May 31st, 2009 by admin

Leonardo da Vinci è il protagonista di questo thriller storico di Diane Stuckart, un ritratto dell’epoca d’oro dell’arte segnata anche da intrighi di corte, gelosie e omicidi. Il grande genio alle prese con un delitto alla corte del duca di Milano. La mossa dell’alfiere comincia così:

Ducato di Milano, 1483.
Il cremisi si allargava sul broccato color alabastro, la tinta vivida sfumava nel bordeaux lungo gli orli simili a petali. Una spruzzata di cordovano aveva creato un motivo astratto intorno a quel fiore rubino, come se un pennello intriso di vernice fosse stato agitato una o due volte in quella direzione. Il mio occhio da artista apprezzò il sapiente contrasto di bianchi e rossi sul prato verde. Se dovessi ricreare quella scena sul mio cavalletto, forse aggiungerei una manciata di brillanti foglie primaverili sul tessuto pesante e magari schizzerei una colomba perlata sul masso poco lontano.
Sicurametne tralascerei il pugnale lucido, il cui manico sporgeva come un macabro stame argenteo dal centro di quel bocciolo insaguinato…

La mossa dell’alfiere, di Diane Stuckart: acquistalo su IBS!

Related posts:

1. Incipit - “L’assassino che è in me”, di Jim Thompson
2. O come Omicidio - Sue Grafton (incipit)
3. Via di fuga - Lee Child (incipit)

May 31st, 2009 by admin

With over 1250 free WiFi access points across the US, Panera Bread is offering a much appreciated service to its customers. Tens of thousands of people use their free wireless Internet every day, and the company even lists it as one of their selling points on their website.

“Send an email as you munch a warm bagel. Read the news as you sip a latte. It’s a nice alternative to the office, isn’t it?” they write.

Well, not if you’re writing for TorrentFreak since our site is blocked, and we’re not the only site affected. The uTorrent website is also inaccessible, as well as the Wikipedia entry for BitTorrent and even Legaltorrents. Vuze.com on the other hand is not blocked. It all seems to be a bit arbitrary.

For some reason TorrentFreak is blocked by many web-filters. In the past we’ve contacted a university that decided to block us and asked the person responsible for the filter for an explanation. We were told that our site was wrongfully categorized as a hacking/warez site, and the university was kind enough to take us off their ban list. However, the issues with Panera Bread are a little different.

Panera Bread uses SonicWALL’s filtering solutions and when running a check on their database we see that (unlike others) TorrentFreak is correctly labeled as a “news and media” website. So, the people at Panera Bread either added TorrentFreak to their custom ban list, or implemented a keyword filter which is also supported by the SonicWALL system.

Could it be that they block all sites with the keyword ‘torrent’ in the url? It’s beginning to look like that is indeed the case. All Google searches with the word ‘torrent’ in it are blocked by Panera Bread and it is impossible to download any .torrent files. Linuxtracker is not blocked, however, the torrent listing on the site (with the word torrent in the url) is again inaccessible.

It turns out that every website with ‘torrent’ in the url is blocked, the “reason for restriction” always being “Administrative Custom List settings”. It gets even worse though. A quick search on Amazon for (legal) products that have “torrent” in the URL results in yet another list on accessible pages.

* The LEGO toy of the Torrent spaceship from Star Wars.
* A backpack named “High Sierra Torrent 70 Hydration Pack.”
* Book author “Ann Torrent” wont sell anything through Panera Bread.
* And a whole list of book titles that include the word “torrent.”

Of course we fully understand that Panera doesn’t want users of their free WiFi hotspots to download massive amounts of data with BitTorrent, and since it’s their network they can impose as many restrictions as they like. However, there must be a more sophisticated method to achieve their goals than to ban everything ‘torrent’, including the dictionary entry.

