When an Argentinian news site tipped us off about a new streaming platform last month, first impressions were good.

Wefre (now defunct) was beautifully presented and managed to provide the user with a Spotify-like streaming service for free.

Admittedly lots of other sites try to do similar things but with all the artwork, albums, playlist features and embedded videos in one place, Wefre seemed pretty unique. However, following a tip from a reader it soon became evident that nothing could be further from the truth.

Instant music site

Although our tipster didn’t name it, TF was informed that Wefre was the product of a new script so we set about tracking it down. We eventually found it for sale on the CodeCanyon marketplace where it made its debut in November.

Called YouTubify (YouTube/Spotify combined), the script allows almost anyone to set up a free Spotify-like service with a minimum of fuss.

YouTubify – YouTube/Spotify Mashup Script

“Youtubify allows you to create your own music streaming website in minutes with no coding knowledge,” the sales pitch reads.

“It has an impressive feature set that rivals and even surpasses other biggest streaming services on the market.”

According to figures presented on CodeCanyon, YouTubify has been sold 310 times on that platform alone, which raises the possibility of there being hundreds of YouTubify ‘clone’ sites on the Internet today, Wefre being just one of them.

Indeed, further investigation revealed dozens of similar sites, all with their own style of presentation and color schemes and little addons here and there. But the fact remains that every single one was borne from exactly the same script costing just $38.00.

Aside from the fact that the script makes streaming site ownership so easy (potential legal issues aside, of course), for casual users there’s also the opportunity to look behind the scenes.

CodeCanyon provides a live demo of the platform in action and those logging in with the username: ‘admin@admin.com’ and the password: ‘admin’ can check out what it’s like to operate one of these sites from the inside.

While the admin panel could do with some tidying up, it looks very straightforward to use and even provides the user with an opportunity to monetize their site by injecting ads. However, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is the ‘coding’ equivalent of painting by numbers and is unlikely to bring any long-term reward for the experienced site operator.

But if instant music site ownership isn’t your thing, there other options too. The author of YouTubify also has some other products up his sleeve, a few of which are clearly aimed at the file-sharing market.

There’s BeDrive – a script while allows users to create their own file-sharing and cloud storage site “in minutes with no coding knowledge.”

Also available is MTDb, a similar script which in conjunction with another plug-in allows the creation of a “fully functional” movies and TV show streaming site. We haven’t tested it but that sounds like a pretty big claim. (demo here).

These products do appear interesting at first view but whether they will encourage innovation will remain to be seen. It has to be noted though that most private trackers started off life as a pre-made script but were then developed by their owners into something unique and in many cases extremely powerful.

This doesn’t feel like that kind of scenario to be honest, but stranger things have happened.

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

AACS, the decryption licensing outfit founded by a group of movie studios and technology partners including Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft and Intel, has targeted several DRM-circumvention tools in recent years.

The company sued the makers of popular DVD ripping software DVDFab in the U.S and also went after the Antigua-based company SlySoft, known for its AnyDVD software.

The latter case was first referred to the criminal enforcement authorities in 2007, and after seven years of proceedings it resulted in a clear win for the licensing company.

An Antiguan court found Slysoft owner Giancarla Bettini guilty of six charges under the 2003 Copyright Act and ordered him to pay a fine of $5,000 per offense. Failure to pay would result in a six months in jail for each offense.

However, despite this positive outcome not much changed. SlySoft’s owner immediately filed an appeal which effectively put the convictions on hold. After two years the appeal has yet to begin and AnyDVD remains widely available.

In what appears to be a last-ditch effort, AACS is now asking the United States Trade Representative to take on the matter. The licensing company is asking the Government to place Antigua on its copyright Priority Watch List.

“Circumvention through programs such as SlySoft’s AnyDVD HD is a source for widespread, large-scale and commercial copyright infringement by users located in the United States, as well as Antigua & Barbuda, and many other countries,” AACS writes (pdf).

“Such circumvention also harms the legitimate consumer electronics and information technology companies that build compliant content playback devices that ‘play by the rules’.”

In the letter AACS describes its efforts to address the matter through the Antiguan legal system, but notes that the earlier conviction failed to resolve the problem.

