When Steven Spielberg’s timeless classic E.T was released in 1981, those of us who were kids at the time wanted only one thing – to watch it on the silver screen. That, however, was easier said than done.

As alien a concept to today’s youngsters as E.T was to us back then, queues to watch the movie snaked hundreds of yards beyond our local cinema. The infrastructure simply couldn’t cope with the popularity of this cute extra terrestrial and after not making it to the doors after queuing for hours, some moms were reluctant to try again.

That’s when we learned about pirates. Us kids never saw one in the flesh but we knew they existed. Rumor had it that a friend of a friend of a friend knew someone who knew a pirate “who got stuff from America”. And he had a copy of E.T on both VHS and Betamax videotape. Like….wow.

After emerging from legend, slowly but surely the mythical tapes got passed around and although the quality was almost unwatchable, everyone agreed that this pirate guy must be someone special. Even then we knew that he was probably doing something at least a little wrong. None of the kids cared though. Pirates were mysterious – and fun.

Of course, pirates existed long before then. Pirate radio stations had been around for decades and in the eighties they gave us teenagers the only chance to listen to the imported house music that the big stations couldn’t be bothered with. To us that was very cool indeed and not for a second was it ever equated with theft.

Pirates operated outside the law, we knew that, so when the DJs suddenly went silent we understood that an 80s version of a Pirate Bay raid might have just taken place. Would they ever come back? We never knew. But whether it was E.T or community radio, piracy and pirates were undoubtedly exciting.

So with that in mind, have the entertainment industries picked entirely the wrong term to describe the analog and now digital buccaneers who take their products and give them away for free? Graeme Grant, head of anti-piracy operations at IFPI, appears to think so.

Speaking this week at the MarkMonitor Annual Spring Symposium in London, Grant said that referring to today’s illegal downloading as ‘piracy’ had “made it cool.”

“People think of piracy and think of action films about pirates,” Grant said. “In a sense calling it that has been a hindrance because people think they are doing something cool.”

While some might argue that much of the romance has ebbed away alongside piracy’s mainstream exposure, piracy probably remains reasonably ‘cool’ for millions of people. Thirty years on it still provides a way for people to access movies playing in cinemas and it still provides outlets for niche content that mainstream platforms can’t be bothered with.

But does the term “piracy” in itself help to sustain the magic? TorrentFreak contacted people who are all considered pirates by the entertainment industries to find out if the term helps, hinders or even annoys them. Spud17 of The Pirate Bay definitely doesn’t have a problem with it.

“I don’t mind people calling us a pirate site, we are The Pirate Bay and have a pirate ship as our logo after all,” Spud17 says.

“Everything is down to perception, and I personally don’t have time to argue with people who think piracy is bad, wrong etc, because they have no clue what we’re about in the first place.”

At the other end of the scale casual torrent site user ‘Paul’ told us that he doesn’t consider what he’s doing as being piracy and that the term should be reserved for more serious infringers.

“I think of myself as a downloader. I download music and films for my own personal use. I don’t see it as romantic or anything. I think people who run the sites are pirates and giving me the same name isn’t really fair,” he explains.

On the other hand, two seasoned music releasers told us that they have no problem with the term piracy. Both are happy to be called pirates with one conceding that there is a certain kudos attached to the label.

“We get accused of wearing the pirate label as a badge of honor and I’m guilty as charged. It makes it easy to call yourself a pirate [since the Pirate Bay do it] and it’s also more fun than being a ‘music thief’ or whatever,” one said.

Interestingly, the operator of another of the world’s largest torrent sites was a little less happy over the use of the term.

“I don’t care what anyone calls a site like mine. If they think I’m a pirate site, sure, I don’t really care,” he said.

“It’s a bad thing being branded as a pirate in front of the law without due process by a major conglomerate/any big company. Pirates steal. Sites don’t.”

It was a little unexpected to hear the releasers and the site operator both viewing each other as the pirates. However, the idea that ‘pirate’ sounds more appealing than “content thief” was definitely more predictable.

That latter phrase has been gaining popularity among copyright holders in recent years but ‘copiers’ being branded thieves is rarely well received, not least at The Pirate Bay.

“The media portray users of our site as ‘broke teens,’ ‘digital thieves,’ and a range of other ignorant and uneducated terms,” Spud17 says.

“Theft is the permanent removal of something without consent; piracy, or filesharing/copying, is about copying something and sharing it with others, something that humans have done since we were invented. We have always shared culture with each other, our peers.”

To those who have grown up being serviced by helpful pirates in a massively under-served market, it’s no surprise that there’s still a little romance in the air. It’s certainly something that the folks at The Pirate Bay can relate to.

“Sure, you can find all the latest games, TV shows and movies on TPB, but you can also find shows and movies from around the world that would never be broadcast in your own country, or that have been censored/banned by your particular government. This is about free access to everything, for everyone,” Spud17 says.

“They can call us what they like, we’ve been doing it since before the digital age and we’ll continue. Pirate or file-sharer/copier, the terms aren’t important, what we do, is.”

