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The latest events and news from the Digital Piracy World and PC Gaming Industry.
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2012-02-17	Illegal Upload of Syndicate
	The upload seems to have originated from a Russian source, but is currently not playable. Still the illegal image was released on the 16th and the official release date is the 21st, which gives plenty of time to remove the DRM system.

2012-02-07	BTJunkie Closes- "The Shouts are getting quieter!"
	The shockwaves are still rippling through the Internet with the recent closure announcement of BTJunkie, who is a major player in the illegal torrent sites. After many years of anti-piracy measures, it seems the constant pressure has had more effect as illegal sites are shutting themselves down. Personally I am scared; not that the anti-piracy groups will win! But that the rest of the illegal population will go so anonymous or underground. This will be disastrous and will set all anti-piracy efforts back several years.

2012-02-03	Hong Kong gets tough on Electronic Crime and Copyright Infringement
	Having been born in Hong Kong and know it very well all I can say is good luck. One of the reasons why Hong Kong is such a business orientated place, and has a respect around the world, is its lack of upholding of IP laws. Because when anyone is allowed to sell anything then price, service, and speedy delivery is what counts. MegaUpload might be in trouble, but from a service point of view, you cannot argue that they had it right. Piracy is a service problem; currently piracy is doing a better job. Will digital media companies see this gap in the market, ignore it, or legislate it?

2012-02-03	Why would Ubisoft do this to their paying Customers?
	Sometime next week Ubisoft will shutdown their server, with no idea how long the outage will be. This will affect all Ubisoft PC games, because of the "always online" DRM system, rendering them unplayable. What many can't understand why would a company do this to paying customers? Or why they don't have a backup server to handle this? The customer feedback has been to once again ignore Ubisoft, you can read the comments here: PC Gamer: "Ubisoft server switch to render always-online DRM games unplayable next week"

2012-01-24	Will someone chalk one up for the "Anti-Piracy" groups!
	This is the first clear win for the "Anti-Piracy" groups. While it is only a small win, nonetheless, the self-closing of many Cyberlockers has shocked many illegal downloaders around the world. While anti-piracy methods have been harsh in the past, and at times the punishment so out of context. You have to wonder of the fate of Kim Dotcom (Yes that is his name; legally changed), who was the extravagant Admin of Megaupload. The biggest question is; why did it take so long for Anti-Piracy groups to target Cyberlockers? Torrents are just links, they don't host material. But Cyberlocker sites actually host illegal material, and some pay illegal uploaders to do so. At the moment there is a fair amount of panic, and many cyberlocker sites are quickly tying up loose ends. Here is the current list of Cyberlocker sites and their availability, though this could change quickly: MegaUpload - Closed. FileServe - Closing, does not sell premium. FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S.. UploadStation - Locked in the U.S.. FileSonic - the news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation). VideoBB - Closed! Will disappear soon. Uploaded - Banned in the U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone. FilePost - Deleting all material (will leave executables, pdfs, txts) Videoz - Closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA. 4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI. MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors. Pro FBI Org Torrent - Could vanish with everything within 30 days "he is under criminal investigation" Network Share mIRC - Awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrente everything. Koshiki - Operating 100% Japan will not join the SOPA / PIPA Shienko Box - 100% working China / Korea will not join the SOPA / PIPA ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOPA / PIPA Recent News 23rd Jan 2012 Lawyer, Robert Bennett, stated he would no longer defend MegaUpload because the case conflicts with the interests of another client of Bennett???s law firm Hogan Lovells. Most suspect that this is pressure from the entertainment industries. TorrentFreak: MegaUpload Loses Top Lawyer After 'Outside' Pressure

2012-01-23	Cyberlocker The Dead List!
	In the greatest turn of events, many cyberlockers have decided to stop "copyright infringing content" from being downloaded by 3rd parties. These sites are effectively limiting their service, in more than one way; this effectively makes them a dead site for illegal downloaders and uploaders. This has originated from Megaupload's shutdown and the admins arrested for numerous "copyright infringing" violations. Now in fear, many other cyberlocker sites have decided to suspend their service or limit it. Huge names in the illegal downloading world are suddenly going dead. Currently the "Dead List" looks like: Megaupload Hotfile Fileserve Filesonic Filejungle Uploadstation Filepost Mixturecloud VideoZer VideoBB Uploadbox

2012-01-15	The fate of digital censorship
	After many countless years of anti-piracy lobbing, the US congress is getting close to deciding the fate of SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills. Will it be passed? We hope not! Apart from the free speech, censorship, and these humanity and moral dilemmas it throws up. The truth is that there are simple ways to get around a DNS block. And many of us are computer competent to follow the posted instructions of an internet wizard. And the rest of us are clever enough to type it into Google. No, the fear I have is that instead of making the digital world pirate-free, it just looks like it. This type of action will motivate illegal downloaders to hide their activities and go invisible. At the end of 2011 we have noticed that there were a lot less public visible addresses, and more private addresses. Once this happens there will be nothing people can do to stop piracy. At the moment the only saving grace is that illegal downloading is completely visible, in terms of being the "Enemy" this is a dream. I think that if the bills are passed someone is in for an abrupt wake up!

2012-01-07	IPTorrents a private tracker site celebrates its first PetaByte Uploader!
	To bring in the New Year, IPT celebrates its first PetaByte Uploader. That's not Megabyte, GigiByte, TeraByte ... No it's a 1 with 15 zeros behind it (1,000,000,000,000,000). That's a lot of sharing!

2011-12-13	Postal 3 has been illegally available for some time!
	The English files for Postal 3 was illegally uploaded on the 11th, but the Russian version had been officially available since the 23rd of November. While the crack has been out for a while, because it was the Russian version we are unsure when this occurred partly because we cannot speak Russian. With the Official English version due to be release on the 23rd of December, we are unsure how to score this fairly! Technically it is 22 Days before the release day, but we feel it unfair to list it as that. Then again who ever said that piracy was fair...?

2011-11-26	Batman: Arkham City, if pirates can't crack it, they emulate it!
	It's a tough one to call, as there has been no sign of a cracked file! A work around method was uploaded that allows illegal downloaders to access and play. This work around uses a disc emulation process, fooling the DRM software into believing a legitimate copy is present. This must be a new type of DRM variation to keep the cracking groups at bay. Reports state it's both GFWL and Steam, but we are unsure what it is.