One of the world’s most popular file-sharing sites was shut down, and its founder and several company officials were accused of facilitating millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.
Entertainment companies seeking to trace people who are illegally file sharing may be interested in new research that could identify file-sharers through their Skype accounts. A research team has figured out how to link online Skype users to their activity on peer-to-peer networks, a correlation that could represent a major threat to users’ privacy.
The study focused on how a Skype user’s IP address can be determined without that user knowing, and then linking that same IP address to files that are being shared through peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent.
It has been more than half a year since Visa and MasterCard faced DDoS attacks from Anonymous and WikiLeaks supporters for holding back financial donations to the whistleblower organization. In an announcement made earlier today, WikiLeaks and its credit card processing partner, DataCell, plan to take legal action against Visa and MasterCard via a complaint to be lodged with the EU Commission.
The press release accuses the two credit card companies of “engaging in an unlawful, U.S. influenced, financial blockade” that began in December and continues to this day. Wikileaks and DataCell are represented by two law firms, a Danish firm by the name of Bender von Haller Dragested and Reykjavik Law Firm in Iceland.