That is something that people on all sides of the piracy debate will agree on.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Millions of Android apps are downloaded from the Play Store everyday which is hardly a surprise given the huge choice and massive userbase of the Google platform.

Many Android users happily go through life without spending a penny on software, mainly because there are adequate free or ad-supported versions available for many top titles.

Of course, millions of users prefer to bypass Google Play altogether by installing raw .APK files from third party sources. With this option they lose the convenience of Google Play but gain the ability to install premium software without paying for it, potentially at the risk of malware.

Strangely, not only do people pirate premium titles but they also pirate free software too. Case in point, Textra SMS from Delicious Inc. Self-described as a “seriously beautiful, feature rich SMS and MMS app”, Textra SMS is a smash hit having been downloaded between five and ten million times according to Google.

Nevertheless, plenty of people are installing Textra from third-party sources, largely to remove the ads that allow the software to be offered for free. However, those that have done so are being greeted with a surprise. Postings in dozens of locations around the web from what appear to be Textra pirates indicate that their activities haven’t gone unnoticed.

While anti-piracy notices in software are nothing new, the warning and ticking clock from Textra has a few people worried. One Reddit thread has a warning that pirating online apps is extremely dangerous.

“Pirating something that requires you to being online is a suicide mission. They will probs send a fine of $250 or something,” one commenter said, somewhat pessimistically.

This assessment is amusingly over-bleak but it doesn’t sit in isolation. In other discussions people question whether it is possible for Textra to track down pirates down through the app, whether they could be reported to their ISP, Google, and in one case even whether they could get in trouble with the police.

While finding the prospect of someone being reported to law enforcement for pirating a free app somewhat amusing, TF contacted Delicious Inc. for comment. Firstly, was the message their doing?

“Sure there are a bunch of ‘cracked’ versions of Textra available on the web. If you search on Google for cracked or pirated or ad-free you’ll find them,” Textra’s Max told TF.

“They are hacked in respect the APK has been modified and code injected to bypass the licensing checks. Periodically we check for these and send out a notification to users. Some of which may not even be aware of the fact, for example a friend downloaded it for them.”

So having established that the messages aren’t fake, we again pushed Max on the threats. The notice says that the company considers piracy a serious matter and has a policy to “report repeated violations.” It also suggests that users can avoid issues by downloading the official version of Textra from Google Play within three days.

TF asked what happens if users don’t comply with the deadline and the response we received suggests that Delicious would simply prefer that users install the official, free product.

“Legally there are a whole raft of options all the way from DMCA takedown requests to civil proceedings. It’s not a big issue for us, but on occasions we try our best to encourage users to ‘do the right thing’ that’s all,” Max said.

Of course, making absolutely sure of no action is literally just a click away (an install link is provided in the notice) and since Textra SMS is free, users have nothing to lose.

While there are probably better ways to get customers on board than threatening them, in this case it’s likely that the warning had plenty of pirates quickly installing the official version.

Textra wouldn’t be drawn on stats but it’s hard not to see pirating this excellent free app as unfair to the devs. We tested the official version and didn’t see any ads at all but apparently when they do appear they’re pretty unobtrusive.

“The app is free, so you’d wonder why a user would risk installing an APK that’s been modified (and the risks of injected code like key recorders, password sniffers etc). Why would you do that!?” Max asks.

It’s a pretty good point.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

For the third year in a row the official Russian Wikimedia chapter is awarding a prize to a person or organization that made ​​a notable contribution in line with the goals of the Wikimedia movement.

Earlier this month Wikimedia announced the nominations for the Wiki “Free Knowledge” award, which includes Russia’s largest torrent tracker RuTracker as well as Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan.

Elbakyan made headlines around the world after she was sued by Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers. Through Sci-Hub she offer millions of academic articles, which are usually behind a paywall, free of charge.

“Everyone should have access to knowledge regardless of their income or affiliation. And that’s absolutely legal. The idea that knowledge can be a private property of some commercial company sounds absolutely weird to me,” she told us last year.

Sci-Hub

This deviant stance is supported by many scientists who are calling for more open access to research findings, and this also got her a nomination for Wikimedia Russia’s Free Knowledge award.

“For many Russian scientists this project is in fact the only opportunity to quickly familiarize themselves with scientific articles, especially given the economic events of the last couple of years,” one commenter noted during the nomination process.

In total there are nine nominees, including a Russian State Library project, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the hugely popular torrent site RuTracker.

In recent months RuTracker has pushed back hard against legal pressure from various sides and various censorship efforts. According to some Wikimedia members, the site deserves to be awarded for its role in freely spreading Russian culture.

“I know hundreds of writers who through RuTracker distribute their own works: musicians, directors, writers, scientists, teachers, photographers and others,” a commenter noted during the nomination process, applauding the site’s free knowledge approach.

Not everyone agrees with the nomination of RuTracker though. Another member highlighted the numerous copyright violations which run contrary to the ideas of the Wikimedia Foundation, calling the nomination “unacceptable and absurd.”

