One user recently created a Perl script that dumped all of the site’s magnet links. The dump contains more than 1.5 million torrents indexed by The Pirate Bay website in a fairly simple format:

ID|Name|Size in bytes|Seeders|Leechers|Magnet Link Hash

The whole archive takes up 90 Megabytes in zipped format, and 164 Megabytes unpacked on the system. It is not clear why seeder and leecher information have been added, as they are constantly changing.

The magnet link only contains the hash, and not the necessary link structure to load it into a torrent downloader. You need to add magnet:?xt=urn:btih: in front of the hash for that to work correctly.

You need to load the archive in a program that is capable of loading a 164 Megabyte text document (Notepad++ is an option). You can use the text editor’s search to find the files you are looking for.

There is a discrepancy between the number of torrent links in the dump and the number of torrents listed on The Pirate Bay website. The footer lists 4.5 million torrents, of which not all are hosted by the site. It is also noteworthy that adult torrents have not been included in the dump.

The author of the script has released the script at Pastebin.

The dump is significant for a number of reasons. First that a large number of torrents fit in a small archive, and second that the archive will remain functional even if The Pirate Bay would shut down completely.

This archive could furthermore help if The Pirate Bay website is blocked in a network or country. (via Torrentfreak)

No reason other than that is provided, but it is likely that the decision is linked to recent events, in particular the Pirate Bay case in Sweden where founders of the site recently lost the final appeal and are looking at prison time, and the Megaupload takedown and the fallout that followed.

The announcement on the BTJunkie website reads:

This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!

BTJunkie, according to Alexa web statistics, was one of the top 400 Internet websites that was visited by millions of visitors per month. Much of the appeal of the site came from the fact that all of the site’s contents were publicly accessible.

It is likely that users, after a moment of grieving, will move on to other popular Bttorrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Kat.ph, or private Bittorrent sites that require an invitation to get access to the site’s contents. The very same sites have also benefited recently from the closure of Megaupload and other file hosting websites.

BTJunkie users who feel lost right now should check out the threads over at Reddit and Torrentfreak for a list of alternative sites.

Frostwire takes that concept and makes it available as a Bittorrent client. While you can use the p2p software like any other Bittorrent client, it is the built-in search that many users will find most useful. The program supports eight different torrent indexers, including The Pirate Bay, Mininova, Isohunt or BTJunkie.

All you need to do is to enter a search term and hit the enter key to search all or only selected torrent indexing sites. Filters allow you to limit the search results, for instance to only display audio or document results, or files with a specific minimum file size.

Results are displayed with their name, number of seeders, total file size, source, creation date and file extension with options to sort by all values. This can be helpful to sort from largest to lowest file size or seeder count for instance.

Once you have selected files you have options to download them all at once to your computer with a click on the download button or by double-clicking individual files. All downloads are added to the transfer display that is displayed beneath the search results. Controls at the bottom of the page are available to pause, resume or cancel file downloads, or to play media type directly in the interface.

All downloads are automatically available in the Library tab. Files are sorted into categories such as programs, images or audio with options to create audio playlists right in the program. A search is also provided to find files faster, which appears to be necessary as it is not possible to display files by download. The explore option, available in the bottom bar and on right-click, lets you open the folder containing the selected file in Windows Explorer.

Frostwire can transfer files to connected phones or tablets, the interface does not seem overly intuitive though. There is also a chat available for users who’d like to chat with the FrostWire community.

The options hold several interesting preferences. Users of Apple’s iTunes software can configure Frostwire to automatically import downloaded songs into iTunes. It is furthermore possible to add or remove folders that are included in the library, to configure keywords that should not be displayed in the search results (with an extra option to ignore adult contents), and to change Bittorrent related preferences like the port that is used for all connections.

Users who would like an all-in-one program should take a closer look at Frostwire. Combination of search and downloading makes it much more usable than comparable clients. Features offered by other Bittorrent clients like uTorrent are on the other hand not available. This includes the ability to play media while it is still downloading or a web client to manage downloads remotely.

The program will install the Ask Toolbar and another program during installation if you do not pay attention to the process.

