As to the original posters comments, i wonder if this has anything to do with the recent Astra changes, i know they moved the last of the transponders accross from 2A to 2G last night
Might explain the audio issues on those specific transponders
btw.. what is your location harley22 ?
Police say they have smashed "a criminal group" involved with the unauthorized distribution of video online. Three men in their twenties and thirties have been arrested by Polish police and up to three sites are reported down. The action follows the shutdown of several 'pirate' sites in Poland last month and the arrest of a millionaire businessman.
With web-blockades, domain seizures and payment processor interventions making headlines, campaigns to shut down individual sites have been less prominent than usual in the first half of 2015. But that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped.
Just last week the popular BT-Chat was shut down in Canada following pressure from the MPAA and news from Europe suggests that at least two more sites have fallen in recent days following industry action.
After a long investigation, police in Poland report that authorities swooped last week on individuals said to be part of a “criminal group” involved with the unauthorized distribution of video online, movies in particular. In an operation carried out by municipal police and officers from a regional cybercrime unit, several locations were searched including homes, offices and cars.
Three men aged between 24 and 33 years-old were arrested in Wroclaw, the largest city in western Poland. According to police, 14 computers, 13 external drives, 40 prepaid cards, several mobile phones and sundry other items were seized during the raids.
In addition to the images below, police have put together a video (mp4) of one of the targeted locations complete with a horror movie-style audio track for added impact.
While police have not published the names of the domains allegedly operated by the men, two leading sites have disappeared in recent days without explanation. TNTTorrent.info and Seansik.tv were the country’s 160th and 130th most popular sites overall but neither is currently operational.
The men are being blamed for industry losses of at least $1.3m and together stand accused of breaching copyright law which can carry a jail sentence of up to five years in criminal cases. For reasons that are not entirely clear, however, police are currently advising a potential three year sentence.
The latest shutdowns, which also encompass torrent site Torrent.pl, follow police action in May which closed down eKino.tv and the lesser known Litv.info, Scs.pl and Zalukaj.to. With around 324,000 likes on its Facebook page eKino.tv was by far the most popular site but it seems unlikely that it will return anytime soon. Currently displaying “THE END” on its front page, its owner was arrested last month.
Local media is connecting the closure to the arrest of a 49-year-old businessman who had been running a company offering “Internet services” and also Poland’s largest pirate site. According to authorities he made millions of dollars from the operation and laundered money by investing in the stock exchange. Those funds have reportedly been frozen.
Also arrested were three accomplices, including a 36-year-old allegedly responsible for creating the database of movies and setting up a US company to assist with the site’s finances. They all stand accused of copyright infringement and money laundering offenses and face ten years in prison.
Demonii and OpenBitTorrent, the two most popular torrent trackers on the Internet, are now regularly handling up to 56 million peers - each. The operator of Demonii informs TF that limitations in the software used by both sites means a usable ceiling of around 35 million peers, but the addition of new hardware has enabled a massive increase to today's levels.
demoniiIf one needs to find a physical location, sat navs, smart phones or even the humble map or sign post should help to shorten the process. If one wants to find the precise location of content being distributed on BitTorrent, there is no better solution than querying a tracker.
When a user loads a .torrent file into his or her torrent client for the first time, the software looks inside to find out which trackers know about the torrent. Then the torrent client contacts the tracker to find out which other clients (or ‘peers’) are already sharing the content. This enables all sharers to be put in contact with each other to upload and download content. It’s an elegant system that works exceptionally well.
Some of the most influential trackers of recent years, all of which use the same software, have had their share of ups and downs. Having disappeared last year, PublicBT appears to have been consigned to history, OpenBitTorrent has just returned after months offline, and Demonii battles on, legal threats not withstanding.
Earlier this month we reported how Demonii smashed its own record by tracking in excess of 36 million simultaneous peers while managing 4.8 million torrents. But just over three weeks later, the tracker is again in the record books.
New stats published by the site show that Demonii is now tracking a seriously impressive 56 million simultaneous peers making around 3.7 billion connections every single day.
That’s a 55% uplift on the record set earlier this month and 86% more than the figures published in February. And, as can be seen in the image below, the number of torrents being tracked is up to, from 4.8 million to 5.2 million.
After its recent return, OpenBitTorrent is riding high too. Although the site isn’t as open with its stats as Demonii, the tracker is also handling between 50 and 52 million peers (approx 36m seeds and 16m leechers) while handling between 5.2 and 5.4 million torrents.
From previous discussions we know that the OpenTracker software used by both sites tends to max out at around 35 million torrents, so what has enabled these massive boosts in recent weeks?
“The reason for the sudden spike is due to the fact that we have upgraded our infrastructure,” one of Demonii’s operators informs TF.
“Since [mid May] we switched our tracker to a different hosting provider and at the same time we added two servers, instead of the single one we used before hand.”
