Archive for 2012/05/27

Pirate Bay Alexa Rank In UK Continues To Drop Due To Site Blocking. Pirate Bay Is Now 60th Most Popular Website

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Stats / reports

The website blocking measures in the UK are now seriously affecting The Pirate Bay’s popularity.

Not too long ago, the Pirate Bay was the 39th most popular website in the UK. Right now the site’s popularity is decreasing and even after only a few weeks of blocking by a limited number of ISPs, the effect is already quite noticeable:

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;2/GB

Similar effects in have been observed in The Netherlands too, although only a few ISPs are blocking the site in that country as most of them have refused to do so, regardless of relevant legal verdicts. That situation is expected to change sometime next week.

Previously:

High Court has ruled that several UK ISPs including Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must block The Pirate Bay website
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/30/high-court-has-ruled-that-several-uk-isps-including-sky-everything-everywhere-talktalk-o2-and-virgin-media-must-block-the-pirate-bay-website/

Pirate Bay’s Alexa Rank For UK And NL Continues To Drop After Blocking Measures
http://vrritti.com/2012/05/12/pirate-bays-alexa-rank-for-uk-and-nl-continues-to-drop-after-blocking-measures/

People-powered Olympic shopping mall: A sign of utter tech illiteracy

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

It’s just about certain, now: Almost everybody in the world has no idea of the most basic facts regarding energy use. Most people don’t even know that the words “energy” and “power” have different meanings1, and just about everyone is so massively ignorant on the subject that they actually consider that the use of special floor tiles to generate electricity from human footfalls is worth doing.

But if you understand what’s Watt you realise just how stupid and pointless a public treadmill installation is … and you realise that Siemens knows all this … and your perception of green industry and imagery changes somewhat. You might find that Siemens’ assumption – that you the pedestrian are so ignorant that them sponsoring public treadmills is a good idea – is tremendously insulting.

Much more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/27/human_powered_electricity_please_make_it_stop/

China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members are backing a proposal to hand over regulation of the internet to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The proposal would give the United Nations control over cybersecurity, data privacy, technical standards and the web address system. The present system is operated by a “multi-stakeholder” approach that gives control to nonprofits instead of governments

http://www.infowars.com/house-to-consider-handing-over-internet-regulation-to-united-nations/

Fourteen months after the Fukushima accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive cesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged reactor building, covered only with plastic

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/world/asia/concerns-grow-about-spent-fuel-rods-at-damaged-nuclear-plant-in-japan.html

United States law enforcement authorities have confirmed they are investigating images of child abuse unearthed from Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload servers

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, Public Policy, Stats / reports

United States law enforcement authorities have confirmed they are investigating images of child abuse unearthed from Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload servers.

The material was discovered during FBI examination of the contents of the internet millionaire’s cloud storage system, seized in the global takedown of the “Mega Conspiracy” that included police raids at Dotcom’s Auckland mansion in January.

A spokesman from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Peter Carr, said there was an ongoing investigation into the images of child pornography found on the servers but would make no further comment.

More:
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/child-porn-found-megaupload-servers-fbi-4901637

Pirates, Hackers…They’re Always Willing To Expose ‘The Scene’ In Return For A Bit Of Money

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, New Business Models, Online advertising, Organized Crime, Stats / reports

Centropy member Matthew Thompson is sharing with TorrentFreak readers an excerpt from his forthcoming book, This is the Scene.

Things were great for me as a pirate; I had access to whatever I wanted and was a member of some of the biggest groups that have ever existed. Then Operation Fastlink happened.

Operation Fastlink was a multi-year, joint-operation run by the United States Department of Justice and the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section of INTERPOL designed to take out the groups Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, ProjectX, and Class.

Matthew is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funding to continue work on his book.

The campaign page and accompanying video are available here.

Much more:
http://torrentfreak.com/i-was-a-member-of-centropy-the-worlds-leading-movie-piracy-group-120526/

evo’s Editorial Director Harry Metcalfe drives the last (and maddest) project of former TVR Boss Peter Wheeler

Posted: 2012/05/27 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

The one off vehicle that’s been designed to be at home on the road, heading through mud or in the water!