Frostwire is available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Android 2.1+ operating systems.

The idea behind You Have Downloaded is fairly simple. The service monitors world wide torrent traffic and adds all information that it finds to a database. The developers of the service state that they have records for more than 52 million users, nearly 2 million files and more than 110k torrent files.

The site will automatically check the IP that you are connecting from against the database to provide you with information about the downloads that have been recorded for that particular IP address.

You Have Downloaded lists all files that users behind that particular IP address have been downloading. This includes the name of the files, their size and the month and year in which it happened.

A search is provided that offers additional search and filtering options. It is for instance possible to search by IP address to find out if torrents have been downloaded by a particular IP address, by torrent to see all IP addresses that have downloaded the files or by filename to see the same information. The result pages list the trackers users have used to download the files from as well.

Users with dynamic IP addresses may see torrents that have been downloaded by other users of the Internet Service Provider in the past. The developers do however point out that they grab machine fingerprints using DHT and time stamps to link downloads directly to a particular computer system. Not all of the information are however displayed on the public site frontend.

The developer’s reveal part of their intentions on the service’s privacy policy page.

Baby, this is the Internet. There is no such a thing as privacy around here.

If you ask me, there are two scenarios for the service’s future. It first might be taken offline once the developers recognize that traffic does not pay for itself. The second possibility is that they are contacted by media representatives who would like to buy the database and technology.

Just head over to You Have Downloaded to see if they have records about your current IP in their database.

A far better solution is available for users of Dropbox. Dropbox, for those who do not know, is a file hosting and synchronization service. It allows users to synchronize files between multiple devices and the cloud. Dropbox users can access their files on the Dropbox website, and that access is what we will be using to send torrents to uTorrent from remote computer systems.

You need to configure Dropbox and uTorrent first before you can use the new functionality. Download and install Dropbox first. I suggest you create a torrent directory in the root Dropbox folder. This is the location where you will save the torrents into.

Open uTorrent afterwards and click on Options > Preferences. Switch to the Directories listing and locate the Automatically load .torrents from setting. Activate the option and select Dropbox’s torrent directory as the source folder.

This basically tells uTorrent to load all torrent files that are put into that folder automatically.

You can from that moment on log into Dropbox’s web interface from any computer system to save torrents into that folder. Dropbox will synchronize the torrent files with the home computer when it is online. If the PC is online right away downloads start immediately, if it is turned off, downloads will start once the computer is turned on and uTorrent is started.

You can naturally use the method with other file synchronization services that offer cloud based storage space. Dropbox is just one of the popular options.

Users of previous versions of uTorrent can check for the update under Help > Check for Updates. The update check should return that uTorrent 3.1 stable is available. A click on yes in the notification window will trigger the download and installation of the new version on the system.

The new version is not yet advertised on the main uTorrent website; The download link on the other hand leads to the download of uTorrent 3.1.

The homepage does list the new paid service uTorrent Plus prominently which we have reviewed previously here on Ghacks. It appears as if the release of uTorrent 3.1 has also triggered the release of the new service.

So what’s new in the latest version of uTorrent? The release notes lists three new major features and a handful of changes and bug fixes.

Among the new features are a built-in media player and a new device node to transfer content to connected devices such as mobile phones or gaming systems. Both features seem to be limited uTorrent Plus features. If you recall, uTorrent Plus adds a HD Media Player and converter option to the P2P software.

Fixes and changes mostly affect the program’s stability and performance.

The new client displays an ad for the uTorrent Plus service that can be hidden with a right-click and the selection to hide the advertisement. Some users have voiced concern over the addition of features that related directly to uTorrent Plus and not so much to the client’s original purpose.

These users have selected uTorrent because its lightweight, fast and stable. The addition of new program modules could seriously dampen the program’s reputation in this regard.

What’s your take on uTorrent’s latest version and uTorrent Plus?

So what’s uTorrent Plus, and how does it compare to uTorrent Free? Both programs use the same core, you could say that all features of uTorrent Free are included in uTorrent Plus.

When you look at the comparison chart, you will notice that the company lists four additional uTorrent Plus features. The exclusive features are built-in antivirus protection, a HD media player, a mobile device converter and the option to download contents remotely.

