Neuron2Neuron

An Update on Blocklists

2010-08-26T01:34:00.004+01:00

Quite a few of you have taken issue, in the comments, about my disparaging posts on blocklists, that they don't work and never have. The arguments have boiled down toIf they block just one IP, it's worth it.Of course they work, I've used one and never got a letterHow much are the anti-p2p companies paying you for this?There are a number of problems with all these arguments. Let's deal with them

The Most Popular MEP is a Pirate

2010-07-18T01:46:00.000+01:00

The success last year of the Swedish Pirate Party in the European Parliament elections was considered a bit of a fluke by some. However when the votes were in, Christian Engström and Amelia Andersdotter were elected MEPs after the party collected over 7% of the vote. While Ms Andersdotter isn’t seated yet (as one of the new MEP’s created when the Lisbon Treaty passed in November 2009), Mr

Brit Attempts Record Bittorrent Swarm Size

2010-07-07T20:03:00.001+01:00

Records are made to be broken, or at least that’s the philosophy one UK man is taking. He wants to break the record for the most number of seeders on a torrent. The current record, as far as we’re aware, was set by an EZTV torrent and stands at around 124,000. Bittorrent is a scalable system. Unlike most distribution methods, it doesn’t have much in the way of slowdown as the number of

Aston Kutcher Film Premier Cammed… by Kutcher

2010-06-04T16:03:00.000+01:00

13 minutes of new film Killers was broadcast on the Internet during it’s premier. It’s no ordinary case of camming though, as the person responsible, the films star Aston Kutcher, is the one behind it. Film star and Hollywood ‘Punkd master’ Aston Kutcher is in the spotlight again. While some might consider it one of his stunts, this one could land him in jail. At the premier of his latest

BERR consultation responses - “Audible Magic”

2009-11-06T15:33:00.004Z

In reference to BERR response “p2p – Audible Magic – FOI.PDF”Audible Magic is a company that manufactures and sells network based equipment and software, which aim to reduce copyright infringement. Their business model is based around the idea of technological enforcement of copyright, and this should be kept in mind when reading any such company documents. Their observations on channeling may

Italian Pirate Preps for EU election

2009-06-04T00:18:00.000+01:00

Alessandro Bottoni (english) is the Secretary of the Italian Pirate Party. However, unlike Pirate Parties in other countries, due to the nature of Italian politics, the Italian Partito Pirata is not a political organisation,but a pressure group. Because of this, Mr Bottoni is running under the Sinistra e Liberta (left and freedom) party in the EU elections. The Swedish Pirate Party's declaration

Discussing the EU Election with PiratPartiet

2009-06-04T00:04:00.005+01:00

Say “Pirate Party” to someone, and the majority of the time, they'll think of one country – Sweden. The first Pirate Party was founded there January 1st 2006, and in just three short years has risen to become the third biggest party, by membership, in the country. Their youth movement is the biggest of all the political youth groups, with a membership around double that of the next biggest, the

BERR consultation responses - “12”

2009-06-02T20:24:00.004+01:00

The respondent is in his late 20s, and an avid watcher of news in this area. Highly technically competent, and University educated.Or, to put it another way, Me. This was a comment to the team, that was treated as a response.Consultation analysis overview

Finnish Pirate Party Study

2009-05-27T18:38:00.004+01:00

The Finnish Pirate Party has done a small study into the sale of recorded music using the IFPI's figures. Thanks to Kaj Sotala of the Piraattipuolue, I present the English Language version.As the source, IFPI Finland's official estimates of the overall Finnish music sales (source) have been used directly for the years 1980-2006. Those statistics do not list digital sales, so the figure including

How P2P Reporting Exposes Media's Ignorance

2009-05-18T18:11:00.001+01:00

With news stories about copyright becoming increasingly common on the major media services of the world, it’s clear that a lot of mainstream media doesn’t understand the laws, or facts regarding copyright. If the media can’t report it accurately, are people, and more importantly politicians, getting the wrong idea about things? The ‘digital revolution’ has re-jigged a lot

BERR consultation responses - “04”

2009-05-09T19:04:00.000+01:00

In reference to BERR response “p2p – 04 – FOI.PDF”The respondent is again clear and concise. This is a fact that appears to be common amongst the private respondents. The level of in-depth technical knowledge shown is not great, but at least a personal experience with the technologies is evident.Concerns raised are over the legality of such proposals, with reference to data protection laws. This

Good and bad UPS experiances

2009-04-07T21:11:00.007+01:00

It's not often That Neuron2Neuron goes off the Peer2Peer/technology track much, but this I just have to share, as it relates, in a way. It's about UPS, who is supposed to be delivering a book, that will be reviewed on TorrentFreak. The book will be reviewed by TorrentFreak's US office (which is mainly the research office) so I'll give it over to them for the lowdown.-The book comes from Oxford

BERR consultation responses - “03”

2009-04-06T20:19:00.002+01:00

In reference to BERR response “p2p – 03 – FOI.PDF”A short and succinct response, which makes its points clearly and quickly, but gives few actual easily followed references, instead alluding to events. The writer is clearly technology literate, P2P literate, and has been following most of the main cases involving P2P at a level including critical analysis, rather than press releases and

BERR consultation responses - “02”

2009-04-06T15:21:00.001+01:00

In reference to BERR response “p2p – 02 – FOI.PDF”First of all, the identity of this person is redacted, albeit pointlessly. The author is Bennett Lincoff, which is easily to determine from the first page alone (of the 14 submitted). I wish I knew why the BERR took the strange step of not only removing the person's identity, but also of redacting some of the supporting links in the footnotes,

FTC - Failures to Comment?