With two servers/trackers now working in sync the numbers of peers have increased dramatically. But despite Demonii’s efforts, yet more ceilings may soon be reached.
“We are estimating that there are still limitations, this time on one of the two servers rather than the software. One of the two servers is getting maxed out at 100mbit (which is its max),” Demonii explains.
For now the tracker will continue using OpenTracker since in Demonii’s own words “it’s the best software out there”, but changes could be made in the future.
“We are still working with Chihaya (github) to hopefully have their software replace OpenTracker, but it’s not ready just yet,” Demonii concludes.
Even though the community transparently falls back on the slower DHT and PEX when the main public trackers go down, it is clear that the demand for fast and dedicated public trackers is still huge. As always, however, the BitTorrent ecosystem is still served by a relatively small number of trackers and that doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon.
Major UK Internet providers must block three additional sports streaming sites as part of a High Court order. The latest blocking round was issued on behalf of the Premier League and FA, targeting Rojadirecta, LiveTV and Drakulastream. The latter site also has its domain name under investigation by the EURid registry.
Following a series of High Court orders six UK ISPs are required to block subscriber access to many of the largest pirate sites.
The efforts started in 2012 and the list continued to grow in the years that followed.
In the latest wave The Football Association and Premier League Limited achieved an extension of the UK blocklist with the addition of popular sports streaming sites Rojadirecta, LiveTV and Drakulastream.
This brings the total number of blocked sites to 128 and more domains are expected to follow in the months to come.
The new blocks, which haven’t been implemented by all ISPs yet, are believed to be an expansion of a High Court order against the streaming site Firstrow. This order provides the football associations with the option to continually update the list of infringing domains.
TF contacted the Premier League for a comment on the latest additions but at the time of publication we hadn’t heard back.
Interestingly, one of the targeted sites, Drakulastream, was also facing trouble on another front. This week the EURid registry suspended the site’s .eu domain pending a legal investigation.
“The domain name is temporarily inactive pending the outcome of a legal activity. It might be that the status of the domain name changes in the coming days. This is a procedure that is still pending,” an EURid spokesperson informed TF a few days ago.
However, Drakulastream later resolved the issue and the domain became active again a few hours ago.
The blocked sports streaming sites are not the only ones to be added to the UK blocklist this week. A few days ago The Publishers Association won a court order requiring local ISPs to block various eBook sites.
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The full list of sites to be blocked in the UK is now as follows:
New: Rojadirecta, LiveTV and Drakulastream
Previously blocked: Ebookee, LibGen, Freshwap, AvaxHome, Bookfi, Bookre, Freebookspot, popcorntime.io, flixtor.me, popcorn-time.se, isoplex.isohunt.to, watchonlineseries.eu, axxomovies.org, afdah.com, g2g.fm, Bursalagu, Fullsongs, Mega-Search, Mp3 Monkey, Mp3.li, Mp3Bear, MP3Boo, Mp3Clan, Mp3Olimp, MP3s.pl, Mp3soup, Mp3Truck, Musicaddict, My Free MP3, Plixid, RnBXclusive, STAFA Band, watchseries.lt, Stream TV, Watchseries-online, Cucirca, Movie25, watchseries.to, Iwannawatch, Warez BB, Ice Films, Tehparadox, Heroturko, Scene Source,, Rapid Moviez, Iwatchonline, Los Movies, Isohunt, Torrentz.pro, Torrentbutler, IP Torrents, Sumotorrent, Torrent Day, Torrenting, BitSoup, TorrentBytes, Seventorrents, Torrents.fm, Yourbittorrent, Tor Movies , Demonoid, torrent.cd, Vertor, Rar BG, bittorrent.am, btdigg.org, btloft.com, bts.to, limetorrents.com, nowtorrents.com, picktorrent.com, seedpeer.me, torlock.com, torrentbit.net, torrentdb.li, torrentdownload.ws, torrentexpress.net, torrentfunk.com, torrentproject.com, torrentroom.com, torrents.net, torrentus.eu, torrentz.cd, torrentzap.com, vitorrent.org.Megashare, Viooz, Watch32, Zmovie, Solarmovie, Tubeplus, Primewire, Vodly, Watchfreemovies, Project-Free TV, Yify-Torrents, 1337x, Bitsnoop, Extratorrent, Monova, Torrentcrazy, Torrentdownloads, Torrentreactor, Torrentz, Ambp3, Beemp3, Bomb-mp3, Eemp3world, Filecrop, Filestube, Mp3juices, Mp3lemon, Mp3raid, Mp3skull, Newalbumreleases, Rapidlibrary, EZTV, FirstRowSports, Download4all, Movie2K, KickAssTorrents, Fenopy, H33T and The Pirate Bay.