Post from: TorrentFreak

May 31st, 2009 by admin

Soulseek, created by former Napster programmer Nir Arbe, is a lessor known file-sharing network/application. Although files of any type can be shared, its specialty lies in the diverse independent music to be found within - for electronic music lovers Soulseek an absolute goldmine. But it’s not all good news.

In July 2008, security researcher Laurent Gaffié found a bug in two of the latest versions of the official software - Soulseek 157 NS & 156. The problem was so serious he informed the Soulseek developer on 3rd September 2008. Unfortunately, Laurent heard nothing back so on 14 October 2008 he contacted the developer again. He appears to have been ignored. On 16 May 2009 Laurent tried again to contact the Soulseek team - yet again he had no response so decided to reveal his findings.

So what exactly is the problem? First of all it’s necessary to understand a little about how the Soulseek search works. When a user searches for an MP3 via their contact list or on a Soulseek IRC channel, their Soulseek client sends the query to the Soulseek server. The server then sends a distributed search query on the whole channel.

Laurent told TorrentFreak, “The P2P Soulseek bug is critical because of the nature of the bug. It appears when you send an overly long search request to the server, and it redirects it directly to everyone without checking the length of the request, then a memory corruption happens in every client that received this query.”

“By corrupting the Soulseek memory it becomes possible to control the program memory flow and redirect it anywhere you want,” Laurent explained. “In this case, you redirect the program to a shellcode you’ve placed in the memory and then code execution occurs. The problem with this type of “buffer overflow” is the nature of it, it’s a SEH overflow (Exception Handler) which will work on most Windows platforms.”

Laurent told TorrentFreak that there is no need to have any interaction with a targeted channel or user, it’s just possible to log on and send the distributed search. This makes the Soulseek vulnerability perfect for a very fast spreading worm scenario.

“I’ve released a very limited proof of concept, to avoid scripts-kiddies problem on the Soulseek network,” notes Laurent, “but this doesn’t avoid a worm scenario, because this binary protocol is not so hard to reverse.”

Apart from being a perfect scenario for a fast spreading worm or mass Soulseek client exploitation, Laurent told us this attack can be used to remotely control any machine connected to the Internet with a Soulseek client. Let’s hope the Soulseek team take notice and get this fixed.

In the meantime, worried Soulseek users can avoid this vulnerability by ditching the official client and using the Python Nicotine Plus client instead.

Post from: TorrentFreak

May 31st, 2009 by admin

Today, the Criminal Court of Pamplona ruled that a man didn’t break any laws by downloading thousands of movies and an undetermined number of songs. The defendant was acquitted of copyright infringement charges because there was no evidence that he profited from downloading the movies and music, or sharing them with others.

The judge acknowledged that the man indeed downloaded the files “without consent of the copyright holders” in 2003 and 2004, but ruled that he only did so for for “private use or sharing with other Internet users.” There was no financial gain, so no crime has been committed and the defendant walked free.

This is not the first time a Spanish court has ruled in favor of a file-sharer. In 2006, a man was similarly acquitted, and more recently it was ruled that websites linking to p2p downloads (torrents for example) operate within the law. Spanish law dictates that there has to be “an intent to profit” for someone to be held liable for copyright infringement.

Not everyone agrees with Spain’s liberal view on copyright infringement. According to the US, the Spanish government has done little “to change the widespread misperception in Spain that peer-to-peer file-sharing is legal.” However, as the courts show time and time again, this is no misperception - it is how the law spells it out.

Since sharing files on BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks is legal, it is no surprise that Spain tops the list of countries with the most recorded copyright infringements. Close to 25 million were counted by the piracy tracking company BayTSP in 2008, mostly on BitTorrent.

Post from: TorrentFreak

May 31st, 2009 by admin

We recently reported that ACS:Law appear to have taken up where notorious UK lawyers Davenport Lyons left off, sending threatening letters to alleged BitTorrent and eDonkey copyright infringers demanding payment of hundreds of pounds or face legal action.

