Topic: WEB - on November 7, 2007 at 10:39:00 AM CET
German court rules internet gambling ban an 'impossibility'
The the Administrative Court of Appeal in Hessen state today overturned a ruling by a lower court that had prohibited Austrian online gambling operator Bwin from providing gambling services over the internet to German customers.
The ruling focused on what the court described as the practical impossibility of enforcing a ban on internet gambling - the impossibility of which rendered the law for all intents and purposes "null and void". Thomson Financial reports.
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Topic: WEB - on November 2, 2007 at 11:38:00 AM CET
Want To See How Pointless Shutting Down OiNK Was?
When the file sharing system OiNK was shut down last week, we pointed out how silly it was for the recording industry to go after such a site. The RIAA has been shutting down sites like that regularly for years, each time claiming that it was a significant blow against piracy... but then many more new services would pop up, each one more underground than the last, and the amount of file sharing would increase.
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Topic: WEB - on November 2, 2007 at 11:36:00 AM CET
Pirate Bay aims to sink BitTorrent
The buccaneers of Pirate Bay are working on a replacement for the BitTorrent protocol in fear their access to free music, video and software could be blocked by commercial interests.
The Swedish anti-copyright collective is building a new P2P system aimed at reducing the influence of BitTorrent's inventor Bram Cohen and the company he founded. The new protocol is also being designed to avoid malware, spam and the attentions of law enforcement.
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Topic: WEB - on November 2, 2007 at 11:34:00 AM CET
Cheat the Music Industry: Never Pay for Music
Despite the continual legal pursuit of music file-sharing "criminals" by the "RIAA ( )"<>, the ability to find great music and create a significant music library at virtually no cost is still quite feasible. So we'll start by dividing this into categories and giving a few examples of what we know. But it's up to you to fill in the blanks.
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Topic: WEB - on November 1, 2007 at 12:01:00 PM CET
The Uncertain Future of BitTorrent
The people behind the popular BitTorrent tracker are working on a new version of the BitTorrent protocol that could become the successor to the current one, maintained by BitTorrent Inc. The company founded by Bram Cohen — original author of this protocol — now has decided to close the source for several new features in the BitTorrent protocol, and this "gives them too much power and influence". The new file format would be called .p2p, and would maintain backwards compatibility with current .torrent files.
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Topic: WEB - on October 27, 2007 at 12:31:00 PM CEST
Operation Firefox: Infiltrate society and spread Firefox, one sticker at a time
Operation Firefox is currently recruiting agents to place huge 3.5-feet Firefox Fathead stickers where the world will see them. Are you up to the challenge?
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Topic: WEB - on October 27, 2007 at 12:08:00 PM CEST
Turn Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP Client
Gmail's IMAP support roll-out this week had nerds all atwitter about the possibility of synchronized email access across devices, computers, and clients. IMAP is far superior to regular old POP for fetching your messages and maintaining your folder list whether you're on your iPhone, office or home computer. If IMAP's got you curious but you're not sure what desktop application to use with Gmail, consider the extensible, fast, cross-platform and free Mozilla Thunderbird, our beloved Firefox's little sibling. Here's how to get the full Gmail experience in Thunderbird with IMAP.
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Topic: WEB - on October 27, 2007 at 12:03:00 PM CEST
The Pirate Bay To Bring Back OiNK
The Pirate Bay is currently working on an OiNK replacement in an attempt to bring the hundreds of thousands of music albums back online that disappeared during the raid. The replacement will be released within a week and on the BOiNK.cd domain.
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Topic: WEB - on October 27, 2007 at 12:00:00 PM CEST
Oink Users Recall Defunct Song-Swap Site's Strange, Stringent Rules
When authorities shut down Oink.cd on Oct. 23, former users of the private BitTorrent tracker lamented the loss of one of the world's largest and most meticulously maintained online music repositories.
But Oink was also one of the strangest file-sharing services around, with rules both practical and puerile. Like a persnickety record store clerk, Oink's operators banned low-quality sound files, enforced strict usage rules and mandated that all users' avatars be "cute" -- even taking pains to define exactly what made an avatar appropriately cuddly.
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Topic: WEB - on October 26, 2007 at 10:30:00 AM CEST
Myths and Facts of OiNK's Takedown
The dismantling of OiNK generated an enormous amount of coverage for the file-sharing community. The private BitTorrent website was one of the largest private websites online with over 180,000 members. Currently, the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has claimed responsibility for the take down of the website and the administrator was arrested at his flat (as the BBC report clearly showed).
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Topic: WEB - on October 26, 2007 at 10:28:00 AM CEST
Oink founder: We're just like Google
Mr Ellis declined to comment on whether users had made financial “donations” to the site.
Mr Ellis was contracted to work as an IT consultant for Virgin Media’s contact centre in nearby Stockton-on-Tees, but was dismissed on the day of his arrest.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t believe my website breaks the law. They don’t understand how it works.
"The website is very different from how the police are making it out to be. There is no music sold on the site - I am doing nothing wrong.
"When I set up the site I didn’t think I was doing anything illegal and I still don’t. There are 180,000 users and there has been an outcry about what has happened to me.
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Topic: WEB - on October 25, 2007 at 3:39:00 PM CEST
UK Considers Forcing ISPs To Block File Sharing
Following the recent UK shutdowns of OiNK and tv-links, Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, is now threatening to regulate ISPs if they don't stop file sharing.
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