Slashdot Mirror
TorrentBits.org and SuprNova.org Go Dark
Numerous people wrote in with similar stories: "Without providing a reason, both of these sites have shut down: SuprNova.org and TorrentBits.org." We mentioned a few days ago that the MPAA was going after Bittorrent sites.
Exeem, anybody?
I really can't imagine neither of these sites would say something naughty about the MPAA if they would be the reason the sites has to shut down, so what *could* the reason be ?
Simple bandwidth usage or server load ? To me, that looks like about the only option left, and sounds very plausible after reading Suprnova's message...
It's all very very weird, especially both sites going down at the same time...
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com
Is it possible they brought their web pages down on purpose in order to create a little hype and maybe some panic amongst Torrent users. Then in a week or two they will release that new P2P file sharing program the have had in beta for a while? Seems like a good enough marketing campaign as a lot of Torrent users are students, or kids, and Slashdot may not be their source of information, though this story did find itself on the front page.
you can get enterprise and many other showes from the folks at btefnet.com
Now talking in #suprnova.org
Topic is 'SuprNova is from today on DOWN. It will not be returning in any way that we know it now. We are very sorry for this, but it is not possible any other way. Thank you all for all your help! SuprNova crew '
* Set by sloncek on Sun Dec 19 16:08:10
I knew it was serious as sloncek is the owner of SN and doesn't fool about with the topics much (unless its April 1st).
The thing that affects me most is that we at TLMP get a large portion of our traffic for Linux ISO torrents from SuprNova's listings.
Anyway, there are other sites, and much like when SR was taken down a couple of years ago, one of them will likely take the traffic and fill the void. Where there is demand, there is supply.
Anyone have any more information as to why this happened? Is it anything to do with the developement of Exeem? I can't see it being as simple as the MPAA taking legal action, as AFAIK they have little influence in Slovenia where it is hosted, and they have whethered alot of copyright group's actions fine until now....
She's built like a steak house, but she handles like a bistro....
isohunt.com is also out for the count...
Something defo going on
Not to mention Simpsons. There should be a new episode tonight, I think. Yes, I can watch Simpsons on TV3, but not the newest episodes. Not yet. But I have the right to time-shift, haven't I?
Ouch! Mrtwig.net is down as well. No South Park for slow children this christmas.
Several bittorrent sites that I use have gone dead. The ones I miss the most are torrentbits and delirium vault.
People have said that these sites are closing voluntarily before they get raided. The site owners seem to have solid information about the raids. I doubt they'd close down without it.
The best community sites kept track of ratios to encourage people to upload. Suprnova didn't, but torrentbits did. Unfortunately, that means that the sites maintained databases of everything users downloaded.
Without those databases, the MPAA would have to join swarms and try to collect as many IPs as possible. With such a database, they could look up everything everyone had downloaded through that site.
So it was a very good thing that the site admins pulled the plug on those sites before the databases could be seized.
It seems likely to me that the old model of the bittorrent community site, which depended on such databases, is dead.
Perhaps some old cypherpunks could come up with a better way to incentivize users to share and participate in the community, without leaving data behind in a database. Maybe something with blind signatures, similar to a digital cash protocol.
But the old model is probably dead.
Having been a proud user of Bit Torrent for a few years now, I have witnessed the rise and fall of many torrent sites on the web. I remember a time when bytemonsoon was the major site with a large list of torrents, and suprnova was just a crappy site with an ok collection of torrents. At the time there were many torrent sites out there, some large with random files, others very specific to a certain type of file or even just a certain series. Inevitably though, bytemonsoon fell, leaving suprnova to rise from its ashes. With the fall of these major sites, I expect there to be a major increase in the usage of other, smaller sites, until finally one or two of these sites rise up to become the new leaders. Just as bytemonsoon was replaced with suprnova, and anime.mircx was replaced with downloadanime, boxtorrents, Project MAO, and Tokyo Toshokan, suprnova will be replaced as well. Hopefully, these new sites will be better than the last ones, but for now we must settle for what's around. Besides, there is always DC++, eMule, and IRC if you really can't find a new tracker you like :)
How's this for a solution to film piracy? 1. Forget chasing 'pirates'. This will save a lot of expensive legal bills. Cut back drastically on advertising too, as you don't need to whip people up into a frenzy to get them to theatres in the first week. 2. Make film (Citizen Kane 2: starring Adam Sandler or something). 3. Make a VCD cut and make unlabelled cheapo vcd's. Using the economies of scale, sell these so cheap that the guys selling pirate vcd will buy from you rather than burn their own copies. Your margin is the difference between a bulk pressed cd and a small scale burned copy. 4. Simultaneously sell the film as a download for the same price as you get for the vcd. ...wait a few weeks
5. Make a nicer, longer dvd cut of the film and, again, sell these so cheap that the guys selling pirate dvd will buy from you rather than burn their own copies.
