• Major Kad protocol improvements, like kad obfuscation, better NAT handling, direct callbacks, flood protections, etc.
• Several changes to the message system to get rid of spammers (by Captchas) and stay in touch with friends with dynamic IPs
• Several GUI improvements like storing searches between eMule sessions, a searchfilter for shared files and easier access to the comment filter
• And as always fixing bugs and adding other small changes

This seems to be an interesting version because the most annoying thing has been fixed, being the spam search results. Also some nice other improvements and ofcourse the improved Kad and added Kad obfuscation.

Strongly recommended to upgrade to this version so download eMule 0.49a and enjoy it even more now!

Now, I just heard that BREIN is not demanded to start a standard procedure within 6 months. They seem to be happy with the decision, although what they really hoped and said is that we are breaching copyrights. So at this point we don’t know if they are planning this procedure at all in the future. If this doesn’t happen, it means we will never have the chance again to change the outcome and therefor ShareConnector should have to remain offline. Unless we go for an appeal, which is exactly what we did since that would be our last chance to make a difference.

The judge had a weak point so things are still not clear at all and that’s what we have been fighting for all these years, to finally have clearance of what is so illegal about indexing. Now that we have come so far, it would be a shame to stop just here while the end is near.
Since we are not sure if BREIN dares to go on with the standard procedure, there is little to say about what will be next so we will just have to wait and see.
As always stay tuned and watch this page for news.

UPdate 24-01-2008: Today, the judge ruled that ShareConnector is not breaching copyrights, although she concluded it’s a wrongful act.
This confirms my doubts about her misunderstanding of this whole subject. Therefor, we are going for an appeal.
BREIN is demanded to start a standard procedure within 6 months. Nonetheless, it’s a dissapointing outcome and it’s clear this fight is gonna take a while longer.
Also, I’m not condemned to pay €28.625,34, which are the lawyer and TNO-research costs, but “just” the regular procedure costs.
At this moment I have not much else to say, because I haven’t seriously talked with my lawyer yet. So I need to clear my mind and think what to do next. Stay tuned, more news will follow soon!

UPdate 11-01-2008: Yesterday was the worlds first civil trial regarding the legality of hashcodes (eD2k links) and I’m not sure what to think. The ICT professor who helped us explain the role of ShareConnector in a presentation did a great job, although I doubt it was completely clear in the eyes of the judge. The whole point is that ShareConnector solely indexes hashcodes (identification) of files that are already available on the eD2k network. Hashcodes are just a bunch of keywords that are initiated as a search in the eMule client when you click on them. The same files can easily be found by copy pasting the filename from legal sites like NFOrce.nl and performing the search in the eMule client/Google/etc. and get the same results. If that is illegal, than all indexing sites like Google should be shutdown as well and that would certainly kill the internet. It would also mean that keywords can be illegal and that is an extreme form of censorship. Google provides direct links to download locations with the HTTP protocol, while we just index keywords, which are posted by the users solely for the eD2k protocol. So it is clear that Google and likes go a step further and are still perfectly legal.

There is a loud debate in Sweden about decriminalization of all non-commercial file sharing. Quote: “Decriminalizing all non-commercial file sharing and forcing the market to adapt is not just the best solution, but the only solution, unless we want an even more extensive control of what citizens do on the Internet.” The entertainment industry is trying to force people in a certain direction, instead of embracing the technology and coming with new radical business plans. They still haven’t come with good alternatives but rather continue trying to milk the consumer, which resulted in P2P networks going mainstream. Napster set the example and showed the big hole in the market, although the industry didn’t want to learn lessons and adapt to consumer needs.

In any case, finally the legality of the hashcodes is being judged and the outcome should be known on the 24th of january. Based on this outcome I will see what to do next because this is a serious principle matter for me. If hashcodes were illegal in the first place, I would never have started such site, so it’s obvious I want my point proven correct.

I end this post with a quote to think about: “Our ignorance of history makes us libel to our own times” - Gustave Flaubert.

