Comments on: Suprnova.org is back... with a vengeance?!

Suprnova.org is back... with a vengeance?!

insomnia_lj — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:06:40 -0800

Suprnova.org is back... with a vengeance?! It was just last week when suprnova.org, the most popular site online for finding BitTorrent downloads, shut down their site. The MPAA and RIAA crowed, but it appears the celebration was a tad premature. Suprnova's new site mentions a special announcement tomorrow at 9 PM GMT on NovaStream.org radio. Rumors suggest that it will introduce Exeem, a decentralized, BitTorrent-driven software client that turns every user into a tracker, removing the requirement for a centralized site such as suprnova, while providing users with easy searchability, the swarming powers of BitTorrent, and a network that is far harder to shut down.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:21:36 -0800

Say hello to another Hydra head, yaoming?

By: graventy

graventy — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:28:05 -0800

*fingers crossed*

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:28:31 -0800

Indeed. If it can be digitized, it will be shared, and if it can be locked down with DRM, that DRM will be broken, and circumvented. It continues to amaze me that organizations like the RIAA and the MPAA and whatever the equivalent might be for television are not jumping all over technologies like bittorrent, legitimizing it for the vast majority of people who would use it to acquire media legally and pay for it, were that an option. They just don't get it, do they?

By: orange clock

orange clock — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:31:27 -0800

Sharing movies is illegal.

By: sled

sled — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:32:54 -0800

Always grows back thicker.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:42:10 -0800

So how will exeem be any different from edonkey? Doesn't edonkey already do all the swarming and sharing stuff? And it's slow as shit most of the time that I've used it...

By: baphomet

baphomet — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:54:47 -0800

Huzzah! I knew the Nova wouldn't bow out so easily.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:58:53 -0800

Space Coyote: The method used by BitTorrent to distribute files parallels to a large extent the one used by the eDonkey2000 network, but nodes in eDonkey's file sharing network usually share and download a much larger number of files, making the bandwidth available to each transfer much smaller. BitTorrent transfers are typically very fast, because all nodes in a group concentrate on transferring a single file or collection of files. - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent

By: unsupervised

unsupervised — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:00:54 -0800

But what will become of the Best Boy whose salary depends on me not downloading "Meet the Fockers"?

By: Enron Hubbard

Enron Hubbard — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:02:23 -0800

What's to keep the ??AA from using Exeem to bust hundreds at a time like they do with MP3 traders, unless its encrypted. Space Coyote : One thing a popular torrent isn't is slow.

By: SemiSophos

SemiSophos — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:02:58 -0800

Space Coyote: I think eDonkey is slower than BitTorrent because of a two factors: - BitTorrent mandates that users "share the wealth," in that download speeds are tied to upload speeds. - eDonkey users are sharing a larger number of files, whereas BitTorrent users are spreading their bandwidth among just a few torrents. I'm also under the impression that BitTorrent is able to allocate slices of files more intelligently than eDonkey. On preview: beaten by nicwolff

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:14:10 -0800

Indeed. If it can be digitized, it will be shared I can't wait for transporters, man.

By: insomnia_lj

insomnia_lj — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:14:21 -0800

"Doesn't edonkey already do all the swarming and sharing stuff? And it's slow as shit most of the time that I've used it..." The big difference should be that it won't be slow as shit. What nikwolff said... The initial review of Exeem seems to indicate that downloads are at more or less the same speed as standard torrent downloads, which should be considerably faster than downloads from other services. Part of the reason for this is that BitTorrent is designed to allow quicker downloads for those who share generously with their files / bandwidth. "Give and ye shall receive..." One thing that occurs to me is how much easier this could make adding torrent links to any site. Rather than fussing around trying to get a Torrent online, all you should have to do is go on Exeem, find the name of the file in question, and then link to it. The link *should* then be able to open up Exeem and initiate the download. In other words, there is no reason that Exeem can't power both direct web links *AND* searches from within the client. Powerful. In addition to a greater degree of sharing per user, I think we're also likely to quickly see more users for Exeem than other applications... and when there's a larger swarm, there's faster swarming. Should be interesting.