Popular CDN service CloudFlare has denied allegations from the RIAA that accuse the company of aiding and abetting piracy. Warning against a SOPA-like precedent, the company has asked the court not to include CloudFlare in the restraining order which aims to stop a reincarnation of music service Grooveshark.
After Grooveshark shut down earlier this month it was quickly replaced by a “new” Grooveshark, much to the annoyance of the major record labels.
Headed by the RIAA, the operators of the new site were quickly taken to court.
The group filed a sealed application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) targeting the site’s domain name and hosting services.
The court granted the RIAA’s request earlier this month, allowing the music group to demand that hosting companies and registrars stop offering their services to the ‘rogue’ site.
Namecheap swiftly complied and seized the initial domain name. However, popular CDN service CloudFlare refused to take any action, claiming that the TRO doesn’t apply to them.
The new Grooveshark, meanwhile, moved to another domain and is still using CloudFlare’s services.
Hoping to compel CloudFlare to comply with the order, the RIAA asked the court to expand it by specifying that the CDN service has to take action. According to the RIAA, CloudFlare is “aiding and abetting” piracy.
However, in an opposition brief CloudFlare clearly disagrees. With help from the EFF, the company argues that even if it terminates its services, the ‘Grooveshark’ site would remain available.
“Even if CloudFlare—and every company in the world that provides similar services—took proactive steps to identify and block the Defendants, the website would remain up and running at its current domain name,” CloudFlare argues (pdf).
The request to include CloudFlare in the restraining order goes way too far, the company believes. If granted, this may lead to a snowball effect of orders against automated Internet services that are not actively assisting illegal activity.
“Given that CloudFlare clearly is not in ‘active concert or participation’ with Defendants, it appears Plaintiffs are effectively attempting to expand the traditional boundaries of Rule 65,” the lawyers write.
“That attempt, if accepted by this Court, could have implications well beyond this case. Other parties may seek the same remedy, using allegations of trademark or copyright infringement to obtain orders against the world.”
The RIAA is demanding SOPA-like powers with its request, CloudFlare argues. The company highlights that the SOPA bill was turned down after heavy criticism, but that the RIAA is now acting as if it’s become law.
“The [SOPA] bill was met with widespread public criticism from Internet users, technology companies, law professors, and software pioneers who helped create the Internet. Congress tabled the bill and did not advance it further,” CloudFlare notes.
“Here, Plaintiffs ask the Court to construe its injunction power as though H.R. 3261 had in fact become law. But lacking explicit statutory authority for such an order against a nonparty, the TRO cannot be construed to reach so far.”
CloudFlare therefore asks the court not to expand the restraining order. The company warns that any contrary ruling could set a dangerous precedent, putting many infrastructure providers and other services at risk.
For the RIAA and other copyright holders the case is an important test for future anti-piracy efforts against other pirate sites. The new Grooveshark is barely getting any visitors after the initial hype, but it has certainly triggered a crucial legal battle.
In the wake of a UN report urging the protection of encryption and anonymity, a website run by a human rights organization that monitors web-censorship and pirate site blockades in Russia has been ordered to be blocked. The portal, which offers advice on how to use tools such as VPNs, TOR and Pirate Browser, has been declared illegal by a court.
While there is still much resistance to the practice in the United States, having websites blocked at the ISP level is becoming easier in many other countries around the world.
One country where the process is becoming ever more streamlined is Russia. The country blocks hundreds of websites on many grounds, from copyright infringement to the publication of extremist propaganda, suicide discussion and the promotion of drugs.
Keeping a close eye on Russia’s constantly expanding website blocklist is RosComSvoboda. The project advocates human rights and freedoms on the Internet, monitors and publishes data on blockades, and provides assistance to Internet users and website operators who are wrongfully subjected to restrictions.
Now, however, RosKomSvoboda will have to fight for its own freedoms after a local court ordered ISPs to block an advice portal operated by the group.
The site, RUBlacklist, is an information resource aimed at users who wish to learn about tools that can be used to circumvent censorship. It doesn’t host any tools itself but offers advice on VPNs, proxies, TOR and The Pirate Bay’s Pirate Browser.
Also detailed are various anonymizer services (which are presented via a linked Google search), Opera browser’s ‘turbo mode’ (which is often used in the UK to unblock torrent sites) and open source anonymous network I2P (soon to feature in a Popcorn Time fork).
Unfortunately, Russian authorities view this education as problematic. During an investigation carried out by the Anapa district’s prosecutor’s office it was determined that RosKomSvoboda’s advice undermines government blocks.
“Due to anonymizer sites, in particular http://rublacklist.net/bypass, users can have full access to all the banned sites anonymously and via spoofing. That is, with the help of this site, citizens can get unlimited anonymous access to banned content, including extremist material,” a ruling from the Anapa Court reads.
