There's a whole bunch of greedy "artists"—represented by the SGAE, the Spanish version of the RIAA, and some cinema associations—who most of the times are used by the Spanish socialist government to support their political agenda. I say greedy because, in Spain, there's an "artist tax" on everything that can be used to record something. You buy a CD to do data backup at work? Doesn't matter, the government's friends assume you are a thief copying stuff, and charge you an extra for it. Maybe you want a new camera to record your newborn baby? Well, that's more expensive too because of the "artistic" tax. Want an iPod? Pay extra. A DVD-R unit? Give them more money.

Their argument for that tax was that, since people were pirating music and movies using the internet, the artistic associations should get a cut of all media and gadgets that could be used to copy music and movies. I can argue that I don't give a rat's ass about the mostly lousy music produced in Spain, not to talk about their craptastic movies, but it's ok. Let's say that I accept that premise and gladly pay the extra, even while it destroys the presumption of innocence. P2P was legal in Spain—and still is—and everyone was happy.

Everyone but them. They wanted more, and they got it as an obvious favor, returned by the socialist government now in power. After passing the law hidden in another law, the artist associations can now close any web site they want, without a court order. They only have to argue that the site may be used to share media, and the Minister of Culture will have to the power to close the site without any judge giving the go ahead, a true "Cultural Police." Goodbye democracy, hello National Socialism. What's more, they also want to be able to close the Internet connection of any user who uses the internet for P2P sharing, also without any due process.

This leaves everyone without any defense. The artists associations and the Minister of Culture can shut down a business that can be perfectly legal, without having to answer to anyone. Just because they say so. Or they can close the internet connection of someone who wasn't doing anything wrong. All without confronting any judge with any solid evidence. This means that the business or user would have to go to court to defend themselves after the damage is done, something that requires money.

In other words, no due process, no presumption of innocence, just shutting down web sites because someone with no judicial power says so.

They want to get their money from the artist tax and destroy P2P at the same time, demolishing some Spanish Constitutional rights in the process. Needless to say, this has originated a huge response by Internet users, Human Rights activists, journalists, and bloggers, who have signed a manifesto against it. Also needless to say, nobody in the government will do anything about it, which is one of the reasons why I don't live in my home country anymore. [MuyComputer—Google Translation]

Even as part of a big company, and as a consumer, and as a guy who loves technology and loves gadgets and all the interesting things that are happening on the Internet, I kind of agree with [the criticisms] I actually care a lot about fair use… What we're really focused on in our business right now is the exact copy.

I really don't get it. If he really thinks this, why doesn't he advise another course of action? Señor Fricklas, no comprendo. [Ars Technica]

The other major bit they're missing—where to get torrents where the policies are a little, um, flexible—we've got you covered. If you've got more tips, shower the comments with 'em. [Maximum PC]

Demonoid
Demonoid, besides having a solid community and good quality torrents—no porn, exceedingly few viruses—also operates the other major torrent tracker besides The Pirate Bay. (A tracker is what help makes the whole BitTorrent system work, since it makes sure every peer's talking to each other properly.) It doesn't have the best selection around, but what most of what you'll find there is quality. The catch is that you need to snag an invitation from a member or when they periodically dole them out to the public.

Mininova.org
Mininova's always one of our preferred torrent sites—tons of torrents from multiple trackers, not a lot of crap in the interface, and the search isn't bad. Actually, it's kind of the like The Pirate Bay, but with less crap and fewer headaches. The catch now is that they're slowly implementing a new copyright filter to keep copyrighted torrents from being uploaded. But you should still be able to find True Blood on there, no problem.

ISOHunt
ISOHunt is a BitTorrent and P2P search engine that's got what feels like the most sophisticated search engine of the bunch. But like the others, you just punch in what you're looking for, and it pulls up results you can sort by seeds, date or whatever. It has one of the most massive indices of any site, so it's a good thing the search engine is up to it. Still, with a lot of torrents, it can be hard to find exactly what you're looking for.