These new features come at a price; The company is asking for $24.95 for a 12-month subscription to uTorrent Plus (with six additional months for pre-orders). It is clear that the company is not targeting tech savvy users with the plus version of uTorrent, as they would not really have problems finding and running alternatives to what Plus offers.

But even inexperienced users who may benefit from the all-in-one application approach that uTorrent Plus offers may be left in bewilderment about the additional features. The program is currently in testing and that may explain the absence of information on the uTorrent website.

Questions that remain unanswered include:

• Which antivirus solution is integrated into the client. How does it compare, and how compatible is the feature with other antivirus software installed on the computer system.
• What exactly does remotely downloaded content mean?
• Which functionality is provided by Convertor?

You need to look around quite a bit to find answers to those questions. According to an Extreme Tech article the antivirus solution is provided by BitDefender. uTorrent Free users can download the Virus Guard app for their client which provides basic virus detection. The built-in antivirus solution of uTorrent Plus includes a larger database and virus removal options, which the free version does not offer.

Remotely downloaded content adds capabilities to uTorrent Remote, the web-based control panel of the software. It allows uTorrent Plus users in particular to download files remotely from the web interface. Users can log in from any computer to transfer files to that computer right from the client running uTorrent.

The convertor adds device specific conversions to uTorrent. The idea is simple. You add your mobile and external devices, like your smartphone, gaming console or hardware media player to the list of devices in uTorrent. You can then use uTorrent to transfer optimized contents to those devices.

The features that uTorrent Plus offers can make the life of uTorrent users more comfortable. Especially the ability to convert media before it is transferred to external devices from inside the software, and the ability to download uTorrent files remotely are noteworthy.

The antivirus protection on the other hand and the HD media player are additions that may not be necessary for the majority of users. It does not really make sense to use a built-in antivirus solution if system wide antivirus protection is running on the system. I personally like some of the features provided by uTorrent Plus, and do not have issues with the commercial version as long as it is not limiting the free version in any way.

What’s your take on uTorrent Plus? Let me know in the comments.

When you open the preferences in uTorrent, you will see a new DNA entry in the left menu. The preference lists a small explanation at the top:

Bittorrent DNA is a content delivery system that reduces publisher server load by using Bittorrent peer-to-peer delivery. Is is used only for content that you request.

DNA is enabled by default, at least in the latest test version of uTorrent 3.1. With DNA enabled, users may be able to download data that is powered by DNA faster. The service won’t accelerate standard torrent downloads.

It works exactly like those MMORPG downloaders that Blizzard and other companies offer. These downloaders use official servers and other users who download the data to speed up the downloading. DNA seems to be basically the same deal. Please note that you will also distribute part of the data to other users whenever you download with DNA enabled.

If you do not download data from websites or services that support DNA, you should consider disabling Bittorrent DNA in the preferences as it is of no benefit to you.

Just uncheck Enable DNA powered downloads to block Bittorrent DNA from being used by uTorrent. You may also check Alert me when DNA-powered downloads are added to uTorrent to receive notifications when downloads that make use of DNA are added to uTorrent.

Please note that DNA can also be distributed as a separate client alongside programs, games and other contents on websites. The program works in the same way but is completely independent of the Bittorrent client.

Remote is another new feature. Unlike DNA, it is disabled by default. The technology can be used to connect to the client from a web browser to manage and control the Bittorrent software remotely.

You need to supply a username and password and check the Enable uTorrent Remote Access feature. All you need to do then is to open the remote service on the uTorrent website and enter your computer name and password to remotely connect to the uTorrent client.

Hope this answers some of the questions that users may have when they encounter Bittorent DNA and uTorrent Remote for the first time.

The release notes are as usually available on the official forum. Version 3 of uTorrent adds features such as a portable mode, streaming, torrent ratings or drag and drop sending of files. The complete list of changes and fixes is available in the forum.

The drop files to send feature is incredibly easy to use. Just drop a file that you want to share on the drop area, and uTorrent will create the torrent for you. The program displays a tiny url link that the recipients of the file need to open. The torrent is then added to their uTorrent version. If they do not have uTorrent it is installed on their system.

