Just four days ago, we reported that Microsoft had updated Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software. Unfortunately, Windows Vista's version of WGA is very similar to the flawed Windows XP version. And so, Windows Vista may prompt users to activate Windows Vista when they do simple things not requiring activation, such as swap out a small piece of hardware (such as a DVD burner or a gigabyte of RAM). Thankfully, Windows Vista doesn't seem to report a genuine copy of Windows Vista as pirated, like the flawed version of XP WGA did.

According to sources close to Heise News the inventor of the famous BitTorrent protocol will open an internet shop with close to 5000 movies, tv-series and games. You can buy your favorite one and will be able to download it immediately using the BitTorrent protocol. As you can see in their Press Releases they have teamed up with film studios like 20th Century Fox, MTV Networks, Paramount and Warner Bros., so interesting content shouldn't be the problem.

[Update]
At the very moment the website BitTorrent is down. All you get is a small message window which reads: "BitTorrent will return in a few hours as an entirely new entertainment experience."[Update]

The RIAA, in an effort to prevent piracy, sends reports to universities of students that are pirating music. The universities that receive those reports must then act to stop repeat offenders, or else the entire school can get sued. The five schools that got the most piracy reports are... Purdue, The University of Ohio, the University of Nebraska, the University of Tennessee, and the University of South Carolina. The RIAA complained about nearly 15,000 students across 25 schools, which is nearly three times what that figure has been in previous years. The computer administrator at the University of Michigan has a very interesting quote on students explanations for all this piracy.

I get the whole spectrum of excuses. The most common (excuse) I get is, "All my friends are doing this. Why did I get caught?"

Most of the reported pirates use Warez, the Gnutella network (through Limewire), or Bittorent.

Last week, Audible Magic in Lost Gatos, Calif,. demonstrated their new content recognition software by downloading a video clip from Youtube. The system was able to identify the clip as a scene 49 minutes and 37 seconds into "Kill Bill: Vol. 2." even though the clip had been recorded on a camcorder and dubbed in Chinese.

MySpace said last week that it would use Audible Magic's system to identify copyrighted material on its pages. However, YouTube is still one major hold-out resisting the new system.

The system works by comparing a file to a database when it is uploaded to a website. Then it either allows the file to be posted or blocked depending on if the file is licensed for use on that website.

Anyone who's ever tried to watch a DVD on their computer knows that it comes with Digital Rights Management (DRM) software preventing copying onto a computer. The original AnyDVD's function was to remove said DRM's, allowing a user to enjoy a clean copy of their movie. When HD-DVD was released, things got much tougher in the DRM field. DRM's now prevent HD-DVD's from playing back on a video card that does not have HDCP codecs, force a user to watch those pesky advertisements at the beginning of the movie, and force a user to buy a fancy monitor/video card/connector just to watch a movie. AnyDVD HD allows a user freedom from all those problems. This means that any computer with an HD-DVD player, regardless of how HDCP compliant it is, can watch an HD-DVD movie. SlySoft thinks that this ingenious software is worth $80 USD, with a 21 day free trial. The Inquirer claims that it is worth every penny.

The CEO of Micrsoft, Steve Balmer, admits that predicted Vista sales were 'overly optimistic'. When faced with the current Vista sales, he blames them on a high amount of pirated copies being cracked in developing nations such as Russia and China. In response to this, Balmer promises that WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) will get much tougher to combat the recent piracy. It seems that Mr.Balmer does not think that there are possible issues with Windows Vista preventing people from buying it, let alone pirating it. A lack of driver support, a lack of advantages over Windows XP, and a hate of WGA all could be reasons people are not buying Windows Vista. An increase of WGA may very well shoot back in Microsoft's face.

Researchers at both Symantec Corp. and the University of Indiana say routers are at risk of highjacking. The research found that router users are succeptable to hijacking of their hardware through malicious code hiding in specially crafted websites that could change settings on the network devices and begin phishing attacks. These attacks are very dangerous to users an example givin by cbc.ca states, "For example, a person could enter the correct address of their bank's website into their web browser but they would be taken to a fake site designed to steal their banking information." The scary thing is that this particular type of attack works on The on all major consumer routers, including routers made by Linksys, Belkin, Netgear and D-Link, but only after a user on that device visited a specially crafted web page for it to work.