BTJunkie
BTJunkie claims to be the largest torrent search engine of all, with around 5,000-25,000 new torrents added to the index daily. The quantity doesn't seem noticeably better than the other sites listed above, however. Also, the interface is really ugly. But you know, it's there if you need it.

EZTV
If you've downloaded a TV show, whatever site you snagged it from, chances are, it came from these guys. They're the most prolific TV rippers around, and usually have solid quality rips of shows up within hours of airing. If you're interested in TV, you might as well just go to the source—their site points to wherever their files are hosted, so you don't have to search through a million different sites to find the right EZTV torrent.

The whole scene is admittedly a bit depressing now, after years of high profile closures—Suprnova, OiNK TorrentSpy and LokiTorrent—so these are what's left of the big sites. And even they're not guaranteed to survive. Demonoid went offline for several months back in 2007-2008, Mininova has a copyright filter attached to it, and really, any site is just a police raid away from possibly going down. So tread carefully, and don't get too attached to any of them.

And of course, you should drop your own suggestions in the comments.

The decision has taken a ton of twists and turns—even after the jury had decided what Thomas had done was in fact illegal filesharing, the punishment wasn't at all clear. Originally she was to be fined for over 1,700 songs, which was then whittled down to 24 "representative" songs, and the per song fine has shot up from the initial $750 (the legal minimum) to the current $80,000.

Apparently Thomas "gasped" when the number was read out loud. We don't blame her, although our reaction was more fist-shaking and muttering about old white men in suits than sheer surprise.

The ordeal isn't over, of course—Thomas will appeal the decision and it'll probably be heard by a few more judicial levels before any final say is had. Jammie, we're pulling for you. Stand tall. Or sit down, it's easier to steal music that way. [Ars Technica]

Ipredator is a virtual private network that people connect to which hides their actual IP address, using a different one provided by Ipredator as their public internet face, making it harder to track who's really uploading that Spanish-dubbed copy of Quantum of Solace.

Wired notes that feature that makes The Pirate Bay's anonymizing VPN service exceptional is that they supposedly won't log any data at all, making it that much harder to pinpoint specific users. The few other details known about the service so far is that it'll cost about $6 and it's expected to start up soon.

So far, 80 percent of the people who pre-registered are Swedish. Not surprising given that Sweden's internet traffic dropped by a third after IPRED (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive) went into effect, which lets copyrights holders sue alleged pirates willy-nilly without dealing with the police. I expect it won't stay 80 percent Swede for long, though. [Wired]

For those unfamiliar, DoubleTwist promises compatibility with most personal, consumer electronic devices, including cellphones, cameras, camcorders and MP3 players, for sync and management capability. Plus, they're constantly working to not only update the database of supported devices, but also the features within the software itself. You can also add friends who are also using the app to swap and stream files freely.

Anyways, its a really promising project that you should definitely give a try, if you already havent. [DoubleTwist for Windows (and Mac)]

Here's the dirty clause, uncovered by Public Knowledge:

This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, customer initiated redirection of television or other video or audio signals via any technology from a fixed location to a mobile device, web broadcasting, and/or for the operation of servers, telemetry devices and/or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition devices is prohibited.

That pretty much describes Sling in a nutshell—throwing video from your house to your phone. It remains to be seen how strict they'll be on that, but it is lame cakes in writing, at least.

Net neutrailty just doesn't apply to invisible internets, you know, since you don't want them to run out. [AT&T via Public Knowledge via NewTeeVee]

It works perfectly: Now you can share the fruits of your labor with your friends after using our guide to BitTorrenting like a pro, so they can leech off you, like you're leeching off everybody working to seed aXXo's latest rip. Or you know, porn. You can also send torrents directly to individuals using Facebook's messaging feature, in case it really is the latter and you don't want it littering your public wall. Unless you don't care if your mother, boss or that girl you got to drunkenly Facebook you the other night knows your sexual proclivities right off the bat. [Neowin]

There's a new Devices tab that'll ask you to install some extra components, like a transcoder and a plug-in to push it to iTunes. As you can see, it's pretty simple—you drag the file to the device you wanna stream it to (in Windows there's a 360 option) and then you click on the icon for the device you want it converted for, like iPod, iPhone, Apple TV (it moves it to your iTunes library automatically for these) or Xbox 360 or PS3.

