ES5

[eclectica]

http://www.es5.com/
ES5, ESV, EarthStation5, EarthStationV, Earth Station 5, Earth Station V, or whatever other name they go by.

The IP address of their website resolves to 213.152.100.163. According to a RIPE whois, the site is owned by Ras Kabir or Nasser Kabir. Additionally, I have seen the name Steve Taylor of Speednet mentioned with the program, who is said to be their spokesman. Online names of people associated with the program are FileHoover, SharePro, Monyak, steve15, and uri21.

I've read that their company is incorporated in the Pacific island of Vanuatu and their servers are located in Jenin in Palestine. They have 70 employees and have developed the program in many languages. They also have a lot of bandwidth.

Where do all the money and resources come from for this program? I have seen this program spammed on many p2p boards and I am suspicious of it. I feel it could be the work of the RIAA, MPAA, some government, or a software consortium.

Here are some excerpts of their rebuttal, written by SharePro, of the rumors that they are actually owned by the RIAA, in this forum thread (http://forums2.es5.com/index.php?act=ST&f=40&t=2016), which you have to be registered and logged in to to read at their site:
ES5 is not Kazaa. We dont do spyware or adware. We dont sell out to the evil empires of hell. The reason people make up the lies about ES5 is because they know they cant compete with ES5 the program and/or the other stuff that we are doing.

I would love to see another P2P program stream movies and have all of the security features that ES5 has. Unfortunately, there are none.

Take a good look at who spreads the negative bullshit about ES5. You can note that over 90% of them are full time paid workers of the industry. They get on forums, spend some time 'making a name for themselves' and all along they are industry spies getting paid to misguide you.

----------------------------------------

BTW, in most countries, it is legal to download, just not upload. So saying that we are with the RIAA is pure bullshit. Fortunately, in Palestine, it is legal to do both upload and download.

----------------------------------------

The RIAA is very much in tune with P2P. The problem with Zeropaid is that if a user makes a post "I just downloaded Matrix Reloaded", then the RIAA can get a court order within 15 minutes and force Sephiroth to give out the IP address of the user.

ZP is in the United States, and is subject to both local (state) and federal laws. I dont personally trust ZP, not because they are bad people, but because they could be forced into a situation that either they give out their members IP addresses or go to jail.

That is what happened to ISONEWS. The government got ahold of the domain and servers of Dave Ricco (previous owner of ISONEWS) compromising the security of all of their users. ZP is not immune in the US.

Here in Palestine where we host ES5, you can be damn sure that nobody will ever get a hold of our servers or routers. We planned the security from day 1. Mr. Kabair, the owner of ES5, would have never invested the money into ES5 if there was the slightest chance that someone could penetrate our system. We have one of the most secure systems in the world to protect ourselves from the faggots at the RIAA.

Its not personal against ZP, but today it is not safe to post P2P material (besides maybe general news) on a board that is hosted and/or located in the United States. However strange and stupid this may sound, you could be brought up on charges of racketeering.

----------------------------------------

Using ES5, it doesnt matter if the RIAA connects to you and downloads because they cant see your IP address. They see a proxy address. Who owns the proxys? Mostly huge companies who have big time lawyers to protect themselves.

The RIAA will think that its the big company or an employee of theirs. They wont be able to know that you are the one who used the proxy. The big time companies obviously will protect their interest and will fight the RIAA because they themselves wont have any idea and/or proof that someone outside of their company used the proxy.

When the RIAA shows up at a big company with a court warrant to search and seize their computers, the big companies will join our fight. Not necessarily because they like or dislike P2P, but because they will be against the great powers the RIAA has over America's inhabitants.

----------------------------------------

The RIAA (or the 'advertisement companys' can use the logs in court against you or do whatever they want with the information because you agreed to the spyware when you downloaded Kazaa.

That's why I hate spyware. That's why ES5 will NEVER do spyware.

----------------------------------------

ES5 is the only P2P program that can really protect the entire P2P community. Sure we have bugs in our software, but then we felt a need to release the program ahead of schedule so that people know that their is an alternative to Kazaa, and that they can upload/download files and remain safe.

We didn't just show up at the 'right timing'. We knew that the RIAA would be running after people sooner or later, and that is why we built the ES5 program.