Although both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have already been hacked to get around copy protection measures, a Doom9 forum poster has managed to find the most effective method yet. Until now, each different film has needed its own unique key to decrypt it, but now all you need is a single Processing Key, which works on both high definition formats. The method used by the hacker was to record all the information that was being read from the disk into the memory and therefore managed to find the processing key. This Processing Key will probably stop working soon however - once the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator gets word of it future disks are likely to be updated.

During the last 24 hours, 13 of the internet's root servers have reported attacks by hackers in South Korea. The Homeland Security Department admitted that it has witnessed anomalous internet traffic, with three of the targeted servers being briefly overwhelmed by a series of attacks over 12 hour periods. This is being labelled as the most serious attack on the internet since 2002, although it still had almost no affect on internet users around the world. Initial reports suggest that malicious attempt is probably unlikely and it may simply have been hackers in South Korea having a bit of fun.

Although Microsoft isn't too keen to mention this, a well documented "Easter-Egg" for Vista is that you can actually extend the activation grace period up to three times. If you buy a one copy of Windows, when you go to install it you have the option not to enter an activation code and try out another version to see what it's like. By default, this will only last for 30 days without needing a code. However, DailyTech is reporting a supposedly legal Vista command that you can use to reset this 30 day countdown timer and get more use out of your install. All you have to do is simply launch a command prompt with administrator rights, type in slmgr -rearm and then you will be back up to 30 days. This won't give you unlimited time however - you can only do it three times at the most, so that's 120 days maximum. To test how long you have left, simply type slmgr -dli in a command prompt.

Microsoft has decided that they will not bother with closing the vista upgrade loophole, where the user does not actually need a copy of XP installed. According to TheINQ "People without a licensed copy of XP that use this workaround are violating the terms of use agreed to when they purchased the upgrade version of Windows Vista," a spokesvole told vnunet.com. Another quote the inquirer article reads "As such, we believe only a very small percentage of people will take the time to implement this workaround, and we encourage all customers to follow our official guidelines for upgrading to Windows Vista."

The vista upgrade version is about two-thirds of the retail price.

All the effort Microsoft has put into making sure this Windows would be the most secure ever appears to be somewhat in vain. Iranian hackers, operating through a legitimate software firm, have gotten past all of Microsoft's "anti-copying tricks". These hackers claim they will sell these illegitimate copies of Windows Vista through the firm they work for at approximately $8 USD a copy. What's really interesting, though, is how they managed to give each pirated copy of Vista its own serial number, so that they can register it through Microsoft as a legal copy of Windows Vista.

Recently, Romanian president Traian Basescu met with Bill Gates. He then proceeded to tell him how his country's IT business would be nothing if it weren't for pirated Windows software. He claimed that Romania's pirated Windows really helped the younger generation get into computers, which in turn accelerated IT development. Pirated copies of Windows also helped encourage creativity with computers. Basescu claimed that if it weren't for this piracy 10 years ago, he and Bill Gates wouldn't be the good friends they are now. Bill Gates got rather quiet, as he certainly doesn't like supporting piracy of his own software. Romania introduced anti-piracy legislation 10 years ago, but there are very few arrests being made considering that an estimated 70% of the country's software is pirated.

It seems that muslix64, the hacker who cracked HD-DVD, has now done the same for Blu-ray. Blu-ray and HD-DVD both use AACS (Advanced Access Content System) to prevent people copying the media, but it looks like both formats may have been defeated. By finding the keys that films use to prevent users copying the content, people can sidestep the protection and then rip the movies into another format, essentially allowing them the freedom to do what they want with the films. BD+, the second type of protection for Blu-ray, is yet to be broken.

Whilst the Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own country in an attempt to avoid the lawsuits, isoHunt is in a spot of trouble at the moment. Being one of the largest Torrenting sites, isoHunt has often come under the spotlight for its controversial activity, and after a fresh lawsuit from the music industry the site's ISP has decided to shut down the website without warning. isoHunt expects to be back online tomorrow, either by sorting the issues with its current ISP or by finding a new one. Despite Torrenting generally being seen as illegal, sites such as this have frequently argued that they are committing no crime because they do not host the files and Torrenting does have legal uses, but that doesn't stop the lawsuits.

In a story completely unrelated to yesterday's news about Wal-Mart and The Pirate Bay Torrent site, it has been revealed that the site is planning to buy its own country. Having its own country will mean it can wave goodbye to copyright laws, with the site recently coming under fire from US firms regarding copyright enforcement. The location The Pirate Bay wants is a former WWII gun platform now known as the Principality of Sealand, which is located just off the UK coast. This is a very interesting new approach to bypassing copyright laws, and even if it fails The Pirate Bay does have other locations as reserves - the project will be funded by £100m which the site hopes to raise via donations from users who will automatically become citizens of the principality.