By: graventy

graventy — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:44:29 -0800

aw, WolfDaddy, you're such a pervert.

By: kavasa

kavasa — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:49:04 -0800

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:57:32 -0800

I can't wait for this. I'm all aflutter.

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:59:15 -0800

Hopefully they won't announce that they've struck a deal with lawyers and are providing IPs of thier users.

By: Evstar

Evstar — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:28:45 -0800

The thing about Bit Torrent is that the nodes' IP's are accessible to anyone with the torrent. The RIAA and MPAA don't have any trouble getting your IP themselves. So... Don't worry? Or worry more.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:39:40 -0800

I'm gonna stick my fingers deep into the wound before I believe in this. Aren't these the same claims that were being made for MULE or whatever it is six months ago?

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:44:27 -0800

But suprnova isnt a tracker at all. Its just a website that points to torrents. The question here is whether its illegal to do this. The 2600 case from not so long ago pretty much ruled that it is. I'm so sick of seeing them going after the technology. Go after the users. Thanks. At least the RIAA is going after users and not trying to make P2P illegal. Well, anymore.

By: bhance

bhance — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:51:10 -0800

I keep asking this again and again, and nobody has a solid answer - Isn't there a single country out of the RIAA/MPAA/(acronym)'s reach/influence, and why haven't servers been placed there?

By: tumult

tumult — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:58:50 -0800

bhance, welcome to Sealand -- where freedom starts at $750USD a month for a 128k connection.

By: airguitar

airguitar — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:05:12 -0800

The thing about Bit Torrent is that the nodes' IP's are accessible to anyone with the torrent. The RIAA and MPAA don't have any trouble getting your IP themselves. So... Each tracker lists one file, only one. Going after ten million people sharing partial copies of five hundred thousand different files is a legal challenge more difficult than sorting the username list in Napster by the file count column and starting from the top. Also, the rumor has been that ip-masking is to be a part of eXeem.

By: IshmaelGraves

IshmaelGraves — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:11:09 -0800

Is eXeem Windows-only? Because that would suck.

By: Freen

Freen — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:13:01 -0800

Exeem combined with a system like TOR might be able to provide enough layers of security to foil ??AA investigators. I have a friend who works for the technology group at a major music corporation. Basically they try to fight systems like gnutella, edonkey, etc. He'll be the first to admit that he will loose the war, but he thinks that the next few rounds will go to the Music Companies, primarily because there isn't enough bandwidth at the end points to provide a truly anonymous network. Freenet's sluggishness is a prime example. Once bandwidth increases and encryption becomes standard, there will be no controlling it.

By: AlexReynolds

AlexReynolds — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:15:09 -0800

Hypothetically speaking, I wonder what would stop the RIAA or MPAA from hiring a crew with rocket launchers to wipe out Sealand? There doesn't seem much Sealand can do to defend itself militarily from disgruntled corp's.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:20:29 -0800

I keep asking this again and again, and nobody has a solid answer - Isn't there a single country out of the RIAA/MPAA/(acronym)'s reach/influence, and why haven't servers been placed there? (this is a guess) What about Cuba? Last time I checked, it wasn't exactly a friend of America.

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:24:34 -0800

Avast ye swabbies! Hoist the cable modem and unfurl the routers for it's o'er the briny internets we go. Aye, thar's pieces of eight and moving pictures and shanties to be had for sure'n.

By: calwatch

calwatch — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:32:43 -0800

By: Freen

Freen — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:33:01 -0800

Um... could someone shiver me timbers? Please?