Streaming needs to be activated in the uTorrent options before it becomes available. All suitable media players are automatically available for selection in the options.

The Stream button becomes then available in the torrent listing. A click on the button loads the stream url in the selected media player. It is then possible to play the media in the player directly, even if it has not been downloaded completely yet.

Depending on your previous version, you may see a different looking client with additional features that you had not had access to before. This includes uTorrent apps which more often than not provide access to media and file releases of companies and organizations. You find some apps among the available ones that add features to uTorrent, a chat for instance.

The getting started guide in the client seems to be new as well. It offers a step by step guide, a beginners guide and links to faqs and information about the program (correct me if I’m wrong here).

The developers have fixed a boat load full of issues, from crashes and stability issues over freezes and hangs to cpu optimizations.

Users should take a look at known issues before they update, if they want to make sure that the program works on their system without difficulties. The list displays confirmed problems and issues that are not fixed in the uTorrent 3.0 stable release.

Most of the bugs listed seem to be limited to display issues, only a few indicate stability issues.

On a personal note. I’m running uTorrent 3.0 since the first alpha and did not have a single problem ever since. The update to version 3.0 went without difficulties. Some users in the release thread are on the other hand reporting problems with the version.

Have you made the update to uTorrent 3.0 yet? What is your impression of the new version.

Torrents are seeded by the service until a ratio of 1:1,25 has been reached, which means that you share more than you download.

Fetch.io additionally supports file hosting websites such as Rapidshare, Filesonic or Megaupload besides torrents.

I do not want to rehash everything that has been said about Fetch.io, the Torrentfreak article and comment section covers this extensively already.

What I would like to do instead is to look at the service from a legal and business perspective.

The service is currently offering free beta accounts that give users 20 Gigabytes of storage and 40 Gigabytes of bandwidth. You can get your bandwidth reset by emailing the developers.

If you tried to use the service ever since it has been mentioned by Torrentfreak you may have noticed that it is not capable of handling the load currently. You may get error messages on various pages of the service. Some users have reported that they cannot add torrents at all at this point, others noted that while they were able to add torrents, they could not get Fetch.io to download them.

The developers mentioned that they are starting to add more server hardware to improve overall performance of the service for all beta users.

Plans are to launch a paid service after the beta phase. There will still be a free account available for users to test the service, but the storage and bandwidth will likely be reduced. The fact that both torrent and file hosting sites are supported makes the service attractive, the pricing and payment options will however determine if the service will become a success, or if it will disappear like many others before it.

While there is a market for services like this, it should be clear that only a minority of users are willing to pay for such a service. The main reason for that is that payments link their identity to the online account.

But what about legalities? I’m no lawyer, and I may be dead wrong here, but is not the service downloading and seeding those torrent files? What happens if the service seeds and downloads copyrighted media? Can the service be held accountable for that?

On the other hand, the torrents are selected by the user of the service. So who is infringing here? The user uploading the torrent, the service that is download and seeding the files, both, or none?

What’s your take on Fetch.io? Do you think that they will be around in a year?

Update: The Fetch.io website is currently not accessible. It can be that the product has been discontinued, or that the service is currently experiencing technical difficulties.

The report shows that Netflix accounts for 29.7% of traffic in the US at peak times, and 22% throughout the whole day. Torrenting topped out at 21%, and this time the number is even down from what it was last fall. The report shows Netflix and streaming of audio and video in general to have increased 445 within the last year or so. People are starting to consume their media online instead of watching it on TV.

Hollywood should approve of this. These numbers mean that people are beginning to stream their videos instead of torrenting. Because, of course, we all know that the only reason for bit torrent’s existence is piracy, right? Well, not quite, but that’s what Holly wood as a whole seems to believe. The fact that Netflix is getting bigger and torrenting has taken even a slight downturn should be thrilling.