Taipei, Taiwan (PRWeb) January 10, 2007 -- IAdea Corporation, the Taiwan-based licensee of BitTorrent technology, and Star Semiconductor Corporation, an affiliate of the semiconductor giant UMC Group, jointly announces the availability of STR9810/20, the world's first BitTorrent-optimized microprocessor chip.

For anyone who is unaware, The Pirate Bay is the world's largest BitTorrent tracker - meaning it is a nice illegal haven for many people who pirate films and other media. So although you wouldn't expect a big supermarket firm like Wal-Mart to support such a site, they seem to be quite happy to provide them with an estimated $75,000 each month for advertising space. Apparently users have been seeing adverts by Wal-Mart for a number of DVDs, including "The Sopranos", "Smallville", "Desperate Housewives" and the movie "Office Space." If Wal-Mart honestly thinks many of the people on a site like that are planning on buying their DVDs, it could be a little disappointed. Wal-Mart goes on the list of The Pirate Bay sponsors including Verizon and Australia Bank (although the latter claimed it advertised by "mistake"). Admittedly, not all Torrenting is illegal, but the vast majority is.

A recent study by retail analysis group NPD, which consisted of putting tracking software on a group of 12,500 volunteers, has found that video piracy is a lot more common than initially thought. Only 2/10 people downloading video got it from a legitimate source such as Apple, and the other 8/10 downloaded from P2P networks. The study also found that 60 percent of video files downloaded from P2P sites were pornographic, 20 percent were television shows and 5 percent were mainstream movie content. There are several good reasons behind the high amount of piracy, however. There is a much larger volume of content available on P2P networks, there are no DRM's to stop someone from converting the video to a different format and/or burning it to DVD, illegal videos are generally of higher quality, and P2P doesn't cost anything.

Apparently we have us a new DVD Jon at Doom9.org. muslix86 made a program to decrypt AACS protected movies. AACS is the protection used by HD-DVD.
When a HD-DVD is played it's protection key is stored in the system memory unprotected, by grabbing the key you can use BackupHDDVD to decrypt a movie and place it on the hard drive.
The catch, however, is that the program does NOT grab these keys, you will have to add your own keys. To get your key collection started, the program does come with keys for five movies.

Various record companies have dumped their case against Patti Santangelo, who was accused of pirating and redistributing over 1000 songs. The music industry did so after Santangelo pleaded that she should not be responsible for her children's piracy. Santangelo's 20 year old daughter and 16 year old son have each confessed to the piracy of the contraband. The lead counsel says that it is still possible for record companies to sue the two children who actually did the pirating.

BBC Worldwide has announced that it plans to release many of its programmes for free viewing via file sharing. Anyone living in the US and using Azureus' Zudeo software will be able to download titles such as Little Britain, Doctor Who, Monty Python series and Red Dwarf. Zudeo is Azureus' version of YouTube (Zudeo it offers high definition videos), although they are most famous for their controversial BitTorrent software. The BBC said this move is part of a drive to reach the largest audience possible.

Earlier this week, one Hotmail user logged into their account to find that all of their emails had been removed by hackers, with the only email remaining demanding money in return for the deleted emails. According to Websense, this is a variant of "ransomware" which holds your files using methods such as encryption and demands money in return for the password. The cause of this is believed to be a computer in a Spanish Internet Cafe which was infected with spyware, therefore Hotmail users needn't worry too much at present. Hopefully MSN should be able to restore the missing emails and this should be an isolated incident, although it could be a sign of the future.

Approximately 800,000 former and current students, along with some members of staff, at the University of California Los Angeles have been alerted that their details may have been exposed to a hacker who managed to breach the University's network. The hacking had been occurring for over a year, from October 2005 until the 21st of November this year. Data that might have been acquired includes Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates. So far there is no evidence of this data being misused.

A Trojan virus has already been written and released for Microsoft's new operating system. The malware, posing under the name "Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06", pretends to be a crack to lets users avoid activating their copy of Vista but in reality it carries a the Trojan Trojan-PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze. Apparently most virus scanners can detect this Trojan but for some reason Norton and Nod32 let it slip by them.