UPdate 26-11-2007: Typically being BREIN, they decided to go on with this civil case afterall. If I still sign their agreement which also states that ShareConnector is illegal, they will drop this case. In other words, they are blackmailing me to agree to something which has never been ruled illegal by a judge. Even then, they will start a standard procedure to demand an unknown sum of the time that ShareConnector was online. They are again desperately trying just like they did in the criminal court, which was just a test case and probably the same thing we should see with this civil test case(s).
The case is planned for 10th of january 2008.

12-11-2007: Last Monday the guys from BREIN visited me at home to convince me to close ShareConnector or else they will start a civil proceeding with a claim. Of course, this does not mean I agree with their point of view, it’s just that I can’t afford taking any risks.

As of today, November 12, 2007 I decided to close down. If there is anything new to report, you will be informed.

Thank you for all your support and understanding.

SurfTheChannel

Highly recommended.

Alluc

One of the better sites.

and all the others..
http://tvunderground.org.ru/
http://www.freetvsearch.com
http://www.craftytv.com
http://www.tvlinkvault.com
http://www.freetvsearch.com/
http://www.surfthechannel.com/
http://www.ssupload.com/
http://www.videolemon.com
http://movies.nabolister.com
http://flickpeek.com
http://www.findtvlinks.com/
http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/90965/Watch_Any
http://www.joost.com/
http://www.ovguide.com/
http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php
http://www15.alluc.org/alluc/
http://www.live-online-tv.com/
http://www.findago.com/series/
http://online-television.tv/
http://www.craftytv.com/
http://beeline.tv/
http://www.movies-on-demand.tv/
http://www.peekvid.com/
http://aknof.blogspot.com/2007/01/free-goodies-for
http://quicksilverscreen.com/
http://Alloftv.net
http://joox.net
http://quicksilverscreen.com/ipb/
http://www.videolemon.com
http://movies.nabolister.com
http://flickpeek.com
http://showstash.com
http://teevee4me.com
http://wheeya.com
http://emuduel.com
http://www.findago.com/series/

source: tvteddy

The arrest and the closure of the site - www.tv-links.co.uk - came during an operation by officers from Gloucestershire County Council trading standards in conjunction with investigators from Fact and Gloucestershire Police.

Fact claims that tv-links.co.uk was providing links to illegal film content that had been camcorder recorded from cinemas and then uploaded to the internet. The site also provided links to TV shows that were being illegally distributed.

The legality of tv-links.co.uk had been questioned for months leading up to this raid but why go after a site merely linking to illegal content that is hosted on servers by the likes of Google, Youtube, Stage6divx? A Spanish court this week has already ruled that linking to content on P2P networks is not illegal.

The message we see being sent here is you cannot link a HTTP URL from your website to an illegal tv-show but it’s fine to host the video on your servers if you are a large corporation with unlimited cash resources for lawyers. If anything tv-links was actually providing a fantastic service to copyright holders of the material they linked too, if the copyright holders had stopped to think for a second they might have realized that tv-links actually provided them with a unrivaled way to track illegal uploads of their shows, and as the site was updated frequently is an easier option than trailing through video upload sites for their shows.

The copyright holders could easily have used tv-links to their advantage to track show uploads and send cease and desist letters to the video hosts who are sharing the content, no doubt this approach would save money and resources as always common sense and inventive thinking does not apply to the copyright holders, police or government.

It looks like this will be another one for the courts to decide whether linking to material on another website is illegal rather than being the content provider. If linking to another website can be seen as facilitating the internet will need to be closed down entirely to eradicate this issue.

source: p2pvine

Three American investigators wanted to see how file sharers could stay anonymous on P2P networks, and it seemed an nearly impossible task. In 2006 they investigated the data traffic of a popular P2P network like Gnutella, for 90 days. “We discovered that an naive user stands no change at all to stay anonymous. All the time the unprotected sharing of files was monitored by people working for the authorities, collecting proof of copyright infringement.”

The use of Block-list software, like PeerGuardian, Bluetrack and TrustyFiles gave an improvement. The change to be monitored whit one of these block-lists dropped to 1%, but it would only have effect when the list is updated at regular intervals. No one suggests that downloading illegally is a good idea, but P2P technology is here to stay and the entertainment industry better think of ways to offer users a cheep and simple alternative of legally downloading copyrighted content, investigator Michalis Faloutsos says. The investigation report named P2P: “Is Big Brother Watching You” can be downloaded here (.pdf).