By: tyllwin

tyllwin — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:39:29 -0800

bhance -- As best I understand it, yes, there are plenty of countries where the *AA doesn't rule, and there's no local equivalent with any teeth. Russia's a fine example. However, (1) The *AA tends to have a great deal of pull with the United States government. Ditto for foreign equivalents and their governments. There's very little return for a country which could persuade them to throw roadblocks in the way of trade negotiations by doing this. (2) Even many countries without a *AA equivalent are nominal signatories to various copyright treaties which they want to at least pay lip service to There are, of course, countries where they simply wouldn't care about (or would be pleased about) irritating the US and/or observing those treaties. Those, however, are generally countries with poor internet infrastructure and their own far more draconian censorship policies. I wouldn't expect to see, say, Iran, Cuba, or North Korea hosting any high-traffic free exchange sites any time soon. (Not to mention that anyone paying for hosting in those nations in the name of "freedom" might be a tad hypocritical; or that doing technology business with those countries might get one looked at by people who make the *AA look like lap kittens)

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:59:25 -0800

true story: i went on suprnova and got the new nirvana box set minus the dvd cuz it wasnt being shared like that i listened to it a few times to see if it would make me sad + angry + joyful + etc oddly it made me happy. so when moms called to ask, what would you like for Christmas i didnt say franz friggin ferdinand which i had long since deleted, i didnt say the streets which i played once and deleted, i didnt say the new eminem which i actually liked for two days and ignored, i didnt say the new wilco which bored me, i didnt say the new morrissey which had two songs that were decent and well the whole thing was pretty good actually but it didnt come with a dvd so i asked for the new nirvana box set and when i got it i loved it. and thats why the riaa are dumbasses for going after lazy kids with no money who sit infront of pandoras box every day. people will buy the things that they like. give em a chance to like it. and when morrissey comes out with that dvd i will get it.

By: mecran01

mecran01 — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:33:39 -0800

Latest wired has examples of record execs seeding artists as part of promotional efforts, to create "buzz."

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:33:46 -0800

oddly it made me happy. so when moms called to ask, what would you like for Christmas i didnt say franz friggin ferdinand which i had long since deleted, i didnt say the streets which i played once and deleted, i didnt say the new eminem which i actually liked for two days and ignored, i didnt say the new wilco which bored me, i didnt say the new morrissey which had two songs that were decent and well the whole thing was pretty good actually Ok, I glimpsed the inside of your mind. It looks like gaping anus, which I will ignore in thirty seconds. ---- This is good news, though. I like to keep up on television this way.

By: insomnia_lj

insomnia_lj — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:52:39 -0800

"Is eXeem Windows-only? Because that would suck." It would suck... temporarily. If this is indeed the case, expect there to be a big move to make clients for all the major platforms to access the same network. More interesting exeem links: A more detailed review, with numerous new screenshots. An early FAQ / "how to" written by one of the creators that was apparently leaked by one of the beta testers. Apparently, it's been in beta since late November, and has improved greatly since then.

By: pikachulolita

pikachulolita — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:17:34 -0800

Slightly offtopic: is Sealand in any way related to the Crypt in Kinukata, in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon? It appears that Sealand started doing this sort of thing around 2000, and Cryptonomicon came out in 1999.....

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:43:55 -0800

pika: The idea of a "data haven" has been growing in popularity at least since the first use of the phrase in Bruce Sterling's 1989 novel Islands in the Net.

By: menace303

menace303 — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 00:01:06 -0800

hey guys, slow down on the celebrating... think of Manny Perry. Alls he wants to do is make movies without you leaches stealing his money! /sarcasm. thick and juicy.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 00:52:35 -0800

Aren't these the same claims that were being made for MULE or whatever it is six months ago? No. With KaZaa / eMule / eDonkey / eHorse / eQuine, the entire file is being transported over the top network layer. That's hundreds of megs of overhead, when all you really need to do is set up a decentralized server for VERY SMALL FILES (the .torrent files). Basically, imagine Gnutella2, only instead of sharing the entire 700 Mb DivX, you're only sharing a 2 k .torrent file. That means your latency goes down, down, down. But as someone else has already pointed out, this does nothing, absolutely nothing to stop the RI/MPAA from getting your IP once connected to your peers. If they wish to send legal notices to individual users, it will still be trivial.