The numbers show a trend toward more online streaming. This gives ISPs an idea of what they have to look forward to in the future. People are going to want more and more bandwidth as the way they consume entertainment changes.
The problem with this whole thing is that ISPs, mostly due to the few people who do torrent on a regular basis, have begun putting in caps. In the states, even the major ISPS who arguably have lots of bandwidth to spare are debating putting in caps anywhere from 150-250 GB.

Even in Canada, where Netflix has been hugely successful since it arrived in September, some of the major DSL ISPs are debating bandwidth caps of 25 GB. If you’re streaming video, you could go through that in a day. Netflix has already had to lower the quality of its streaming in Canada to deal with the bandwidth caps. Canadian ISPs say that the current infrastructure just isn’t meant to handle the amount of internet traffic people are asking for, and that problem is only going to get worse.

Netflix is becoming a major source of internet traffic in the US and in Canada, at least. The big movie companies are thrilled with this, because it means that their seven year battle to get movies off of the torrent sites might actually be showing results. But, partially as a reaction to that battle, ISPs are now putting in caps to control how much bandwidth one user can get. I’m thinking this isn’t quite the outcome the Hollywood companies expected …

What are your thoughts? Do you have bandwidth caps in place that make it difficult to do everything online that you would like? Do you watch a lot of online media? How much bandwidth do you think you use every month? What do you think would be a good solution for Netflix and the ISPs?

It is not hard to secure your Wi-Fi connection. It takes changing a setting in the router and entering a password. Many, though, are not even aware that their connection is open, never mind that there are ways to secure it.

Cyber-attack and identity theft are only the most obvious dangers of having an open Wi-Fi connection. But there is another serious danger. If your connection is open and available to be stolen, the chances are good that someone is stealing it. The least malignant implication of this is that your neighbors will be watching Netflix on your connection, slowing you down and bringing a bandwidth cap that much closer.

But the real danger to you comes when your neighbors aren’t just watching Netflix. What if they’re doing something less reputable? What if they’re pirating music or engaging in illegal activities?

The RIAA and other organizations have been pushing courts to try people based on their IP addresses. There have been over 100000 law suits in the United States alone in the last year whose purpose was to obtain personal information on subscribers from ISPs in order to force the person to come to a settlement that ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars. If your IP address has been tracked downloading music, etc, then you are obviously guilty, right? Well, not exactly. If your Wi-Fi connection is open, then anyone accessing the internet through it will have your IP address. Your neighbor could be the one who was tracked, or even someone driving down the street sniffing for open connections.

For this reason, people have been trying to get the justice system to understand for some time that an IP is not a valid way to determine whether or not a person has been engaging in piracy.

Finally, one judge seems to understand. Judge Herold Baker refused to allow a Canadian adult film site to subpoena ISPs for the personal information of subscribers. He said that an IP address does not equal a person. The fact that this case involves porn means that the judge felt he needed to handle it delicately. A wrongful conviction in a case like this could be even more damaging to a person than it otherwise would be.

Baker then went on to cite a recent mistaken child porn raid, where an IP address was turned into a name–but the named person hadn’t committed the crime. “The list of IP addresses attached to VPR’s complaint suggests, in at least some instances, a similar disconnect between IP subscriber and copyright infringer… The infringer might be the subscriber, someone in the subscriber’s household, a visitor with her laptop, a neighbor, or someone parked on the street at any given moment.”

This case is not a precedent setting case for the United States as a whole, per se. Still, it will be interesting to see if others follow Judge Baker’s reasoning. It’s refreshing to see that a judge seems to understand something about technology. It’s nice to see that the court isn’t totally ruled by the big corporations. I’m not in support of piracy, don’t get me wrong. But I am in support of decisions based on logic and proper information. Hopefully, the trend will spread…

What do you think of the judge’s decision? Do you support it? Do you think other judges will follow suit?

Torrents are created right on the frontpage of the service. Just paste a web url pointing to a file in the form on the start page to create the torrent. The file is then processed by BurnBit. The processing time varies, and depends on parameters like the size of the file, the connection to the hosting provider and the load on the BurnBit server.

Once processed, the torrent of the file is offered for download on a newly created page on the website. You can download the torrent right away from the page, or share the page or torrent with friends.

