TechZilo » P2P/BitTorrent

Free TV torrents RSS feed: ShowRSS

Sumesh P — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:25:57 +0000

ShowRSS is a new website that provides RSS feeds for BitTorrent links of television shows.

ShowRSS is developed by a Spanish torrent enthusiast. Apparently, the owner does not intend to make money from the site – there are no any ads on the site as of writing. Filesharing, and more specifically torrent websites, for non-commercial purposes is legal in Spain (several sites were ruled legal by courts in Spain), because of which the owner is confident that the site will not be taken down by anti-piracy organizations.

The steps to start using Show RSS are best described by the following image:

The steps are fairly easy, and requires very little action from the user once the initial setup is complete. ShowRSS does requires a registration, but it is just about the easiest. You do not need even an email address – all it takes is to type in a user name, password and image CAPTCHA for anti-spam purposes. The account helps the site save preferences and such.

In an interview, the site owner said that all user information on the site are encrypted for safety. In any case, the information isn’t likely to be very useful if they are ever broken into.

Visit ShowRSS

An original article by TechZilo

Free TV torrents RSS feed: ShowRSS

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Pirate Bay blocked in India without any verdict/cases pending

Sumesh P — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:41:38 +0000

Various Twitter users are reporting that The Pirate Bay has been blocked in India. Users of nation-wide like Airtel, Tata, Sify and even public sector ISPs like BSNL have reported that The Pirate Bay is inaccessible.

You can track tweets on Twitter about Pirate Bay ban with this search (thanks Aditya).

Now, for some background information on the piracy situation in India: anti-piracy efforts are active and headed by police in India, with full support of government. There have not been many strong voices against anti-piracy efforts. However, most anti-piracy activities are targeted towards pirates who sell CDs/DVDs, and some websites which offer direct downloads. BitTorrent has been largely ignored, and most anti-piracy officials are not even completely aware of BitTorrent.

What worries us the most is that ISPs have blocked a website despite the fact that there are no official court cases or orders pending against Pirate Bay. Our guess is that the ISPs were forced to implement the ban by anti-piracy pressure groups who may have used the recent Swedish verdict against them. Pirate Bay is up for other countries, but we cannot rule out any other reason than a ban.

However, Swedish laws are not the same as India’s, and implementing the ban (if any) without any official explanation is highly regrettable.

An original article by TechZilo

Pirate Bay blocked in India without any verdict/cases pending

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PirateBay cofounder Anakata faces probe

Sumesh P — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:05:21 +0000

Gottfrid Svartholm aka Anakata

It seems that the Pirate Bay trial is not the only thing that will bother the Pirate Bay operators. Gottfrid Svartholm, commonly known as Anakata, faces an investigation by Swedish prosecutors who are looking into his role in The Student Bay, a Swedish niche filesharing site for educational texts.

The Student Bay is a site for sharing academic and course textbooks. It features a prominent pirate ship logo similar to The Pirate Bay’s. Furthermore, contact information directed readers to Pirate Bay (during site launch).

The Student Bay was launched in March last year and enables users to upload digital (scanned) copies of educational textbooks which would then be available for download. These files are hosted on Rapid Share. Unlike Pirate Bay, Student Bay requires those users who have not uploaded any textbooks, to pay a one-time fee of approximately US $3.

Svartholm denied any involvement with the site. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said earlier. Swedish Association for Educational Writers (SLFF) reported Student Bay to the police late last year claiming it violated copyright. SLFF expects the Pirate Bay ruling to add strength to their own case against Student Bay. SLFF released a statement claiming that the Pirate Bay ruling was a victory for copyright owners worldwide.

The case will now be handled by a special prosecutor, who also confirmed that Svartholm was implicated along with one other undisclosed individual. He also said that investigation is in early stages.

An original article by TechZilo

PirateBay cofounder Anakata faces probe

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Remove PirateBay BitTorrent site account

Configure uTorrent / Azureus port forwarding router settings

Sumesh P — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:24:24 +0000

One of the biggest headaches with using a BitTorrent client with a router is port forwarding / lack of open ports / checking for open ports. Opening ports in a torrent client is more about troubleshooting router settings and configuration to get the port forwarding right.

