Demonoid Torrent Tracker Shut Down by CRIA

An anonymous reader writes "As of Tuesday, 25th September 2007, Demonoid is currently down, with no prior warnings from any moderators of the site. Both the main torrent page and the forum (fora) are no longer accessible. It is still possible to ping and trace the IP address of the site and it locates itself as in Canada. As of 6:45pm EST on 9-25-07, SSH and SMTP services are no longer active. Torrentfreak.com has since reported this is due to legal actions from the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) who ordered Demonoid's ISP to shut down the site."

Finger in the dyke...

This action is akin to putting a finger in the dyke, but there are thousands, if not millions of other holes. You will run out of fingers (read funding) long before you ever patch up the holes in the wall that is DRM. We are in an era where the old rules of rights management can not survive. Pandoras Box is open, the cat is out of the bag, you cannot go back without causing more damage, if you can go back at all. Adapt or die.

it had to be said

I for one welcome our new dyke fingering overlords.

ouch. that hurt just to say.

Re:Finger in the dike...

This action is akin to putting a finger in the dyke, but there are thousands

A dyke is a lesbian. A dike is a dam. No one read the rest of your post because they were distracted by thoughts of lesbians.

Re:Finger in the dike...

A dyke is a lesbian. A dike is a dam.

actually that is not true, look it up in a dictionary and you'll see that dike and dyke are synonims.

dyke
          n 1: offensive terms for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine
                    [syn: butch, dike]
          2: a barrier constructed to contain the flow or water or to
                keep out the sea [syn: dam, dike, levee]
          v : enclose with a dike; "dike the land to protect it from
                  water" [syn: dike]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

and from another

dike
noun {C} ANOTHER SPELLING OF
    dyke

Re:Finger in the dyke...

This action is akin to putting a finger in the dyke, but there are thousands, if not millions of other holes.

I would appreciate it if you could point me to the direction of an available one.

Couldn't resist

I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

there is some debate here on the demonoid shutdown

last night techwag was reporting the same thing based off the torrent freak article, but a commenter pointed to a discussion out on http://www.thecircuitbox.com/demonoid/ [thecircuitbox.com] which is basically an IRC chat that refutes the CRIA end of the story. The techwag article is here http://techwag.com/index.php/2007/09/25/bad-day-for-bittorrent-demonoid-shut-down/ [techwag.com] Yesterday was basically a bad day for Bittorrent, ISOHunt shut down trackers to american users, and demonoid out of service, for what ever reason, either because they were taken down by the ISP or they are having one of their outages that happens randomly, but every time they go down people think they got shut down because they were shut down almost a year ago by BRIEN. There really is no way to tell the truth in the story without getting someone from demonoid to talk about it, and so far, people from demonoid have been very hard to reach. Makes for an interesting story overall though.

Re:there is some debate here on the demonoid shutd

There really is no way to tell the truth in the story without getting someone from demonoid to talk about it...

...or you could tell me where the server is located. I live in central Canada, so I could just waltz over there and check it for you. It's not like Canada is very big and I can use my dogsled. Problem solved.

Re:there is some debate here on the demonoid shutd

If you could say Hi to my cousin on the way that would be awesome. He also lives in Canada.

No details yet...

This story is useless without details, and nobody has them yet.

IRC log of convo with seanap of Demonoid.

http://www.thecircuitbox.com/demonoid/ [thecircuitbox.com]

For tl;dr types: Torrentfreak made it up, the box is down for unknown reasons. Nobody knows yet. Sorry.

Re:IRC log of convo with seanap of Demonoid.

Nobody knows yet because Deimos hasn't said anything. But from what I see in an nmap scan:

Starting Nmap 4.20 ( http://insecure.org/ [insecure.org] ) at 2007-09-26 09:54 Eastern Daylight Time
Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 09:54
Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 09:54, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating System CNAME DNS resolution of 1 host. at 09:54
Completed System CNAME DNS resolution of 1 host. at 09:54, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 09:54
Scanning demonoid.com (209.44.123.21) [1697 ports]
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 6.25% done; ETC: 10:03 (0:07:43 remaining)
Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 10:01, 401.57s elapsed (1697 total ports)
Warning: OS detection for 209.44.123.21 will be MUCH less reliable because we did not find at least 1 open and 1 closed TCP port
Initiating OS detection (try #1) against demonoid.com (209.44.123.21)
Host demonoid.com (209.44.123.21) appears to be up ... good.
Interesting ports on demonoid.com (209.44.123.21):
Not shown: 1690 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp closed ftp
22/tcp closed ssh
80/tcp closed http
123/tcp closed ntp
443/tcp closed https
8000/tcp closed http-alt
8080/tcp closed http-proxy
Device type: general purpose
Running: Linux 2.6.X, OpenBSD 4.X, Sun Solaris 10|8|9
OS details: Linux 2.6.17.13 (Slackware 11.0, x86), OpenBSD 4.0 (CURRENT) macppc, OpenBSD 4.0 (sparc64), Sun Solaris 10 (SPARC), Sun Solaris 8 (SPARC), Sun Solaris 9 (SPARC), Sun Solaris 9 (x86), Sun Solaris 9 or 10

