have already expressed their doubts and are opting for the attitude that the site died the moment the announcement came that the site was sold – even though nothing has even changed yet.

We here at ZeroPaid were curious. If one were to jump ship, where would the users go? Under the idea that the site has to be somewhat public at the very least, we found 5 alternative websites through our own resources that may be of interest to public BitTorrent users:

1. Mininova

MiniNova is perhaps the most well known in the BitTorrent community. It was formed after the demise of SuprNova by ex-SuprNova staff members. It’s not hard to argue that this was the best site that replaced SuprNova. It indexes .torrent files from other sites, so some of the .torrents are from private sites that only allow members of those sites to download the given files. Still, the site is moderated and well-used by members and, with the release of their distribution network, content creators alike.

2. Demonoid

There’s been some debate in the past on whether or not this is a public or private site, though many would agree that this would be classified as semi-private given how often sign-ups are open. Whether or not you agree with this kind of torrent site, Demonoid has a huge following backing them and a number of it’s users would no doubt defend it’s viability as an alternative to The Pirate Bay.

3. ISOHunt

ISOHunt, like MinoNova, has had it’s share of legal trouble in the past and agreed to filtering content. Still, a number of users still use that site for finding what they want and it has stayed being one of the most populated sites online to this day.

4. 1337x

1337x.org is a lesser known BitTorrent site. Still, that hasn’t stopped their front page from saying “we don’t plan on selling anytime soon.”

MustangX continues, “We welcome all the users of TPB to use our trackers and site. It’s a free leech community with NO ratios to maintain, we have a web based chat , A 24/7 radio station with 8 different DJ’s.”

5. BTJunkie

BTJunkie is another site that is well-populated with users, but not as well known as sites like MiniNova and ISOHunt. Still, many users still find this place to be a torrent home or even a second torrent home when another of their preferred sites goes down or inaccessible on their end.

Afterthought

It should be noted that for many, no site will fully replace The Pirate Bay. That site is easily considered a home site for many and a site that is difficult to impossible to replace in the long run. Still, The Pirate Bay isn’t the only site around these days. It might be questionable if there would be many, if any, sites that could match the longevity and reach of The Pirate Bay, but that doesn’t make the only BitTorrent site around with, at least, a semi-open nature about it.

If you are looking for an alternative to bittorrent in general, why not try downloading from newsgroups.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com

“Many groups didn’t start off as private. They became private because they felt threatened, so we were able to get in when they were open” he said.

Anaman indicated that his company maintains a network of contacts who help it gain access to additional private sites, although he isn’t forthcoming about what happens while they’re there, other than information gathering.

With a nod towards the increasing difficulty of getting a membership on certain private BitTorrent trackers Anaman added, “Once you’re in, you never take action. You just listen”

McAfee recently announced the results of its SiteAdvisor research report which created a global road map of the riskiest, and the safest, places to surf and search on the internet.

It analyzed and ranked 265 top-level domains like Japan (.jp), France (.fr) and Commercial (.com) based on McAfee’s Web safety tests for spyware, spam, exploits and scams.

The report is called “Mapping the Mal Web,” and unsurprisingly reveals large differences in safety from one domain to another. It estimates that each month, internet users make more than 550 million clicks to “risky” Web sites and that even relatively safe domains like Germany (.de) or the United Kingdom (.uk) account for millions of risky clicks.

“With this report, McAfee has created a guide book to the Web’s most dangerous top level domains,” said Mark Maxwell, Senior Product Manager, McAfee Consumer and Small Business. “When it comes to safety, it turns out that the Web is no different than the physical world. There are safe neighborhoods and safe Web domains, and then there are places no one should ever visit.”

In compiling its report, McAfee’s Site Advisor added an intuitive red, yellow, or green ratings to sites and search results based on proprietary tests of millions of Web sites representing more than 95% of the trafficked Web.

Red ratings were given to risky sites that fail one or more of McAfee’s tests for adware, spyware, viruses, exploits, spammy e-mail, excessive pop-ups or strong affiliations with other red-rated sites. Green- rated sites passed each of these tests. Lastly, Yellow ratings were given to sites which passed McAfee’s safety tests but, which still have nuisances, such as excessive pop-ups, which thereby warrant a user advisory.