By: Mr Bismarck

Mr Bismarck — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 01:16:42 -0800

Isn't there a single country out of the RIAA/MPAA/(acronym)'s reach/influence? I suspect Sweden, in the heart of communist Shandyland, is beyond the grasp of the evil acronyms, as evidenced by the responses to legal threats received by The Pirate Bay : "Hello and thank you for contacting us. We have shut down the website in question. Oh wait, just kidding. We haven't, [since] we have sane copyright laws here. But we also have polar bears roaming the streets and attacking people :-(."

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 01:43:51 -0800

gaping anus thanks, the god complex, i nearly forgot i was on the internets.

By: randomstriker

randomstriker — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 01:59:05 -0800

god complex, methinks you visit goatse.cx a little too often.

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 02:45:20 -0800

actually, tsarfan was the first person to reveal himself as being youthful since i read the metatalk thread about keyser soze, plus he didn't use capitalization, so i thought i'd kill two birds with one stone. it was meant only in jest ;)

By: mek

mek — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 03:53:56 -0800

A better time for this FPP would have been later today, when there is actually a development in the story other than "there is an announcement of unknown content on the horizon." Back on topic, even the exeem testers have no idea what this announcement will be about. I but I think we all know.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 04:14:19 -0800

tsarfan i love you.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 05:39:17 -0800

I didn't know that suprnova went down. I very, very rarely got movies via bittorrent, but that is how I watched the few TV shows that I watched. Also frowned upon by the IP folks, but more tolerable, I think. Damn. This is annoying. Gotta love USENET, though. It just keeps on keepin on.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 05:44:28 -0800

y'know, if the MPAA/RIAA would just make the fine reasonable - say, $10-$15 for downloading a CD or $20-$30 for downloading a movie - i think they'd get a little more respect and stop looking like the money-hungry bully-sluts they are. asking $30,000 to $150,000 for copying a movie that i could buy at a local store for $30? that's insane. especially considering there isn't anything physically being removed from the MPAA/RIAA. nothing. it's like being fined $1000 for making $1 worth of photocopies. sure, there are freaks who spend hours online downloading hundreds of movies because they can. but the average person i'm guessing is like most of us - picking up new music to try it out before buying, finding that episode of a show we missed, or rounding out a collection of out-of-print music or video. i doubt the average person using filesharing is a bloodthirsty pirate out to shut down the industry. the industry, on the other hand, is doing its best to sour public relations, shoot the consumers that drive it, and stifle the creativity of the artists that fuel it. ...and if they want me to feel bad for the little guys in the biz who get shafted, how about making a movie that doesn't suck? you heard me, george lucas - stop fucking making shit movies and i'll start thinking about your key grip before downloading! deal? and for the love of christ stop fucking re-editing your finished works, you no-talent hack! we liked them fine the first time, don't ruin them by reminding us you suck when left to your megalomaniac self! fucking wanker.

By: drstupid

drstupid — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 06:02:11 -0800

PinkStainlessTail, maybe you were thinking of MUTE? It is still around, but I don't know how popular it is... but nobody's been sued yet, at least. Easy targets first... Evstar: The thing about Bit Torrent is that the nodes' IP's are accessible to anyone with the torrent. The RIAA and MPAA don't have any trouble getting your IP themselves. So... Don't worry? Or worry more. I'd say don't worry much but that doesn't mean you won't be C&D'd. It's much easier to sue a server-based file sharing system - because the server centralizes all the sharing. It's also easier to sue someone on, say, Kazaa - they're probably sharing a lot of files. BitTorrent is harder - they can C&D you, but you're only sharing one file at a time, which means the damages they can claim are much lower and it's less worth their while. They can shut down the trackers - they've been working on that. But what if each person is only sharing one file at a time, and there are no trackers? They're back to filing John Doe lawsuits against hundreds of individuals, but this time for sharing only one file - and you might only be sharing it for 2 hours at a time, rather than days at a time like someone on Kazaa or any regular multi-file P2P system.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 06:36:19 -0800

ME: Aren't these the same claims that were being made for MULE or whatever it is six months ago? CD: No. With KaZaa / eMule / eDonkey / eHorse / eQuine, the entire file is being transported over the top network layer. drs: PinkStainlessTail, maybe you were thinking of MUTE? It is still around, but I don't know how popular it is... but nobody's been sued yet, at least. Easy targets first... MUTE! That's what I was thinking of! Anybody tried it?

