File-sharing Felon Forced to Use Windows

Believers join Missionary Church of Kopimism

(NEWSER) - Sweden may not condone file-sharing—it's still illegal—but the country is officially OK with belief in the practice. Some 3,000 passionate file-sharers have gotten their beliefs recognized as an official religion. The Missionary Church of Kopimism—as in, "copy-me-ism"—has sought official status in Sweden since 2010, and it's finally won the battle, TorrentFreak reports. The decision follows a pair of rejections; authorities wanted Kopimism to define its prayer practices. More»

Project could protect all data exchanged between computers from prying eyes

(NEWSER) - The founders of hugely popular torrent site Pirate Bay have announced ambitious plans to develop technology to encrypt all web traffic to ensure users absolute privacy, reports NewTeeVee. "Transparent end-to-end encryption for the internet"—or IPETEE—would protect all information sent from or received by a PC, including instant messaging to video or music downloads, from prying eyes. More»

Service provider faces investigation over claims of traffic-blocking

(NEWSER) - The Federal Communications Commission will investigate allegations Comcast hinders file sharing by blocking internet traffic for some users, the AP reports. Reports last year showed Comcast interfered with popular BitTorrent file-transfer protocol. Comcast has denied blocking data, rather claiming it delays such transfers to maximize network efficiency for all users. File sharing, widely used for online piracy, has substantial legitimate use as well. More»

Pirate Bay admins, hounded by lawyers and tails, 'not worried'

(NEWSER) - Things are heating up for BitTorrent search site The Pirate Bay, as lawyers for Prince pressure advertisers to drop it and a Swedish prosecutor promises to sue site administrators. One admin tells Ars Technica that investigators driving cars with Danish license plates are following and photographing Pirate Bay operators -- a move he's inclined to blame on Prince. More»

(NEWSER) - Cable and Internet service giant Comcast is disrupting more than just BitTorrent traffic, reports Ars Technica. Tests by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that Comcast customers using a growing list of apps may find their Net access slowed or denied. A Lotus Notes engineer, for example, discovered Notes emails sent with large attachments being dropped. More»