Share Torrents on Facebook! What’s the IPREDator? Pirate Bay Investigator Gets Hacked! Yar!!! News from The Pirate Bay This Be
By Kat Gardiner on 04-02-2009
The following stories were found washed up on the shore in Cambodia. Three sheets of paper stuffed in a Japanese sake bottle, written in Swedish. The man who found it (we'll call him King Kong) then loaded the bottle onto his computer, zipped and uploaded it onto a server site, made it into a .torrent, and dispensed it throughout the internet through a popular torrent sharing site that will go unnamed.
Upon uploading the file myself, I cracked the bottle open and distilled these news updates regarding the notorious and/or glorious internet BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay. Now, just weeks away from the much anticipated verdict on the copyright infringement case against the four Pirate Bay associates at Stockolm district court, here's the latest:
- Torrents on Facebook
A small icon started appearing in The Pirates Bay's search results over the weekend. An "f" in a little blue box, and an option to share. That's right, The Pirate Bay has made it that much easier to share your intellectual found objects to your friends and internet family through popular social networking site, Facebook. With roughly three clicks, you can now share a link found on The Pirate Bay's site openly with the world. Some people may be sketched out by the sheer lack of anonymity inherent in this potential violation of copyrighted law, but by making it easy and giving it the legitimacy of mob mentality, it may just overwhelm the opposition and give BitTorrent sites more widespread acceptance and legitimacy.
- Paid Privacy Service IPREDator
For those unconvinced, (or just more careful), The Pirate Bay also began beta-testing out a new privacy service called IPREDator. It's a virtual private network (VPN) software that would enable a file-sharer to use the BitTorrent tracker without leaving a trace and costs about $7 a month (€5 to be precise). The IPREDator, named after IPRED (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive) -- the EU's attempt to beef up the enforcement of anti-piracy laws in place -- is not to be confused with Apple's new iPredator, the chic new tiger-making device.
- Hackers Hack Pirate Bay Investigator
And finally, Jim Keyzer, the cop who led the investigation against The Pirate Bay, seems to have gotten attacked by one of the unseen uncontrollables that his investigation is seeking to control. And they attacked through his girlfriend, too. Harsh. A hacker under the name "Keyzer Defender" posted a torrent titled "Where did the money come from?" exposing some of the officer's passwords, account details, news of a newly purchased house, and whatever else this hacker dude dug up on his girlfriend's Hotmail account. Personally, I bet the whole hacking event looked a bit like that scene in Hackers when Angelia Jolie, Matthew Lillard, and their cyberpunk friends stand on top of a building and hack into the cities powergrid using what appears to be a PDA running exclusively on florescent DOS software. The reason for the dramatic headline of the torrent comes from the fact that Keyzer started working for Warner Bros. before The Pirate Bay investigation was closed, stayed there for a short while, and then left. The hacker is implying that this gave him the money to buy the new house. That has been yet to be proven, but one thing sure has: You don't mess around with these hackers and expect not to be messed with.
Iron and Wine to Tour this May and Release 2CD/3LP Collection
By Burke on 04-02-2009
On May 19, Iron and Wine will release a 2CD or 3LP collection of rare tracks, entitled Around the Well. Around the Well features tracks spanning the history of the group’s catalogue, from the basement tapes that eventually formed Sam Beam’s debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle (TMT Review), to the fully orchestrated affair that was The Shepherd’s Dog (TMT Review). It also includes a cover of The Flaming Lips’ “Waiting for Superman.”
Presumably, the band has chosen to release this collection to tide fans over while they record material for their follow-up to 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog, which is due in Spring 2010.
Iron and Wine has also planned nine dates in support of the forthcoming album. Setlists are composed of fan favorites chosen online, and each venue was chosen for its intimacy. So, take your loved one and listen to Sam Beam whisper beautiful nothings to the tune of a plucked guitar.
