Slashdot Mirror
The Pirate Bay Launches Free VPN
bs0d3 writes "The Pirate Bay team is going to be making the RIAA angry, with the launch of a new ad-supported VPN service. PrivitizeVPN is available for free from The Pirate Bay. Instead of earning revenue through subscription as ipredator does, PrivitizeVPN comes packaged to install the Babylon search bar (adware). PrivitizeVPN appears to be available for Windows users only at the moment. The Pirate Bay staff has a long history of promoting services that have no logs; e.g. , you can't get in trouble if your anonymized IP is subpoenaed by government officials. Although PrivitizeVPN is being released silently, with no press coverage, no official statement, and no comments from The Pirate Bay of any kind, people are assuming that PrivitizeVPN will have the same familiar data protection policies. A backup download location has been setup here for people who have limited access to the Pirate Bay domain."
what a bunch of tossers
honeypot!
If anything, running Windows traffic through a VPN is like putting 20 inch rims on an '89 Corolla. It's already insecure.
Jokes aside, I wouldn't mind trying it out on a couple virtual machines to see what it'll do. Maybe they can develop a *nix version that doesn't require the adware.
This would be the worlds greatest honeypot if it was setup by the **AA themselves.
It seems I cannot opt out of installing the search bar during installation. Too bad, I will never get to try it out.
Even when the damage is data retention laws and the best censorship their wholly-owned politicians can shove through the legislature. Will the dying, dinosaur media companies ever realize that Pandora's box can never be closed, and the genie cannot be returned to the bottle?
You would think they would realize now, almost 15 years into this cat-and-mouse game that their offensives are futile, burn goodwill with their customers, and make them look like an angry old man who wants the kids off his lawn.
Smart record, production, and media companies take note right now: You WILL innovate, or you WILL go bankrupt. I'm not some radical pirate or communist, I'm giving you advice, trying to help you. Technology CANNOT be killed by legislation and propaganda. Your only hope is to adapt. Better to realize that now than before you are completely bankrupt. You're welcome.
The war on piracy uses pretty much the same tactics as the war on drugs.
You can't have downloaded content. Any downloaded content you do have must be in clear digital containers with the administering agency. Even if you have prescr--er, license, for the downloaded content you have in your possession, you can still be charged with a crime if it does not come in a pre-approved container. Taking other people's downloaded content, even if they have the same content as well, is also forbidden. You cannot move your downloaded content from one container to another container, this is also illegal. Admission that you have downloaded content, or a suspicion that you may be in possession of downloaded content, legally or not, is grounds to search your person for it. Possession of a sufficient quantity would normally get you intent to distribute as well, but we have declared a quantity of zero to be intent to distribute: Every downloader is also an uploader, as a matter of law.
If charged, you are guilty until proven innocent. The best lawyers in the geographical area you are being prosecuted in will be used against you, while you will be given a crappy public defender, or none at all, since we've found that we can throw you in jail for civil violations as well, and only criminal court has to provide one. Possession in and of itself, regardless of whether or not you have a valid license to possess it, is sufficient for a conviction. There is no appeals process, or any appeals process present is designed only to look at things that are a "matter of law". You'll note the law has been so narrowly written as to make everyone guilty, merely by possession.
Fines and punishments will be far worse for this than any other crime. In fact, if you murder the artist who's song you downloaded, you'll face less time in jail and less fines. Actually, you could murder the whole band, and their agent, and still get off comparatively light.
Oh, lastly, trying to hide your content trafficing using encryption, vpns, or any other obfusciation technology will result in additional punishments, as it is obstruction of justice now to do so. Thank you for you cooperation, corporate citizen.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
To install you need to check "agree with the terms and conditions". Which link doesn't work to view.
I suppose that means I'm agreeing to NO terms or conditions.
*And* being hosted by a seedy torrent site?
What could possibly go wrong there? Hope you enjoyed your accounts while they lasted if anyone installed THIS.
It will just make it easier for you to be tracked.
Warrant a legit company. Pull User ID's (and perhaps personal info) from people who have pirate bay IP Addresses. See if they have non-pirate bay IP addresses connected to that login. keep an eye on that IP address, gather more personal information to prove it is the person not just the Address. Get enough info to get the the person. Warrant to check their computer. Then they got you.
