http://www.unogateway.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/14/41e6f3381f76b
January 14, 2005

Another one bites the dust ... The biggest and most popular of all BitTorrent link sites died a grisly death over winter break. Suprnova.org, a Web site devoted to posting torrent files (of the popular file-sharing program BitTorrent), met its demise allegedly due from continued pressure from the MPAA and RIAA.

Suprnova.com was maintained by Sloncek (a pseudonym meaning "little elephant" in Slovic). Since Suprnova.org was based in Slovenia, the worldwide companies allied against file sharing had a difficult time over the past couple years shutting the site down.

Although Sloncek has told reporters he took the site down because its maintenance was too taxing on his schoolwork (he's still in high school), many speculate that he was receiving too many legal threats.

While this may be the end of Suprnova.org, Sloncek has recently announced that a private investor has hired him to oversee Exeem, a new file-sharing program that promises to contain all of BitTorrent's successes and none of its failures. No definitive date has been set for Exeem's launch as of yet, but Sloncek promises it will be just around the corner.

All's not lost yet, though ... On Jan. 11, Slyck.com reported that Torrentz.com is back online after a long hiatus. The popular torrent site only featured half as many listings as Suprnova.org at its peak, and it eventually folded due to pressure from the entertainment industry.

Torrentz.com's owner, Flippy (you guessed it-another pseudonym), told Slyck.com that the site is now hosted in China, which should keep the MPAA and RIAA off its heels for the time being. Flippy admitted that Torrentz.com's resurrection shortly after Suprnova's death was not a coincidence.

A few other torrent sites still going strong: Sharelive.com, Lokitorrent.com and Torrentsearch.com.

Yeah, I'm so sure you're losing money ... US CD sales rose by 2.3 percent in 2004, despite the growing popularity of legal and illegal music downloading. Research company Nielsen Soundscan reported that 140 million songs were legally downloaded through online music stores last year. That's approximately 14 million albums sold on top of the old-school CD format, which still accounts for 98 percent of the total 666 million albums sold last year.

So tell me this, Mr. RIAA: If music downloading is causing the record industry to lose so much money, how come last year's earnings saw a rise? Shouldn't we be seeing sales fall each year?

Come on, do you really think these artists will be out on the street begging for money because of file-sharing? According to Web-based file-sharing research company, BigChampagne.com, the top five traded songs during the week of Jan. 3 to Jan. 10 were:

1. Mario, "Let Me Love You"

2. Ludacris, "Get Back"

3. Eminem, "Like Toy Soldiers"

4. The Game, "How We Do"

5. Usher, "My Boo"

I'd also like to point out that this list says a little something about the youth of America. I'll save that for another time, though.

I'm concerned that lokitorrent will not be able to raise the 30k required for this comming month.

it is now the 15th of january and halfway through this month they are only at about 8500.

I sincerely hope the eff steps in on this one.

If those artists had to depend on my money--yeah, they'd be out on the street begging for money. But then, so would Cary and Mitchy and the rest of the sewer-dwellers at the RIAA.

"Come on, do you really think these artists will be out on the street begging for money because of file-sharing?"

If there were any justice in the world, that's exactly where they would be.

Love your humor George good one!!!!!

I guess if the RIAA are hunting for people to sue based on that list above, I'll never be in any trouble.

I'd be in no trouble either, I've one ever heard of two of the artists - and none of the songs!!

And, although admittedly from a state of ignorance, I'm sure that I should be proud of the fact!

Don't go saying that this is exactly what the youth listens to, thatd be unfair to those that dont listen to that crap. I'd take the Beatles or Zeppelin or twisted sister or ozzy osbourne, or anything really, over any of that listed above.