The members of the Russian Wikimedia chapter will now weigh the pros and cons for each of the nominees. The winner will be announced next month during the award ceremony.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

As a shock to the world Prince was found dead at his home, Paisley Park, yesterday morning.

His death is being mourned all around the world in a way seldom seen before, a sign of the massive impact he had on several generations.

The days to come will be filled with anecdotes, retrospects, documentaries and specials about his life, and most importantly about his music. Rightfully so.

Similarly, many people want to play their favorite Prince tracks in honor of a great artists. However, those who know Prince realize that this is more easily said than done.

Prince was known for protecting his work. Not just from pirates, but also from greedy music labels and other ‘profiteers.’ This is one of the reasons why it’s hard to find his tracks on YouTube or Spotify.

As we noted earlier today, Prince’s piracy aversion was particularly strong. He was one of the first to threaten The Pirate Bay with a lawsuit almost ten years ago, as co-founder Peter Sunde recalled yesterday.

With the help of Web Sheriff he also made sure that pirated copies were regularly removed from various pirate sites. At least, from those sites that honor takedown requests.

Despite this strong anti-piracy stance, Prince fans have not shied away from torrent sites over the past 24-hours. On the contrary, just several hours after his death full discographies and compilation albums were uploaded all over the Internet.

Before his death only a few dozen people were actively sharing Prince albums online, but this number jumped to several thousand soon after his passing.

Prince torrents

Over the past day an estimated 100,000 people have downloaded a Prince torrent. And on KickassTorrents, the most visited torrent site, Prince currently fills the top five most-shared music file slots.

Most users probably see nothing wrong in downloading the tracks. Some might even do it as some sort of tribute, as the various comment sections are littered with RIPs and positive words.

However, the piracy craze feels a little awkward to say the least.

Perhaps the best way to honor Prince is to buy some of his music. Not because the money will do him any good, but because that’s what he would have wanted. Yeah, awkward…

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Yesterday the world had to come to terms with the fact that one of the greatest musicians of the modern age was no longer with us. As first reported by TMZ, Prince passed away at Paisley Park, aged just 57.

While undoubtedly a musical genius, Prince’s relationship with the Internet was often a difficult one, with the entertainer even withdrawing all of his music from the major streaming services last year, leaving it only on Tidal.

But in file-sharing circles Prince was probably best known for his efforts to bring Internet piracy to an end. Almost nine years ago as part of an initiative to “reclaim the Internet”, Prince hired controversial anti-piracy outfit Web Sheriff to hit sites including YouTube, eBay, and of course, The Pirate Bay. The letter the site received on his behalf was ‘unique’ to say the least.

“Well, ‘way to go on losing all your fans’,” Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde told TF at the time. “I truly respect the son of a king’s work as a musician but he seems like he has some kind of problem in getting to deal with his fans.”

In the end that particular threat of legal action came to nothing but Prince’s fight against piracy never ended and sometimes pushed the boundaries of sensible. In 2014 Prince shocked almost everyone by threatening to sue 22 fans who posted links to videos of his concerts on Facebook.

“Prince has suffered and is continuing to suffer damages in an amount according to proof, but no less than $1 million per Defendant,” the lawsuit read.

Just a day later the lawsuit was withdrawn, adding yet another mystery to Prince’s life.

But whatever one might think of the man’s attitude towards the Internet and indeed piracy, one had to admire his commitment. While obviously keen to protect his own interests, Prince seemed to truly care about artists’ welfare. Interestingly, an extraordinary story that surfaced last night underlines just that.

When unauthorized content appears online, most artists and their labels rely on a chain of middle men to do the work for them, including taking content down and/or issuing legal threats. Indeed, Prince has relied on this mechanism himself many times in the past.

However, according to the operator of music hosting site YourListen, Prince wasn’t averse to dealing with things personally. After allowing only Tidal to stream his music, Prince discovered unauthorized music on YourListen – and decided to do something about it.

“I never thought in my life I would get a call on my cell phone from Prince,” Scott Goodman told The Frame.

“We never had the artist decide to physically call us and ask us to take that music down,” he said, noting that function was mostly carried out by automated bots.

Amazingly, Goodman says that Prince stayed on the line for almost 30 minutes to explain why he was determined to protect his music.

“His big picture and his goal and battle he’s been fighting for decades is stopping piracy. He truly believed that piracy could come to an end with people like him, who obviously had power and money. He told me, ‘Scott, we need to fight piracy. We cannot have musicians having their music stolen’,” Goodman says.

Having someone like Prince make a personal call to any kind of file-sharing site is absolutely unprecedented and it certainly appears to have had an impact on Goodman. Of course, one phone call is unlikely to change the world, but the thought that someone as reclusive as Prince believed in a cause enough to make that call himself is quite something.

“Prince fought the music industry, but also the internet (sued me at least once),” Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde said last night.

“He was a creative genius, deserves so much respect. RIP.”

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.