2009-03-25T23:36:00.003Z

I've just spent the last 8 hours or more listening to the FTC webcast on DRM.I've submitted several questions, and an associate of mine, Andrew Norton of the Pirate Party International, submitted serveral too. Between us, we had 4-5 read out. Only ONE was actually read out in full, and it was not really followed up; in some instances questions ended mid-sentence when read out, leading to some

Broadband Maps and 'We never saw bittorrent comming'

2009-03-23T20:54:00.003Z

Having spent a good part of today watching some of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) roundtable about the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, it seems there's a lot of talk and little action. One thing that came up was there is little desire to make businesses accountable and serve the public, because it might put people off (although they also acknowledge that very few turn down the

Rand Corp joins ITfIPA's crazytrain

2009-03-03T18:28:00.003Z

A few years back, I wrote about some extremely misleading stats published by the ITfIPA (Industry Trust for IP Awareness) and the involvement of terrorists. Imagine my surprise today then, when I read of a study by the Rand Corporation, which makes similar claims, and lo and behold, it also uses counterfeiting stats, to mean 'movie piracy' (the two terms are NOT interchangable). No prizes for

BERR consultation responses - “01”

2009-01-20T22:26:00.003Z

In reference to BERR response “p2p – 01 – FOI.PDF”This response is typical of a medium to heavy user, and would appear to be teens or early twenties. The respondent is clear that a contract should fulfil it's advertised role, and that the ISPs shouldn't be selling and promising what it can't, or doesn't want to, deliver. The user is also quite forthright in pointing out that there are options and

BERR Consultation Responses – An Analysis

2009-01-20T21:53:00.008Z

I must admit, with my current role at TorrentFreak, I've let N2N get quiet. I now plan on partially reviving it, but more as a sort of repository of analysis I've conducted. Firstly, I'll be starting with the recent BERR consultation responses. This is stuff that just won't fit in with TorrentFreak but which I feel is important to get published in some form, so that it's out there, for people to

A Lack of reality...

2008-12-31T15:47:00.005Z

The P2P news/filesharing community is a small one, and there's not that many of us. However, the first thing you need when reporting ANY news, is a firm grasp on reality. This is what makes this blog post by Zeropaid writer Drew Wilson so unfortunate.If you check the google trends for the 4 main p2p news websites (torrentfreak, zeropaid, slyck and p2pnet) you'll see that his success hasn't been

Another example of the problems with Blocklists

2008-09-27T05:49:00.003+01:00

By now, most of you will know I'm no fan of blocklists. The simple fact is that even with the best will in the world, they're still often wildly inaccurate. Generally, the people you target with blocklists don't tend to be very cooperative with those that want to block them.I've mentioned before how ineffective P2P blocklists have been, and even the website ones don't work. The Italian block of

ESET - PG2 is malware

2008-02-24T07:25:00.006Z

Original story - TorrentFreakA Personal PerspectiveSometimes, there are stories where the twists and turns are mindboggling; where the statements and positions made by some groups make you wonder if they live in the same world. There are times when you not only want to report the news, but comment on it as well. I must admit, writing the above story, it was hard to keep objective, and I must

PINAC : Business Stats

2007-10-17T01:42:00.000+01:00

As part of an ongoing update, I am reprinting old pieces of mine here as well. This piece originally appeared here on www.piracyisnotacrime.com in Late 2004, and referenced the top of this no-longer published page on piracyisacrime.comA Problem for BusinessEvery weekend, 7,000 open markets in the UK trade in pirate videos and DVDs.Every weekend, eh. Exactly 7,000? Is that based on examination of

Reading Comprehension is not Required for Microsoft

2007-08-18T18:47:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, it's clear that people have difficulty reading, other times it's clear they have difficulty writing. A lot of the time, people who suffer in both these cases write on blogs, and call themselves some kind of expert. Of course, the very worst of these, are those that are computer programmers. Have you looked at programs these days? They're sometimes ten times the size equivalent programs

3rd Annual Fair Use Day Arrives

2007-07-11T02:38:00.000+01:00

The 3rd annual Fair Use Day Is about to start, July 11 to be exact. A day to celebrate and learn about things is not new. There are similar days and even months for everything from “black history” to trees and even talking like a pirate, but it is not common for something that governments are attempting to legislate out of existence.“I’m just an average guy with a common interest in the rights we