I use a Netgear router with my laptop, hence I will be using it for the steps in this tutorial. However, these should suffice for most routers,

Open port in uTorrent

Find and modify port used

We need to find the port used by torrent client. It is also a good idea to change it to something between 60000 and 65000 – many ISPs are known to throttle ports below that.

In uTorrent, go to Options > Preferences. In the left pane, click Connection. Change the port and note the number down somewhere (to be used in configuration later).

Find network IP

Hit Windows key, type cmd and hit enter. In the command prompt, enter ipconfig and hit enter. Note down the IP address that comes up – this will also be used later.

Router configuration

Enter 192.168.1.1 (without .com at the end or http in front) into the address bar of browser and hit enter. You will be asked for login details – if you haven’t changed it, it will be “admin” and “password” respectively.

You are on your own in adding port forwarding – get the option/menu that says “add a port” with forwarding.

Ensure that you name it with a recognizable word and set it to be open for both TCP and UDP. Also type in the port number noted down in first step and network IP noted down in second step.

An original article by TechZilo

Configure uTorrent / Azureus port forwarding router settings

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Search torrents within Firefox with Torrent Finder

Sumesh P — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:25:13 +0000

BitTorrent accounts for a large portion of the total data transferred online, and it is easy to see why. From being decentralized (so that MPAA, RIAA etc. cannot shut it down totally) and utilizing your bandwidth better than direct downloads, to reducing the demands on servers during a Linux distro launch (think Ubuntu Hardy Heron’s release), BitTorrent offers numerous advantages and incentives for everyone.

Instead of using torrent search sites, why not use a toolbar to quicken your searches? Torrent Finder is a Firefox addon that can search torrents from over 180 torrent sites, including the popular ones like Mininova, ISOhunt, Demonoid, Torrent Spy, Pirate Bay etc.

Torrent Finder Toolbar for Firefox

Torrent Finder Toolbar options

Features of Torrent Finder

You can configure Torrent Finder to find torrents from single or multiple torrent search engines. Results can be opened in Torrent Finder search tabs, small windows or in Firefox tabs themselves. Pagination is included (previous and next buttons) to toggle between tabs.

Extra tools to find torrents by keywords (keyword highlighter), to toggle between search engines by category (select toggle), and to easily find the search engine you need (toggle by first letter) have been included too. An incredible number of users (~330,000) have installed the add-on as of today.

Get Torrent Finder Firefox extension

An original article by TechZilo

Search torrents within Firefox with Torrent Finder

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BTracs automates checking private BitTorrent tracker for open registration

Sumesh P — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:36:07 +0000

Getting into private BitTorrent trackers can be a tough job. You would either have to get an invite (which are hard to come by), or sign up when the site opens up for registration. By keeping a close watch on the BitTorrent trackers in which you are interested, you have a good chance of getting in during such invite-free registration window.

BTracs is a useful website that lists a large number of private BitTorrent trackers which have open windows at the time. By checking BTracs, you may get into many private trackers without much more effort than checking the page along with your daily email and feeds. For example, I noticed that Mac Torrents was open for registration last month.

BTracs contains one banner NSFW ad each at the beginning and end of the webpage.

BitTorrent trackers are ranked according to Alexa ranking, and also categorized (general, music, sports, adult), making it easier for you to determine which tracker is right for you.

Visit BTracs

An original article by TechZilo

BTracs automates checking private BitTorrent tracker for open registration

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Search torrents with ScrapeTorrent

Sumesh P — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:19:37 +0000

ScrapeTorrent is yet another BitTorrent search site.

Scrape Torrent has a beautiful dark design and an attractive color scheme to boot. It is a search aggregator of sorts, combining torrent search results from top BitTorrent sites into a single place. Search results can be sorted by name, date, seeds, category and file size.

Visit ScrapeTorrent

An original article by TechZilo

Search torrents with ScrapeTorrent

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Cabos: Free P2P application for Windows/Mac OS X

Sumesh P — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:57:03 +0000

Cabos is a free filesharing program for Windows and Mac OS X. It connects to Limewire network, and is adware and spyware-free (which makes it a better option than Limeware client itself).

Cabos P2P in Mac OS X

Cabos sports a clean interface with search and file listing panels, and is perfectly suited to getting your downloads done quickly and effortlessly. If you have avoided the Limeware app, Cabos may be for you.

Cabos works on Mac OS X 10.2 or later, and Windows 2000 or later.