“SlySoft has continued to operate on essentially the same basis as before the conviction, with no interruption of its ‘business’ and no relief for AACS LA and the content companies whose movies are the subject of SlySoft’s circumvention activities,” the group writes.

According to AACS the DVD ripping software has been downloaded by “tens of thousands of individuals” over the past two years, while categorizing the harm it’s done as “extremely high.”

Placing Antigua on the Priority Watch List is a logical next step, according to AACS, which will put pressure on the Caribbean island and permit the parties involved to carefully investigate the matter.

“AACS LA respectfully requests that the USTR place Antigua on its Priority Watch List, which will permit AACS LA and the USTR’s Office to evaluate Antigua’s activities in the coming months, including its prosecution of SlySoft and its founder.”

It’s not common for a single court case to escalate into an “international incident” so it’s not clear whether the U.S. Government will take on the recommendation.

That said, this is not the first trade dispute between Antigua and the United States.

In 2005 the WTO ruled that the US refusal to let Antiguan gambling companies access their market violated free-trade, as domestic companies were allowed to operate freely. In 2007 the WTO went a step further and granted Antigua the right to suspend U.S. copyrights up to $21 million annually.

In response Antigua opted to start their own pirate site, with permission from the World Trade Organization. This pirate site never saw the light of day and both countries are reportedly still working on a resolution.

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

When it comes to blocking websites, Russia is becoming somewhat of a world leader. Although not in the same league as China, the country blocks thousands of websites on grounds ranging from copyright infringement to the publication of extremist material, suicide discussion and the promotion of illegal drugs.

The scale of the censorship is closely monitored by local website Roscomsvoboda. More commonly recognized by its Western-friendly URL RuBlacklist.net, the project advocates freedom on the Internet, monitors and publishes data on blockades, and provides assistance to Internet users and site operators who are wrongfully subjected to restrictions.

Sadly, however, the website’s work has now become the source of its own problems. By this weekend and like thousands of other sites before it, RuBlacklist will become blocked by the very government mechanism it aims to expose.

The imminent blocking became apparent on Wednesday when RuBlacklist’s webhost was advised by government telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor that a URL on the monitoring group’s website had been placed on Russia’s banned websites register.

The URL in question, rublacklist.net/bypass/, offers advice and information on how Russian citizens can use VPNs, proxies, TOR and The Pirate Bay’s Pirate Browser to circumvent blockades.

This advice appears to have irked authorities, prompting a court process against the site that began in the first half of 2015. However, while the courts want the circumvention advice URL banned, it is standard practice in Russia to block URLs and IP addresses, meaning that RuBlocklist will be blocked in its entirety.

Nevertheless, RuBlocklist are not giving up. Last year the group filed an appeal with the Krasnodar Regional Court which did discuss the case but notably without representatives from the site being present. That effort failed so now the site will push forward again, all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

“We have collected a number of expert opinions, including from representatives of government agencies and industry organizations, which explain that the information we distribute on [the URL in question] cannot be banned in Russia and does not violate the current legislation of our country,” the site explains.

RuBlacklist says they’re convinced that the information they disseminate via their resource is not only in compliance with the laws of Russia, but also in the public interest.

“All the information that we publish is socially important. We conduct an open monitoring of the legislation regulating the sphere of the Internet, information technology, media, and the media, follow the practice of its enforcement and publish relevant news. We also publish analytical, statistical and expert materials into the public domain for free distribution,” RuBlacklist continues.

“In addition, our team provides legal assistance to Internet users, website owners, bloggers and journalists, who believe that their rights have been violated in the Internet space.”

While RuBlacklist being blocked is somewhat ironic in itself, their situation is drawing attention to the very issues at the core of the site’s mission. According to the site around 96% of the sites currently blocked in Russia are victims of blanket IP address blocking, something the site itself will now be subjected to.

“Perhaps [the blocking of RuBlacklist] is even a good thing, if we are able through the higher courts to confirm the right of any Internet resource to inform Internet users of the methods they can use to restore their constitutional rights in the network space,” the site says.

“However, this will only happen if the court makes a fair decision based on the laws of the Russian Federation, and not the private opinion of the local prosecutor, who we would advise to take a closer look at the relevant regulations governing the online space.”