Sadly, ACS:Law don’t appear to be practicing what they preach, despite taking the moral high-ground with the hundreds of recipients of their letters.

In an article published on their site entitled “20th Century Fox hit by illegal downloads” (Google cache copy here, since the page has been removed after we published this). ACS:Law appear to have taken the easy option and instead of writing their own article, chose to cut and paste paragraph after paragraph of other people’s work, passing it off as their own, without so much as a link to any source or a mention of an author’s or publication name.

Paragraph 1 of ACS:Law article

Almost a month before Wolverine hit the movie theaters a workprint copy of the movie was “leaked” onto the Web. It was a copy that was half finished as far as the special effects were concerned with green screens and wire framed character models visible for all the world to see. The great fight scene at the top of the nuclear reactor was more stickman like drawing that anything to do with the actors. In the end it was an incomplete movie that really only left the majority of those that watched it wanting to see the real thing

Original source article: Written by Steven Hodson over at inquisitr.com

Paragraph 2 of ACS:Law article

AFACT’s director of operations Neil Gane thanked the member of the public who had called attention to the racket and claimed Australian businesses suffered greatly from piracy.

Original source article: Written by Suzanne Tindal for zdnet.com.au

Paragraph 3 of ACS:Law article

“That pirated copies of X-Men Origins: Wolverine were discovered amongst the haul is especially disappointing. The film was made in Australia, employed over 1000 Australians, engaged over 100 Australian companies and contributed over $80 million to the local economy. The flagrant sales of pirated copies of the film is a slap in the face to the hard work and creativity that so many Australians put into the movie,” he alleged in a statement. The film has not yet been shown in cinemas worldwide

Original source article: Written by Suzanne Tindal for zdnet.com.au

Paragraph 4 of ACS:Law article

The woman’s arrest and the discovery of the discs led police to what was allegedly a disc burner lab in Sydney’s Westmead. The lab allegedly had the potential to produce 378,000 pirated discs a year, worth $1.8 million on the street.

Original source article: Written by Suzanne Tindal for zdnet.com.au

Paragraph 5 of ACS:Law article

Marketed as one of this summer’s blockbusters, downloads topped 75,000 within hours of the film being uploaded to BitTorrent and 20th Century Fox, the studio behind Wolverine, said the uploaded version was “stolen, incomplete and early”

Original source article: Fraser McIntyre and Jennifer Whitehead for The Scotsman

Paragraph 6 of ACS:Law article

The computer-generated imagery had not been added, there were missing scenes, sound and music and Wolverine himself had not yet acquired his enhanced strength with the wires attached to the actor Hugh Jackman still visible on screen.

Original source article: Fraser McIntyre and Jennifer Whitehead The Scotsman

Paragraph 7 of ACS:Law article

Reviews based on an unfinished film and which have already cost influential Fox News columnist Roger Friedman his job. He was fired for commenting on illegal footage. Richard Mollet is from record label trade body the BPI. He says the industry lost around £200m last year because of illegal downloading.The illegal copy became available on the internet on March 30. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “at last year’s average ticket price of $7.18, the piracy could conceivably – though not likely – have cost Fox $28.7 million.”

Original source article: Fraser McIntyre and Jennifer Whitehead The Scotsman

Even though there are clearly no references to any sources, links back to the original articles or mention of the author’s name in the ACS:Law article, TorrentFreak contacted all three publications to double check that permission had not been granted. Of the trio, Duncan Riley editor of Inquisitr.com was most vocal, telling TorrentFreak;

“No, we have not given permission for the content to be used. What perhaps is the height of hypocrisy, besides the wholesale theft of the text word for word, is that the paragraph they have taken is from a post that argues that piracy helped Wolverine, and then they’ve added anti-piracy statements to the end.”

We must admit we are very confused. On the one hand ACS:Law speak constantly about how their clients suffer at the hands of copyright infringement, yet the company itself appears to have a different approach when it comes to its own dealings.