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:12:20 -0800

MUTE! That's what I was thinking of! Anybody tried it? Sure. Clever Cactus too. They're both quite nice, but even if you had a large network of tech-savvy friends with very different tastes, the connection speeds are disappointing. I suppose that's due to the asynchronous cable modem connections my friends and I have, plus some overhead.

By: phredhead

phredhead — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:05:54 -0800

whaaaaaaa! I want a beta serial key!

By: chicobangs

chicobangs — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:28:34 -0800

pikachulolita: Some information on Sealand. (Fascinating in & of itself, really.)

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:36:51 -0800

HavenCo: What Really Happened

By: Evstar

Evstar — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:39:31 -0800

drstupid: Yes, I agree that it's more difficult to track someone's filesharing behaviour through bit torrent, but they can still monitor torrents for repeat IP's to litigate, which I believe has been done. Also, I don't think the MP/RIAA expects to make a profit suing file sharers. They really just want scare others from sharing.

By: Darkman

Darkman — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:41:12 -0800

LokiTorrent has a message on its FP claiming that it is being sued by the MPAA. They also have a scan of the legal writ.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:54:06 -0800

but you're only sharing one file at a time, which means the damages they can claim are much lower and it's less worth their while Evidently you've never seen my Azureus client. I can tell you, looking right now, that it's quite possible to be downloading and seeding several *things* at the same time. At this point the uplink speed is the only hindrance from sharing more. But you're right in that it's not like some giant shared "Public" folder.

By: Nauip

Nauip — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:30:42 -0800

but they can still monitor torrents for repeat IP's to litigate Most ISP's use DHCP unless you cough up the extra cash for a static IP. Most ISP's will require *AA to get a court (not just a subpoena) order to release personal info. It becomes quite difficult to track individual users and their sharing habits for these reasons.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:34:51 -0800

has anyone tried the beta pc download yet? (and where's the mac version, as others have said)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:39:13 -0800

nevermind--apparently you need a key to run it.

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 10:59:50 -0800

[This is arrrrr]

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 11:23:22 -0800

I can't wait. I felt like an addict with out a fix when Suprnova went down.

By: chuma

chuma — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 12:43:59 -0800

Well, I managed to connect to NovaStream for about 120 seconds before the feed got real choppy and the DJs were saying that all connections were totally full. Dropped the connection, oops, no way I'm getting back on now...

By: shawnj

shawnj — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 13:24:21 -0800

I heard about every third word. Did anyone hear the whole thing?

By: mek

mek — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 13:50:26 -0800

The announcement was that exeem will be entering public beta testing in 2-4 weeks. General summary of the discussion here.

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:01:42 -0800

General summary of the discussion here. (fixed url)

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:05:36 -0800

here's an mp3 of the novastream interview.

By: pantsrobot

pantsrobot — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:50:33 -0800

aaaaand it's another first post

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:09:30 -0800

anyone try bi-torrent? might just be the droid youre looking for.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:07:51 -0800

If memory serves, bi-torrent is only a mirror of SuprNova up until the day it stopped. Nothing new is being added, but torrents that still have seeders still work. Loki and Pirate's still work, IIRC.

By: clubfoote

clubfoote — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:24:44 -0800

so basically its windows only, binary only adware. meh. nothing to see here.

By: Iax

Iax — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:52:12 -0800

i cant wait till people hack out the spyware and then the xeem people start crying about pirates stealing theirprogram. Like what happened with Kazaa

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:00:52 -0800

That is the suck that exeem's going to be loaded with adware/spyware/crapware. Ah well, as Iax suggests, a 'clean' version should follow pretty soon.

By: amarynth

amarynth — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 15:45:07 -0800

Looks like it's in public beta now. There's already an exeem lite at exlite.net.