Transcoding unfortunately takes a long time, but the same test video in the screenshot from the Mac above streamed instantly, without conversion, seamlessly from my Windows desktop to my Xbox 360. It shows up as another PC in the Xbox's My Video Library, as you can see. This might be the new best way to watch TV shows that don't make it to Netflix streaming or Hulu on your 360 or PS3, since it cuts out a lot of the middle man. Worth checking out, for sure. [Vuze]

But that doesn't mean you should. You're not Lars Ulrich: "I was like, 'Wow, this is how it works.' I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download 'Death Magnetic' for free, it's me." Still, nice to know that nearly 10 years after his "Napster Bad" days, he's finally figuring out what exactly he was waging a futile war against. Better late than never. [Blabbermouth]

Right, I'll back up for a second. The embattled chopper(s)—under fire for their cost and alleged foreign manufacture—have been trotted out by republicans as an example of government spending spun out of control. Just as that controversy seemed to be subsiding, reports surfaced that the blueprints and avionics package for Marine One have been leaked over a peer-to-peer network, to Iran. Oops?

The leak wasn't at all intentional, unless you consider trusting technical illiterates with such sensitive material "intentional". No, the leak happened because an employee at a unnamed defense contractor (The Register thinks it's Lockheed) accidentally stored the files in a P2P folder, or, and this is more likely, just set his entire hard drive to share. Before long, the files had been uploaded to ~~xOsamaFanIran74x~~ and the intelligence community fell into a tizzy, all because some guy wanted to catch up on Big Love during his lunch break. In an interview with WXPI, Wesley Clark summed up the situation—and then, hilariously, the internet—for all of us:

We found where this information came from. We know exactly what computer it came from. I'm sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went. Once it's out there, it's hard to get it back. I don't think the full ramifications of this have been understood by the watchdog agencies.

[The Register]

Here are the revelations from International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's Mr. Kennedy:

• The music industry was happier than a pig in bacon-sprinkled shit about winning the Grokster and Kazaa cases, but the Pirate Bay rising out of those ashes peed on their party.

• The damages they've been seeking against companies and people are "justified and maybe even conservative, since the damage is immense." YOU'RE KILLING A WHOLE INDUSTRY GUYZ.

• The music industry is dying.

• The music industry is dying.

• No really, you guys are killing it like a baby endangered seal with diamond fur.

• Oh ho ho, surprise, Kennedy has no idea how BitTorrent or even, hahahaha, The Pirate Bay actually works and doesn't know why the IFPI hasn't sued file sharers themselves, a la the RIAA's outrageously successful campaign in the US.

• If Google had not declared themselves to be a partner of the IFPI—whatever that means—the IFPI was going to sue them too. Earlier, he'd said the difference between The Pirate Bay and Google is that TPB gives you 1000 filtered results of all pirated material, whereas Google gives you 40 million results, mostly legit, to sort through.

• Swedish Film Institute dude reveals that the way they calculate damages from file sharing is stupid: If there are say, 1 million downloaders total, they use a movie's real marketshare in theaters to estimate how many of that 1 million downloaded the movie, and then guesstimate the damages.

• Apparently, the Swedish dude crossed his fingers when he took the oath, reports brokep himself via Twitter.

• If you didn't catch it, Threat Level reports the prosecutors changed the charges again to make it more likely they'll get a conviction, so they won't have to prove all of the elements they originally proposed. Sneaky.

So what did we learn today? The music industry peoples are broken records (har har) and Google is almost as bad The Pirate Bay, except it has a lot more zeroes in your search results. Good times. [TorrentFreak]

• The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde (aka brokep) doesn't like copyright! "I like things that are not protected by copyright, this is a non-issue."

• The prosecutor knows the secret code for talking on the internets! "When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?" The judge asks, "IRL?" The prosecutor, being with it, coolly informs the judge it means "in real life," sucka.