Key Findings?

• The incidence of red and yellow sites varies dramatically across top- level domains, ranging from a low of 0.1% for Finland (.fi) to a high of 10.1% for the tiny island of Tokelau (.tk). Overall, 4.1% of all sites tested by SiteAdvisor are rated red or yellow.
• Some Web activities, like registering at a site or downloading a file, are significantly more risky when done at certain domains. For example, giving an e-mail address to a random .info domain results in a stunning 73.2% chance of receiving spammy e-mail.
• The most risky large country domains are Romania (.ro, 5.6% risky sites) and Russia (.ru, 4.5% risky sites). These country domains are also the most likely to host exploit or “drive-by-download” sites.
• “.info” is the riskiest generic domain, with 7.5% of its sites rated as risky. .com is the second most risky generic domain, with 5.5% of sites rated as risky.
• “.gov” is the only frequently tested domain for which SiteAdvisor has found no risky sites. .gov is only available to United States government agencies.
• A consumer is almost 12 times more likely to encounter a drive-by-download while surfing Russian domains as Columbian ones.
• Registering at a Web site in India results in a 4.3% chance of getting spammy e-mail. Taking the same action with a domain registered in China yields a 7.2% chance.
• 5.2% of Vietnamese Web sites have risky downloads. Just 0.5% of Singaporean sites host such files.
• 2.7 million times every month, casual Web surfers visit risky Dutch Web sites. Even though Hong Kong has approximately the same percentage of risky Web sites, those risky domains receive just 52,000 clicks each month.
• Four of the five least risky country TLDs(top level domains) are Nordic countries – Finland (0.10%), Norway (.no, 0.16%), Sweden (.se, 0.21%) and Iceland (.is, 0.19%). Ireland (.ie, 0.11%) rounds out the top five least risky country TLDs.
• Even though the Netherlands (.nl), Germany (.de) and the United Kingdom (.uk) are all relatively safe TLDs, ranking 31st, 33rd and 51st most risky, each of their TLDs account for more than 2 million clicks to red and yellow sites every month. Likewise Japan (.jp) is ranked 57th most risky and yet red and yellow rated .jp sites receive an estimated 1.6 million clicks each month.

Risk by region?
Asia/Pacific

The countries of China (.cn) and South Korea (.kr) were found to be the riskiest major country domains in the Asia/Pacific region, with 3.7% and 2.6% of their sites rated as risky, respectively. Japan and Australia (.au) are overwhelmingly less risky, with just 0.4% and 0.2% risky sites, respectively.

Europe and the Middle East

Romania and Russia are considered to be the most risky domains in the Europe/Middle East region, with 5.6% and 4.5% risky results, respectively. By contrast, Germany, the region’s domain with the most tested sites, has just over 1% risky sites.

The Americas

Here in my own backyard, Latin American and South American countries are somewhat safer than countries in other regions. According to a recent study Internet penetration rates in Latin and South American countries are modest. 19.8% of Argentineans, 18.6% of Mexicans and 11.3% of Brazilians are online. By comparison, 70.5% of South Koreans and 63.6% of Americans are online.

McAfee apparently found that economically motivated scammers seek out the largest Web audiences possible in order to maximize their profit potential.

At 2.1% red and yellow, the United States (.us) is the riskiest TLD in the Americas, while Venezuela (.ve) is the riskiest TLD in Latin and South America, with 1.5% of sites rated as risky. Brazil (.br), Mexico (.mx) and Argentina (.ar) are all relatively safe domains, each with just under one percent risky sites.

Riskiest for Downloads?

Of those sites with tested downloads, Somoa (.ws), .biz and Bulgaria (.bg) are the riskiest. 14.0%, 11.4% and 9.9%. In other words, among the ese country’s TLDs you have at least a 1 in 10 chance of downloading from a risky site.

Riskiest for Spam?

An astonishing 73.2% of the more than 6,000 .info sites that McAfee tested for e-mail practices are rated risky, meaning that SiteAdvisor registrations at these sites resulted in the receipt of high volume e-mail, spammy e-mail or both.