Congratulation you had just made your user account flagged as a hacker/pirater.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This is a normal thing that you see within any context where there are people who want control vs people who want freedom, this is just one type of manifestation of such a situation. Yes, RIAA and the cohorts will be pissed and they will try to shut it down as well. Yes, TPB will try to avoid being shut down and there will be more services like this one available. The fact that TPB is going to try and make a buck off of it makes perfect sense, somehow the service has to be managed, somebody has to put in the time and resources, whatever capital, land and labour that it will take to have this thing running and it makes perfect sense to try and run it for profit, why not, if people find this to be a useful service, they'll go for it, ads or no ads. Actually I wonder if they will also just have a subscription model, so that the service could be just bought with a monthly payment?
MY OTHER COMMENTS
In America your business is pirate - you did pirate that, RIAA happens you!
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Call me paranoid, like the voices in my head do, but why should I trust the Pirate Bay with access to my network? A VPN goes both ways and most people are not going to be up to the task of fire-walling off the VPN host from connecting back to their local system.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
the TPB makes millions in ad revenue every year....for things that you'd wet yourself with indignaton if somebody was doing to your beloved GPL stuff.
Yes! we must outlaw the unauthorized use of VPN. ISPs will be required to monitor the end points. Route around that!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
no comments from The Pirate Bay of any kind
Who's to say this isn't being released by some government body so it's easier to track what you're doing?
It might be making the RIAA members angry, but I doubt it is making the RIAA angry -- in fact, quite the reverse. The RIAA is an organization whose members will be more convinced that they need the RIAA and will happily pay dues to the RIAA because of actions like this from the Pirate Bay.
Really, one of the issues that needs to be highlighted is how the large music publishers have changed the dialogue from how the music publishers are suing people over file sharing into a dialogue about how a faceless organization is suing people over file sharing.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
If you need a VPN, pay a couple bucks a month. This is just adware crap.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
You will regret the day you had anything to do with the unbelievably intrusive Babylon, which almost impossible to delete. Truly an awful choice by Pirate Bay.
The gov't response to this (already in some jurisdictions) will be mandated logging.
Today, you can't drive on a public road without a driver's license, current vehicle registration and liability insurance. Soon, Internet access will be taxed, registered and and regulated. Sure, some people will bypass this and continue to surf without a license. Just like some drive now. But the majority of the population will comply. And when they do, the majority (that pays its taxes) will look down on the unlicensed freeloaders as some sort of criminal or lower class who must be dealt with. Or at least kept out of their neighborhoods.
Have gnu, will travel.
I consider iron-clad anonymity on-line to be a human right, but I'm not going to throw my house keys and bank books into a mob-rule crowd that sports a few protest signs I might agreee with.
No, this sucks, keep it.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This is not a Pirate Bay project at all.
It's an advertising campaign, and a damn good one since it made it onto Slashdot...
I agree, words can only ever have one very narrow definition. I'd see a doctor about that orange in your hand though, Carotenosis can be a sign of a bad diet or of a more serious condition.
Now if you excuse me, I've got to go write to publishers about all these romance novels with people "stealing glances", Unless they're ripping their eyes out, all these literary greats are clearly wrong.
I'll also head down to Oxford and tell them that the eymology of steal involving something non-tangible that they say dates back hundreds of years is wrong!
Whole sale copying of an entire piece work is absolutely not fair usage. Back ups are for personal use for your own property.
Don't you think it is obvious that the feds are watching your VPN server traffic? If you are paying for it, they can easily tie you to your activity. Having a VPN just means you are being tracked at your VPN provider instead of at your ISP. Same with proxy servers.
I'll take it seriously when I get my Baywords account back.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-did-not-launch-a-free-vpn-120827/
Slashdot broke a story earlier today claiming that The Pirate Bay had launched a free VPN service called PrivitizeVPN.
Interesting, except for the fact that itâ(TM)s not a Pirate Bay project.
The Pirate Bay team informed TorrentFreak that they have nothing to do with the service.
They are just running it as an ad next to the regular download links.
That does not mean that a free VPN isnâ(TM)t a good deal, if you donâ(TM)t forget to bypass the ad-ware installers. However, when we tried it the service didnâ(TM)t work at all.
According to people close to PrivitizeVPN they are working on the connectivity issues. Those looking for a more stable and high bandwidth VPN are probably better off looking for a paid alternative.