Download Cabos for Windows/Mac OS X

An original article by TechZilo

Cabos: Free P2P application for Windows/Mac OS X

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Download uTorrent for Mac OS X (beta)

Sumesh P — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:17:37 +0000

In September, I had posted about a leaked alpha version of uTorrent for Mac OS X. It was an alpha build, and add to it the fact that it was unofficial and available on Pirate Bay, and I think at least some would have waited for a safer beta version.

uTorrent BitTorrent client for Mac OS X (beta) is now available officially. Being beta, there might be minor bugs, but if you have used alpha of uTorrent torrent client without any problems, or you didn’t try out alpha, then beta is the version for you. Hopefully, uTorrent for Mac will be as good or better than uTorrent for Windows.

Download uTorrent for Mac OS X

An original article by TechZilo

Download uTorrent for Mac OS X (beta)

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BitDig: Digg-like site for torrents

Sumesh P — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:14:43 +0000

BitDig takes a twist to the usual torrent indexing/search sites. Bit Dig is just what the name suggests: a Digg-like site for torrent files.

At BitDig, you can vote up for your favorite torrents, and also get links to download them. Much like Digg, popular torrents get promoted to the front page and garner many more downloads, perhaps to the anger of MPAA?

You can also visit BitDig top charts, where the top torrents in each category is listed. The perfect way to waste your 28 Mbps FIOS internet, eh?

Update: It appears that BitDig is not up, and a domain parking page appears. BitDig was active until October 11, as proved by the Web Archive page.

An original article by TechZilo

BitDig: Digg-like site for torrents

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uTorrent updated to v1.8.1

Sumesh P — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:16:08 +0000

Version 1.8.1 of popular and lightweight BitTorrent client uTorrent has been released. The new release brings several bug fixes – crashing on Windows Vista, a problem of BitTorrent trackers going offline after a few hours for no reason etc.

uTorrent is popular for being very light-weight and yet feature rich. uTorrent is currently available on Windows (and can be used on Linux under Wine), and a Mac OS X version is under development (get an alpha version of uTorrent for Mac OS X).

Download uTorrent 1.8.1

An original article by TechZilo

uTorrent updated to v1.8.1

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Download uTorrent torrent client for Mac OS X

Sumesh P — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:11:26 +0000

Update: Click here to download a newer, better version of uTorrent.

An alpha of BitTorrent client uTorrent for Mac OS X has been leaked and is available for download.

Currently, uTorrent is available only for Windows, and Windows users stand by uTorrent for light memory/CPU usage and ease of use. With their impending release on Mac OS X, it appears that Mac users will also be able to enjoy uTorrent Mac OS X. We will update this page as and when newer versions of uTorrent for Mac is found.

Download uTorrent for Mac OS X [PirateBay BitTorrent link]

An original article by TechZilo

Download uTorrent torrent client for Mac OS X

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IOC Wants Olympics Torrents Off Pirate Bay, Pirate Bay renames itself Beijing Bay

Sumesh P — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:59:37 +0000

IOC has, in an official letter to Beatrice Ask, Swedish Minister, requested assistance from the Swedish government in preventing video from Beijing Olympics to be shared on The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay, as usual, has shown no respite, and has not taken anything down.

Olympic torrents have been very popular – downloaded over a million times, thanks to broadcasters’ decision to delay broadcasting of Olympics opening ceremony by several hours, in many parts of the world. Apparently, IOC also wants help in preventing torrents of the Olympics closing ceremonies from being shared.

IOC chose to contact Swedish Government, probably knowing that legal messages to Pirate Bay would only be ridiculed.

The Pirate Bay has, however retaliated. They renamed the site The Beijing Bay (URL remains the same), and created a a new logo for the site. Even more interesting is the fact that they have linked the logo to a tag, “Give us the gold“, in reference to the protest and subsequent medal reprimand suffered by Ara Abrahamian, a Swedish wrestler. This should help propogate torrents of video clips from Olympics even more, and that should make IOC happy

An original article by TechZilo

IOC Wants Olympics Torrents Off Pirate Bay, Pirate Bay renames itself Beijing Bay

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Brokep denounces The Pirate Bay ban in Italy

Sumesh P — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:17:19 +0000

After the much publicized blocking of The Pirate Bay (a popular BitTorrent tracker), Italy has released an official document (original Italian version).