Russia and South Korea trail the .info TLD with 21.7% and 19.6% respectively. While less risky than registering at a .info domain, consumers who provide their e-mail addresses to randomly chosen Korean or Russian domains have a 1 in 5 chance of receiving high volume e-mail, highly commercial e-mail or both.

Riskiest for Exploits?

You are more than 5 times as likely to encounter an exploit site while browsing a .nu or .ru based site than while surfing .com TLDs. In fact, the tiny island of Niue and the massive Russia vie for the domain most frequently used to launch an exploit or drive-by-download type attack. While rare – just 0.45% and 0.43% of sites tested, respectively – exploits are arguably one of the most dangerous kinds of threats that Internet users face today because successful exploits can lead to permanent computer failure and identity theft.

Which Domains are the Safest?

Four of the five least risky country TLDs are the Nordic countries: Finland (0.10%), Norway (0.16%), Sweden (0.21%) and Iceland (0.19%). Ireland (0.11%) rounds out the top five least risky country TLDs.

McAfee feels that the reason these countries have the safest TLDs is due to the fact that their governments have stricter regulations of these domains. Registrations in Norway are limited to companies registered with the government. Prior to 2003, Finland and Sweden had similar requirements.

“.gov” is the only frequently tested TLD for which SiteAdvisor found no risky sites. “.edu” is also apparently quite safe, with just 0.3% of sites rated risky. It makes sense in both cases since there are strict registration requirements which obviously limit who can operate sites with these domains.

Which Domains are the Riskiest?

Seven TLDs (.com, .info, .net, .biz, Tuvalu (.tv), Cocos Islands (.cc), and China (.cn)) earn the dubious distinction of ranking in the top 20 riskiest for each of the four risky facets we examined.

Of these seven domains, .biz and .info are the overall worst domains with highly risky rankings in each of the four categories:

“.info” ranks 2nd in overall risk, 1st in spam, 10th in download risk, and 12th in exploit risk.

“.biz” ranks 6th in overall risk, 6th in spam, 2nd in download risk, and 5th in exploit risk.

Conclusions?

I think it’d have to be the fact that once again, NEVR, EVER DOWNLOAD anything from sites you either don’t know or are from a suspect location or domain.

For example, thinking of purchasing an item from a site located in Russia and they are requesting your credit card info? Probably not a good idea to say the least. Is it unfair to legitimate Russian sites? Yes but, I don’t think the legitimate Russian sites will exactly line up in droves to help you fix your credit or repay lost money if a site steals your credit card info or fails to send you an item as promised. It’s called “street smarts.”

Furthermore, when it comes to spam an unwanted e-mail its best to have what I call a “dump mailbox,” an e-mail account that you use only for the purposes of registering or activating site memberships, promotions, or other online activities that involve sites that you never want to hear from in a million years.

Moreover, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and simply avoiding unknown sites or shady sounding deals can go a long way towards keeping you and your PC safe.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/security/What_countries_have_the_riskiest_websites’;

RELATED NEWS AND “HOW TO” GUIDES:
Greedy Torrent – “The Survival Kit for a Leech”
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
BitTorrent tracker sites & search engines
Azureus – A Beginner’s Guide to BitTorrent Downloading
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More On-Demand For Free

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

It was January 9th of last month that The Pirate Bay fired the proverbial “shot heard around the world” when it announced it was going to try to purchase the Principality of Sealand from its current “royal” family, who has no doubt grown weary of living in 2 concrete tubes in the freezing waters of the North Sea.

The Pirate Bay’s offer was politely rebuffed and they then pledged to look elsewhere.

The Pirate Bay even took up a collection plate for their quest, which according to BuySealand was $20,902 USD back on February 1st when it was last updated.

But, it seems as though all their efforts for a new pirate homeland have been scuttled according to a recent article in the Swedish online publication The Local.

In interview with Tobias Anderson, one of the Pirate Bay’s six Stockholm-based operators, he comments that they no longer have any plans to create a country that pirates the world over can call home.

“We are happy to stay in Sweden since we are all from here,” said Anderson. “…there was an internet connection on Sealand. But it would have been difficult to get the capacity we needed.”