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-did-not-launch-a-free-vpn-120827/
Could you be sure that some other backdoor wasn't installed with the VPN software?
I have dedicated VPN host running under VM KVM/Centos, will install the PB VPN under virtualbox as backup vpn. thanks PB its party time.
http://askaralikhan.blogspot.com/
Which wouldn't work with this VPN, as it is windows-only?
Tortius Interference
Tortious interference with business relationships occurs where the tortfeasor acts to prevent the plaintiff from successfully establishing or maintaining business relationships. This tort may occur when a first party's conduct intentionally causes a second party not to enter into a business relationship with a third party that otherwise would probably have occurred. Such conduct is termed tortious interference with prospective business relations, expectations, or advantage or with prospective economic advantage.
Basically, interfere with the business of someone richer than you and there will be heck to pay Just Because You Got in the Way.
Yes, this includes bad online reviews if they can find you. Yes, it's an oppressive idea right up there with "All game animals in the wilds belong to the King."
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Sorry, I'd rather pay $$$ anonymously than trust adware to protect my anonymity.
From what I learned here on /. (and on reddit) during numerous conversations on VPN as a solution against ever increasing presence of hairy bony government arms ("bony arms" - direct copy from a Russian idiom) on your private parts I understand that the major problem with VPN is speed. I already noticed that trivial books (several megs) are loaded extremely slow sometimes on my muTorrent client even without VPN condom, I can imagine how painful torrents might become via VPN.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Theft only makes sense in one of 2 contexts, personal property or capitalism. Your example deals with the 1st and assumes that possession is binary (either I have a thing or I don't).
In the context of capitalism, and particularly with regard to copyright, the possession of a legitimate copy of a thing must be secured from someone possessing the right of distribution. The original copyright laws were passed to protect the distributor from unfair competition. (Companies without a contractual agreement with the author were selling/distributing copies of sheet music without the right to do so or the implied obligation to compensate with author in the form of royalties.)
Your argument is: specious
Adjective:
1. Superficially plausible, but actually wrong: "a specious argument".
2. Misleading in appearance, esp. misleadingly attractive: "a specious appearance of novelty".
VPN can be abroad which is not the case with ISP.
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-did-not-launch-a-free-vpn-120827/ Just sayin....
You can go through all that hassle to anonymize yourself, or you can just pay for your games/music/movies/pr0n. The only thing I condone stealing anymore is Game of Thrones from HBO, screw them to Hell and back.
Memorable quotes for
Looker (1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/quotes
"John Reston: Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages *submit* to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a *free* people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a *box* with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that's power."
##
"The United States has it's own propaganda, but it's very effective because people don't realize that it's propaganda. And it's subtle, but it's actually a much stronger propaganda machine than the Nazis had but it's funded in a different way. With the Nazis it was funded by the government, but in the United States, it's funded by corporations and corporations they only want things to happen that will make people want to buy stuff. So whatever that is, then that is considered okay and good, but that doesn't necessarily mean it really serves people's thinking - it can stupify and make not very good things happen."
- Crispin Glover: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000417/bio
##
"It's only logical to assume that conspiracies are everywhere, because that's what people do. They conspire. If you can't get the message, get the man." â" Mel Gibson (from an interview)
##
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." â" William Casey, CIA Director
##
George Carlin:
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It
Since it has become clear that PB isn't providing this service, I tried to find out who is. I could find no info anywhere and the only link is the person that signed the exe with an ooo-industry.ru email and the website that doesn't say anything... http://ooo-industry.ru/ Looks pretty shady to me
Okay everyone.
Real world lesson time.
I'm hanging at your house. I see you have a copy of Big Black Atomizer CD. I pick the CD up, and:
1. I put the CD in my pocket, leave your house with it.
2. I put the CD in your computer, copy it to a USB Drive. I then leave your house without the CD, but a copy of it on my USB Drive.
Okay, folks. One of the above is stealing. The other isn't. Can you guess which one?
Yes, folks. #1 is stealing, since I deprived you of something you owned. Example #2 isn't stealing, i made a copy of it. Now, did i keep the record companies from making any money? That is debatable. Would i have bought that CD new? Would I have bought that CD used? If i bought it used, then the Music Industry doesn't get any money, only the used music industry does. And the CD I made a copy of was used, since it was owned by a person and not in the store. You understand? If me making a copy of the CD is considered "stealing" profit/revnue from the music corps, then Used Music Stores are doing some big time stealing.