OS detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at http://insecure.org/nmap/submit/ [insecure.org] .
Nmap finished: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 405.503 seconds
                              Raw packets sent: 5164 (229.400KB) | Rcvd: 76 (3496B)


It looks like all the ports are firewalled off by the ISP. So while it's not confirmed, it's pretty obvious to anyone knowledgeable in network admin that the ISP firewalled off all the ports at someone's behest. Perhaps the CRIA, perhaps even Deimos himself.

Speculation

The latest speculation I heard on Torrentfreak 5 hours ago was that Demoniod was down due to a hardware failure and not a MAFIAA Hit squad. I haven't seen any statements from CRIA crowing about their victory which you would expect if they were really responsible.

Must be a hardware glitch

The CRIA couldnt have shut them down here, I work for one of the few ISP's that could have handled their traffic, and the rules here state that if another company (read *IAA) wants to shut someone down/off the proper responce is to ask them for the MAC address, if they provide it then we shut *IAA off for illigaly obtaining information from our network, if they dont we say get it and call us back.... The big ISP's in Canada LOVE torrent sites, Trackers bring in ALOT of cash to the ISP's that shelter them.

What's really going on...

Don't jump the gun, I've talked to #demonoid ops and they say nothing has been confirmed. Goto:

irc://irc.p2p-network.net/demonoid

#demonoid

Demonoid shit:

Demonoid shit:

Ok folks, here it is. Demonoid is down. It has been for around 1 day 2 hours. The reason is down is unkown. It hasnt been RAIDed, shutdown, terminated, deleted, burned, mamed, or thrown under a bridge. There have been speculation as demonoid.com whereabouts. Well the rurmors are false. A no name site in Netherlands has a blog about Demonoid.com being down. As I don't speak douche, I can not translate. However TorrentFreak Decided upon there own free will to further spread this and rumors. Torrent freak has known to be a sleazy site they post false rumors and hope they turn out true. They do this in order for money and popularity. Quite sad isn't it. To prove this is quite easy:

[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] ((
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] .. Query with (ernesto)/(~[e-mail]) opened on (Tuesday, September 25th 2007, 18:00:54).
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] .. Total queries: (40)/(~0.7 per day)
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] .. Queries today: (1)
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] .. Common channels: (+#demonoid)
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] ((
[05:26] *seanap*
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:00.54] (ernesto) hi
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:01.01] (ernesto) it's ernesto from TF
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:01.05] (seanap) hello
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:01.27] (ernesto) brb 1 min
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:01.28] (seanap) are you part of the staff there?
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:02.01] (ernesto) I'm the staff
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:02.03] (ernesto) hehe
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:02.32] (seanap) that article is completely false.
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:02.39] (ernesto) well, I based my story on a respectable source
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:02.47] (ernesto) but I doubted it
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:02.55] (ernesto) so what's going on then?
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:03.05] (seanap) there hasn't been word yet
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:03.44] (seanap) the 2 IRC ops that are usually in contact with Deimos haven't been around
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:03.45] (ernesto) last time demonoid staff said it were hw problems you relocated to CAN
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:04.11] (ernesto) they said my story was false then too
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:04.20] (ernesto) but it turned out not to be
[05:26] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:04.46] (seanap) well i'm saying we as site and IRC staff haven't heard anything.. and we'd be the first people to hear
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:05.18] (ernesto) perhaps Deimos doesn't know it?
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:05.21] (ernesto) yet
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:05.28] (seanap) so i don't think you should be reporting unconfirmed things, the IRC is going insane.. almost double the amount of users in a day
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:05.32] (ernesto) that was exactly how it happened last time
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:06.04] (ernesto) nu.nl is the biggest news source in NL
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:06.12] (ernesto) they might have inside info
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:06.21] (seanap) form who?! we are the inside
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:06.22] (ernesto) from the isp or the CRIA
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:06.41] (ernesto) the ISP probably firewalled the servers
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:06.52] (ernesto) after some seriuos legal threats
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:07.04] (ernesto) it's not unlikely
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:07.16] (seanap) no its not, but it's not.. confirmed
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:07.31] (ernesto) as long as you can't explain what's happening this is all I have
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:07.16] (seanap) no its not, but it's not.. confirmed
[05:27] *seanap* [09/25/07 - 18:07.31] (ernesto) as long as you can't explain what's happening this i

Re:Legal?

