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Beware of malformed FileZilla FTP client versions 3.7.3 and 3.5.3. We have noticed an increased presence of these malware versions of famous open source FTP clients. The first suspicious signs are bogus download URLs... Malware installer GUI is almost identical to the official version. The only slight difference is version of NullSoft installer where malware uses 2.46.3-Unicode and the official installer uses v2.45-Unicode. All other elements like texts, buttons, icons and images are the same. The installed malware FTP client looks like the official version and it is fully functional! You can’t find any suspicious behavior, entries in the system...

Can't stop the (free) music Why last month's $675,000 judgment against a BU student won't stop people from downloading songs illegally By Joseph P. Kahn Globe Staff / August 25, 2009 iTunes wasn’t around yet, and David Tanklefsky was in the eighth grade when Napster, the now defunct music file-sharing website, became the must-go destination for computer-savvy music fans.

On July 31, a US district court jury ordered Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum (pictured) to pay four record labels a total of $675,000 in damages for illegally downloading 30 songs and sharing them online. What music could possibly be worth this much? Click through this gallery for a look at some of the songs Tenenbaum downloaded. It's sort of like poking through a friend's iPod, albeit one that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -- $22,500 per song -- to fill. Ironically, many of Tenenmaum's download titles carry themes that relate to his current plight. Among the pirated...

Jury Awards $675,000 in Music Downloading Case BOSTON – A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels. Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels. Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful....

THE HAGUE, 28/06/08 - Any Dutch person who downloads protected songs, films or software via the Internet is breaking the law, Het Financieele Dagbad reported Friday. The newspaper based this on a verdict of the district court in The Hague. "This is the first time a Dutch judge has characterised the unauthorised downloading of copyright-protected material for private use as illegal. This week's verdict is diametrically opposed to the position of the government. It has always tolerated downloading for private use," according to the newspaper. In the Netherlands, producers of blank media carriers such as empty DVDs remit a levy...

Cannot get YouTube at all here in my computer. I have Comcast Hi-Speed Internet here in Southern Maryland. Every other page downloads properly. I have my YouTube in my "Favorites", so I have not been misspelling it. Comcast says it's a problem with YouTube. What gives? Are we in the USA or in Pyongyang?

Recently, I overheard an IT professional complaining about her users. Veronica's company has 300 employees, many of whom would have been called "paper pushers" in an earlier era. Some of those employees download software and install it on their computers, and it often causes havoc for the support staff. Veronica's specific rant was about screensavers (some of which carry a payload of spyware, making it a security issue as well as a support problem), but it could have been any sort of application. Veronica had looked at a $10,000 hardware solution, but even that required 10 hours a week for...

Mothers. You've got to love them. They give birth to us, feed us, clothe us, teach us to chew with our mouths closed, and go to bat for us against the RIAA. Sometimes they win (PDF). An Oklahoma mother, Debbie Foster, was accused by the RIAA of copyright infringement back in November 2004, and her daughter Amanda was added to the complaint in July 2005. According to the RIAA, the Internet account paid for by Debbie Foster was used for file sharing, with an unspecified number of songs downloaded. The music group offered to settle the case for US$5,000, but...

The future of do-it-yourself video hardware in the Microsoft Vista generation is in question, as issues have surfaced surrounding two key portions of the high-definition video space. How consumers will have to deal with HDCP, a content protection scheme, and CableCards, a means of transmitting video information into the home, have come to the fore.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- BellSouth Corp. confirmed Monday that it is pursuing discussions with Internet content companies to levy charges to reliably and speedily deliver their content and services. Bill Smith, chief technology officer at BellSouth (BLS: BellSouth Corporation, justified content charging companies by saying they are using the telco's network without paying for it. "Higher usage for broadband services drives more costs that we have to recover," he said in a telephone interview. He suggested that Apple Computer might be asked to pay a nickel or a dime to insure the complete and rapid transmission of a song via the...

WHITE PLAINS, New York - It was Easter Sunday, and Patricia Santangelo was in church with her kids when she says the music recording industry peeked into her computer and decided to take her to court. Santangelo says she has never downloaded a single song on her computer, but the industry didn't see it that way. The woman from Wappingers Falls, about 80 miles north of New York City, is among the more than 16,000 people who have been sued for allegedly pirating music through file-sharing computer networks. "I assumed that when I explained to them who I was and...