• Oh snap, maybe he doesn't! The Pirate Bay's Peter responds, "We do not use the expression IRL." No, everything is in real life. We use AFK—away from keyboard." This makes for a sad prosecutor: "It seems I am a little bit out of date."

• The prosecution's mind is blown by the chaotic, free-wheeling way TPB is run as they try to divine who's really in charge : "Someone must ultimately decide whether to put up a certain text or graphic." TPB's Fredrik Neij replies, "Why? If someone believes a new text is needed, he just inputs it. Or if a graphic is ugly, someone makes a better one. The one who wants to do something just does it."

• Peter got a lot of weird motivational email from their advertiser, kind of like everyone at Giz gets a lot of weird motivational email from Blam.

•The BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: What is the real purpose of TPB? Peter's response: "It is to enable users to share their material with others." Even copyrighted stuff? "That can sometimes be the sad consequences," Peter replied. Is that remorse I hear? Oscar-worthy acting?

And we've got a good week and a half left to go. [Torrent Freak]

Essentially, the system localizes peer-to-peer file sharing. Right now, when you hop on a torrent, you download and upload data from and to people all over the world. It's quite inefficient. P4P prioritizes peers who are on your local ISP network, making downloads both much faster and much more efficient.

The system relies on iTrackers being installed on ISPs networks. The more networks that run iTrackers, the better the P4P system will run and the faster the speeds will be. Comcast is pushing to make the iTrackers an Internet Engineering Task Force standard, which would help the spread and use of the software greatly.

They want this because this is an actual win/win situation in the file-sharing front. P2P users get better speeds and Comcast gets less load on their backbone. Group hug, y'all! [Ars Technica]

The amount of P2P activity is going to grow by 400% in the next five years. In 2012, 8 petabytes will be swapped worldwide every month, as opposed to the piddly 1.6 petabytes of net traffic today. Accounting for much of this explosion will be legal P2P, which MultiMedia says will grow 10 times faster than the pornier, copyright-infringier variety. This doesn't mean the legal stuff will necessarily eclipse the illegal stuff, but it will become a more noticeable sharer of the bandwidth.

Re: those poor long-suffering ISPs, let's not forget that just because it's "legal" doesn't mean your cable or phone co. is gonna let you bring it on. [MultiMedia Intelligence]

To ensure a high-quality experience for its entire subscriber base, XOHM may use various tools and techniques designed to limit the bandwidth available for certain bandwidth intensive applications or protocols, such as file sharing.

AT&T has a similar provision on its 3G network, using the (legitimate) argument to keep the FCC off its ass that it's wireless and it simply couldn't handle the traffic.

However, WiMax is promising to be something else entirely—a third pipe (i.e., an alternative to DSL or cable from the big boys), and an open one at that. True, it's right out the gate, barely meeting its promised September launch, but not being able to actually use all that bandwidth it's touting doesn't make it very compelling, to say the least. [Xohm via Silicon Alley Insider]

The point is to rollback the FCC's power: Comcast, and the rest of the ISPs and telcos, don't want the FCC to be able to tell them how to manage their networks. That order is previously uncharted territory for the FCC, and if it stands, it'll set a precedent that grants them fairly broad powers to look over the shoulder of ISPs, and effectively, a strong hand in the shaping the future of the internet.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has already responded to the suit, saying that the FCC had "put Comcast on notice" back in 2006 that it'd look into complaints about Comcast gumming up their network without properly notifying users, yet "Comcast nonetheless chose to close on that deal." For Martin, as usual, the mantra is about informing users, not so much about rules and regulations—whether or not that's just his public strategy to get the rules in place is debatable, but it is his standard script.

Who do you trust more? [Ars, Ars]

The FCC decision will basically tell Comcast to stop blocking BitTorrent and to disclose its practices to consumers (both are sorta moot points). It'll be challenged in court, which will take a long time and be messy, and either confirm or (most probably) deny the FCC's power to tell ISPs what to do.

The end result though, and what we're already seeing, is that ISPs will move away from network filters and get into data caps—which are FCC approved. Or at least, not disapproved. So, we've won—Comcast is getting thrashed—but we really haven't. [WSJ]