Peter Sunde, better known as Brokep, of The Pirate Bay, ridiculed Italy’s decision in his blog entry, “The Italian Decree“. In it, he says:

The most interesting thing here seems to be that they seem to state that it canâ€™t be ruled out the The Pirate Bay is not in Italian jurisdiction, at least partially. This must be a first! Theyâ€™re not proving, theyâ€™re simply â€œnot ruling outâ€, and thatâ€™s basis for why the site must be blocked.

Italy is indirectly stating that “we’re blocking you because of pressure from MPAA/RIAA”, but “can’t be ruled out” because the blocking isn’t legal. Ridiculous.

To show that TPB is a commercial entity is the policy on the site stating that you can be charged with a fine if you use the system for commercial reasons without prior consent.

That is like saying that a non-profit is commercial in nature because it accepts donations. Well, not exactly, but you get the drift

Further, they also claim that TPB must be illegal since itâ€™s using the name Pirate.
But the MOST interesting thing is that domain Iâ€™ve never seen – angloamericanletting.com – owned by someone in the UK. It must probably just resolve to the same IP that TPB has (maybe a coincidence or maybe heâ€™s just a fan). Sorry, but heâ€™s now got an illegal domainname in Italy.

USA, Sweden, Switzerland and now Italy – they are all wilting under the massive pressure exerted by the artists’ associations et al. If they were doing this to truly protect their interests, I’d be happy, but the following things worry me:

They propogate false information through media in hopes of scaring people off P2P (though they’re actually doing the opposite).
They do not pay the artists and other professionals involved – inspite of getting compensation from guilty parties in various copyright infringement cases.

Other than feeling sorry for the guy with the domain, I also feel that the pro-copyright organizations in Italy are getting a bit too hot and bothered. Maybe they should cool off themselves a bit, seeing as how The Pirate Bay has seen a spike in traffic from Italy (thanks to all the media coverage)?

An original article by TechZilo

Brokep denounces The Pirate Bay ban in Italy

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Remove PirateBay BitTorrent site account

Sumesh P — Fri, 04 May 2007 08:19:28 +0000

The Pirate Bay owners announced that the site was sold to a company called Global Gaming Factory X, and users are anxious to know more about how the site will be run in future.

There are uncofirmed reports that all torrents and the tracker will be taken offline, and the site will move towards a pay-for-download method that provides a share of the revenue to the artists (or more specifically, the record labels).

Pirate Bay’s former owners, on the other hand, claim that the move to remove the tracker is simply a way to let BitTorrent performance stay independent of Pirate Bay’s uptime, and that all torrents will be moved to an external torrent hosting service (possibly owned by them) and accessed using an API. They say that the service will also be available to other torrent trackers/websites.

Why users worry about deleting Pirate Bay account

Meanwhile, worried users are scrambling to delete torrents that they uploaded, and even their accounts itself. What is worrying is that the former owners have been silent about how the sale proceeded, ie. whether the user information, IP addresses and log files will be transferred to the new owners (- to the best of my knowledge. Please correct me if I’m wrong).

Delete Pirate Bay account

The standard procedure to remove Pirate Bay accounts is to post at Suprbay, the forum for Pirate Bay.

At the time of writing, a user’s account was deleted as recently as 17 hours ago, so it seems that you can request admins to delete your Pirate Bay account by posting at Supr Bay.

Go to this forum and post a new thread with the topic “Please delete my TPB account” or something similar.

However, if you are too late, this may not help, the site sale was announced today morning (June 30), so you may not be able to delete your account.

And before you ask me, I have not deleted my Pirate Bay account – although I registered a long time, I have never downloaded or uploaded anything (see image #1 in this post).

What happens to Pirate Bay?

It looks very likely that Pirate Bay will be another Napster – all that talk about ‘content creators being paid’ and all. What most pirates would like to see is artists get money directly, however, that will not happen as long as the large, dominant and inefficient system of record labels are supported by artists.

Pirate Bay may end up as the golden example that wasn’t – their large user base, who in many cases, wish well for artists (some comments prove this) could have become the first site to let pirates donate in a ‘pay-after-you-like’ policy. Surely, artists would like more money in their pockets than millions of dollars being wasted by MPAA/RIAA for lawsuits and driving away pirates from paying anything at all.

An original article by TechZilo

Remove PirateBay BitTorrent site account

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