The spokesperson of the German Pirate Party saw his house raided after the party published a leaked document which showed that the government uses a homemade “trojan” to wiretap Skype conversations. In addition, a server from another party member was seized.

The Pirate Party is known for it’s battle against the ever increasing government surveillance on the public. So, when an anonymous whistleblower sent them a internal document which showed that the government went as far as installing trojans on computers, they didn’t hesitate to publish it.

German authorities weren’t too happy about the leak, which might be illegal according to a criminal law specialist, and went after the source. Earlier this week police searched the home of the Pirate Party spokesperson where they hoped to find more information. In addition to the home search, a server from another party member was seized. The server, however, was fully encrypted, so chances are low that it will uncover the whistleblower.

In a response, Andreas Popp, Chairman of the Bavarian Pirate Party said: “A brave person leaks documents to the Pirate Party, to inform the public about a procedure of the Bavarian Government, which is highly likely to violate the constitution. Now this persons is hunted like a criminal. Private rooms are raided, servers get seized.”

Pirate Parties around the world will continue to speak out against these, and other privacy threats. The trojan in question (German) was able to tap into Skype calls and intercept traffic to encrypted websites.

Post from: TorrentFreak

Danish ISPs have rejected proposals from the IFPI for a “3-strikes and you’re out” policy to deal with illicit file-sharers. In a joint statement, the telecoms companies said that they would not be a part of “detection and monitoring” activities and that the solution to piracy should come from elsewhere.

Efforts to reach a voluntary agreement between the IFPI and ISPs in Denmark on the issue of unauthorized file-sharing have failed. The telecoms companies have completely rejected the demands of the music industry.

The IFPI wanted to be able to hunt down file-sharers, report them to their ISP and have them implement a so-called “3 strikes” policy. They proposed that the first time someone got caught sharing copyrighted files, they would receive a warning from the ISP, the second time they would have their Internet connection slowed down. After a third warning, or strike, the user would be disconnected from his ISP and banished from the Internet.

ISPs in the UK recently reached an agreement with the IFPI to send out warnings to alleged file-sharers, but rejected any further sanctions against their customers such as speed capping or disconnection. However, according to a Comon report, the Danish ISPs have rejected the proposals completely. They say they will not take part in “detection and monitoring activities” and believe that the proposals would constitute a contravention of the law, and would upset the balance between the interests of the individual and economic interests.

“The Internet must be protected as a credible media, where each citizen can feel comfortable with the certainty that he will be on an equal footing with other media, such as confidentiality of correspondence in the mail, etc,” said the statement. “The proposals that have been seen by others in the European debate, which have also been raised in Denmark - for example, to disconnect users or deny users Internet access - will counteract this objective, and is in no way proportionate to the situation.”

President of the Telecommunications Industry Association Jens Ottosen says the plan presented by the IFPI to the Ministry of Culture has a number of serious weaknesses. He believes that the rights holders cannot accurately identify people who are engaged in unauthorized file-sharing. Among other things, the IFPI model of warning/slowing/disconnecting an IP address, NOT a person, means that even if the owner of an Internet connection did nothing wrong, they would be the one who got punished. Those who are the victim of a wireless hacking are equally vulnerable, something which the ISPs aren’t prepared to accept, and neither are the courts.

“We are very divided,” said Ottosen. When asked if there is a chance of reaching any type of voluntary agreement with the music industry, he added, “I can’t imagine.”

Thanks to Peter_Pan

Post from: TorrentFreak

Another member of EliteTorrents has been sentenced. An Duc Do, an uploader on the site and former student of Drexel University, yesterday escaped jail but was sentenced to 3 years probation, a $15,000 fine and 400 hours of community service instead. As a result he loses his job at Lockheed Martin.

Back in November 2007 we reported on the plight of An Duc Do, an ex-uploader at the now-defunct EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker.

Duc Do, was found guilty of uploading the movies Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Flight of the Phoenix and King Arthur to a seedbox, for the benefit of the site’s members

Unlike previous defendants Scott McCausland and Grant Stanley, Duc Do escapes a jail sentence. Instead, after pleading guilty to conspiracy and copyright infringement charges, the former Drexel University student was given 3 years probation, a $15,000 fine and 400 hours of community service.

According to prosecutor Floyd Miller, Duc Do wasn’t as dedicated as other uploaders on Elite: “They threatened to kick him out of the organization because he wasn’t uploading as much as some of the other pirates were doing,” he said.

However, despite escaping jail, the future doesn’t look immediately bright for Duc Do. After getting a degree in computer science from Drexel University, he later landed a job at the worlds largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, developing military war-games. This conviction means that Duc Do will have to resign from his job.

Other convictions in the case include those of Daniel Dove who was recently jailed for 18 months. Site admin Grant Stanley, then aged 23, pleaded guilty to the same offenses as Scott and received the same sentence and a $3,000 fine. Other admins and uploaders who also pleaded guilty include Sam Kuonen, then aged 24, and 22 year old Scott D. Harvanek.

Post from: TorrentFreak

TV shows are by far the most wanted files via BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s fast becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?

Last week we’ve shown that most TV-series are downloaded by people from outside the US, 96% to be exact. Release delays are one of the major reasons why people use BitTorrent to download TV-shows.

Non-US fans of Prison Break and other TV-shows sometimes have to wait for weeks or even months before their favorite show airs on TV in their country. However, this is slowly changing. Earlier this week Fox announced that Jack Bauer’s “24″ will air simultaneously in the US and Germany. We expect that this example will be followed in other countries as well.

We’ll have to see whether this has an effect on our weekly download charts. The data presented here is collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only.

At the end of the year we will publish a list of most downloaded TV-shows for the entire year, like we did last December.

Top Downloads September 7 - September 14

Post from: TorrentFreak