Webmasters can embed download buttons on their websites which display the current number of seeders and leechers. These buttons can be customized with CSS. Torrents can be downloaded with a click on the button and loaded into any software that supports the Bittorrent protocol.

Additional HTTP mirrors can be added to increase the number of web seeds. This improves the availability, connectivity and download speed for all users significantly. Additional file mirrors are added the very same way as the initial file locations. BurnBit compares file hashes to make sure that files are identical.

All users can register to become a member of the site. Registration is free and comes with additional privileges, like monitoring and customizing torrents, or receiving notifications.

Creating a Torrent, Restrictions

Users have two options to create torrents. They can either use the homepage of the service to create the torrents, or embed the download script on their site to automatically create torrents. Regardless of the method, they always have to link to a file on the Internet to create the torrent. There are no size limitations for the files that can be turned into torrents. The largest file seen on site had a size of more than 16 Gigabytes.

Seen on site? Yes, BurnBit maintains a torrent directory on site where users can download torrents uploaded by other members of the site.

A few restrictions have been added. It is not allowed to create torrents of copyrighted or adult files. Users may also notice that some sites are blocked by the developers because of past abuse of the service.

File downloads in theory, should not take longer than direct http downloads. They may even be faster if enough seeders are available to push the download rate for downloading users. Webmasters can save lots of bandwidth provided that multiple users download files hosted on their sites. They won’t benefit from the service if only one user downloads a file using torrents.

BurnBit is used as the tracker for the torrent file. This could be problematic considering that downloads will stop working if the service goes offline or out of business. An option to add multiple trackers to each torrent needs to be implemented to put webmasters at ease.

BurnBit is an ingenious service, especially for webmasters who offer downloads on their websites, and users who want to distribute files as torrents instead of web downloads.

Utorrent 3 adds several interesting features to the torrent client, some of which have already been available for some time in alpha versions. Among the changes is a new portable mode to run the Bittorrent client without installation and the option to stream media torrents while they are being downloaded.

You can click on the Stream button under Playback in the torrent listing to stream the media contents while downloading. The uTorrent client displays the time it will take before the stream becomes available on your computer.

The service opens the stream in the default media player that is installed on the system. This can be changed in the program’s settings. Here it is possible to select another media player for streaming.

Another interesting new option is the ability to send Torrents. You can right-click a torrent in the program and select Send Torrent to do that.

This creates a web link on the uTorrent website where recipients can download the torrent to their system and torrent client. Even better, users without a torrent client installed have the option to download a bundled version of uTorrent which reduces lots of the explaining that you may need to do if you send a torrent link to a first time user.

The drop files to send feature builds up on that. You can use it to create a torrent file by dragging and dropping files to the uTorrent interface. This opens the same Send Torrent wizard. This simplifies the creation and sharing of torrents noticeably.

Additional new features include torrent ratings, a new encrypted web user interface that requires almost no configuration.

You can download the 32-bit and 64-bit release of uTorrent 3.0 beta from the official forums (32-bit here, 64-bit here). The new web gui, called uTorrent Remote is accessible here. You need an account to use that feature. The beta is only offered for the Windows operating system. (via)

One constant problem for Google was the suggestion of suggestions surrounding downloads. A search phrase followed by torrent, or a name of one of the larger file hosting websites often displayed links to copyrighted contents.

Up until now it was enough to enter a name and the first chars of the downloading service or method, for instance Simpsons To which would have been auto-completed to Simpsons Torrent.

That however is a thing of the past as Google has blocked several terms from its auto-completion feature. Among them Bittorrent, torrent, Rapidshare and Megaupload. The filter in its current stage would block suggestions for Linux torrents for instance.

The search results on the other hand remain untouched, only the user has to enter the full search term manually to make the search.

As Torrentfreak points out; It is very strange that only some keywords are blocked while others remain untouched. Other Bittorrent software like Bitcomet, torrent sharing sites like The Piratebay or Isohunt, and other file sharing services like 4Shared or Mediafire are still included in the suggestions and auto-completions.