6. Sell the dvd cut of the film online at the same price as the DVD wholesale price. .... wait some more
7. Theatre release of film in lovely THX/35mm
8. Boxed set dvd release with extra everything.
By doing this you make money from the guys currently selling 'pirated copies' of films and money from people who can't be bothered to find a torrent of your film. The money saved on lawyers and advertising would probably pay for setting up the servers.
At stage 3 you are the sole supplier of vcd of your film, it is uneconomic to burn copies so you own the market. People may share your film over the internet but the hassle of finding a torrent and/or running P2P software is competing against the paid download (4) which is priced as low as a blank cdr.
This is simple economics. Cut back on expensive things like lawyers and advertising, then put out bargain bin priced product to soak up the sales to misers and the poor. You can still make bigger margins on the nicely packaged versions to people who want to buy them.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
These sites really had it coming, frankly. While I'm concerned about corporate power, and less than thrilled with the modern media, they weren't trying to do anything about that - they were just plain illegal. Not in a recent way, either - they were ignoring the same copyright laws that protect the software I write, and the GPL so many here are so fond of.
I'd find it far easier to understand a site that restricted its self to things not otherwise availible than sites like these that appear to have no problem with full scale piracy. Yes, I realise that would still be illegal - but IMO rather less offensive.
I used to be a bit more sympathetic to this stuff, but I know too many people who view it as their RIGHT to access other people's work for free, without their permission. I guess its just another version of the "information wants to be free" zealotry (Free Software bigots who don't actually understand free software and usually hypocrites. The few, very loud ones that give the whole community a bad name to some.).
AC posts will be ignored.
Now - -1 flamebait me. You know you want to.
I find it hard to believe that they would not have issued warnings or other things of that nature if the issue was that bandwidth and all of that was becoming too expensive. Suprnova was incredibly popular with teh torrent community and they had to know that people would come to their aid.
I think it is possible that Suprnova and a number of these other sites reached an agreement with the MPAA or whoever was threating to sue them that they just disappear quiety into the night and they can save them self from a lawsuit.
It strikes me as odd that they would not heve mentioned it, but I can easily see the reason for this. If your the MPAA you have two options, either make an example of these sites so people are too scared to fuck with them, or just make them go bye bye. I think the first won't discourage enough people, because the law is on suprnova's side, so a number of people would rise up just to defy the MPAA and take up the cause. However, if the MPAA were to tell suprnova that in order to avoid a lawsuit they need to tell people that the site was just too much work, it prevents them from being martyrs and other people won't be so quick to jump in and fill the vacum left.
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
eg:
...
the ultimate torrent search
are they going shut down google now ?
nick...
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
That may be their plan, but I, and many SuperNova users I know, are migrating to Frost. Its based on Freenet, Open Source, and doesn't rely on any centralised website that can be shut down (for those of you that tried Freenet in the past and were disappointed, it has come a long way in recent weeks and months - so its probably time to give it another chance).
See this newsgroup thread.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
BitTorrent is a great technology, and it has sped up many Linux ISO downloads I've had in the past. However, I think it is so funny the way people freak out over stuff like suprnova closing. "Where are we supposed to get our MP3s and warez now?!!"
I NEVER hear anything about usenet, and there are hundreds of gigabytes of stuff posted every single day. Nearly my entire MP3 and digital video collection (and actually just about everything else) has come from usenet. I don't understand why this seems to still be the great untapped resource? Especially nowadays with services like newzbin.com, it makes finding and downloading from usenet a real snap!