Describing the portal as an anonymization service, the Court ordered RosKomSvoboda’s advice center to be blocked at the ISP level.
Needless to say the operators of RosKomSvoboda are outraged that their anti-censorship efforts will now be censored. Group chief Artyom Kozlyuk slammed the decision, describing both the prosecutor’s lawsuit and the Court ruling as “absurd”.
“Law enforcement has demonstrated its complete incompetence in the basic knowledge of all the common technical aspects of the Internet, though even youngsters can understand it,” Kozlyuk says.
“Anonymizers, proxies and browsers are multitask instruments, helping to search for information on the Internet. If we follow the reasoning of the prosecutor and the court, then the following stuff should be prohibited as well: knives, as they can become a tool for murder; hammers, as they can be used as a tool of torture; planes, because if they fall they can lead to many deaths.
“To conclude, I would love to ask the prosecutor of Anapa to consider the possibility of prohibiting paper and ink, because with these tools one can draw a very melancholic picture of this ruling’s complete ignorance.”
RosKomSvoboda’s legal team say they intend to appeal the ruling which was the result of a legal procedure that took place without their knowledge.
“We can only guess why the project is considered to be an anonymizer. It’s likely that no one in Anapa city court understands what they are dealing with,” says RosKomSvoboda lawyer Sarkis Darbinian.
“We see that these kinds of rulings are being stamped on a legal conveyor belt. Moreover, we see the obvious violation of the fundamental principles of civil procedure – an adversarial system.”
The court ruling against RUBlacklist arrives at the same time as a report from the United Nations which urges member states to do everything they can to encourage encryption and anonymity online.
Popular torrent site BT-Chat.com has decided to throw in the towel after receiving a hand delivered letter from the MPAA. The Hollywood studios argue that the torrent index is in violation of U.S. law, and accuse its operators of contributory copyright infringement.
Over several years the Canada-based torrent index BT-Chat has grown to become one of the most popular among TV and movie fans.
The site was founded over a decade ago and has been running without any significant problems since. Starting a few days ago, however, the site’s fortunes turned.
Without prior warning or an official explanation the site went offline. Instead of listing the latest torrents, an ominous message appeared with a broken TV signal in the background.
“Error 791-the internet is shutdown due to copyright restrictions,” the mysterious message read.
Initially is was unclear whether the message hinted at hosting problems or if something more serious was going on. Many of the site’s users hoped for the former but a BT-Chat insider informs TF that the site isn’t coming back anytime soon.
The site’s operators have decided to pull the plug after receiving a hand delivered letter from the Canadian MPA, which acts on behalf of its American parent organization the MPAA.
In the letter, shown below, Hollywood’s major movie studios demand that the site removes all infringing torrents.
“We are writing to demand that you take immediate steps to address the extensive copyright infringement of television programs and motion pictures that is occurring by virtue of the operation of the Internet website www.BT-Chat.com.”
The MPAA makes its case by citing U.S. copyright law, and states that linking to unauthorized movies and TV-shows constitutes contributory copyright infringement.
Referencing the isoHunt case the movie studios explicitly note that it’s irrelevant whether or not a website actually hosts infringing material.
“It makes no difference that your website might not have infringing content on it, or only links to infringing content,” the letter says.
The threats from Hollywood have not been taken lightheartedly by the BT-Chat team. While giving up a site that they worked on for more than a decade is not easy, the alternative is even less appealing.
In the end thry decided that it would be for the best to shut the site down, instead of facing potential legal action.
And so another popular site bites the dust…
Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
ROSS ULBRICHT CONCEIVED of his Silk Road black market as an online utopia beyond law enforcement’s reach. Now he’ll spend the rest of his life firmly in its grasp, locked inside a federal penitentiary.
On Friday Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in creating and running Silk Road’s billion-dollar, anonymous black market for drugs. Judge Katherine Forrest gave Ulbricht the most severe sentence possible, beyond what even the prosecution had explicitly requested. The minimum Ulbricht could have served was 20 years.
“The stated purpose [of the Silk Road] was to be beyond the law. In the world you created over time, democracy didn’t exist. You were captain of the ship, the Dread Pirate Roberts,” she told Ulbricht as she read the sentence, referring to his pseudonym as the Silk Road’s leader. “Silk Road’s birth and presence asserted that its…creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly misguided, and very dangerous.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Ulbricht was also ordered to pay a massive restitution of more than $183 million, what the prosecution had estimated to be the total sales of illegal drugs and counterfeit IDs through the Silk Road—at a certain bitcoin exchange rate—over the course of its time online. Any revenue from the government sale of the bitcoins seized from the Silk Road server and Ulbricht’s laptop will be applied to that debt.
Ulbricht had stood before the court just minutes earlier in navy blue prison clothes, pleading for a lenient sentence. “I’ve changed. I’m not the man I was when I created Silk Road,” he said, as his voice grew hoarse with emotion and cracked. “I’m a little wiser, a little more mature, and much more humble.”