Even worse for the companies blocked is that suggestions have also been disabled for their names. If you search for Rapidshare for instance you won’t see instant results, you won’t get suggestions and you won’t get auto-complete until the name has been fully entered into the search form.

This means that the affected companies will likely see a drop in traffic coming from Google.

Google is blocking suggestions regardless of legalities. They block suggestions for instance suggestion to find Ubuntu torrents or the homepage of Rapidshare or Megaupload. That alone should be reason enough to refine or remove the filter again. The second problem I see is that they only block some companies and websites. Is it explainable that some file sharing websites are blocked while others are not?

Maybe another reason to switch to Bing. What’s your take on the matter?

In a statement, MediaCAT’s barrister, Tim Ludbrook read a statement from solicitor Andrew Crossley that said “I have ceased my work…I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats.” according to a report by the BBC.  ”It has caused immense hassle to me and my family,” he added.

ACS: Law was the firm at the centre of a hacking scandal back on September 2010 when thousands of its emails were exposed showing the people who were being accused of downloading pornographic movies for free.  Consumer groups have said that ACS: Law were sending thousands of letters to innocent people and some ISPs refused to hand over details of their customers.

Judge Birss, the same judge who ruled on the case in December said “I want to tell you that I am not happy. I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny.”  This follows accusations that ACS: Law have been seeking to extract money from people without ever having any intention of taking them to court.  These accusations intensified when it was discovered that ACS: Law was pocketing 65% of the money collected.

Mr Ludbrook said “It has always been my intention to litigate and, but for the fact that I have ceased this work, my intention was to litigate forcefully in these 27 cases.”  It has emerged however that another law firm, GCB Ltd has now begun sending similar letters, including to one person who had received a letter from ACS: Law saying they would be taking no further action against them.

According to the BBC…

Judge Birss said he was considering banning MediaCAT from sending any more such letters until the issues raised by the cases had been resolved.  The judge was keen to find out what the relationship was between GCB and ACS: Law, something Mr Crossley sought to clarify in his statement.  He said that he had no connection with GCB Ltd beyond the fact that the founders of the firm had previously been employed at ACS: Law.

Barrister Guy Tritton [acting on behalf of the accused] questioned the nature of the letters sent by ACS: Law, asking why it described MediaCAT as a “copyright protection society,” – a title that he said was “misleading”.

This has raised serious questions about whether an IP address could be used to positively identify a person who has downloaded illegal content.  Many have said that lawyers are attempting to exploit the legal system and the lack of technical knowledge of judges.  Judge Birss is expected to deliver his judgement on the case later this week and we’ll bring you the story as it happens.

Now the firm has been dealt a further blow with a judge rejecting their attempts to have the cases settled without trial, according to PC Pro.

ACS Law said that the defendants had operated, “at the time of the identified infringement an Internet connection router that was not secured either adequately or at all, so as to enable another to carry out an act of copyright infringement of the claimant’s Work via the Internet connection of the defendant.”

This was in breach of the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act according to the firm, but Judge Birss had a different opinion and instead ruled that ”The plea that ‘allowing’ others to infringe is itself an act restricted by s16 (1)(a) and 17 of the 1988 Act is simply wrong.”

While this itself does not set a precedent as the case was only heard in a county court it is very important and could have repercussions around the world if upheld in higher courts.  The assumption that people can and are aware of the security requirements for wi-fi wireless networks, and that they must be aiding and abetting illegal file-sharers simply by not having a password on their router is a weak one and it’s good that it’s been tested in this way.

ACS Law have been abusing the popularity of home wireless routers to press for the assumption that everyone who ownes one therefore understands it and knows exactly how to use it. 

The judge summed up by stating that “The term used by those sections of the Act is ‘authorising’ and the difference may be very important if the allegation is about unauthorised use of an Internet router by third parties.”

We’ll let you know how this story unfolds in 2011 at gHacks.

TorrentFreak has the whole story and some interesting figures on the market share of the now-defunct P2P system. The figures are from 2008, but show a massive market share of 37%, followed by uTorrent with 14%. This has likely changed a bit over the course of two years, with torrents become more popular.