Just the other day I introduced my brother to usenet, and he couldn't believe what he had been missing for so long.
Just like every other time a website has gone down. Everyone flocks to the newsgroups and grabs what they need from there. I'll bet that the torrent newsgroups suddenly explode with traffic.
I have a better idea... Charge me once for the content. Most software has an "upgrade" policy. They don't reward people for doing business with them. They try to screw you every way possible, and expect you to play nice. Let them clean up their act first before they go after people not playing fair with them. I just can't find it in my heart to feal any pitty for the "plight" of anyone working in or for the MPAA.
1) They lobbey the government into outlawing things that the average person wouldn't agree with.
2) They form a monopoly through an organization... this seems like an illegal trust to me, but they are still operating.
3) They are definately guilty of price fixing, considering that just about every movie follows the same pricing scheme. The theatre charges the same no matter what movie you see. DVD prices are formulaic based on quatity on hand and days since release. They are all marked up excessively, just like CDs, and all cost the same no matter how much it costed to make the movie.
4) They ignore "fair use", and blast me with propaganda commercials about how it is "theft" or "piracy" instead of "copyright infringement".
5) The laws are now tilted so far in their favor that it is a crime to break "copyright law" instead of a civil case, as it should be... This is so they can use our tax payer money to go after what is a civil matter.
Comparatively, I wonder who's the bigger leach on society, the copyright infringers or them.
Karma Clown
I think they are getting way too many members to cope with at the moment (with TB and suprnova going down).
The only way these sites will be able to remain online is to host them on servers out of European and American jurisdiction.
I'm a system administrator here in Saint Petersburg, Russia for an ISP that I'm a founding member of (even though I'm not Russian). I've got oodles of bandwidth, and would love to host a popular torrent site (especially because I rely on these torrents to escape from having to watch Russian television).
Is anyone interested in teaming up with me so we can get the torrents back on the web without legal worry?
You can find me here (sale [AT] winlink.ru)
p.s. to all the mods that are going to mod me into oblivian, think of this: the whole idea here is to keep the torrents alive. Isn't that what we all want?
You have no right to download stuff (or more precisely, in more civilised non-DMCA-afflicted countries, people have no right to illegally distribute stuff) just because it's not yet available legally where you happen to live.
Maybe this is a troll, but I'll bite anyway. You have a right to do anything that does not harm another. Since they are not even trying to get his money for the show, there's no basis whatever for any claims of monetary losses. The author gains nothing by keeping his work from others, so disseminating it cannot be said to harm him. There is nothing whatsoever immoral about violating copyright in those circumstances. It is enforcement of copyright that is immoral.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The problem is that everyone's exposed at that point: all the MPAA has to do is connect to the torrent with Azureus and they'll see all the IPs that are currently attached.
It is my life's mission to produce an unbreakable, fast form of BitTorrent: the Copyright Cartel shut off my Internet for a day earlier this week. There's nothing I can do to fix the law (which stated that copyrights were to promote the arts and sciences and should only run for 20 years); it's horribly broken and things that are currently under copyright protection will never leave copyright protection, due to continual extensions. This is abysmal; Disney made much of their money from re-doing old stories that fell into the Public Domain, like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, etc.; today that would be impossible.
Anybody developing newer versions with encryption and anonymity, feel free to contact me. I have both developer time (C, C++, HTML, Perl, Javascript, etc.) and disposable income, to support creating a new version.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
How?
" All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2004 OSTG."
Seems pretty clear to me that Slashdot absolves itself of responsibility, especially with them not deleting comments, and letting the community moderate posts (specifically mentioned in the 'comments might be moderated' caveats are Illegal comments).
Here's an idea: distribute torrent files for the binaries on text-only newsgroups. People without access to binary groups could still get the torrents and use BT to get the actual files. The torrent files would need to be encoded as plain text but as the torrent files themselves are small that'd be a minor obstacle. No SuperNova or equivalent needed. Or have I not taken something into consideration?
Don't have to go quite that far.... in Canada, there is no DMCA, and all of the attempts to create something like it have failed. Even if there was one, parliament has ruled that there is no grounds for passing a law against downloading files of any nature.
Serving up copywritten material is still illegal, but as I understand it, BitTorrent is completely decentralized peer2peer, and the host websites don't actually host any copywritten material, no?