“I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives…to have privacy and anonymity,” Ulbricht told the judge. “I’m not a sociopathic person trying to express some inner badness.”
Ulbricht’s sentencing likely puts the final seal on the saga of Silk Road, the anarchic underground market the 31-year-old Texan created in early 2011. At its peak, the Dark Web site grew to a sprawling smorgasbord of every narcotic imaginable—before Ulbricht was arrested in a public library in San Francisco in October of 2013. Eighteen months later, he was convicted in a Manhattan court on seven felony charges, including conspiracies to traffic in narcotics and launder money, as well as a “kingpin” charge usually reserved for the leaders of organized crime groups.
Two of those seven charges were deemed redundant and dropped by the prosecution just days before the sentencing, though that technical change to the charges didn’t lessen Ulbricht’s mandatory minimum sentence—or his ultimate punishment.
Ulbricht’s defense team has already said it will seek an appeal in his case. That call for a new trial will be based in part on recent revelations that two Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Administration agents involved in the investigation of the Silk Road allegedly stole millions of dollars of bitcoin from the site. One of the agents is even accused of blackmailing Ulbricht, and of allegedly selling him law enforcement information as a mole inside the DEA. But the judge in Ulbricht’s case ruled that those Baltimore-based agents weren’t involved in the New York FBI-led investigation that eventually took down the Silk Road, preventing their alleged corruption from affecting Ulbricht’s fate.
Speaking to press after the sentencing, Ulbricht’s lead attorney Joshua Dratel said that Forrest’s sentence was “unreasonable, unjust, unfair and based on improper consideration with no basis in fact or law.” He added: “I’m disappointed tremendously.”
In emotional statements at the hearing, the parents of drug users who had overdosed and died from drugs purchased from the Silk Road called for a long sentence for Ulbricht. “I strongly believe my son would still be alive today if Mr. Ulbricht had never created Silk Road,” said one father whose 25-year old son had died from an overdose of heroin, requesting “the most severe sentence the law will allow.”
In the weeks leading up to his sentencing hearing, Ulbricht’s defense team attempted to lighten his punishment with arguments about his motives and character, as well as emphasizing the Silk Road’s positive effect on its drug-using customers. In more than a hundred letters, friends, family, and even fellow inmates pointed to Ulbricht’s idealism and lack of a criminal history. And the defense argued that Silk Road had actually reduced harm in the drug trade by ensuring the purity of the drugs sold on the site through reviews and ratings, hosting discussions on “safe” drug use, and giving both buyers and sellers an avenue to trade in narcotics while avoiding the violence of the streets.
But the prosecution countered that any protection the Silk Road offered drug users was dwarfed by the increased access it offered to dangerous and addictive drugs. And beyond the two parents who spoke at the Friday hearing, it pointed to six individuals who it claimed had died of drug overdoses from drugs purchased on the Silk Road.
In her statement preceding Ulbricht’s sentencing, Judge Forrest fully sided with the prosecution against the defense’s “harm reduction” argument, arguing that the Silk Road vastly expanded access to drugs. “Silk Road was about fulfilling demand, and it was about creating demand,” she said. “It was market-expanding.”
She also tore into the argument that the Silk Road reduced violence in the drug trade, pointing out that most of the academic papers submitted by the defense to support that argument focused only on the protection for the final buyer of drugs. But that digital remove, she argued, did nothing to prevent violence at any other point in the narcotics supply chain, from production to distribution. “The idea that it’s harm reducing is so very narrow,” she said. “It’s…about a privileged group, sitting in their own homes, with their high speed internet connections.”
The Justice Department also argued in their letter to Judge Forrest that Ulbricht should be made an example of to stop even more Dark Web market kingpins from following in his footsteps. After all, dozens of copycat sites and advancements on the Silk Road market model have sprouted in the years since its takedown, including the Silk Road 2, Evolution, and the currently largest Dark Web black market to survive law enforcement’s attacks, Agora. To combat the spread of those anonymous bazaars, prosecutors asked Judge Forrest to “send a clear message” with a sentence for Ulbricht well beyond the mandatory minimum.
Judge Forrest sided with the prosecution on that point, too, arguing that she needed to create a strong deterrent for the next Dread Pirate Roberts. “For those considering stepping into your shoes…they need to understand without equivocation that there will be severe consequences,” Forrest said.
The defense’s arguments about Ulbricht’s character and his idealistic motives were also undercut by accusations that Ulbricht had paid for the murder of six people, including a potential informant and a blackmailer. Those accusations never became formal charges in Ulbricht’s case—five out of six of the murder-for-hires appear to have been part of a lucrative scam targeting Ulbricht, with no actual victims.
