i felt that i need to share this

BitTorrent Trackers Close En Masse After Pirate Bay Verdict
Written by Ernesto on April 20, 2009

Several private BitTorrent trackers including Nordicbits, Powerbits, Piratebits, MP3nerds and Wolfbits, have closed down after the Pirate Bay verdict came in last Friday. Other trackers are set to follow this example in what could be the greatest voluntary tracker collapse ever.

Operating a BitTorrent tracker from Sweden is not as fun as it used to be, last Friday ruined all that. What was once considered a safe haven for BitTorrent sites, is now a Bermuda Triangle for some previously very active BitTorrent trackers. The harsh verdict against the four individuals involved with the largest BitTorrent tracker on the Internet led to worries among those who operate similar sites in Sweden and elsewhere.

In the days following the verdict, several large and small BitTorrent trackers have decided to close down and more are expected to follow suit in the days to come. One of the sites that has closed its doors is NordicBits, which displays a message citing the verdict as one of the reasons for the closure.

We have to shut down the site now due all circumstances. We don’t have time to do anything to the code, we don’t have interest in it, we don’t have any more money and the biggest reason is The Pirate Bay info.

Rumors say that at least a dozen trackers will discontinue operations in the days to come including Swebits, who have already shut down their tracker but not the site itself. SeedIT, a relatively small community is another tracker that’s decided to shut - they posted their latest torrent a few hours ago, titled:
“RiP.SeedIT.We.Have.always.been.the.best.of.the.best.Love.love.love.XXX-RIP”

Several of the trackers that are now offline were operated by Swedes, who are worried that they might be facing legal troubles as well. In addition, there are many other BitTorrent trackers hosted in Sweden run by non-Swedes - time will tell how they respond.

The Pirate Bay continues business as usual as the defendants appeal their case, but in the meantime the Swedish anti-piracy lobby will use the verdict to their advantage. Uncertain times.

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-trackers-close-en-masse-after-pirate-bay-verdict-090420/

and closer to home~

Government Shuts Down BitTorrent Tracker
Written by enigmax on April 21, 2009

Today the Malaysian government ordered prominent webhosting provider Shinjiru to close down BitTorrent site LeechersLair.com. The order came from the Content, Consumer and Network Security Division of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

MalaysiaIt hasn’t been a very good week for BitTorrent trackers, and all the signs are it’s going to get worse. We all know what happened last Friday and yesterday only brought more bad news, as many more trackers in Sweden decided to close.

This morning TorrentFreak was informed of the closure of another long-standing BitTorrent tracker.

Although it doesn’t have the profile of sites like The Pirate Bay, LeechersLair (LL) is a well-established tracker. Launched in 2006, LL has around 18,000 members who enjoy all the usual content. Until today the site was hosted in Malaysia - not any more.

This morning the Content, Consumer and Network Security Division of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) ordered Shinjiru, LeechersLair’s host, to close down the site, citing a breach of Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987.

SKMM is a government body which enforces the communications and multimedia laws in Malaysia. It informed Shinjiru by faxed letter that if it failed to close LeechersLair, it would be breaking the law. Shinjiru immediately complied and took the site offline.

The government of Malaysia has moved against torrent sites hosted by Shinjiru before, as we reported back in June 2008, but most of them returned elsewhere.

However, there was a worrying development when one of the sysops of another torrent site, tbkresources.org - also hosted at Shinjiru, told TorrentFreak that a hard drive had been attached to their server and it was copying data for use in a copyright infringement case against them. Shinjiru confirmed the report.

At this stage it is unclear if LeechersLair will return, but we will update this post when we have more information. In the meantime other trackers hosted by Shinjiru continue to operate but whether or not they are being monitored is anyone’s guess.

Both Shinjiru and the Malaysian government were given the opportunity to comment, but as yet we’ve received no response.

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/government-shuts-down-bittorrent-tracker-090421/


and of cuz..
there's always a silver lining behind those dark clouds..
when will singtel do this?
and fyi
singnet is limiting the speed to download.

ISP Speeds Up Customers’ BitTorrent Downloads
Written by Ernesto on April 18, 2009

There are many ways for ISPs to manage the increased load BitTorrent traffic places on their network. Some choose to interrupt BitTorrent transfers like Comcast did, but there are more ‘consumer friendly’ alternatives too. An Israeli Internet provider is adding local web-seeds to speed up torrent transfers and reduce the amount of international traffic.

bezeqOver the past few years Internet service providers have been increasingly complaining about the massive load BitTorrent transfers place on their networks. They claim that this load can reduce the performance experienced by other subscribers, but the huge amount of data transferred outside their own network is also very costly.

To solve these issues, some ISPs have started to slow down all BitTorrent traffic, Comcast-style. Others choose to limit BitTorrent speeds at certain times of the day, and there are other examples where customers simply cannot download files with a .torrent extension at all.

Luckily there are options available which can help manage BitTorrent traffic and please customers, all at the same time. The Israeli ISP Bezeq International has taken this more consumer-friendly route. This ISP actually makes BitTorrent downloads faster by caching popular torrent downloads on their own network. By doing so the load on the network decreases and since there are less connections to peers outside the network Bezeq is also saving on costly bandwidth.

It works as follows. When a Bezeq International customer downloads a .torrent file the ISP will intercept it and add (!) a new tracker to it. The additional tracker is only accessible for Bezeq International customers and it connects to a high speed web-seed hosted on Bezeq International’s network. As a result the files will be downloaded much faster. A Bezeq customer told us that almost all ‘popular’ torrents he downloaded connect to local seeds.

Interestingly, the tracker Bezeq International uses is hosted by an ISP in The Netherlands, while the actual seeds (caches) are on the ISPs network. The provider confirmed to TorrentFreak that the ISP is indeed listed as a client, but they were not aware of its torrent caching practices or that they were hosting a BitTorrent tracker.

On the surface this seems to be a win-win situation for both the ISP and its customers. Bezeq saves on resources and expensive bandwidth while the customer enjoys higher download speeds. There are of course privacy concerns, since the .torrent files are intercepted and edited without permission, but the biggest opposition to such a system will most likely come from the entertainment industry.

Various anti-piracy lobby groups, including the MPAA and RIAA are already pushing for more cooperation from ISPs in tracking down copyright infringers. The relationship between the entities is an uneasy one already, and that’s before an ISP decided it would become a BitTorrent seeder. Although Bezeq International does not control which files are cached on their servers, the likes of the MPAA and RIAA will likely see it as aiding in copyright infringement.

Caching BitTorrent traffic and attempts to keep it within the local network as much as possible are not new, but aside from occasional tests these technologies are never implemented by ISPs. Bezeq International did not respond to our inquiries so we can’t confirm that they have implemented it for all their customers. For those who are lucky enough, enjoy the ride.

source:
http://torrentfreak.com/isp-speeds-up-customers-bittorrent-downloads-090418/