He then makes an interesting comment that I suspected was really true all along, that the whole affair was about nothing more than publicity for the site and the people behind the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker site.

“We have 20,000 to 25,000 dollars to spend and we are looking at some alternatives. Really we just want somewhere we can name The Pirate Bay, so we can look on Google Maps and find ourselves there.”

“It would be pretty cool and would serve as a memorial of what we have accomplished,” Anderson said.

So the whole idea of creating a pirate safehaven was little more than a vanity license plate for these guys, a Google Earth “look at me?”

Now I admit the whole prospect of a bunch of twenty-somethings actually buying and establishing some sort of tropical paradise of file-sharing is pretty far fetched but, is it too much to ask that those behind it respect its supporters by taking their efforts seriously?

I guess the FreeNationFoundation was right all along to take the efforts elsewhere into a more serious forum, and approach it’s devotees with the degree of honesty and respect that they deserve.

I wonder what the guys who donated a share of the $25,000 bucks The Pirate Bay now has think about the fact that their money was simply a big Google Earth ad.

Refunds anyone?

In an update to this ongoing sequence of events, I had a chance to ask one of the ADMINS over at The Free Nation Foundation about his thoughts on what The Pirate Bay had to say about dropping its plans for a pirate retreat.

He writes:

Personally, I’d like to say I ’saw it coming’, but truthfully, I can’t. What I can say, though, is that I’m not all that surprised, especially after the roller coaster ride their forums took.
I think the major fall-off of support for the movement was when they removed all of the community moderators, and replaced them with people we’d not only never heard of but, on top of it let the forums go to complete anarchy for 3 days.
Their IRC went downhill around the same time, when iocc came in and jacked all of us of op/hop/v status, then moved 15+ bots in. Now if you look at #tpb-nation on EFNet, it’s more or less.. dead. I remember the first day, having close to 1k people in the room, and when the ‘core’ split off just because we couldn’t have a cohesive discussion that all of us wanted to keep up with past the ‘zomg teh izlandz11111′.
Plenty of things led to the eventual death of BuySealand. I would attribute most of it to the fact that TPB doesn’t seem to like to communicate with it’s members.
At one point, I actually counted two weeks between seeing brokep (he would be TPB Admin that started the whole idea), and the only update we get is a number on the main webpage.
The couple of times he did show up, we’d ask for direction for our efforts, and receive a ‘good job!’ or ‘there is much work to be done’. It’s hard to take initiative when you don’t know where the people who came up with the base idea stand on the subject.
Atleast with us, you not only get to see who is in charge, but on top of that, there is always the option to hop into IRC and speak with them on a personal level, should we happen to be around at the time.

To be fair, I never really browsed the forums at BuySealand other than to get some information and data for a previous article but, I can tell you that members of the forums at The Free Nation Foundation are about serious as a motley group of guys committed to creating a new sovereign nation can get.

Unlike The Pirate Bay, which was apparently only looking for a “where’s waldo” stamp on Google Earth, the people of The Free Nation Foundation have seriously committed themselves to the cause, and actively contribute and communicate with one another on a frequent basis in order to make strides towards reaching their goal of creating a new place to call their own on this big floating rock called Earth.

Is their dream possible? Who knows but, at least their serious about what their doing.

(***A big THX to Tuxedo over @ TFNF for his reply)
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Pirate_Bay_abandons_plans_for_sovereign_nation’;

RELATED NEWS AND “HOW TO” GUIDES:
The Pirate Bay’s REAL Plan B? The FreeNation Foundation goes online
US trains new ELITE Swedish anti-piracy police force
Forget Russia and China, is Mexico the world’s leader in piracy?
The Pirate Bay “WIKI’s” up locations to move to
Wal-Mart used The Pirate Bay to sell DVDs
OscarTorrents — new BitTorrent tracker site has all this years nominees
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More On-Demand For Free

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

The subject of much debate between those who regularly use the BitTorrent P2P protocol is what the best client server to use is.