Entrepreneurs have had it with the organizations (of which some not even are under legal supervision) collecting money that belongs to the rightful owners. “We observe moreover that there is a very strong price increase” thus the company cupolas. Thereby the collection organizations would make abuse of their monopoly position.

Businesses plead for adaptation of the authors law and the law on adjoining rights. “The protection of the rights of the individual claimant, thereby must stand on the first place.” This main point in practice is frequently far from reality, entrepreneurs complaining. It happens that an artist must pay levies for the use of its own work. “The same applies to artists who play their own repertoire at a concert.”

The promises which the minister of justice Hirsch Ballin already did, would not go far enough. The minister had dismissed the (by the collectors) planned levies on music carriers like; MP3 players, iPod’s and hard-disk recorders last month. He also works on a proposal which extends the legal supervision of the organizations concerned.

Source: Dutch government news bulletin.

The group calling itself the MediaDefender-Defenders (MDD) has, as promised, struck again, this time leaking what appears to be the full, uncompiled source code to anti-piracy watchdog MediaDefender’s toolset.

MediaDefender’s software is used internally on behalf of clients like the RIAA and Sony BMG to control the illegal distribution of copyright movies, music and other media online. One company e-mail, leaked last Saturday, detailed the performance of the company’s attempts to poison the distribution of pirated copies of “Spiderman 3″ just days after its theatrical release.

“The [leak] is complete for their operations regarding Kazaa, bittorrent, gnutella etc. This system is … released for the public in order to identify the decoys [MediaDefender] set up,” states the leak’s accompanying NFO file.

The leak is a treasure trove of information for anyone seeking to better understand the anti-piracy operations of MediaDefender and its ilk. Judging by the sheer quantity of different programs written for each network, BitTorrent seems to be MediaDefender’s largest target, with the leak containing 16 different tools target it. In addition to software for creating bogus media files, the leak includes tools for to control the who’s who of filesharing networks: Ares, DirectConnect, eDonkey2000, FastTrack/Kazaa, Gnutella, Kademlia, Overnet, Piolet, SoulSeek and WinMX networks, among others.

Unlike the previous two leaks, MDD claims it received the leaked source code directly from a MediaDefender employee. and the NFO file ends with “a special thanks to the MD employee that gave this to us.”

While DailyTech has been unable to verify the authenticity of any of the leaked materials, MediaDefender has indirectly validated them through a series of cease-and-desist notices sent to various BitTorrent trackers earlier this week; the letters admit that “despite security precautions by our client, a person or persons illegally accessed MediaDefender’s email and other files,” and that the sites in question “immediately and permanently cease and desist from posting, distributing or otherwise making available MediaDefender’s trade secrets and confidential information.”

Responses have varied, ranging from compliance to outright mockery. In one case, Meganova.com replied publicly in a profanity-laden tirade against MediaDefender’s legal firm.

MediaDefender’s woes began last Saturday, when almost 700MB of the company’s e-mails hit the underground. The following day, MDD released copies of a VOIP conversation between MediaDefender and the New York Attorney General. In a previous NFO file, MDD promised that there was “more to come,” and it looks like the group will continue to make good on its claim.

Source: dailytech.com

The court in Rotterdam last Tuesday have mainly cleared the five crew members of the websites Releases4U and ShareConnector, and there host (Mindlab) of copyright infringement, piracy on a large scale and membership of an criminal organization. The DOJ public prosecutor Mrs. A. Drogt had just two weeks ago demanded a fine of 5000 euro and 6 months conditional in jail to all defendants.

Judge Mr. van Klaveren considered the following facts NOT proved:

1. Spreading of copyright protected materials on a large scale, the defendants were cleared of this accusation.
2. Piracy and copyright infringement, the defendants were cleared of this accusation.
3. Membership of a criminal organization, the defendants were cleared of this accusation.