Around the Well tour:
05.04.09 - Seattle, WA - The Vera Project
05.05.09 - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
05.06.09 - San Francisco, CA - Cafe du Nord
05.07.09 - San Francisco, CA - Cafe du Nord
05.08.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Hall at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
05.09.09 - Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
05.12.09 - Chicago, IL - Lakeshore Theater
05.13.09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
05.17.09 - New York, NY - Abrons Arts Center
Around the Well CD tracklisting:
Disc 1
1. Dearest Forsaken
2. Morning
3. Loud as Hope
4. Peng! 33
5. Sacred Vision
6. Friends They Are Jewels
7. Hickory
8. Waitin' for a Superman
9. Swans and the Swimming
10. Call Your Boys
11. Such Great Heights
Disc 2
1. Communion Cups & Someone's Coat
2. Belated Promise Ring
3. God Made the Automobile
4. Homeward, These Shoes
5. Love Vigilantes
6. Sinning Hands
7. No Moon
8. Serpent Charmer
9. Carried Home
10. Kingdom of the Animals
11. Arms of a Thief
12. The Trapeze Swinger
Aaron Turner From Isis Calls Me Back, Provides More Details about New LP
By Kid Midnight on 04-02-2009
Just last night I might have got a call from Aaron Turner, head of Hydra Head Records and frontman for metal heavyweights Isis, in which he provided me information about the May 5 release of the new Isis album, Wavering Radiant, on Ipecac Recordings. This is now the second in a series of interviews between me and Turner. Enjoy.
Aaron Turner: Hey, is this Kid Midnight?
Kid Midnight: Speaking.
AT: Great, I have some new information to pass on... but keep it secret, keep it safe...
KM: Sure, sure, I won’t have it published anywhere... [smiles devilishly]
AT: Excellent. I don’t want to excite the world too much.
KM: I understand. Lay it on me, big daddy.
AT: Alright, well, as you know, we’re releasing a new album, Wavering Radiant, May 5 on Ipecac Recordings. We see it as our most cohesive and challenging work yet. It’s our first full-length in two years, and we really hope that it marks yet another push towards the unexplored, solidifying our career in adaptation and transformation. Acting as the culmination of 12 years spent unleashing backbreaking riff-age and sonic explorations of light & dark, Radiant sees our colossal five-some moving beyond the visible spectrum of rock and the realm of the uninspired. Blissfully melodic, frighteningly dense, the album is an epic conflict between worlds of beauty and the darkest of demons.
KM: WOW! That sounds pretty heavy, man. How long did it take for you to write that description?
AT: Longer than it took to record the album. Moving on. If any of our fans, or any other interested parties, want to get a peek at the new album, they can head to http://www.dailyrindblog.com/audio/isis_20minutes40years.mp3 and check out the track “20 Minutes/40 years.”
KM: Excellent, first taste is free right?
AT: Well... with the musical climate we exist in, let’s hope that most people don’t get the whole thing for free, right?
KM: Exactly. I know that I’ll be “buying” the whole thing when it comes out.
AT: …?
KM: Just joking, I only download metal bands that I’m ashamed to like.
AT: GOOD!
KM: What else can you tell us?
AT: The album is 54 minutes long; the shortest track is under two minutes; the longest track is 11 minutes. Each individual “song” is really more like a part of one massive whole. It’s epic. The whole album is the sum of years of experimentation, varying influences and the organic infusion of each band members’ personality.
KM: You know, you’re not nearly as mysterious this time around. We definitely have a healthier relationship when we share what we’re feeling...
AT: Yeah... here’s the tracklist... I gotta go... [click]
KM: Oh, okay... [one tear slides down left cheek]
Wavering Radiant tracklist:
1. Hall Of The Dead
2. Ghost Key
3. Hand Of The Host
4. Wavering Radiant
5. Stone To Wake A Serpent
6. 20 Minutes / 40 Years
7. Threshold Of Transformation
Tourdates:
05.15.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
05.16.09 - Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
05.17.09 - Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
05.19.09 - Austin, TX - Emo's
05.20.09 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theatre
05.21.09 - Houston, TX - Meridian - Red Room
05.22.09 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
05.23.09 - Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree
05.25.09 - Orlando, FL - The Social
05.26.09 - Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
05.27.09 - Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbit's
05.28.09 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
05.29.09 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
05.30.09 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
05.31.09 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
06.02.09 - New York, NY - The Filmore at Irving Plaza
06.03.09 - Philadelphia, PA - TLA
06.04.09 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
06.05.09 - Boston, MA - Paradise
06.06.09 - Montreal, QC - The National
06.07.09 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Theatre
06.09.09 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
06.10.09 - Cincinnati, OH - 20th Century Theatre
06.11.09 - Detroit, MI - Small's
06.12.09 - Chicago, IL - The Bottom Lounge
06.15.09 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
06.16.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Club Sound
06.18.09 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater
06.19.09 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
06.20.09 - Seattle, WA Neumo's
06.22.09 - San Jose, CA - The Blank Club
06.23.09 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
06.24.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