PARIS, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- France lower house of parliament on Thursday voted to legalise music and movies download on Internet, running counter to moves in most other Western countries, where such downloads are illegal in order to protect copyright. The measure, introduced as two amendments to a government bill designed to toughen digital copyright protection, deems that downloading copyrighted files is legal as long as it is for private use only and the internet users pays a general fee for royalty payments. The French government has called for a second vote in the National Assembly. French Culture Minister Renaud...

<p>UNDATED (AP) -- Music copied onto blank CDs is becoming a bigger threat to the recording industry than online file-sharing.</p> <p>The chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America says "burned" CDs account for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans in 2004. About half of all recordings obtained in 2004 came from authorized CD sales and about four percent from paid music downloads.</p>

Less than 24 hours after the English edition of the latest Harry Potter book went on sale in China's capital on the weekend, the full text of the 672-page tome was available for free on the Internet as an unauthorized e-book, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday. The Shui Mu Tsing Hua bulletin board service posted the full text of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on Sunday, according to the Chinese language daily. Author J.K. Rowling has long warned readers against unauthorized electronic versions of her work. Her fantasy series enjoys vast popularity in China, however, spawning in 2002...

Brave US terrorist hunters end stand off against BitTorrent web site Comment (0) Trackback (1) Published: May 27, 2005 05:20 GMT A massive collection of highly-skilled, dedicated, brave law enforcement officials managed yesterday to shut down a Bittorrent web site alleged to facilitate the illegal trade of the latest Star Wars movie and other content. Yes, it took the FBI and the Homeland Security Department to pull off "Operation D-Elite" - an action directed at BitTorrent hub Elite Torrents. The Feds, working off 10 search warrants, seized control of the bittorrent site's central server in a quick, decisive maneuver and...

WASHINGTON -- The final piece fell into place today for the U.S. Supreme Court to review its 20-year-old landmark Sony Betamax decision. On Tuesday, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and their supporters filed briefs for the March 29 high court date. The entertainment industry filed its final briefs in January in a case that pits content owners against technological innovation. "This is a direct assault on the Sony Betamax decision," Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumers Electronics Association, said in a press briefing. "Sony has been our Magna Carta." Three years ago, the movie and music studios, along with a number of...

The Music Man – King Of The Pirates Has A Goal – Own It All! “I spent the day with a guy who spends every free moment collecting music. So far his music collection rivals Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and his goal is to own a copy of every song ever recorded. Can he do it? Maybe, but you know what they say; it’s the journey not the destination.” What do you say to someone who has a digital music collection that exceeds 900,000 songs? This was the question I was pondering during my long drive to interview the man...

TORONTO -- In what analysts are calling a "stunning" decision, the Federal Court has ruled against a motion which would have allowed the music industry to begin suing individuals who make music available online. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled Wednesday that the Canadian Recording Industry Association did not prove there was copyright infringement by 29 so-called music uploaders. Without the names, CRIA can't begin filing lawsuits against the alleged high-volume music traders, identified only as John and Jane Does. It also reaffirms what the Copyright Board of Canada has already ruled -- downloading music in this country is not illegal....

WASHINGTON (Dissociated Press) – Bradley A. Buckles, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, has announced his plan to retire in January and enter the private sector. He will head the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Recording Industry Association of America, which has already filed some 300 lawsuits, in just six months, against computer users who may have used the Internet to share copyrighted music files. "We're thrilled to have Director Buckles joining us," announced RIAA spokesman Norm DePlume. "He brings to the RIAA the gravitas that will strike terror in the hearts of all who might contemplate...

In a ruling released Friday, copyright regulators in Canada said downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks appears to be legal under Canadian law but that uploading is still prohibited. In the same decision, the Copyright Board of Canada imposed a government fee of as much as $25 on iPod-like MP3 players, putting the devices in the same category as audio tapes and blank CDs. The money collected from levies on "recording mediums" goes into a fund to pay musicians and songwriters for revenues lost from consumers' personal copying. Manufacturers are responsible for paying the fees and often pass the cost...