Slashdot Mirror

Slashdot has a genuine misunderstanding of the piracy network that exists. There are groups dedicated to cracking and releasing software, games, and even ebooks. There are websites dedicated to listing checksums which let you search for legitimate copys of the releases on the filesharing networks. None of this requires you to be "Elite" or "In the know." Pirating couldn't be easier with the anti-RIAA/MPAA/Government protection measures made by other people just a few searches away. As much as people think every download is monitored, every file is tracked, it simpily isn't true. Bittorrent, the much vaunted transfer method, is not secure, but Edonkey can be made relativly safe.

Edonkey
Sharereactor, a libary of edonkey links
Methlabs, Peerguardian's homepage, protects from MPAA/RIAA etc
Bluetack, home of the Blocklist Manager, keeps Peerguardian updated

With these you can find almost any book, any game, any program, virus free and not have to worry about getting a letter from your ISP. It's not perfect, but it's certinally better than bittorrent, and it isn't as hard as most people on slashdot think.

You cannot create a working business model when there is no exchange of money

Who said anything about no exchange of money? There's plenty of businesses exchanging money in open source software.

As a game programmer, I expect to be paid for my work because I need to eat and have a home

Sure you do. But you're also have competition from your own products. How do you feel about that?

Here is another way to boycott them:

emule

get safe links here: shareconnector

I run it on Windows XP with the E-mule plus client. Very stable, the box is only rebooted after Windows Updates.

There are java versions available, so you should get it to run on anything. The protocol it uses is very clever. Say there is a file in three parts, A, B & C. If you have 10 sources available with only parts A & B, and connect to a host with all three parts, it will go for part C automatically. Which you then share with the other users looking for part C, giving you "credits" on their host, leading to you having a higher priority in their queue. Those who give something back get more.

Also, when you connect to someone also looking for the same file, you exchange the sources you both have for it.

It's also essentially serverless, though there is a branch with a new version that is literally serverless.

You wouldn't happen to be referring to SUPRNOVA.ORG , would you?

Not that I am suggesting that anyone go to that site...

Why not? Suprnova doesn't host any infringing material itself -- neither did the late ShareReactor.com for that matter (whack-a-mole replacement: ShareConnector.com) -- but only .torrent POINTERS to data which MAY or MAY NOT infringe.

Of course, if the new "PIRATE" bill becomes law, a lawyer (in the U.S., so it doesn't matter until a treaty makes it international) might say that both BitTorrent itself and Suprnova "induce" copyright infringement, and indeed 95% of the torrents are to content released under restrictive copyright rather than freer copyleft.

--

The copy protection works so well that it is impossible to find MP3, let alone loseless versions of this album online.

The copy protection works so well that it is impossible to find MP3, let alone loseless versions of this album online.

Here's the skinny on the situation...


To everyone in the ed2k community

As everyone is probably aware of now, ShareReactor has been taken down by the Swiss authorities. This was done at the request of several big Multimedia companies, who filed a complaint. SimonMoon has been detained and questioned by the authorities. His house has been raided and searched for evidence. The SR servers and some personal hardware have been confiscated.

We will address some basic things now.

Is SR dead forever now?
We don't know. This is a serious situation, not only for SimonMoon, but for everyone who has something to do with SR. If imonMoon prevails in this case, we think he will continue SR. ShareReactor has been his hobby (not his job) for the past 3 ears. Through all the setbacks and complaints he never gave up. One and a half years ago his house was searched as well, he has received threats, phonecalls and cease and desist letters on a weekly basis, and he never cut and ran. So if he makes it through this, chances are SR will continue in some form. However, if he loses this case, he is in serious trouble, and SR will most likely be history.

Why doesn't SimonMoon tell us this himself?
SimonMoon is under official investigations. It is very likely that he has been told not to communicate with anyone, in order not to hinder the investigation. Or maybe because he is seen as a suspect and cannot talk because of that. Or perhaps they want to stop him from telling other people what they should do. Who knows.

So now what?
Now we do what we have been doing. We wait for more information. And hope it all works out.

What else can we do??
People on various forums have suggested donating money for SimonMoon's legal expenses. We like that idea, because we want to do something to help SimonMoon through this. The problem is that for that to happen we need to be sure that he wants it, that his lawyer is ok with it, and that we have someone trustworthy to collect the money. We will post updates if we worked out a way to do this. Before people start complaining about asking for donations again, SimonMoon did spend the money on a new line, but the SDSL company is a bit crappy. And that was the best Switzerland had to offer. As for the forum server, ironically it was finally assembled and ready for testing early last week. Let's hope we'll see it working someday. Thanks to everyone who suggested donating money for a lawyer. This is not only about SR, this is about the future of many p2p sites. If SR wins this, then things look a lot brighter than if SR loses and dies. This case will set a precedent for the future.

Some general notes:

To everyone who said that SimonMoon ran with the money, it may be nice to know that so far SR has only cost SimonMoon a lot of money. But it was his project so he accepted that. But the kind of hardware needed for the forum required a fundraiser. We can only hope that an official press release will stop the ridiculous conspiracy theories about SimonMoon. It has been very hard to stay calm and quiet while people publicly trash your friend like that. He didn't deserve to be treated like that. People even posted his address and phone number publicly. How low can you go? Imagine how you would like it if suddenly everybody with an Internet connection can find your home and can call you in the middle of the night? Also, imagine how it must have been for him to read all that, after he was detained and questioned, after his house was raided and emptied by the police. We want to show SimonMoon our full support, and we truly hope this will all end well.
If you want to talk about all this, join SR IRC at gogi.tv, #sharereactor.

Kind regards,

The ShareReactor Crew

From here