But those murder accusations nonetheless deeply colored Ulbricht’s trial, and strongly influenced his sentence. “I find there is ample and unambiguous evidence that [Ulbricht] commissioned five murders to protect his commercial enterprise,” Forrest said, leaving out one alleged attempted murder for which Ulbricht was charged in a different case.
With those attempted murders as context, Forrest was merciless in her assessment of Ulbricht’s seeming multiple personalities: the altruistic and admirable young man described in the letters sent to her as evidence of his character, versus the callous drug lord she saw in his actions. “People are very complicated, and you are one of them,” she said simply. “There is good in you, Mr. Ulbricht. There is also bad. And what you did with the Silk Road was terribly destructive.”
In his own letter to the judge ahead of sentencing, Ulbricht took a more personal tact, promising that he had learned that the Silk Road was a “terrible mistake” and a “very naive and costly idea” that he regretted and wouldn’t repeat. He pleaded for a chance at freedom in the decades after his incarceration.
“I’ve had my youth, and I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age,” he wrote. “Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead, and a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker.”
But in her sentencing statement, Forrest denied even that the Silk Road was a naive experiment, or some sort of youthful mistake. “It was a carefully planned life’s work. It was your opus,” she said. “You wanted it to be your legacy. And it is.”
Is this a server that you run yourself or do you pay someone for this service ?
27 May, 2015
UKTV is set to re-brand pay-TV channel Watch to appeal to a more female-skewing audience.
The multichannel broadcaster is understood to be ramping up the number of original factual entertainment formats which appeal more to women. At the same time it is to reduce its reliance on acquired US dramas.
It is believed that UKTV is in talks with external partners over the move, which could include a name change for the channel that launched in October 2008.
Watch has ordered a raft of new series as part of the new strategy. These include a wedding format from Twofour and a series commission for one of the projects from its Formats Lab initiative.
Twofour’s Get Me To The Church treats a bride or groom and their friends to a pre-wedding celebration before making them race to reach the ceremony on time.
It was commissioned by senior commissioning editor Catherine Catton.
Watch has also ordered a 8 x 60-minute run of Honey I Bought The House, a co-production between Objective Productions and Crook Productions.
The show hands a couple a £15,000 deposit to help them onto the property ladder but has a Don’t Tell The Bride-style twist.
The pilot aired in December and scored 78,000 (0.3%), just below the channel’s slot average of 83,000 (0.4%) for the past 12 months.
Watch’s most successful series to date is Dynamo: Magician Impossible, but other than a handful of commissions including Sky Vision’s Bin There, Dump That and Objective’s Katherine Mills: Mind Games, the channel is best known for acquiring US series such as Believe, Grimm, Perception and Resurrection.
Dave boss Steve North took over leadership of the channel in June as part of a reshuffle following the departure of Steve Hornsey. Former NBC Universal and ITV3 executive Adam Collings was hired as head of programming in December.
North said he was planning to deliver an update within the next few weeks.
“UKTV has a portfolio of lively, imaginative brands and we’re never ones to rest on our laurels,” he added. “We have exciting plans underway for Watch but it’s too early to go into much detail.”
Last week the broadcaster revealed plans to turbocharge Dave’s budget by 70% after it reported a record £74m profit in 2014.
Source : http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/…-re-brand/5088696.article
WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 2015
The BBC is preparing to launch six Red Button streams on satellite, giving viewers access to additional coverage of some of the summer's big events.
In what has become an annual ritual, the BBC sets up additional Red Button streams at the end of May on satellite, which, following a test period, become available on Sky and Freesat boxes during June in time for Wimbledon and Glastonbury.
This year, there are five standard definition and one high definition Red Button streams testing.
The BBC has been adding temporary pop-up streams to cover major events since it reduced the number of full-time Red Button streams down to one in late 2012. Viewers with an internet connection can generally access the extra content via the BBC website or Red Button+ on smart TVs.
Tuning details
Viewers with Sky and Freesat should see the channels added in due course and don't need to do anything.
The streams - complete with the 1998 BBC Digital Widescreen Test Transmission video taking audiences on a summer trip around Cornwall - are available to manually tune-in on any satellite receiver set up to receive Sky or Freesat channels:
The BBC is expected to shortly issue details of how it will cover the music and sports events in its portfolio during the summer, with further details about the expanded Red Button service.
Source : http://www.a516digital.com/201…on-streams-preparing.html
WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 2015
All BBC channels, plus S4C are now available nationwide as live channels on most smart / connected TVs via the latest version of the iPlayer TV App.
The new addition to the iPlayer TV App means that smart TV users can connect to all of the BBC TV channels regardless of terrestrial TV reception, and it enables viewers throughout the UK to watch S4C from Wales and BBC Alba from Scotland.