A smart or intelligent man is one who has the capacity to accept, remember, and process a large amount of information. A genius is a person who can answer a question that nobody asked. I think ES5 software, streaming movies, direct downloads, etc., has answered many questions that nobody ever thought to ask.

Why should you pay for cable tv when you can watch whatever you want whenever you want at ES5 for FREE?
The tone of this is not genuine to me. They try too hard to distance themselves from the RIAA, and their stance feels unnatural to me. My intuition and gut feeling is that these advocates and spammers of ES5 are liars. They are trying to dissuade p2p users from using both the Kazaa (http://www.kazaa.com/) program, which is the biggest p2p program, and the Zeropaid forum (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/), which is the biggest p2p forum.

[eclectica]

Here are more excerpts from SharePro, who is an admin at the ES5 forum. He is not a believable liar, especially on the issue of Palestine. This is taken from the "Earthstation 5 in the News" subforum.

I think we can all agree that both Piolet and Imesh were not built for security. I believe that since Kazaa has lost almost 16% of their users over the last week (16% was quoted from ZP), I believe that ES5 will be the natural home and domain of most of those P2Pr's. People require an alternative.

I think within a year, Kazaa will become another thing of the past. To build a program with real security would mean for Kazaa to start from scratch. To build a secure Kazaa version would take a minimum of a years work with a full time working force of hi-tech programmers who excel in the field of security. Besides, once people lose trust in Kazaa, that means that Kazaa has no future.

The other issue is that the future creators of P2P programs will be held both criminally and financialy liable for building a P2P program that supports proxys. Palestine is the idea place to set up a P2P network, but then since ES5 is very well established here in Palestine, it would be very difficult for anybody else to set foot in these areas

[eclectica]

I noticed that most of the news releases of ES5 in their forum were from a source called PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com/). That site is actually a propaganda machine posing as a news service that companies can pay to give out their news. Here is a description of it from its site:
Whether your news has to go around the corner or around the globe, PR Newswire serves all of your information distribution needs. PR Newswire is the world leader in the electronic delivery of news releases and information directly from companies, institutions and agencies to the media, financial community and consumers.

PR Newswire's services begin with news distribution, but also include targeting, evaluation and measurement services. Whether your news requires the broad distribution of the wire or a VNR, or the targeted distribution to individual journalists, investors and other key audiences, PR Newswire has the tools to cost effectively drive the results you are looking for.
At PR Newswire, you can become a basic member for $100 a year. I'm not sure what the fee is to be able to release news stories, but I imagine that if you pay more you get the extra features that ES5 has. They even made it easy for people to create and upload their own news:
https://prndirect.prnewswire.com/

With freedom of speech comes the freedom to lie. There's nothing illegal about lying, and skillful manipulation of the news is good PR.

Basically this is just more evidence of the investment EarthStation5 has made in their program, as well as casting more doubt on their honesty. Here are a couple of news articles from PR Newswire:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/06-26-2003/0001972423&EDATE=THU+Jun+26+2003,+09:04+AM
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/07-01-2003/0001974551&EDATE=TUE+Jul+01+2003,+05:00+AM

One of the reasons ES5 has gotten away with so much bullshit is that many people want to jump on the p2p bandwagon when something new comes out, and want to be part of the process. So they behave with irrational exuberance and do not properly scrutinize a new program or company that shows up on the p2p scene.

[eclectica]

The spokesman for ES5 is said to be someone named Steve Taylor of Speednet. ES5 is hiring an additional 1500 people and they have given an announcement in their forum with a mailing address of ras@earthstationv.com, asking for resumes to be sent to them. In Zeropaid's ES5 subforum (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=81), they also have requested that people send their resumes, but this time to an e-mail address steve@17q.com. 17q.com seems to be owned by Speednet Ltd. They have the domains speednet.com, speed-net.com, speednet.net, and speed-net.net. Doing a whois on the domains, I get an address of 25 Hasivim Street, Petach Tikva, Israel 49170. But looking up that address I found it to also be listed to Golden Channels cable TV (http://aztv.co.il/site/he/aztv.asp?pi=43&lang=EN&num=4&notAbout=true), and Golden Lines Telephone (http://goldenlines.co.il/content_whoarewe.asp?menu=1). Maybe there are several businesses located at the same address.