Be seeing you...
That was a great comeback.
I've gotten my a$$ modded (rather kicked) clear across the board for rubbing either GNU, Apple or Microsoft fanboi sensibilities the wrong way. (The GNU crowd is losing their impetuousness lately...)
Is this not wonderful?
If they want my money, why don't they take it?
Because the cartel wants more of your money than you are willing to offer. Time Warner doesn't want you to buy just HBO. It wants you to buy the Turner bundle too: CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, TCM, and Cartoon Network.
Availability of movie content outside the USA in a non-streaming form that allows format shifting doesn't exist.
Others are recommending to me that I country shop. Why isn't country shopping more common?
your second post, which did nothing but the quote the first in its entirety
"Nothing" is a strong word. It looked to me like the second post added a list of citations.
Pretty sure timeshifting and format shifting has been legal for a very long time now.
In which jurisdiction? If the United States, I must be misinterpreting Universal v. Reimerdes and the other DeCSS cases.
It appears to just be PPTP, with the credentials generated dynamically from a JSON HTTP endpoint. There's a required ping URL the client has to hit every 900 seconds in order for the credentials to stay alive. Shouldn't be too hard to make an open source client.
Interestingly, the JSON config endpoint contains a list of IP address ranges that should be excluded. Haven't started investigating these yet, but here are the ranges if anyone wants to look:
ZX2C4
It isn't a Pirate Bay VPN, they are just running an ad next to it. At least that is what Torrenfreak is saying.
Sometimes it's not even infringement. It's just timeshifting and formatshifting.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Example #2 is stealing too: you'd have stolen electricity that was not free in the first place. However, if you had used your own (charged) PC to do the copying, it wouldn't have been stealing at all.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Of course, it would have been stealing only if I didn't authorize your using of my house's power grid. ;-)
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Looks like whoever has posted this story hasn't fact checked, but according to TorrentFreak, TPB have already responded - specifically to this article - indicating that PrivitizeVPN is not their project, and is merely the link to one of their advertisers. http://torrentfreak.com/tag/privitizevpn/
Most people seem to respect information security. They would consider it unethical to hack into iTunes and download songs for free. It would be considered wrong by most to get Hulu Plus for free if a way was found. No one thinks you should be able to get into private Dropbox accounts and have access to any file at will. You certainly don't want your private IMs, txts, or e-mails published without your approval. Why is it then, that when the ACL becomes a written or verbal request instead of a matter of file permissions is that considered a different matter?
http://www.12monthloanintheuk.co.uk/
They want captive audiences. Maybe I had an advantage seeing through the nonsense after spending so much time in Texas.
When oil prices are high, the oil executives chant "Free Market! Laissez-faire!" When oil prices drop, they demand the government step in to protect their profits, claiming that the government had a duty to protect national infrastructure from the vagaries of the market, that it would be wrong for the government to "Free-market them to death." (Good grief, how I miss Molly Ivins.)
The people in charge in this country believe in nothing but their own bank accounts, and will only wrap themselves in a flag or an ideology when it suits their purposes. This is much to the sorrow of Tea Party/Ron Paul supporters who just fell victim to the rule change that allows Mitt Romney to replace their grass-roots delegates with his wealthiest campaign supporters.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
The official word from the pirate bay is that the VPN does not belong to them, it is a third party service that they are promoting
The author of DeCSS could presumably use it personally, and anyone else could presumably do it with their own work.
Im not defending the law here, but OP was incorrect in her statement
In what way was girlintraining incorrect more than the margin of rounding error? Under your interpretation, format-shifting DVD or Blu-ray video isn't categorically illegal, but it's illegal except in one edge case (computer scientist capable of cryptanalyzing the entire system with no help) that's so remote that it economically need not be considered. Therefore it's illegal far more often than not, which rounds to illegal.
Ill also note that DeCSS etc are only necessary for formatshifting from DVD or BluRay.
Other decryption programs are necessary for format-shifting other copy-protected formats, and as far as I can tell, major studio motion pictures are lawfully available only in copy-protected formats.
Too bad there isnt an OSX client.. Id like to give this a spin.