3 ms·

The real one that peddles trashy spyware, scamware and toolbars for revenue?

teddyh 13y ago
Obvious cheap shot is obvious.
belorn 13y ago
Here I was wondering if your statement was FUD from someone who revenue comes directly from the game industry, or if the statement was based on facts. To that, I went to the old hidden service url, and looked at what kind of ads was presented[1]. Did I see any spyware? No. Did I see any scamware? No. Any toolbars? No. What I did find was sex ads of plenty. That makes sense. What other businesses would risk being accessory to copyright infringement, but an industry that often need to hide themselve (unjustly, but that's an other story)? An obvious observation from the trial is that any kind of trading with the TPB, be that bandwidth, hosting environment, electricity or anything whatsoever can be enough to land you in jail for accessory charges. Conclusion. benologist comment was FUD, likely influenced by his own revenue source. However, if he provide a source for his statement, I am fully willing to change my opinion. [1]: (first time I ever went and looked for ads)
- benologist 13y ago
  http://imgur.com/Bma34Ml http://imgur.com/Bma34Ml http://imgur.com/eDcgGKJ http://imgur.com/eDcgGKJ 1) Those big green buttons everywhere are some adware-slash-spyware-slash-shitware-hard-to-remove installer for iLivid which hijacks browsers, installs toolbars, etc: http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/ilivid/td-p/841500 http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Nort... 2) The banking thing is a get rich quick scam: http://www.banker-secrets.com/ http://www.banker-secrets.com/ 3) "Anonymous download" is another random installer. 4) The "play now" / "watch now" images are ads for some scabby online streaming video site that doesn't even have the advertised video, just a Google Adsense block over a different video. 5) Unseen, below the fold they recommend a torrent client that is "No Spyware, 100% Free 100% safe and Trusted", and pays for every install that kindly bundles even more shitware: "Nortan Security Scan", "Babylon Toolbar", "IWantThis", "DealPly", "BrowseForChange", a Firefox addon and a Chrome addon: http://www.bitlordapp.com/uninstall http://www.bitlordapp.com/uninstall 6) Also unseen is a popup peddling some shitware called MacKeeper: http://www.cultofmac.com/170522/is-mackeeper-really-a-scam/ http://www.cultofmac.com/170522/is-mackeeper-really-a-scam/ It doesn't take billions of pageviews a month riddled with this garbage to pay for servers or bandwidth unless they got locked into a multi-decade contract a decade ago and now operate on an enormous fleet of decade-old servers at decade-ago prices. Conclusion: It's really easy to believe these guys are "fighting for you" because that's the image their PR machine has very carefully cultivated while exploiting everyone.
  - belorn 13y ago
    I guess you must be visiting their regular un-tor site, and not the two tor addresses above. The ads there wouldn't even load, and only showed "Your ads here" text fields, except for the pop with porn/gambling. The green bars to iLivid is still there through, a fact they share with download.com Disliking the download manager is indeed a fair point, but I don't see how its connected to which tor site is the official one. Both links to it.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]

Obvious cheap shot is obvious.

Here I was wondering if your statement was FUD from someone who revenue comes directly from the game industry, or if the statement was based on facts. To that, I went to the old hidden service url, and looked at what kind of ads was presented[1]. Did I see any spyware? No. Did I see any scamware? No. Any toolbars? No. What I did find was sex ads of plenty. That makes sense. What other businesses would risk being accessory to copyright infringement, but an industry that often need to hide themselve (unjustly, but that's an other story)? An obvious observation from the trial is that any kind of trading with the TPB, be that bandwidth, hosting environment, electricity or anything whatsoever can be enough to land you in jail for accessory charges. Conclusion. benologist comment was FUD, likely influenced by his own revenue source. However, if he provide a source for his statement, I am fully willing to change my opinion. [1]: (first time I ever went and looked for ads)

benologist 13y ago
http://imgur.com/Bma34Ml http://imgur.com/Bma34Ml http://imgur.com/eDcgGKJ http://imgur.com/eDcgGKJ 1) Those big green buttons everywhere are some adware-slash-spyware-slash-shitware-hard-to-remove installer for iLivid which hijacks browsers, installs toolbars, etc: http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/ilivid/td-p/841500 http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Nort... 2) The banking thing is a get rich quick scam: http://www.banker-secrets.com/ http://www.banker-secrets.com/ 3) "Anonymous download" is another random installer. 4) The "play now" / "watch now" images are ads for some scabby online streaming video site that doesn't even have the advertised video, just a Google Adsense block over a different video. 5) Unseen, below the fold they recommend a torrent client that is "No Spyware, 100% Free 100% safe and Trusted", and pays for every install that kindly bundles even more shitware: "Nortan Security Scan", "Babylon Toolbar", "IWantThis", "DealPly", "BrowseForChange", a Firefox addon and a Chrome addon: http://www.bitlordapp.com/uninstall http://www.bitlordapp.com/uninstall 6) Also unseen is a popup peddling some shitware called MacKeeper: http://www.cultofmac.com/170522/is-mackeeper-really-a-scam/ http://www.cultofmac.com/170522/is-mackeeper-really-a-scam/ It doesn't take billions of pageviews a month riddled with this garbage to pay for servers or bandwidth unless they got locked into a multi-decade contract a decade ago and now operate on an enormous fleet of decade-old servers at decade-ago prices. Conclusion: It's really easy to believe these guys are "fighting for you" because that's the image their PR machine has very carefully cultivated while exploiting everyone.
- belorn 13y ago
  I guess you must be visiting their regular un-tor site, and not the two tor addresses above. The ads there wouldn't even load, and only showed "Your ads here" text fields, except for the pop with porn/gambling. The green bars to iLivid is still there through, a fact they share with download.com Disliking the download manager is indeed a fair point, but I don't see how its connected to which tor site is the official one. Both links to it.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]