The live streams are currently in standard definition only, so viewers who don't live in an area served by the full range of BBC HD channels on Freeview can't at the present time use the iPlayer live streams as a workaround. The service doesn't offer the same level of regional options as other TV platforms.
As depicted above, viewers will see the option to watch a live programme via the Channels pages of the iPlayer app via the "on now" segment.
For the live playback of channels, the BBC says "the device you're using must support HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and it must be certified to use BBC apps like iPlayer." A TV licence is required to watch the live streams and usage of the service is subject to any monthly data caps that some broadband users may have.
The new functionality is being rolled out to other devices, such as Xbox One soon.
Source : http://www.a516digital.com/201…-live-tv-channels-to.html
FRIDAY, 29 MAY 2015
BT is expected to reveal subscription prices and overall plans for its European Football coverage next month.
BT Sport has the rights to Champions and Europa League football starting this summer, taking over from previous rights holders Sky and ITV.
The telecoms giant is expected to reveal details in conjunction with a media briefing on 9th June. Reports this morning suggest that BT will charge an additional fee for its Champions League and Europa League coverage, which is expected to launch on a new channel.
Next season's coverage already has the potential to be interesting: BT recently obtained additional channel licences from Ofcom, including a licence for a BT Sport service in UHD/4k. Additionally, BT's John Petter recently revealed that there would be a "free-to-air version" of BT Sport.
The forthcoming announcement may also shed light on the recently added BT Showcase channel on Freeview channel 59, an apparent placeholder channel available in some parts of the UK.
Source : http://www.a516digital.com/201…unce-details-of-next.html
Sorry for the 'off-topic' comment robi, but that avatar is awesome bud :14_002:
Just renewed my contract with them last week and they never told me it was ending soon as they still included it in my 12 mths contract.Bit of a Buggar if they do stop it
We are in same boat, just renewed for a further 12 months not so long ago, i would assume the 'contract' is there to protect both parties so we may well be ok for the next year
The operator of 8chan says the bandwidth of millions of Hola users is being sold for reuse, with some of it even being used to attack his site. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Hola founder Ofer Vilenski says that users' idle resources are indeed utilized for commercial sale, but that has been the agreement all along.
Faced with increasing local website censorship and Internet services that restrict access depending on where a user is based, more and more people are turning to specialist services designed to overcome such limitations.
With prices plummeting to just a few dollars a month in recent years, VPNs are now within the budgets of most people. However, there are always those who prefer to get such services for free, without giving much consideration to how that might be economically viable.
One of the most popular free VPN/geo-unblocking solutions on the planet is operated by Israel-based Hola. It can be added to most popular browsers in seconds and has an impressive seven million users on Chrome alone. Overall the company boasts 46 million users of its service.
Now, however, the company is facing accusations from 8chan message board operator Fredrick Brennan. He claims that Hola users’ computers were used to attack his website without their knowledge, and that was made possible by the way Hola is setup.
“When a user installs Hola, he becomes a VPN endpoint, and other users of the Hola network may exit through his internet connection and take on his IP. This is what makes it free: Hola does not pay for the bandwidth that its VPN uses at all, and there is no user opt out for this,” Brennan says.
This means that rather than having their IP addresses cloaked behind a private server, free Hola users are regularly exposing their IP addresses to the world but associated with other people’s traffic – no matter what that might contain.
While this will come as a surprise to many, Hola says it has never tried to hide the methods it employs to offer a free service.
Speaking with TorrentFreak, Hola founder Ofer Vilenski says that his company offers two tiers of service – the free option (which sees traffic routed between Hola users) and a premium service, which operates like a traditional VPN.
However, Brennan says that Hola goes a step further, by selling Hola users’ bandwidth to another company.
“Hola has gotten greedy. They recently (late 2014) realized that they basically have a 9 million IP strong botnet on their hands, and they began selling access to this botnet (right now, for HTTP requests only) at https://luminati.io,” the 8chan owner says.
TorrentFreak asked Vilenski about Brennan’s claims. Again, there was no denial.
“We have always made it clear that Hola is built for the user and with the user in mind. We’ve explained the technical aspects of it in our FAQ and have always advertised in our FAQ the ability to pay for non-commercial use,” Vilenski says.
And this is how it works.
Hola generates revenue by selling a premium service to customers through its Luminati brand. The resources and bandwidth for the Luminati product are provided by Hola users’ computers when they are sitting idle. In basic terms, Hola users get their service for free as long as they’re prepared to let Hola hand their resources to Luminati for resale. Any users who don’t want this to happen can buy Hola for $5 per month.
Fair enough perhaps – but how does Luminati feature in Brennan’s problems? It appears his interest in the service was piqued after 8chan was hit by multiple denial of service attacks this week which originated from the Luminati / Hola network.
“An attacker used the Luminati network to send thousands of legitimate-looking POST requests to 8chan’s post.php in 30 seconds, representing a 100x spike over peak traffic and crashing PHP-FPM,” Brennan says.