About a couple of weeks ago, the domain information on all the ES5 sites, such as es5.com, earthstation5.com, and so on, were all registered to raskabir@gaza.net. Now I see that gaza.net (http://www.gaza.net) is not online, and the domain information on the ES5 sites has been changed. Gaza.net is also owned by the same person who owns beautifuldomains.com (http://www.beautifuldomains.com), but that latter site never worked at any point. If the gaza.net site goes back up I'll look at it more closely than I did a couple of weeks ago. It may be a bogus site.

[eclectica]

One thing ES5 doesn't like to talk about, is their business model. In the Zeropaid ES5 subforum (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=81), a few people asked them how they got their financing. The answers were vague, but what was given was that it is the strategy of ES5 to spend a lot early on in the game so as to dominate the market. Also, they said Ras Kabir is a wealthy Saudi who is financing the thing himself, along with investors. What they've said is vague, and there have been no answers about their future plans. I asked this question in the ES5 forums, but got no response:
(posted 2003-07-16 in the ES5 forum here (http://forums2.es5.com/index.php?act=ST&f=16&t=2305))

We're lucky to be able to know ES5 in its infancy. In a way all of us here feel like we actually play a role in its development, because we can give you feedback and suggestions on the program.

While we share files and develop p2p applications due to our common hatred of the RIAA, I know at some point though the bills will have to be paid for all of this. I read that there are around seventy employees of the company, some volunteers obviously, and with the high bandwidth servers located in Palestine, those too must also cost money. Will ES5 become a pay service in the future, or perhaps have two versions; the freeware and the premium version that has a paid subscription? The possibilities for ES5 could include an even wider audience, like businesses which want to establish private networks so that they may exchange proprietary information.

Did you ever see the 1978 picture of the Microsoft corporation (http://members.tripod.com/posaune_jms/fun/image/early_ms.jpg)? You ought to get a group picture so we can get a good laugh 25 years from now too.

[nanook]

wow, E., lots of good information and excellent research!
i still have my doubts about this program.
i beta-tested at the very beginning, but absolutely hated everything about it.
although all that i hated about it, was supposebly intent on protecting the user, ie) no info on downloader...browsing, how many uploads, etc.
the interface, slightly silly....probably for the kids.
not very user-friendly.
and much more.
their forum on the other hand, is growing....but i am still leary and won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
believe it or not, i still use winmx, with peerguardian and leechammer, and that is it.
i'll let others cry about queues, when i'm 56k and get everything i need at first click.
oh, well.

[eclectica]

Zeropaid is partial to ES5. They already created an ES5 subforum (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=81). By doing so they've elevated the status of the program to some type of worthiness. Whenever there is propaganda on behalf of ES5 there, it is left alone. But the moderators keep closing threads which question how secure ES5 really is. Their response is, that such issues should be addressed on the ES5 forum. But if they are to provide a public forum of discussion, then they shouldn't direct people to other forums. In Zeropaid's ES5 subforum, only positive comments towards the program are tolerated. Negative comments cause threads to be closed. Furthermore, note that ES5 has bought banner advertising space on Zeropaid. This means that Zeropaid must be wary of the treatment of who provides their income, for as the expression goes, "don't bite the hand that feeds you".

[eclectica]

Let's see how long this Zeropaid thread lasts which I just made:
http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13084

don't bite the hand that feeds you

It's not too hard to notice the ES5 banner advertisement on the top of the page. Does this at all affect how you can deal with Earthstation 5, because you are a business partner with them?

Scrolling down the General P2P forum (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=35), I see it has subforums devoted to various p2p programs, and the ones you have are: Bittorrent (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=80), EarthstationV (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=81), Blubster (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=5), Direct Connect (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=6), Edonkey/Emule (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=7), Piolet (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=77), Napster (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=20), Shareza (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=60), and WinMX (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25). I'm wondering what causes you to decide to create a subforum for a certain p2p program. Is it because it is new or is it because there is a lot of "buzz" in the community about it?

Here at Zeropaid you've taken the air of being neutral on the ES5 question, as to whether it is good or bad. Yet by creating a special subforum, you've already taken a side. By doing so you're saying that it is a program that is worth some attention to be paid to it.

