pirating

Members of image board and Internet forum 4chan over the weekend launched a series of DDoS attacks against Web sites for the two biggest media trade groups.

Accused in the past of drumming up raids against Twitter, YouTube, and other popular sites, users at 4chan urged fellow members to carry out DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) late last week, taking both offline on Saturday.

The actions by 4chan users were launched in retaliation against similar DDoS attacks aimed at The Pirate Bay and other file-sharing … Read more

In the debate over the illegal file sharing of films online, independent filmmakers have largely been forgotten.

While the antipiracy efforts of the top studios, such as Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros., and their trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), have attracted plenty of attention, the impacts of illegal file sharing on indie studios are much more dramatic, according to three indie movie makers who spoke to CNET. Now, some in their ranks have begun to fight back.

About a dozen production companies have filed lawsuits against tens of thousands of individuals they accuse of illegally distributing … Read more

Security vendor Avast takes a cue from its own name and a slightly aged Internet meme to bring you a pirate-themed approach to home computer protection. In honor of the upcoming annual "Talk like a pirate day" on September 19, Avast rebrands its main interface in pirate-speak for people who opt in to the feature through September 22. There's not a lot to the changes, but check out the our slideshow of the four newly rechristened pirate-themed windows in Avast.

If you asked the average moviegoer to name George Lucas' biggest influence on the film industry, they'd probably say "Star Wars." But while there's no arguing with the massive cultural and artistic impact of that film and its five sequels, a better answer might well be Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic.

To be sure, "Star Wars" and ILM are not unrelated--Lucas started ILM to create the visual effects for his groundbreaking movie. But the visual effects house has gone on to do a great deal more, and today is probably responsible for the look … Read more

In a coordinated crackdown on Internet movie piracy, police from five European countries arrested a total of 10 people following raids, according to an Associated Press report.

Five of the arrests were made in Belgium, which spearheaded the raids on Tuesday, according to the AP report. Police shut down 48 servers and charged the five suspects in Belgium with computer fraud, hacking, and being members of a criminal organization.

Interestingly, the police told the AP that the suspects, ranging in age from 25 to 30 years old, were not pirating films for their own financial gain, according to the AP. … Read more

Fresh off her appearance on MSNBC, Caroline McCarthy replaces Justin today to talk Net neutrality, iPhone users getting laid more than Android owners, Fallout New Vegas, and a Web-surfing contest.

There have been a lot of misconceptions and misstatements about Net neutrality. Usually on The 404, we strive never to talk about real issues, but the Net neutrality debate has really stirred up the emotions with Jeff, Wilson and Justin. Caroline helps explains some of the issue from her appearance on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC, and if it means a lot to you, be sure to check out Wilson's rant yesterday about the issue.

But ultimately, there are several competing interests involved, and we just want make sure that the next Google or Facebook that comes down the road won't have to pay to get priority access. The stakes are high here, people! Everything will be delivered over the Internet in the coming years, from books, to newspapers, magazines, blogs, social networks, video channels, radio, music, etc.

Rant over. Moving on.… Read more

So there I am, hanging out in Melbourne, Australia, and I see a target. I am, let's say, a mugger. So I make my move, and ka-pow! I get clobbered. I'm looking around for Batman or something, but instead I see a pair of petite females in black pajamas and hoods.

"What gives!?" I ask.

"We're ninjas," they reply.

I'm screwed.

Lady ninjas, dubbed by the Australian press as "ninja mums," could be turning into the latest urban rage in some cities there as women learn the ancient Japanese fighting … Read more

LAS VEGAS--A researcher has compiled a list of more than 170 million Facebook users and the Web address of their profile page on the site and released it on a file-sharing site, meaning it is making the rounds of thousands of computers instead of just being accessible via a search on Facebook.

Ron Bowes wrote a script to download all Facebook profiles listed in the social network's public profile directory, which only includes people who have configured their settings for Public Search Listings to be available on Facebook.

In a blog post earlier this week on Skull Security, Bowes said he downloaded information on 171 million Facebook users, roughly one third of the estimated total of 500 million. (The Skull Security site was inaccessible Thursday morning, but a cached version showed the contents.)

"I realized that this is a scary privacy issue," Bowes wrote. "I can find the name of pretty much every person on Facebook."

Bowes said Facebook users can change their settings so they do not appear in the public directory going forward, but even people who do that now will have their information available via Bowes' torrent file available on the file-sharing site Pirate Bay. There have been more than 10,000 downloads of the file.… Read more

On today's show, the NSA announces a new security program that's terrifyingly called "Perfect Citizen" but (at least on the surface) appears to be little more than a series of Star Trek red alert alarms. We're rightfully suspicious. Also, Flash is getting 3D, Pirate Bay is under attack, and the iPhone 4 antenna problem is a hardware issue. We knew that.