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
For the record, BitTorrent *sucks* as a media distribution model. It only works for "popular" data, which results in an ever-worsening spiral downward into The Land Of FOX. Once the torrent dies, dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people are left with incomplete and useless files.
;-)
World's Worst Reliable Delivery Method.
I wonder if FreeNet might be a good source for torrents. It's hella slow, but you only need 35K or so downloaded before you can go off and connect to the torrent.
It's been a while since I last checked out Freenet. If I remember right, you mirror content without knowing what that content is When I last checked out Freenet (years ago), I was shocked by the amount of child porn that was available, and I was doubly shocked at the small amount of useful information on Freenet.
If I use Freenet to download a movie, will I also be hosting child porn? With Bittorrent and eDonkey, I have a choice of what content I distribute.
According to the Freenet FAQ:
The true test of someone who claims to believe in Freedom of Speech is whether they tolerate speech which they disagree with, or even find disgusting. If this is not acceptable to you, you should not run a Freenet node.
Look, I can't take such a neutral stance in regards to child exploitation. I don't agree with Freenet's statement, and I won't participate. Child porn is exploits and harms innocent children. Dismissing child porn as a simple "freedom of speech" it completely ignores rights of the victim. Child pornographers should to be burned alive.
If someone drugged you, raped you, took pictures of the rape, do they automatically have the right to put distribute those photos on the Internet? What about your rights?
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
And review are here.
ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
Site was closed because i nor anyother admins dont have the time and will to fight the legal battles on BT.... We dont even want it to come to that and we dont have time to deal with the pressure anymore because we have other things to do.
Recently in the IRC room, this was said by sloncek, the person who ran suprnova.org.
[16:25] WhiteWo|F: Site was closed because i nor anyother admins dont have the time and will to fight the legal battles on BT.... We dont even want it to come to that and we dont have time to deal with the pressure anymore because we have other things to do
And before people say that emule is slower than BT, that's because people rush to BT files in massive waves and then forget them, but while they're fresh, they go fast. If people swarmed to ed2k files as quickly, the speed would be the same. After all, emule doesn't use (much) more overhead bandwidth than BT, so in both networks, downloadrate=uploadrate.
I think this is the right moment for making the switch.
I had a friend who was sent one of these notices after he downloaded a show from suprnova. Fortunately in Canada the notices don't mean jack because the ISPs aren't permitted to (or aren't willing to) turn over subscriber information without a court order. In fact several of the big high-speed ISPs went to court against the RIAA to fight this. It's nice having your ISP in your corner even if it's mutual self-interest rather than the big guy looking out for the little guy.
My username does not make me Apathetic. It's irony, get it?
If I use Freenet to download a movie, will I also be hosting child porn? With Bittorrent and eDonkey, I have a choice of what content I distribute.
Yes - and no. By participating in this network called "Internet", you are paying a fee to your ISP which is used to buy network infrastructure and bandwidth. You do not own any specific part of this infrastructure, it is pooled and used by all participants - including those trading in child porn.
On Freenet, you contribute infrastructure and bandwidth directly instead of paying a fee. But the basic system is the same - it is pooled and used by all the participants. Perhaps your participation in Freenet might help pedos trade child porn - but your ISP bill might help give the pedo down the street broadband.
If you do not post child porn and you do not request child porn, what is the difference between your ISP and your Freenet node? They both route content for others. Neither has any idea (nor want to have) what they're routing. There's no exact equivalent of the Freenet store but they do have caches, in other words temporary storage. It is just easier to pay your X$/month and let your ISP do it than have it happen over your connection...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
it would make sense for coroprations to mirror the government, since corporations -are- the government in this country.
You're supposed to think they're prostitutes, but it's really fraud. The fraud makes it legal. Two wrongs make a right.
Another thing I've learned, from talking to some girls who used to do that, but then "went legit" and became real prostitutes: many of the escort services in the book, even though they have different phone numbers, all actually go to the same phone. It's just a few cash'n'dash companies trying to create the appearance of a diverse market.
If you want a hooker, forget the yellow pages. Look them up on TER and get a relaxing BBBJTC-CIM-NQNS tonight.