Just recently, a support site set up to help recipients of ACS:Law letters cope with their predicament was ordered to stop its activities by ACS:Law (under threat of legal action) after they objected to the link between the site’s domain name (beingscammed.com) and their firm. The owner of the site was forced to publish an apology on the site’s homepage. As expected, another site has taken its place.

ACS:Law have forced others to publish an apology on their site too after comments were made that the law firm objected to. In the interests of fairness, it seems fitting that that Mr Andrew Crossley, as main partner of ACS:Law, publishes his own apology on his site’s homepage for making use of other people’s copyright works and exploiting them for commercial gain.

Andrew Crossley was already fined by the UK’s Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) for engaging in “conduct unbefitting a solicitor” (pdf) back in 2006. We believe that a law firm claiming to uphold copyright law on behalf of its clients but infringing copyright in the process warrants the same label, but we’ll let the Conduct Investigation Unit at the SRA decide.

And to those that think these infringements by ACS:Law are small ones to be brushed off or discounted, then in an ideal world, yes, you would be absolutely correct. No one should care about small infringements of copyright. No-one should have to write articles about petty copyright infringement, but these are the depths to which this arena has sunk.

But consider which games these threats and lawsuits are all about. Two Worlds from Reality Pump is available on Amazon for £12, Topware’s Dream Pinball 3D is available for under £10, Call of Juarez by Techland much less than that. At absolute best ACS:Law has evidence that copyright was infringed via an IP address for a mere second on a few kilobytes of these titles. For these equally small infringements, ACS:Law demand around £600 from the public to satisfy them and their clients, backed up by the threat of ruination in court.

That’s how low we’ve sunk. It must stop, all of it.

Post from: TorrentFreak

May 29th, 2009 by admin

Il mese di giugno sta arrivando, e la nostra Viviana Giorgi ci dà come al solito qualche suggerimento per quanto riguardà le novità in uscita tra i libri in lingua originale: non ve le perdete!
***
Ogni tanto dare retta ad un amico non guasta. Soprattutto quando questo amico è uno che legge bene. Già da tempo mi faceva il nome dell’inglese Stephen Leather, ma io lo snobbavo. Poi, un paio di settimane fa, ho preso in mano Dead Men (2008) e ho ringraziato il mio amico. La fregatura, quando scopri un autore che ti piace, è che poi rimani legato a lui e ai suoi personaggi e vuoi vedere come la loro vita andrà avanti. Così, anche se probabilmente non leggerò i primi romanzi di Leather, di sicuro non mi perderò Live Fire, di recente uscito in UK e in Usa, che parte da dove Dead Men finiva. Live fire è il sesto romanzo che ha per protagonista il calmo, rassicurante, ma doverosamente tormentato (moglie morta, bambino di 10 anni da crescere) Daniel Spider Shepherd, ex Sas, ex varie operazioni speciali, ora agente del SOCA, un’agenzia specializzata a piazzare infiltrati nei livelli più profondi e torbidi della malavita. Dan è uno che non ci va giù leggero, ma mi piace perché nonostante sappia usare mani e armi con una notevole disinvoltura, è calmo, riflessivo e ha un cervello che non è un optional. In Dead Men la storia si dipanava tra i panni sporchi dell’Ira e dell’MI5, con un significativo side-plot di marca qaedaista. In Live Fire Dan si infiltra in una banda di rapinatori di banca, ma poi finisce a dar la caccia a un gruppo di terroristi islamici nati e cresciuti in Inghilterra. Londra è ancora una volta sotto le bombe nemiche.
Alcuni romanzi di Stephen Leather si possono trovare anche in italiano da Piemme. Il sito dell’autore è: www.stephenleather.com

Altra uscita recente che ho in lista d’attesa è Fault Line di Barry Eisler (www.barryeisler.com), autore ampiamente pubblicato anche in Italia. Lo potete ascoltare e vedere (un consiglio spassionato per le signore che amano il genere, perchè Barry è anche da vedere) qui:

