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Streaming exclusives may have revived piracy
Services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were supposed to eliminate a large amount of online piracy, and to a degree they have. Why steal TV shows when they're included with your monthly subscription? However, piracy might be back on the rise -- and the services themselves may shoulder some of the blame. Networking giant Sandvine has published a report showing that BitTorrent file sharing has climbed back to 32 percent of all upstream data traffic after several years of decline. While Sandvine doesn't want to reach a definitive conclusion, marketing VP Cam Cullen believed it might be due to an excessive number of exclusives on streaming services.
Blockchain company Tron buys BitTorrent
A blockchain startup called Tron has closed its deal to buy the file-sharing service BitTorrent. Neither side disclosed how much Tron paid, but TechCrunch reports the price was around $126 million in cash. BitTorrent's staff will work out of Tron's San Francisco office.
Comcast says it’s no longer throttling heavy internet users' speeds
Back in 2007, Comcast was caught throttling BitTorrent traffic, a move that led to an FCC investigation and later, an order from the agency to stop the practice. In response, Comcast then decided to slow all traffic for its heaviest users and its congestion management system has been in place ever since. But now the company is getting rid of it saying improvements in its networks and other technologies have rendered the system unnecessary.
New Mexico asks BitTorrent what it does to stop child exploitation
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is worried that technology is enabling child exploitation, and he's putting pressure on the companies creating that technology. His office has sent a letter to BitTorrent asking it to cooperate with an investigation into tech aiding child exploitation. The official wanted to know what BitTorrent is doing to block, monitor and report illegal material in its uTorrent client, and was concerned that the company's Cyber Ghost VPN was helping criminals hide their tracks by securing traffic. He also asked for subscriber counts in the state and the number of people removed so far.
BitTorrent client exploits could let rogue websites control your PC
BitTorrent's peer-to-peer app and its lightweight uTorrent counterpart are susceptible to particularly nasty hijacking flaws. Google researcher Tavis Ormandy recently detailed a host of DNS rebinding exploits in Windows versions of the software that lets attackers resolve web domains to the user's computer, essentially giving the intruders the keys to the kingdom. They could execute remote code, download malware to Windows' startup folder (making it launch on the next reboot), grab downloaded files and look at your download history. The flaws touch on all unpatched versions, including uTorrent Web.
Google highlights pirate sites in search results
Google may have redoubled its efforts to downplay pirate sites in its search results, but it's clear that there are some bugs to work out in its strategy. TorrentFreak discovered that the internet firm's search results in the US are explicitly highlighting popular pirate outlets when you search for "best torrent sites," while looking for "streaming sites" spotlights pirate services alongside legitimate providers like Crackle or Hulu. You'll have to search from Google's US site (international pages turn up different results), but they're still visible as of this writing.
Spotify's latest move shows it's trying to get royalties right
Spotify has struggled with unpaid royalties recently, though it's promised to fix things to help support frustrated artists. The company recently limited its free streaming option to build trust with music creators. In addition, Spotify just acquired New York startup Mediachain, which created a decentralized, bitcoin-style secure database that manages ownership information for creative media on the internet.
BitTorrent's live TV app finally arrives on Android
Despite troubles plaguing the company, BitTorrent has brought its peer-to-peer live streaming app to Android, a few weeks after making the iOS version available. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, where it has already garnered a lukewarm rating of 3.2.
BitTorrent's live TV network streams to iPhones
BitTorrent's Live video streaming experiment is ready to go wherever you do. The peer-to-peer app is available right this instant on iOS, and, as you might expect it's 100 percent free. As with the Apple TV app, there isn't a lot to choose from as far as viewing material goes, however.
BitTorrent says it's not killing its streaming media service
Last week, Variety published a report detailing some internal turmoil at BitTorrent: the company's CEOs had both reportedly been fired, the recently-launched BitTorrent Now initiative was dead and the company's new LA office / studio had been shut down. Today, BitTorrent has given us more details on the situation at the company -- some of what Variety reported appears to be accurate, but the company has denied BitTorrent Now's demise. The company says it "remains focused on the media space," including BitTorrent Now.
BitTorrent reportedly fires its CEOs, gets out of the media game
BitTorrent has had a big interest in making it easy for creators to distribute and sell music and films, but it looks like that initiative might have just ground to a screeching halt. Variety is reporting that the company has fired its two CEOs, laid off an unknown number of staffers and is shutting down BitTorrent Now, its recently-launched ad-supported video and music streaming platform.
Unofficial BitTorrent app once again linked to Mac malware
The developers of Transmission can't catch a break. Just months after their BitTorrent app was linked to the first known instance of Mac ransomware, security researchers at ESET have pinpointed another form of malware taking advantage of Transmission to infect Mac users. Keydnap, as it's called, takes advantage of a modified version of Transmission (planted on the developer's site without its knowledge) to attack your computer. It's similar to the ransomware's approach in more ways than just its choice of host app -- it even uses a signing key to trick Apple's Gatekeeper safeguard into letting it through.
