Parenting and The End of The World

Mr. Christopher from the Corner Stork Baby Blog. Well, the uber-popular torrent download site Demonoid is shut down yet again as a result of the Canadian Recording Industry (CRIA), which is the same party responsible for causing major havoc on Demonoid multiple times. For those not in the know, Demonoid is a torrent site that essentially serves as a hub for transferring large files between individuals. The focus is on the fact that a LOT of illegal activity takes place on these torrent sites where people distribute music, programs, movies and much more using these networks. Because Demonoid simply connects the users together via its network, it never actually has the files in question and therefore has skirted the law frequently even though they have to change their homebase quite often. Demonoid rose to the top of the focus of the distribution chain by filtering out the riff raff and making membership necessary in order to download its older and more popular files.

A few months ago, Demonoid was forced to move from their home overseas due to legality issues in Sweden. With minimal downtime, Demonoid picked up and moved their servers over to Canada. Two months after their move to Canada, they were temporarily shut down by the CRIA that threatened legal action if they continued to allow file access to Canadians. The demands caused Demonoid to shut down for a week to make the adjustments to block Canadian traffic which was only partially effective because of IP cloaking software that masked a visitors location.

As of Friday November 9, 2007, Demonoid was forced to shut its doors once again leaving only the message; “The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.”

The debate is in whether or not this was a result of Demonoid’s failure to comply with the CRIA’s demands or if the CRIA even bothered to make good on their terms and threatened to take legal action regardless of whether Demonoid complied or not. The CRIA website is littered with press releases focusing on anti-piracy actions that they are taking against torrent sites and other sites that specialize in distributing music files.

The bigger question that looms is whether or not Demonoid will make yet another return or if they’re done for good this time. Certainly Demonoid’s owners have to be frustrated with the constant law dodging they have to do and their options are going to continue to run dry as more and more hosting providers turn them away because of the negative attention Demonoid brings along with it.

Update: It also appears that Demonoid can’t even be sneaky about things as its users have recently reported that even as of 11/13/2008 the torrents are still active even though the site is not. So as long as Demonoid users already have the torrent active in their torrent client, Demonoid is still allowing the torrents to go through. This is a big problem for Demonoid since Demonoid users are announcing the loophole everywhere which could cause even more legal issues for Demonoid or their hosting providers.

So unless Demonoid can either find another country to turn a blind eye or at least one that doesn’t have Demonoid on its radar, Demonoid may be down for a very long time. But in the meantime, there are literally dozens and dozens of torrent sites waiting to take their place. And the music, video, and movie industries are doing their best to keep up with them even though it’s the equivalent of throwing up sandbags in the midst of a tsunami. Only time will tell what the future holds for torrent sites, but for now it appears that the CRIA has trapped what it considers a very big rat in a sea of rodents.

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In a strange twist of “where else can you get Google’d?”, an announcement is being made today by Gilbarco Veeder-Root about a strategic partnership with Google that will bring Google maps to the gas pump. The idea is that a motorist/tourist will be stopping for gas and will be able get directions using a color touch screen that incorporates with Google Maps. So if you’re driving down the highway and get lost, you could stop at a participating gas station, type in the address at the pump and get directions. So no more of the bumpkin gas station attendees slurring out directions that contain instructions like “by the silo, near the chicken plant.”

According to the article made by AP this morning on CNN, motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to find local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station’s owner. After the driver selects a destination, the pump will print out directions.

This seems like a good idea and now it’s finally coming to fruition as Gilbarco is set to make the announcement today as you read this. Surprisingly, Google reportedly isn’t going to include any ads with the service, but merchants can pay the gas station in order to incorporate printable coupons. I don’t know how that will work, but this idea is here and now and is moving forward to 3500 gas stations nationwide and possibly to a station near you shortly thereafter depending on the demand for the service.

Next Up: Bathroom Stalls.

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