Some users report that the LimeWire client installed on their system now refuses to update. Others report that the client itself is still working as intended and showing results for searches, which makes sense considering that it operates on the Gnutella network which has not been affected by the ruling. And while the P2P software is not available on the developer’s homepage, it is still available on third party download portals.

LimeWire users who are looking for an alternative may want to take a look at the Open Source client FrostWire which offers a similar functionality. Check out Alternative.to for more LimeWire replacements.

Apps for uTorrent are currently only available in the latest developer releases of the p2p client. The first version with integrated apps was uTorrent 2.2 beta with four applications in total.

The latest uTorrent 3.0 alpha ships with a total of ten apps, of which most can be installed from within the client. This article acts as an overview to provide uTorrent users with information about the apps that can be installed.

An experimental uTorrent client that only works on English language systems is required to work with apps in the software program. The latest version is always available at the Project Griffin project page.

The interface of uTorrent 3 looks different than that of previous versions. A sidebar is displayed consisting of search functionality, the torrent listing, feeds and apps.

A click on Apps displays all available applications that can be installed. Most apps are directly installed in uTorrent, some like TuneUp, trigger an external installer.

• Outspark – direct links to MMO game clients
• ClearBits Featured – Offers direct access to Clear bits open licensed digital media, mostly music albums and movies.
• uMap – utilizes Google Maps to display the locations of connected peers on a world map.
• uBrowse – a local file browser to quickly access downloaded files directly from within uTorrent.
• Tetronimoes – play Tetris in the uTorrent client.
• TuneUp – fixes mislabeled music, adds cover art, displays concert alerts.
• Virus Guard – virus protection, will scan downloads directly in the Bittorrent client
• Raptr Free Games – play free games in uTorrent, great to pass the time.
• uGadget – adds torrenting features to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox, ability to monitor and control torrent downloads in the browser.
• VODO – offers direct free movie downloads shared by their creators.

Currently there are three types of applications in the apps gallery: Applications that are directly torrent related, like the virus scanner or uMap, apps that add torrent selections directly in the client, like Vodo or ClearBits, and applications that add torrent unrelated features like the gaming apps.

Installed applications are displayed in the sidebar from where they can be selected easily. App development will take off once the first final version of uTorrent containing the apps feature is released. Apps in the long run will increase the popularity of the Bittorrent client further.

The latest stable version offered on the uTorrent homepage is version 2.02, the latest official beta 2.03. Utorrent 3.0 Alpha replaces the latest development release uTorrent 2.x. It is not clear yet why the developers have decided to make the version jump to 3.0.

The release notes of uTorrent 3.0 Alpha does not contain major feature additions, included are a handful of bug fixes and changes. The only feature addition is the ability to disable UDP trackers.

2010-06-24: Version 3.0 (build 20228)
- Fix: fixed uTP crash on sockets being closed with uninitialized read buffers
- Fix: default download directory fix for multifile torrents
- Change: rate limit uTP by default
- Fix: Fixed fast-resend bug in selective ack handling in uTP. This could cause too aggressive resends on packet loss
- Change: fix crash when formatting a string with NULL
- Change: make uTP slightly less aggressive on loss
- Change: Mention uTP in settings and reorganize new bandwidth checkbox since they apply to both up and down limits
- Change: Render TCP rates in speed graph when uTP is not throttled
- Change: Moved net.calc_overhead to the Bandwidth settings pane
- Fix: RSS items show a different icon if disabled
- Change: Turn on uTP throttling when scheduler is in “limited” mode
- Fix: Fixed a delayed ack issue in uTP (lowers overhead)
- Fix: RSS items would show when torrent list was empty
- Fix: made magnet links in RSS feeds work
- Change: made uTP packet size increase based on low delay measurements
- Fix: made uTP packet size depend on total send rate, not just uTP send rate
- Change: new advanced settings net.disable_ipv6 that defaults to True on 64bit Windows
- Change: Don’t show add torrent dialog by default.
- Feature: Add checkbox to disable UDP trackers

The latest alpha of uTorrent 3.0 is available for download at the uTorrent forum. Users who have already worked with development releases before will get an automatic update notification in the Bittorrent client to install the new version directly.