Azureus and uTorrent still safe to use?
So, it looks like the MPAA is starting to attack BitTorrent through the clients we use. They are working their dirty fingers into Azureus and uTorrent. Be very, very careful what client you use. Apparently, the latest Azureus (2.5.0.4) and the latest pre-beta build of uTorrent (1.6 build 474) are currently safe.
Essentially, Azureus is going commercial and calling themselves Zudeo. It is going it include forms of DRM and has aligned itself with the MPAA. The have also announced that the latest version of Azureus will be the last stable open-source version. Of course, Azureus is still open-source, so there's a good chance someone will fork off and keep developing it as open-source but under a different name (this is what I'm hoping for).
uTorrent has always been closed. It was recently bought out by Bittorrent the company. Apparently Bittorrent is partnered with Major Studios/MPAA.
Scary stuff. More under the cut.
AZUREUS
AZ has started a new commercial branch called ZUDEO which identifies itself as AZ 3.x.x.x, and had claimed that 2.5.0.2 was the final 2.x.x.x stable that would ever be released, and all future versions would identify themselves just like zudeo, as AZ 3.x.x.x. this raised concerns because we would not be able to tell if a member was using ZUDEO or AZUREUS, and we want nothing to do with zudeo, since we feel it is a security risk, and because zudeo identifies itself as AZ.
Azureus claimed that zudeo was simply a different user-interface for AZ, but zudeo incorporates DRM, and has alligned itself with people/organizations that end with initials **AA. While investigating zudeo, tweo of our admins, system & ibslice discovered that packets of data were being sent back to AZ, and when confronted, AZ devs at first denied, then said it was only anonymous info about how the client was working, then our staffers discovered that the packets being sent back contained your total UL stats, your total DL stats, and your ISP name/info. We replied to AZ with this information, and in a seeming panic, they did two things:
1. admitted privately that this had been going on with ALL recent AZ stable releases for the last 12 months
2. immediately put together and released AZ 2.5.0.4.
Who knows what other private data on you they have aquired, and if they do indeed keep this data confidential?
UTORRENT
On Dec 7, 2007, this was posted at UT's site forums
Quote:
This is Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, and Ludvig (Ludde) Strigeus, the writer of µTorrent.
Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and µTorrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired µTorrent as it recognized the merits of µTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together µTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.
What does this mean for the µTorrent community? Not much, at least not at first. The intention is to maintain the website as it is, and keep the forums and community active. Moving forward behind the scenes, we will continue to develop µTorrent and will be using the codebase in other applications, especially ones where a fast, lightweight implementation is more suitable, such as embedded systems on TVs, cell phones, and other non-PC platforms.
The existent µTorrent and BitTorrent communities are immensely valuable to us, which is why we are announcing this here first to make sure you're all the first to know about the news. The plan is to continue to foster the health and growth of the community that has been critical to the success of µTorrent. Thank you in advance for your support.
-Bram and Ludde
Bram Cohen had previously been forced to sell/partner with the Major Studios/mpaa because he was being threatened with legal action. Now, Ludde, the developer of utorrent, has sold utorrent to Bram's venture. This means that utorrent is now partiall/wholly owned by the very people you read about who are suing children and grandmothers for filesharing, and who have taken down many torrent sites over the last few years.
Ludde had supposedly been banned from doing any more work on new bittorrent updates by the terms of his deal with bram/bittorrent inc., but after we banned the utorrent beta here a month ago, he has come to our IRC chat and asked if we would accept a new stable utorrent release 1.7. this would basically be the banned 483 beta build with a new name, making it technically within our standard client rules.
Essentially, Azureus is going commercial and calling themselves Zudeo. It is going it include forms of DRM and has aligned itself with the MPAA. The have also announced that the latest version of Azureus will be the last stable open-source version. Of course, Azureus is still open-source, so there's a good chance someone will fork off and keep developing it as open-source but under a different name (this is what I'm hoping for).
uTorrent has always been closed. It was recently bought out by Bittorrent the company. Apparently Bittorrent is partnered with Major Studios/MPAA.
Scary stuff. More under the cut.
AZUREUS
AZ has started a new commercial branch called ZUDEO which identifies itself as AZ 3.x.x.x, and had claimed that 2.5.0.2 was the final 2.x.x.x stable that would ever be released, and all future versions would identify themselves just like zudeo, as AZ 3.x.x.x. this raised concerns because we would not be able to tell if a member was using ZUDEO or AZUREUS, and we want nothing to do with zudeo, since we feel it is a security risk, and because zudeo identifies itself as AZ.
Azureus claimed that zudeo was simply a different user-interface for AZ, but zudeo incorporates DRM, and has alligned itself with people/organizations that end with initials **AA. While investigating zudeo, tweo of our admins, system & ibslice discovered that packets of data were being sent back to AZ, and when confronted, AZ devs at first denied, then said it was only anonymous info about how the client was working, then our staffers discovered that the packets being sent back contained your total UL stats, your total DL stats, and your ISP name/info. We replied to AZ with this information, and in a seeming panic, they did two things:
1. admitted privately that this had been going on with ALL recent AZ stable releases for the last 12 months
2. immediately put together and released AZ 2.5.0.4.
Who knows what other private data on you they have aquired, and if they do indeed keep this data confidential?
UTORRENT
On Dec 7, 2007, this was posted at UT's site forums
Quote:
This is Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, and Ludvig (Ludde) Strigeus, the writer of µTorrent.
Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and µTorrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired µTorrent as it recognized the merits of µTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together µTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.
What does this mean for the µTorrent community? Not much, at least not at first. The intention is to maintain the website as it is, and keep the forums and community active. Moving forward behind the scenes, we will continue to develop µTorrent and will be using the codebase in other applications, especially ones where a fast, lightweight implementation is more suitable, such as embedded systems on TVs, cell phones, and other non-PC platforms.
The existent µTorrent and BitTorrent communities are immensely valuable to us, which is why we are announcing this here first to make sure you're all the first to know about the news. The plan is to continue to foster the health and growth of the community that has been critical to the success of µTorrent. Thank you in advance for your support.
-Bram and Ludde
Bram Cohen had previously been forced to sell/partner with the Major Studios/mpaa because he was being threatened with legal action. Now, Ludde, the developer of utorrent, has sold utorrent to Bram's venture. This means that utorrent is now partiall/wholly owned by the very people you read about who are suing children and grandmothers for filesharing, and who have taken down many torrent sites over the last few years.
Ludde had supposedly been banned from doing any more work on new bittorrent updates by the terms of his deal with bram/bittorrent inc., but after we banned the utorrent beta here a month ago, he has come to our IRC chat and asked if we would accept a new stable utorrent release 1.7. this would basically be the banned 483 beta build with a new name, making it technically within our standard client rules.