L’eroe di Fault Line non è John Rain, l’assassino - ex special op. - nippo-americano della serie precedente, ma Ben Traven, un militare sotto copertura che fa il lavoro sporco per il governo. Un altro killer con licenza d’uccidere, insomma. E quando suo fratello avvocato, Alex, lo chiama chiedendo il suo aiuto, Ben corre da lui a San Francisco nonostante tra i due rimangano irrisolti non pochi conflitti. Le cose fra i due fratelli si complicano ulteriormente quando entra in gioco anche una collega di Alex, la bella Sarah…
In questo suo primo stand alone, l’ex agente Cia Barry Eisler mescola come al solito azione adrenalinica, tecnologia di ultima generazione (una rivoluzionaria applicazione crittografica è il fulcro della storia) e…. romance che lui definisce più esplicitamente steamy sex. Adoro Eisler per avere il coraggio di mettere l’amore nei suoi libri… A proposito di Eisler, è uscito (non in Italia) il primo film tratto da un suo libro, Rain Fall. Per il trailer guardate qui.

L’ultima segnalazione va oggi ad un romanzo d’esordio che ho già sul comodino: Beat the reaper di Josh Bazell. Scritto da un medico, ha come protagonista un medico, Peter, con un curioso passato di killer della mafia. Prima uccideva, ora guarisce. Negli Usa il romanzo è stato accolto come una rivelazione e definito una lettura veloce e feroce come una pallottola. Il 16 giugno arriva anche in Italia per Einaudi: Luca Conti ne anticipa la bellissima presentazione.

Related posts:

1. Nuovi thriller in lingua originale - maggio
2. “The Reapers” - John Connolly
3. “The Broken Window”: il nuovo romanzo di Jeffery Deaver

May 29th, 2009 by admin

Mancano solo 3 giorni alla scadenza del concorso che mette in palio tra tutti gli iscritti alla newsletter una copia gratis dell’ultimo romanzo di Tim Severin, La rotta dei corsari, edizioni Nord, copertina rigida, 18.60€.
Per partecipare all’estrazione, ricordo, basta essere registrati alla newsletter: se già lo avete fatto, siete a posto; se invece non vi siete ancora iscritti, non aspettate ancora: cliccate qui e confermate l’email che riceverete!
Il 31 maggio si chiuderà la lista dei concorrenti. Le modalità di estrazione saranno comunicate ai primi giugno, in base al numero degli iscritti. Il vincitore sarà nominato il 7 giugno. Se non volete perdere questa occasione, quindi, non dovete fare altro che cliccare qui e registrarvi in tempo: restano solo 3 giorni.

In bocca al lupo a tutti, e continuate a seguire ThrillerCafe.it: altre sorprese arriveranno presto!

Related posts:

1. “Solo!”, di Sergio Rilletti
2. Recensisci Thriller Cafè e puoi vincere 3 libri!
3. 3 libri in palio con Thriller Cafè, ancora 15 giorni

May 29th, 2009 by admin

Qui al ThrillerCafe siamo soliti tenere gli occhi aperti su quanto accade nel mercato anglofono e ogni tanto segnalare i più interessanti nuovi thriller in inglese. Tra gli immancabili, quelli di Micheal Connelly, il cui Nine Dragons uscirà a ottobre (USA, Canada, UK e Irlanda).
La trama di questo nuovo romanzo vede protagonista l’inossidabile Harry Bosch:

Harry Bosch è incaricato di indagare su una chiamata per un omicidio che lo conduce al Fortune Liquors: il proprietario cinese è stato colpito a morte durante una rapina.
Con l’aiuto di alcuni membri dell’Asian Crime Unit, Bosch identifica presto un sospetto, un membro di Los Angeles di una triade di Hong Kong. Ma prima che possa concludere l’arresto, apprende che sua figlia Maddie, che vive a Hong Kong con la madre, è scomparsa.
Harry lascia perdere tutto e attraversa il Pacifico per trovarla. La sua sparizione e il caso cui lavorava sono collegati? Con una posta in gioco così alta e così personale, Bosch lotta contro il tempo in una città sconosciuta, dove nulla è come sembra.