BitTorrent offers grants for budding artists
BitTorrent doesn't just want to rely on ready-made content from big-name artists and well-funded indies to fuel its constant distribution dreams -- it's contributing to the projects themselves. The company is launching the Discovery Fund to give movie makers, musicians and other creators the money they need to get their work off the ground. A total of 25 promising artists will get between $2,500 to $100,000 to help distribute and market their wares. Producers maintain control, BitTorrent's Straith Schreder says -- this is just about finding a "global audience."
Torrentz.eu quietly shuts down its torrent search engine
Popular Poland-based torrent meta-search site Torrentz.eu has removed its key functionality, effectively shutting down a major portal for finding pirated material on the web. According to a message on the site, which refers to itself in the past tense: "Torrentz was a free, fast and powerful meta-search engine combining results from dozens of search engines. Torrentz will always love you. Farewell." A click on the search box currently re-directs to a pop-up ad from Alibaba. The end of Torrentz comes after the world's biggest torrent site KickAssTorrents was shut down by the feds in July. The proprietor of KickAssTorrents, 30-year-old Ukrainian Artem Vaulin was arrested in Poland and charged with criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. Vaulin is accused of illegally reproducing and distributing more than $1 billion worth of pirated media. In 2014, the founders of the popular Pirate Bay torrent site were also rounded up and the site struggled to stay online as it was raided several times. As for Torrentz.eu, the site managed to stay in the game a little longer because it didn't host torrent links directly -- only made it easier to find them elsewhere. As Variety notes, the site was moved to the .eu top-level domain after its .com was seized by the US Department of Homeland Security. The domain is also blocked in the several countries, including the UK. Torrenting as a means of pirating material may generally be in decline, however. A study by a UK-based antipiracy firm found that most online piracy activity has shifted to streaming sites. And BitTorrent itself has already gone legit.
BitTorrent Now heads to iOS devices and Apple TV
BitTorrent hasn't quite shaken off its rep as a tool for piracy yet, but it's sure giving its best shot by making apps that serve up legal content. One of those is BitTorrent Now, which the company has just released for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. BT's streaming platform originally came out for Android in June and gives you access to tunes and videos from BT's partner musicians and filmmakers, including IHEARTCOMIX and The Onion. You might have to pay up to be able to stream some of them. But if money is tight, you can always just play the ad-supported entries in its repertoire. The images above show what the app's interface looks like, though you can download it right now from iTunes if you want to explore it yourself.
BitTorrent News starts broadcasting live on July 18th
Fresh off the launch of BitTorrent Now, the former peer-to-peer filesharing company is ready to go live with BitTorrent News, its own in-house live-streaming TV news network starting on July 18th. Armed with a couple of decorated journalists and an award-winning former CNN producer, the channel's coverage will start with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
BitTorrent hires an ex-CNN producer to head its news network
BitTorrent has confirmed that it's launching a streaming news channel called BitTorrent News, and has hired a former CNN producer to head it. The peer-to-peer network will be headed by Harrison Bohrman, who won an Emmy and three Peabody awards during the five years he covered politics for CNN. Rumors about the streaming channel have been circulating since last month, when Variety spotted a job listing that Bohrman has now filled.
BitTorrent Now is an open, ad-supported music and video platform
Chances are, most people still think of BitTorrent as a tool to pirate the latest Game of Thrones episode -- but for several years now, the company has been using its peer-to-peer internet technology as a platform for independent musicians, filmmakers and other artists to distribute their work. The resulting BitTorrent Bundle network has played host to projects from Madonna, comedian David Cross and Radiohead's Thom Yorke as well as a host of smaller, lesser-known people. Since debuting in 2013, the ways artists can choose to be compensated for their work has evolved too. Originally, BitTorrent Bundle content was free (after you signed up with your email address), and then Thom Yorke's album introduced the "paygate," which let artists offer a preview and put the rest of their work being a paywall. Today, BitTorrent is introducing a new way for artists to get paid: BitTorrent Now is a new, ad-supported service that'll let users stream any participating artist's content to iOS, Android and the new Apple TV. The Android app launches today, with the iOS and Apple TV apps to follow soon.
BitTorrent launches a live video streaming platform
BitTorrent has launched a TV, mobile and desktop app that broadcasts live events, and true to BT's nature, it uses peer-to-peer technology. The product, aptly named "Live," livestreams sports matches, news and other types of programming by the company's broadcasting partners. Due to the tech's nature, video quality becomes better as more people tune in -- BT says the platform allows large audiences to view live videos with sub 10-second latency. Live went into beta a few years ago, and this version is a complete rewrite that applies everything the company learned from its initial release.
First known Mac ransomware reaches the wild
While ransomware has sadly been a reality on smartphones and Windows PCs for a while, you haven't really had to worry about it on a Mac... until now, that is. Palo Alto Networks claims to have discovered the first known instance of OS X-oriented ransomware in the wild, "KeRanger." If you install software infected with the code (in this case, a version of the BitTorrent client Transmission), it'll encrypt your files after three days and demand that you pay a digital currency ransom to regain control.