Only time will tell whether RuBlacklist will be able to continue its mission as before but in the meantime the project’s cause will receive much-needed attention, even if the site itself will only be available via proxy.

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

With well over 150 million active users a month uTorrent is by far the most used BitTorrent client around.

The application generates income by bundling software “offers” during the install process and through in-app banner advertising.

The banner advertisements are relatively new. Parent company BitTorrent Inc. decided to include these in 2012 in order to increase its revenues, causing uproar among some of its users.

This week the company has reintroduced an ad-free version of its uTorrent client. In addition to the free ad-supported version there’s now a paid client as well, for which users are charged $4.95 per year.

Through a paid subscription users can support the developers directly without constantly being subjected to advertising.

“We’ve been busy experimenting with new ways to improve uTorrent for our users while financially supporting the amazing team that works every day to make uTorrent free for millions of people around the world,” BitTorrent’s Jordy Berson notes.

uTorrent versions

The $4.95 version doesn’t come with any of the advanced features that are available in the 19.95 Pro version, but is considerably cheaper.

“This gives users the option of avoiding any and all ads in the client. It’s exciting to us because it gives users the ability to avoid advertising at 25% of the cost that it used to be – about 5 dollars a year instead of 20 dollars,” Berson says.

The price setting is definitely reasonable for an application that millions of people use on a daily basis. However, not all BitTorrent users are eager to pay for the products they consume.

But instead of pirating a copy of uTorrent, these users can also disable the advertisements in the free version of the client, for now at least. The uTorrent team hasn’t said whether this will change in the future.

The release of the paid tier is part of uTorrent’s efforts to move away from invasive advertisements and bundled software, which led to bad PR in the past.

“We’ve never been satisfied with this revenue model. It requires compromises that detract from a premium user experience. We want to find a model that adds value to our product and our users. We want to find a better way,” the uTorrent team previously said.

Time will tell whether a paid subscription is the way to go.

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

Over the past two weeks Torrents-Time has made headlines on hundreds of news sites.

While streaming torrents is nothing new, it quickly reached a mainstream audience when several of the largest torrent sites adopted the technology.

Earlier this week TorrentFreak learned that the implementation hadn’t gone flawlessly on all sites. For example, The Pirate Bay is now vulnerable to XSS attacks.

This allows outsiders to execute code on the site, as shown by this example.

While Torrents-Time isn’t necessarily to blame for this issue, the software’s popularity also prompted some developers to look for other possible security concerns in the application.

Aurous and Strike developer Andrew Sampson took the software apart and summarized several findings on his personal website, ultimately characterizing Torrents-Time as unsafe.

Among other things, the software is accused of running as root on OSX, leaking private information, and making it possible for outsiders to launch torrents without the user’s knowledge.

“It’s like leaving your door open, if not worse, giving a complete stranger the keys to your house, with no background check and blindly trusting them,” Sampson tells TorrentFreak.

While some of the issues are indeed causing concern, Torrents-Time’s developers counter that several reports contain incorrect statements and half-truths.

The XSS vulnerability was triggered by The Pirate Bay’s implementation, they say, and some of the privacy issues being highlighted apply to most sites and services.

Torrents-Time does acknowledge that it was possible for third parties to start torrents without the user’s knowledge. This will be fixed in an automatic update later today, after which users have to grant explicit permission.

It’s also true that Torrents-Time has root access on OSX, but according to the Torrents-Time team this is required to integrate the VPN service.

Torrents-Time’s full response to Sampson’s article is available here.

Meanwhile, Torrents-Time is also receiving pushback from other angles. AVG is now categorizing the application as Adware, which is a false positive according to the developers. In addition ad-blockers briefly flagged the streaming links on The Pirate Bay, but this is no longer the case now.

Nevertheless, the developers are confident that they can deliver a quality product.

“We are more than eager to have an efficient and safe product. We undertake to rectify any flaw and deal with any threat to users and sites alike,” the Torrents-Time team informs us.

Perhaps it’s a no-brainer, but users visiting torrent sites should always proceed with care and with Torrents-Time the situation is no different.

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