Maggiori informazioni le potete trovare sul sito dell’autore.

I libri di Micheal Connelly: acquistali su IBS!

Related posts:

1. Il cerchio del lupo - Micheal Connelly
2. “The Scarecrow”: Micheal Connelly torna a maggio 2009
3. “The Brass verdict”: Micheal Connelly ci offre un video per il suo nuovo romanzo

May 29th, 2009 by admin

When some of the top thriller writers in the world came together in Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night, they became a part of one of the most successful short-story anthologies ever published. The highly anticipated Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can’t Put Down is even bigger. From Jeffery Deaver’s tale of international terrorism to Lisa Jackson’s dysfunctional family in the California wine country to Ridley Pearson’s horrifying serial killer, this collection has something for everyone. Twenty-three bestselling and hot new authors in the genre have submitted original stories to make up this unforgettable blockbuster.

Clive Cussler takes the editorial helm from James Patterson in this follow-up to Thriller (2006). This volume again features another impressive line-up of crime writers, some household names (Phillip Margolin, Ridley Pearson) and some lesser-knowns (Javier Sierra, Harry Hunsicker). All are members of the International Thriller Writers, the organization that came up with the concept for the series. What’s different in this second compilation is that this time most of the familiar authors leave their established characters at home and strike out in new directions. So while David Hewson delivers a taut, exciting story, it isn’t about his Roman detective Nic Costa. Thrillers are not an easy genre to define, as Cussler points out in his introduction, as it has more to do with pace than with plot. But that’s good news for readers, who will enjoy such diverse story types as international intrigue (Jeffrey Deaver’s “The Weapon”), suspense (Hewson’s “The Circle”), and even a blend of political thriller and science fiction (Kathleen Antrim’s “Through a Veil Darkly”). An entertaining collection. — Mary Frances Wilkens, Booklist

Thriller 2, Stories You Just Can’t Put Down is available in bookstores and online.

May 29th, 2009 by admin

Unlike other criminal trials in Sweden, the judge in the Pirate Bay trial wasn’t selected at random. Instead, he was chosen because of his expertise with copyright related issues. Indeed, as a member of various pro-copyright organizations, Norström is very involved in the issue.

However, the ties to these lobby groups might also cloud his judgment and thus the verdict, some claim. It is therefore highly dubious that Norström was handpicked and not randomly assigned as is normal procedure in cases like this.

Defense lawyer Per E Samuelsson has now sent a letter to the Court of Appeal where he addresses the issue and seems to confirm earlier rumors he shared with the press. “The young generation’s trust in the judicial system is at stake here,” he told the Swedish news agency (TT) in a comment.

“I don’t want to say that the randomness of judge selection has been fixed, but the case has been handed to Norström mainly because he is considered an expert on copyright. That raises questions since this is a criminal case. A large majority of the young generation believes that what is going on here is a farce,” Samuelsson added.

According to Samuelsson, there is no doubt that all the suspicious connections to pro-copyright groups indicate that Norström had preconceived ideas on the issues addressed during the Pirate Bay trial.

“I have a hard time to let go of the thought that he kept quiet about this because he had the intention of using his opinions in the case. I don’t hesitate for a moment when saying that this is bias,” he said.

Henrik Pontén, lawyer at the anti-piracy bureau didn’t want to comment on Samuelsson’s letter to the Appeal Court, and said he will await the court’s decision due to be announced a few weeks from now.

The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak that the current developments amount to yet another plot twist in the tragicomedy that their trial has turned into. “We will win in the end,” he said, promising a happy ending.

Post from: TorrentFreak