FilePirate.org

Nine Inch Nails Uploads New Album

Rodion — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:03:20 +0000

Nine Inch Nails has released the first of two volumes from their latest album dubbed “Ghosts” as a free download via torrent sites. Trent Reznor tells fans to share it as much as possible. Now that the band is no longer apart of a record label, the Creative Commons liscense has been put on the music – meaning it’s free.

When you read the release notes after downloading the torrent, it contains a little excerpt about this new way of music sharing: “Now that we’re no longer constrained by a record label, we’ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.”

But the download isn’t the whole thing – you will have to fork over $5 to get the entire two volume set off the Nine Inch Nails website. All in all, the tracks total to 36, and is available through a variety of file formats. Look to The Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent sites for artwork and music. Wait a few days and the entire volume will be released in torrents.

This latest move by Trent Reznor comes as no surprise to internet pirates. The frontman of NIN admits that he himself shared music via OiNK back in May of 2007.

RIAA Keeps Artist Settlement Money

Rodion — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:07:15 +0000

During the era of lawsuits against ex-filesharing giants Napster, Kazaa, and Bolt, hundreds of millions of dollars were collected by EMI and other RIAA supported groups. The compensation money, doled out for artists whose music had been shared illegally, has yet to go to its proper owner.

Managers of music artists are still waiting for the money owed to them and their artists. The estimation of settlement money is believed to reach as high as $400 million. But no one has touched it. Lawyer of Korn and The Rolling Stones John Branca wonders where the money has gone, “Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for. Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don’t get paid soon.”

RIAA groups like EMI, Universal, and Warner music have explained to the media and lawyers alike that they are having difficulties with dividing up the settlement money into proper proportions for the artists. They are basing the artists’ compensation by how high the infringement went with their music. It appears to many outside of the closed doors of these companies that they are merely holding onto every penny they can afford.

Manager Irving Azoff, who oversees the business matters of Christina Aguilera, The Eagles, Seal, REO Speedwagon, and Van Halen confirmed the general audience’s beliefs, “They will play hide and seek, but eventually will be forced to pay something, The record companies have even tried to credit unrecouped accounts. It’s never easy for an artist to get paid their fair share.”

BitTorrent Sites To Avoid, Obvious Scams

Rodion — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:04:03 +0000

In spite of the obvious knowledge that most BitTorrent sites are free and without any charges or hassles, scores of unsuspecting users have fallen into the trap of scam torrent sites. It seems that a new trend in movie pirating scams has emerged.

Be aware that if you visit a site that tells users their torrents will only play with a particular codec, it’s probably a scam. And it’s pretty obvious if the site is littered with annoying and useless advertisements. Many of the files downloaded are merely uncompressed movies that take up space on your hard drive. Most come with a message from the scammer saying, “Warning: HD Codec not detected. Please get the correct codec from [this site].”

Thanks to Ernesto from TorrentFreak, and a good bit of investigating on his part, the following sites have been noted as scam torrent sites:

http://www.torrentm8.com/
http://www.rapid-torrent.com/
http://www.torrent-movie-host.com/
http://www.thepiilotbay.org/
http://torrentrnate.com/
http://moviehost.rapid-torrent.com/
http://www.everybodyshappytorrents.com/
http://hdmi2.com
http://codec.uploadvid.net

Three simple and easy measures torrent users can take to ensure they aren’t being scammed are to read comments, verify the source, and use trusted sites. Always make sure you scan over the comments of the torrent file to see if any other users have downloaded the file and found something wrong. It will save much time and frustration.

The second thing you need to do is to download from a reliable pirate. Make sure you use files from someone known for their accuracy and quality (i.e. aXXo, KLAXXON, leetay, etc).

The final thing you should do? Make sure you use a site that is trusted! Or use private trackers! The safest sites are the ones that have rules in place to prevent run and gun seeders and dangerous uploaders.

NBC Will Distribute TV Shows via P2P

Rodion — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:25:13 +0000

Popular American broadcasting company NBC has teamed up with Pando Networks to legally release hit TV shows via their P2P program. All shows will be in a high resolution format, similar to that of a regular TV quality. NBC and Pando Networks also promise to provide a secure anti-piracy system in place to prevent any unauthorized use of their shows. Some features included in the package include hash matching, digital fingerprinting, watermarking, and end-to-end encryption.

CEO of Panda Networks, Robert Levitan was happy to have this publicity, “We’re thrilled that NBC Universal selected Pando Networks to power the delivery of NBC TV shows for this important new service.” He went on to describe the features and systems put in place to protect NBC’s assets, “Our industry leading knowledge of peer-assisted CDN technology combined with our extensive experience building consumer friendly media applications, will help NBC Direct be a successful consumer experience.”

The Senior Vice President and General Manager of NBC.com, Steve Andrade, belives that Pando Networks is the best match for the service, “After a comprehensive search and intensive due diligence of available solutions, we believe we have selected the ideal partner in Pando Networks to optimize the delivery of our full-length TV programming over the Internet. Working with Pando, we’re continuing our proud tradition of innovation and leadership by being the first major US TV network to provide millions of viewers free DVD-quality downloads of their favorite shows.”

The downside? It’s only available for Windows based PCs. The following shows are currently available with Pando Networks:

30 Rock
The Office
Heroes
My Name Is Earl
Medium
American Gladiators
Celebrity Apprentice
Friday Night Lights
Late Night with Conan O’Brien
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno