Month: January 2020

Mit dem Legion Y740s hat Lenovo ein Gaming-Notebook vorgestellt, das nicht nur schnelle Prozessoren und reichlich Speicher hat: Nutzer können über die Tastatur die verschiedenen Leistungsmodi direkt auswählen. (CES 2020, Intel)

People who run pirate sites and services tend to be pretty interesting individuals. Some are extraordinarily talented and smart, with technical skills that can leave one in awe. Some are funny and insightful too, while others are irritable and almost impossible to deal with.

Surprise. People who work at anti-piracy companies can be pretty interesting individuals too. They also tend to be talented and smart, with technical skills in abundance. In some cases they are some of the nicest people you will ever deal with while some are the nastiest characters around. Like their counterparts, they cover the usual spread of human traits.

In many ways, however, these warring groups of people are very similar, they just approach the same thing from different angles. The aim of pirates is to spread media and the aim of anti-pirates is to stop them from doing so. Put this scenario into a video game and its no different from a team deathmatch. It’s not personal either, it’s just business.

The point is that both ‘teams’ are on the same battlefield and as a result, can benefit from the same strategies. And it can be argued that there has been no greater strategist than Chinese general Sun Tzu, the credited author of The Art of War.

Despite being written 2,500 years ago, the wisdom of this work shines through today. So which of his teachings are most relevant to both sides of the piracy ‘wars’?

Perhaps the most obvious, which underlines the similarities between the factions, is that “to know your enemy, you must become your enemy“. On a basic level, by understanding your adversary deeply, you are able to think how he thinks. Stepping deeper, some ‘pirates’ on pirate sites are not pirates at all, even though they act like them.

“It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.”

Perhaps one of the great ironies of starting a pirate platform is that if it fails quickly, the disappointment comes with a gilded edge – the enemy will never come. Great success, on the other hand, almost certainly means the opposite. Not considering this at the very beginning can be a recipe for disaster.

As Sun Tzu said: “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

In 2019 this quote became relevant every time we wrote about small Kodi-addon developers in the UK being targeted by FACT and even the police. The majority of these people seemed to have miscalculated how important their software would ultimately become and, as a result, left a trail of digital breadcrumbs to their front doors.

When the authorities arrive with overwhelming force, a cascade of quotes inevitably follows, all centered around the imbalance of power and the pointlessness of self-sacrifice in an unwinnable battle. Importantly, they know that “supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

That’s what the strongly-worded cease-and-desist letters backed up with a credible threat of civil or criminal prosecution aim to achieve. They don’t want a war, you don’t want to lose, so be sensible and back away now, they say. Or as Sun Tzu put it “build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across” in the hope that the “the wise warrior avoids the battle.“

Of course, there is a valid theory that anti-piracy groups cannot take on the world so if everyone resisted they would be unable to cope with the workload. They know that better than anyone so they pick their fights wisely, in order to project an image of power and present a credible deterrent.

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill,” Sun Tzu said. “To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

But for some pirates, giving in has never been an option and one needs to look no further than The Pirate Bay to see how Sun Tzu’s teachings have applied again and again. Every single time that site or the people behind it have been targeted, the response has been the same – this will not work and we will never stop.

Host targeted, we have another – and another. Domain targeted, we have a dozen more. Blocked by ISPs, here are a thousand proxies. Or as Sun Tzu wrote, “Convince your enemy that he will gain very little by attacking you. This will diminish his enthusiasm.”

Tying up disproportionate resources in one battle is not prudent, particularly against a resilient enemy such as The Pirate Bay. “If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak,” Sun Tzu taught. “By reinforcing every part, he weakens every part.”

The Pirate Bay, however, is a unique case. Having lost so many battles, they now operate from a position of strength. The site isn’t invincible but there are many softer targets that produce more bang for content providers’ buck – and less embarrassment when it all comes to nothing – again.

When everything is said and done, setting out to achieve anything significant in piracy is a gamble. Sun Tzu probably has something to say about that too, but a Chinese proverb explains things perfectly. It’s a plan that should never be deviated from, if survival needs to be ensured.

“If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.”

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

In terms of popularity, torrent sites have been surpassed by streaming sites in recent years. However, they remain very popular.

As we enter a new year we see that The Pirate Bay has taken the lead once again, moving up from the third spot last year.

After a turbulent time, the site has been relatively stable over the past twelve months, although it still doesn’t allow new users to sign up.

Looking more broadly we see that the entire list has remained relatively intact this year. A few sites have switched places but none of the major sites disappeared, which by itself is already quite an achievement.

This year’s overview includes two newcomers. The game-oriented ‘Fitgirl Repacks’ enters in ninth place and the Indian site Tamil Rockers closes the list in tenth place. These two replace TorrentDownloads and Zooqle, which both saw a significant traffic dip and dropped outside the top 10.

We traditionally limit our overview to torrent sites that are targeted primarily at an English or international audience. This means that RuTracker, TorrentWal, Rutor, Dytt8, and Etoland aren’t included even though they would qualify in terms of traffic.

Below is the full list of the ten most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year. The list is based on various traffic reports and we display the Alexa rank for each. In addition, we include last year’s ranking.

Most Popular Torrent Sites (domains) of 2020

1. The Pirate Bay

After more than 16 years, The Pirate Bay remains afloat. After suffering substantial downtime in 2018, last year went relatively smoothly. The site closed registrations a few months ago but remains open to the public. It’s also still operating from its .org domain but it’s uncertain if that will remain the case in the future.

2. YTS.lt

YTS.lt is the unofficial successor of the defunct YTS or YIFY group. The site focuses on movie releases which are popular around the globe. YTS has been the target of three lawsuits in the US recently. While the operator signed a consent judgment to pay damages to one filmmaker, the site itself remains online.

2. 1337x

1337x keeps its spot in the top three. Unlike some other sites, it has a loyal group of uploaders that provide fresh content on a daily basis.

4. RARBG

RARBG has remained steady over the past year. The site operates from several popular domain names, but only the one with the most traffic is taken into account for this list. RARBG was founded in 2008 and specializes in high-quality video releases.

5. NYAA.si

NYAA.si is a popular resurrection of the anime torrent site NYAA. While there is fierce competition from alternative pirate streaming sites, the torrent portal continues to do well, climbing one position compared to last year.

6. Torrentz2

Torrentz2 launched as a replacement for the original Torrentz.eu site, which voluntarily closed its doors in 2016. The site doesn’t host any torrent files but remains a popular meta-search engine.

7. EZTV.io

The original TV-torrent distribution group EZTV shut down after a hostile takeover in 2015, with new owners claiming ownership of the brand. The group switched to a new domain last year and was inadvertently blocked in the Netherlands because it shared an IP-address with The Pirate Bay.

8. LimeTorrents

LimeTorrents has been around for more than ten years. Like many other entries in this list it is blocked by ISPs in countries around the world, which seems to hurt overall traffic somewhat.

10. Fitgirl Repacks

Fitgirl Repacks is by no means a traditional torrent site. It is the home of a popular group that releases slimmed down cracked versions of popular games, which keeps download times to a minimum. They publish torrents on other sites but also offer magnet links of their own, which is why we included the site here.

10. Tamil Rockers

The torrent site TamilRockers is infamous in India, where it has its homebase. However, as it’s available in English, the site is used worldwide. Despite several enforcement actions and arrests of alleged admins and operators, the site is thriving.

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Disclaimer: Yes, we know that Alexa isn’t perfect, but it helps to compare sites that operate in a similar niche. We also use other traffic metrics to compile the top ten. Please keep in mind that many sites have mirrors or alternative domains, which are not taken into account here. We don’t encourage the use of any of these sites, the yearly list is published as an informational / news resource.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Wer auch unter der Dusche nicht mehr ohne Alexa leben kann, findet bald die gewünschte Lösung. Der US-Hersteller Kohler zeigt in Las Vegas einen Duschkopf, in den sich ein akkubetriebener Alexa-Lautsprecher einsetzen lässt. (CES 2020, Amazon)

Lenovo zeigt in Las Vegas eine neue Variante einer externen Thinkpad-Tastatur. Das Thinkpad Trackpoint Keyboard 2 verspricht das Tippgefühl vom Notebook auch am Büroarbeitsplatz. (CES 2020, Eingabegerät)

Eine halbe Million Elektroautos will Tesla in Brandenburg produzieren. Bis der US-Elektroautohersteller Fahrzeuge in der Nähe von Berlin fertigt, wird es aber noch dauern. (Tesla, Elektroauto)

One of the most curious ongoing piracy cases in the world right now involves popular YouTuber Bill Omar Carrasquillo, aka OMI IN A HELLCAT.

In November 2019, the apparently mega-rich founder of pirate IPTV service Gears TV and Gears Reloaded took to YouTube to declare that he’d been raided by FBI and IRS agents who took pretty much everything he had.

A fleet of supercars and at least $5m in funds from his bank accounts were among the haul, he claimed, assertions that he later repeated in several YouTube videos and even a TV interview with CBS News.

But while most people involved in copyright and tax evasion matters tend to remain tight-lipped while their cases are ongoing, Carrasquillo is taking the opposite approach. For reasons best known to him, he’s talking about his problems and history every week, giving additional details that previously hadn’t been in the public eye.

An interview with fellow YouTube channel ‘Say Cheese TV‘ this week has only poured more fuel on the fire, with Carrasquillo revealing that he got into piracy after an unpleasant experience that ended his previously-rumored drug-dealing days.

“I got into this little altercation where I got robbed. That’s the last time I ever sold drugs, on July 4, 2014. I and I said ‘you know what, fuck this’, I ain’t never gonna sell drugs again,” he said.

After this experience, OMI said he went through a few weeks of depression but then a couple of months later a thought popped into his head as a way to make money – Firestick.

“Once that Firestick popped in my head I was like, ‘You know what, I was broke before and I sold DVDs’,” he said.

Noting that the plastic discs are now more or less obsolete, he says he wanted to find a way to deliver content to people digitally – while making some money of course.

“I gotta find a way to put digital movies onto a stick and that’s how it started. Back when Kodi was poppin’ I was one of the first ones doing Kodi sticks and that’s how I started making a lot of money. Buying these boxes from Amazon already pre-loaded and just re-selling them for more money. I’d buy them for $50 and sell them for $120-$150 and that’s how it started,” he told Say Cheese.

At the time OMI says he had 10-15 ‘bands’ ($10-$15,000) put aside in savings but the Firestick business gained traction and quickly brought in a lot more money.

“I first called my brother I said, ‘You know, I’m making five bands [$5,000] a week. And he said, ‘You ain’t making no five bands a week’. I said ‘I swear to God, off these Firestick things’.”

Then according to Carrasquillo, the business began to skyrocket.

“Two months later I’m making $15,000, then a month later – three months later, I’m making $30,000 a week, then $40,000 a week, then $100,000 a week. Damn, $200,000 a week, $300,000 a week, $400,000 a week. I thought, ‘What the fuck am I doing here?”

After just 12 months the big milestone was reached.

“I became a millionaire after a year,” OMI said. “I did good, made a couple of million. But 2017 to 2018? My God.”

What’s important to note here is that OMI says he didn’t get rich by selling Firesticks to individuals, one by one, piece by piece. The business of selling pre-loaded sticks was only a prelude to his major cash generator – the launch of his own pirate IPTV service.

“What happened was I made these apps, I made an app called Gears TV. If you ever watched anything with a Gears TV app on it, that was mine. The app sold for about a year and a half, two years ago,” he said.

“So I’m living my regular life. Now I’m making a couple of hundred ‘bands’ [$200k] every day, every other day. I don’t want to get into specific details about how much money I’m making because I’m still fighting this case. But I’m seeing [millions]. Like too many millions.”

The key is that OMI wasn’t making millions simply from selling an app. He doesn’t go into huge detail during his interviews but it’s clear that the users of the Gears app also required a recurring subscription, which meant that money was coming in all the time through resellers of the service.

“They’re buying but these people that I sold the app to still have to pay me my bread. So everything they’re making off that app, they got to fork it over. Cos I was selling the app for 40 ‘M’s….to a couple of people….to a group.”

By any standard, the amounts being discussed here are considerable, especially in the light of a supposed ongoing copyright infringement and tax evasion investigation. But of course, there will still be people out there thinking they’d like a piece of that action, a point not lost on Say Cheese who asked if Carrasquillo had any tips for fans thinking of starting up a similar service.

“Listen, what I did – it takes hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of infrastructure to do what I did. I started with the slow grind and I got to where I got to. But trust me, where we was at in 2014, 2015, 2016, you would never get to that point now,” he responded.

“The Feds are trying to cut down every streaming app – and streaming ain’t illegal. Illegal was the movies. You can’t host movies, that’s the illegal part. That’s why I think they’re having such a hard time with this case, it’s because I wasn’t fucking with movies. It was a straight streaming app, I wasn’t stealing channels, I was paying for my cable boxes, I was paying for my cable service.

“And that’s why I’m so comfortable talking about it. They know. They took all the cable boxes out of all my houses that they hit, they took all the video encoders. Encoders are like capture cards. I basically made a Twitch network, private, with all channels for $10-$15 per month. I had a ton of subscribers, I don’t want to talk about how many subscribers I had, it’s up to them [the FBI/IRS] to figure it out.”

OMI also revealed that during a recent flight back from the Dominican Republic, the Feds were actually on the plane with him. He said he was joking around but in one of his videos there was an agent sitting next to him “the whole time.”

But despite having “pretty much everything” taken from him in November, Carrasquillo can be seen ‘buying’ yet more new cars in his latest YouTube videos. This, he says, is a result of the revenue he’s generating from his YouTube content, which he claims is currently around $50,000 per month – with a potential for more.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

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