Three are those who swear by uTorrent with it’s low memory footprint. In fact, a recent survey claims that uTorrent’s nearly 3 times as popular than Azureus for precisely this reason. Of course, there also those that swear by Azureus with it’s numerous features and plugins that that make it a choice for users with enough RAM and CPU to spare.

Either way, the guide below will take you through the Azureus setup process and beyond.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Installation
• Port Configuration and Testing
• Save Path
• Optimal Settings
• I’m All Set Up, Now What Do I Do?
• So How Do I Download Stuff?
• How Can I Speed Up My Downloads?

INSTALLATION

To start, download and install the latest version of Java RE. Azureus needs this software to function properly.

Then download and install Azureus itself.

Now change the desktop view of Azureus to make installation easier by pressing CTRL +1 as pictured below.

It should then look like this…….

PORT CONFIGURATION AND TESTING

Now if your operating behind a router, please check out our guide on PORT FORWARDING. Briefly, Port Forwarding is basically opening and establishing a dedicated or open port for the Azureus to use for downloading and uploading data to and from other BitTorrent users.

First select NAT / FIREWALL TEST from the main TOOLS tab.

This will bring up the NAT / Server Port dialogue box. This box will allows us to both select and test a port for Azureus to use. Remember, the range of recommended ports to use is from 49512 to 65535, and the selected port must be forwarded if operating behind a router. As you can see in the picture, I went ahead and used port 49513 to make it easy and then TESTED it. Since it came back “OK!” I then APPLIED those settings.

It’s that easy.

When you finally use Azureus to download files, you’ll find that this NAT / Firewall test is truly important. If you’ve properly set up your port configuration you will almost be guaranteed to see the magic “green face” alongside each download that “means everything’s going fine.” You’ll smile as long as it smiles, keep that in mind.

SAVE PATH

This may seem pretty basic to some, but you wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve come across who can’t figure out where the heck their downloads are.

First select OPTIONS from the TOOLS menu.

Then scroll down to FILES and edit the “Default Directory” folder. It has an additional option for moving completed files to a separate location if this suits your needs as well.

OPTIMAL SETTINGS

To optimize your download speeds you must first do a SPEED TEST to determine your connection speed. Select SPEED TEST from the TOOLS menu.

Now test your upload speed as shown below. Remember the number shown

Then select CONFIGURATION WIZARD from the TOOLS MENU.

Keep selecting NEXT until you arrive to the type of user prompt. Select ADVANCED and then press NEXT.

Lastly find your corresponding upload speed from the SPEED TEST and select NEXT.

That’s it. You’re finished. Congratulations.

I’m All Set Up, Now What Do I Do?

Check out our extensive list of BitTorrent tracker sites for the latest and greatest in download sites. Also, I suggest reading our story on Private versus Public Tracker Sites to get an idea of what to expect from each.

So How Do I Download Stuff?

First you need to find what’s called a BitTorrent tracker site, it’s a site which has the actual torrent files that allow users to connect with one another and share data (CLICK HERE FOR TERMINOLOGY).

In the picture below I use the LegalTorrents site since I show actual downloading and wish to of course comply with copyright laws. As shown I selected the download arrow in order to download the torrent file and thus the corresponding content.

The files should then appear in Azureus and begin downloading.

For a more honest representation, here’s how it would look if you wanted to download content from The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker site.

Using “Star Wars” as the search query, I selected a Star Wars e-Book to download.

Then simply select the file and then DOWNLOAD THIS TORRENT.

Easy enough right?

How Can I Speed Up My Downloads?

Try using BitTyrant if you’re suffering from slow download speeds and you’ve exhausted all other options as mentioned in the guide on how to Improve Your BitTorrent Download Speeds. It’s basically a modified version of Azureus that promises to increase your download speeds by up to 70% on public tracker sites compared to regular versions of Azureus.

The FBI releaased the following, “This groundbreaking case demonstrates the commitment of the Department of Justice to prosecute individuals who use new technologies to undermine the copyright laws. It also serves as an example to those who believe that there is anonymity in cyberspace.”

It was believed that EliteTorrents.com was implementing the “private tracker” technology that is believed to be more anonymous than public trackers and this news will probably hit the BitTorrent community quite hard. You are not as anonymous as it may seem.