Again, TorrentFreak asked Vilenski for his input. Again, there was no denial.
“8chan was hit with an attack from a hacker with the handle of BUI. This person then wrote about how he used the Luminati commercial VPN network to hack 8chan. He could have used any commercial VPN network, but chose to do so with ours,” Vilenski explains.
“If 8chan was harmed, then a reasonable course of action would be to obtain a court order for information and we can release the contact information of this user so that they can further pursue the damages with him.”
Vilenski says that Hola screens users of its “commercial network” (Luminati) prior to them being allowed to use it but in this case “BUI” slipped through the net. “Adjustments” have been made, Hola’s founder says.
“We have communicated directly with the founder of 8Chan to make sure that once we terminated BUI’s account they’ve had no further problems, and it seems that this is the case,” Vilenski says.
It is likely the majority of Hola’s users have no idea how the company’s business model operates, even though it is made fairly clear in its extensive FAQ/ToS. Installing a browser extension takes seconds and if it works as advertised, most people will be happy.
Whether this episode will affect Hola’s business moving forward is open to question but for those with a few dollars to spend there are plenty of options in the market. Until then, however, those looking for free options should read the small print before clicking install.
im assuming the free bt sports package is coming to an end for internet subscribers ,,,,,,,,has there been any talk of the cost of the new package. i only use it for the moto gp coverage......
There has been no formal announcement as of yet, but i think it is fair to assume that our current free status with the broadband will be going
Folks this is on offer again
£17.99 with free delivery from Amazon (perfect for WeTek and similar boxes)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LDLQXG?
The Department of Justice has made a grave error as several seized Megaupload domains are now being exploited for nefarious purposes. A few days ago both Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com began directing visitors to scams and malware, presumably because the FBI's cybercrime unit lost control of the main nameserver.
Well over three years have passed since Megaupload was shutdown, but there is still little progress in the criminal proceedings against the operation.
The United States hopes that New Zealand will extradite Kim Dotcom and his colleagues, but the hearings have been delayed several times already.
Meanwhile, several domain names including the popular Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com remain under the control of the U.S. Government. At least, that should be the case. In reality, however, they’re now being exploited by ‘cyber criminals.’
Instead of a banner announcing that the domains names have been seized as part of a criminal investigation they now direct people to a Zero-Click adverting feed. This feed often links to malware installers and other malicious ads.
One of the many malicious “ads” the Megaupload and Megavideo domain names are serving links to a fake BBC article, suggesting people can get an iPhone 6 for only £1.
And here is another example of a malicious ad prompting visitors to update their browser.
The question that immediately comes to mind is this: How can it be that the Department of Justice is allowing the domains to be used for such nefarious purposes?
Looking at the Whois records everything seems to be in order. The domain name still lists Megaupload Limited as registrant, which is as it was before. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The nameserver PLEASEDROPTHISHOST15525.CIRFU.BIZ, on the other hand, triggers several alarm bells.
CIRFU refers to the FBI’s Cyber Initiative and Resource Fusion Unit, a specialized tech team tasked with handling online crime and scams. The unit used the CIRFU.NET domain name as nameserver for various seized domains, including the Mega ones.
Interestingly, the CIRFU.NET domain now lists “Syndk8 Media Limited” as registrant, which doesn’t appear to have any connections with the FBI. Similarly, CIRFU.BIZ is not an official CIRFU domain either and points to a server in the Netherlands hosted by LeaseWeb.
It appears that the domain which the Department of Justice (DoJ) used as nameserver is no longer in control of the Government. Perhaps it expired, or was taken over via other means.
As a result, Megaupload and Megavideo are now serving malicious ads, run by the third party that controls the nameserver.
This is quite a mistake for one of the country’s top cybercrime units, to say the least. It’s also one that affects tends of thousands of people, as the Megaupload.com domain remains frequently visited.
Commenting on the rogue domains, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom notes that the people who are responsible should have known better.
“With U.S. Assistant Attorney Jay Prabhu the DOJ in Virginia employs a guy who doesn’t know the difference between civil & criminal law. And after this recent abuse of our seized Mega domains I wonder how this guy was appointed Chief of the Cybercrime Unit when he can’t even do the basics like safeguard the domains he has seized,” he tells TF.
“Jay Prabhu keeps embarrassing the U.S. government. I would send him back to law school and give him a crash course in ‘how the Internet works’,” Dotcom adds.
Making matters worse for the Government, Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com are not the only domain names affected. Various poker domains that were previously seized, including absolutepoker.com and ultimatebet.com, also link to malicious content now.
While the Government appears to have lost control of the old nameservers, it can still correct the problem through a nameserver update at their end. However, that doesn’t save those people who had their systems compromised during recent days, and it certainly won’t repair the PR damage.