Three of the fife defendants (Releases4U) had admitted they spread a few films within the closed FTP community of the release group DVD-EU, and / or uploaded a few films on the eDonkey2000 network. They where sentenced a fine of 250 euro or 5 days in jail. A lot more to reality, and a wise decision by judge van Klaveren.

Adi and the host (Mindlab) where cleared of all charges, and the judge ordered to return all confiscated computers and equipment immediately. A big disappointment to the prosecutor and BREIN. This test case was just ended a bit different then BREIN had hoped for. Finally BREIN was stopped accusing the p2p community of criminal activities. This leaves 1 to the p2p community and 0 to the entertainment mafia. But don’t think we won yet, although this case was won and showed BREIN was indeed trying to let the DOJ doing the dirty job for them. This case did not really come to an end.

On August 4 2007 the DOJ public prosecutor Mrs. A. Drogt used the media to let the world know she had filed a protection order against Judge van Klaveren’s verdict. Mrs. Drogt thinks she has enough evidence to take the case to a higher level and bring it to high court soon. So the struggle is not over yet, unfortunately i am not convinced Mrs. Drogt has anything of relevance, a new judge will probably come to the same conclusion. We keep you guys informed of the never ending story BREIN against the common (file sharing) people.

To be continued in the near future.

Zocor.

At the end of this first trial day (it was 16:00 hour local time) after a recess of one hour the word was to the DOJ public prosecutor Mrs. A. Drogt. Because it was kind of late (i had to travel in rush hour) i decided to leave the court and hear the prosecutors sentence requirements in the news later that day. About an hour later when i got home, the sentence was already in the press. The prosecutor had claimed a 5000 euro fine and 6 months conditional in jail to all defendants. She considered proved all charges, meaning professional copyright infringement, membership of an criminal organization, and violation of article 31a and 31b of the Dutch copyright law from 1912. But a sentence requirement was not yet a sentence. The case was dismissed and continued the next day, that was the day the lawyers could hold there defense requisitory. Unfortunately i was not able to be present that day, but i knew the outcome could only be positive considering the poor and amateurish proof in this case, that was based of lies and deceive by BREIN who got the DOJ to do there dirty job for them. A big money saver because now the DOJ should pay for all costs on behalf of the Dutch tax payer.

What prove do you have when a hash link name says it is the latest Disney film? The way to find out is to download it and play the movie to make sure it is that film the ED2K file name implied. If BREIN claims they know for sure, they had to have downloaded the file and on p2p that means “no downloading without uploading” (as BREIN themselves claim), which is a crime as the Dutch law says. BREIN itself must have been spreading the film to, to prove it was the film as the file name implied. Would that not make BREIN guilty of copyright infringement themselves? And what if the entertainment mafia is spreading hundred thousands of bogus files like they still do on the KaaZaa network? Would spreading these files with real existing film file names be infringement? And so there’s more to say about the way BREIN lies and deceives the DOJ to get what they want. Only this time Mr. Tim Kuik found ShareConnector, Liquidtorrent and Releases4U on its way, three fighters who do not let BREIN go on whit there lies, deceive and intimidation of the common (file sharing) people. Just let it be clear to everyone; indexing hash links is no crime according to the Dutch law and that’s the only thing that was done on the websites. Nothing but a bunch of hash links where found on the servers, links that could just as easily be coming from Google.

July 24 2007, the date of the verdict.

To be continued …..

Once again, it shows that their news report is full of deception and misinformation.
BREIN claims that those eDonkey servers facilitate and provide illegal content which they offer by payment. Now how ridiculous is that!

Also, DonkeyServer 1-6 are down/offline, along with Byte Devils and some other servers which were the major ones. It’s unclear if it has anything to do with BREINs action. It could also mean that other servers decided to shutdown so people would move on to the serverless Kademlia (Kad) network.
This is good news only, no more servers is no more centralization. Kad is a completely decentralized network, which enables searches without the use of an eDonkey server.

Because of this BREINless action, users will move much quicker to the better Kad network, which is of course a good thing.
From now on it’s recommended only to use the Kad network in applications like eMule, aMule and MLDonkey. Forget the eD2k servers, many of them left are fake, setup by anti piracy organizations to monitor you.