This is claimed to be the first criminal enforcement action against copyright infringement on a P2P network setup that utilizes the BitTorrent technology. This doesn’t look good for file sharers. The admin. is expected to have a year sentence followed by a possible 2-3 years supervision (under strict watch with hardly any access to the Internet) plus a $3k fine.

With allofmp3.com facing some of the same legal issues, this just sets the standard for future lawsuits and sentencing.

HERE’S A COPY OF THE GOVT PRESS RELEASE:

NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

October 17, 2006

WISE, VIRGINIA MAN SENTENCED IN PEER-TO-PEER PIRACY CRACKDOWN

United States Attorney John L. Brownlee announced today that GRANT T. STANLEY, age 23, of Wise, VA, was sentenced to five months in prison to be followed by five months of home detention for his role in a BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) network previously known as Elite Torrents.

United States District Court Judge James P. Jones also sentenced STANLEY to a $3,000 fine and three years supervised release. The defendant had previously pleaded guilty to a two count felony information charging conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement in violation of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act.

“This is the first criminal enforcement action against copyright infringement on a P2P network using BitTorrent technology,” said United States Attorney John Brownlee. “We hope this case sends the message that cyberspace will not provide a shield of anonymity for those who choose to break our copyright laws.”

Stanley is one of three defendants convicted to date as a result of Operation D-Elite, a federal crackdown against the first providers (or suppliers) of pirated works to the technologically-sophisticated P2P network known as Elite Torrents. At its prime, the Elite Torrents network attracted more than 133,000 members and facilitated the illegal distribution of more than 2 million copies of movies, software, music, and games. On May 25, 2005, federal agents shut down the Elite Torrents network by seizing its main server and replacing its log-in web page with the following notice: “This Site Has Been Permanently Shut Down by the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Within the first week alone, this message was viewed over half a million times.

The Elite Torrents P2P network offered a virtually unlimited content selection, including illegal copies of copyrighted works before their availability in retail stores or movie theatres. Operation D-Elite is a joint investigation by ICE and the FBI as part of the Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team (CATCH), a San Diego task force of specially trained prosecutors and law enforcement officers focused on high-tech crime. Federal and state member agencies of CATCH include ICE, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, San Diego Police Department, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, and San Diego County Probation.

Andrea Sharrin, Senior Counsel for the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and S. Randall Ramseyer, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, prosecuted this case on behalf of the government. The Motion Picture Association of America also provided substantial assistance to this investigation.

In comes Torrent Swapper. This software claims to be the “improved software” for file traders. Encouraging the social aspect of trading, Torrent Swapper has the following features that set it apart from other software:

* Amazon-like recommendations to get interesting files
* Doubling the download speed by using the upload capacity of friends
* Real-time P2P file sharing with P2P video streaming
* Showing the locations of seeders / leechers of the same content with city-level accuracy on a world map
* Multiple downloads in a single window
* Queueing system with priority
* Supporing pause, stop, resume, queue, remove operations
* Supporting global setting such as upload and download limiting
* Supporting local setting for each torrent as well
* And much more…

How do these features help you with file trading? Just think of the software as a big community of friends. You build trust and you are able to read recommendations from other members and really take advantage of the Internet connectivity between users. This will speed up your downloads and keep your content coming to you fast.

Users are responsible for donating the resources for the system and this allows the files to stay free. Torrent Swapper thrives on the idea that P2P file sharing will go from the “mostly illegal” steps it has taken to a more respectable business solution.

Other features Torrent Swapper boasts are as follows:

Simultaneous downloads, download queue, selected downloads in torrent package, fast-resume, disk cache, speed limits, port mapping, proxy, ip-filter, etc.

In January 2006, there were approximately 2370 music torrents posted. By estimating that each music file is 5 megs, we can estimate the number of infringements as the number of downloads multiplied by the estimated number of songs. I ran my program, and when I saw the results I was shocked! Using those figures, there were approximately 76,272,931 infringements caused by the torrents posted in January! Using the RIAA’s value of $150,000 per infringement, the total cost to the music industry was $11,440,939,650,000!