Coincidentally, the CRIA is now opposing the private copying levy. [michaelgeist.ca]

The Canadian Recording Industry Association this week quietly filed documents in the Federal Court of Appeal that will likely shock many in the industry. CRIA, which spent more than 15 years lobbying for the creation of the private copying levy, is now fighting to eliminate the application of the levy on the Apple iPod since it believes that the Copyright Board of Canada's recent decision to allow a proposed tariff on iPods to proceed "broadens the scope of the private copying exception to avoid making illegal file sharers liable for infringement."- Michael Geist

Re:Legal?

Actually the blog has done CNN's trick (or is it Fox's trick?) in that they assert a fact that they cannot prove, and so had a question mark at the end. They haven't said the CRIA is responsible, they've ASKED if the CRIA is responsible.

At this point the only thing we know is that demonoid was hosted in Canada, is currently down and the admins of the website haven't made any official comment.

It simply makes no sense that CRIA would be responsible for this. The Canadian MPAA would make more sense as I believe they haven't blundered into the situation the Canadian professional music industry has.

Re:Legal?

From what I've read, the demonoid servers got hosed and the admins have to restore everything from backups. The TorrentFreak article is just baseless speculation at this point and slashdot isn't helping by spreading these rumours.

Just to clarify

TorrentFreak has speculated that they may have been shut down by the CRIA. At present there is absolutely no proof, aside from one article on a dutch blog (which is TF's one and only source).

Re:CRIA Sut Down by Pirates

Moderators: PLEASE check the stories BEFORE you allow them to post. According to the folks on demonoid IRC, they were NOT shut down by the CRIA.

Geez slashdot is turning into DIGG where every moron can post "the truth"

Re:CRIA Sut Down by Pirates

Moderators: PLEASE check the stories BEFORE you allow them to post. According to the folks on demonoid IRC, they were NOT shut down by the CRIA.

Geez slashdot is turning into DIGG where every moron can post "the truth"

You get a hearty second from me on this. It just seems that a lot of stuff on Slashdot these days is FUD and fearmongering. Just this week we had a big story on how evil Apple was going to deliberately brick your iPhone if you unlocked. I am not an Apple apologist or fanboy by the way and I own no Apple products, not even a iPod.

The real story apparently was that Apple tested its new firmware update on the iPhone on some unlocked iPhones and found that it bricked them. Apple decided to warn people - "Hey, if you unlocked your iPhone, you better skip this firmware update". Of course no good deed goes unpunished and the tin foil hat brigade swung into full force about how "evil Apple" had deliberately decided to brick unlocked iPhones in conjunction with some sort of unholy alliance with AT&T. Sadly, the truth seems to have been lost in this discussion.

Then we have the story that Slashdot had to update from earlier this week about how some open source program supposedly sent all kinds of private information to evil overlords who would use it in nefarious ways before the update arrived that said that the program in question only sent a few bits of information that in no way could identify its user. All you have to do any more these days is post something untrue but sure to ruffle some feathers and it shows up immediately.

Re:I hate Torrents

It is because of you that there are GB caps and severe upload restrictions on my internet access.

As I recall, upload restrictions and bandwidth caps predate Bittorrent by at least 5 years, if not more. Maybe you just need a better ISP: one that will maintain and upgrade their infrastructure as traffic grows instead of just blaming their customers.

that's what makes it absurd

People don't go to demonoid for Britteny Spears. They go for Jazz and Classical recordings that have not been available for purchase in the US for 20 years. They go for medical textbooks. I got a full Principa Mathmatica there for cripe's sake. It's where Americans get 30 year old BBC productions. I'd been wanting to see The Sweeny for years. I'd have paid for it given the chance.

The copyright Nazis don't give a shit about 90% of what's there and 90% of the people using Demonoid don't give a shit about any of the stuff the copyright Nazis give a shit about.

Re:hmm

"That's neither here nor there as its legal to download and upload music thanks to the CD tax."

Misinformation like this is contributing to the problem.

• Canadian consumers pay a private copying levy on some recordable media; notably CD-Rs.
• Copying copyrighted music is legal in some circumstances; in particular, single copies, for private use.
• The consensus in legal circules is that downloading is thus allowed under the private copying exception. As Michael Geist (who knows far more about Canadian copyright law than anybody here) puts it, "downloading music in Canada for personal purposes is arguably legal as it is compensated activity covered by the private copying levy." (emphasis mine.) But there is no law that states that downloading is legal. It's yet to be tested in court, and I don't think it ever will be, since the money is in chasing after the distributors, not the people doing the private copying.

As you've demonstrated, this doesn't prevent folks from trying to claim that uploading is legal. The most common argument is that since the default operation of P2P software is to automatically redistribute what's downloaded, then if downloading is a legal act, then anything that happens (including the redistribution) as a result of the downloading must, in turn, be legal. However, this would not even pass the laugh test in court.