I see there is much controversy that keeps getting repeated and you are trying to reduce it by closing threads. You direct people instead to the ES5 forums for further discussions and flamings. This is the part I can't figure out. To what purpose is your creation of a forum if you are going to send people to another forum instead? I thought we would be able to get to the bottom of the issues at Zeropaid.

[eclectica]

Here's a PM I got from a Zeropaid moderator named "Krell". The thread that I posted a half hour ago has already been deleted. This affirms to me a general trend, that heavy forum moderation tends to foster ignorance, duplicity, and lies.

getting to the bottem

This is what you need to get to the bottem of, after months of trying to settle ESV propaganda and flame, we are, thru a LOT of effort, at a comfortable level, and you will not stir it up for your own satisfaction.

I have previously stated that I have many many pages of dialogue saved and in the crib where the other moderators can all be on the same note with things.

I have worked hard to keep the ESV fanboys at bay, and their advertisment has nothing to do with anything in the forums.

The decisions that we make regarding ESV are for the overall good of the whole site, and from much discussion.

I moved your post to the crib, along with a copy of this PM. Any further pursuit in stirring things up will be handled to the extent needed.

[nanook]

E., i am familiar with what u r saying. i think they created the Es5 forum, so that all of the es5 stuff would stay in there and not garbage up the rest of Zeropaid.
they were getting sick of all of the spamming of the program and then the arguments insuing because of such threads.
so i'm not surprised at the deletion of your thread. where did u post that thread? was it in the es5 forums or general zp forums??? i think they will either move or delete any from the general area to the es5.
as to the banner advertisement....i think it was a kind of truce or awareness of the app, because of all of the, again, insuing arguments between members of the es5 forums and those of ZP.
and since some members belong to both, they created the es5 forum in ZP, i guess to show no hard feelings.
a kind of mirror of 2 forums we used to both frequent, eh?
i am still very interested to see where es5 is going.

[eclectica]

The thread I made was made in the ES5 subforum at Zeropaid (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=81). Then it was quickly moved from the public forum to a private forum that only moderators have access to by Krell. I noticed on the ES5 forums (http://forums.es5.com) that they were saying two things you shouldn't do is use the Kazaa program or use the Zeropaid forums. Yet they continued to benefit from recruiting new members at Zeropaid. It is a great resource to tap into, with its 160,000 members.

[eclectica]

Here's an interesting posted message, asserting that ES5 is owned by the RIAA. ES5 claims this is an attempt by the RIAA to discredit them.

http://lists.firenze.linux.it/pipermail/e-privacy/2003-June/000829.html
-- forwarded message --
From: blurpnroll <blurp76@_nospam_Libero.it>
Newsgroups: it.comp.software.p2p
Subject: Earthstation V collegato alla RIAA??
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 12:41:08 GMT

Se ne sta discutendo in un thread su alt.music.mp3.winmp3; ecco il
messaggio originale....

The Earthstation 5 (ES5) P2P app, which boasts anonymous sharing
and security, is actually software designed by contractors hired
by the RIAA! The "Dating" feature was designed to trick users
into entering their personal info, which makes it easier for the
RIAA to compile statistics and track down users. All traffic
statistics are routed through proxies operated by agencies
working for the RIAA, most notably BayTSP and MediaForce. The
cheesy outerspace theme was designed to appeal to newbies while
appearing to have a feeling of security to it without scaring
away the non-techies. Company info for ES5 is very vague, ...
can you guess why?

ES5 is just one of the many projects in effect by the RIAA. The
MPAA is staying somewhat neutral at the moment, but has similiar
plans in store.

BOTTOM LINE: DO NOT USE ES5!


aloha, Steve and Danno
blurp'n'roll

-- end of forwarded message --

[nanook]

well, i guess es5 sits in the position to be used by both sides to discredit each other.
especially with such "vague" information about the app itself.

[eclectica]

I was lurking around the ES5 forums, and I noticed that they were mentioning ES5 being in the news on both CNN and in Time magazine. Well both of those are owned by AOL-Time Warner, which is one of the units of the RIAA. The RIAA has five units and they are: Sony (Japan), BMG (Germany), EMI (UK), Vivendi Universal (France) and AOL/Warner (USA).

[eclectica]

Here's an article at CNET News.com about ES5:
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5063402.html

[Criminal_Sniper]

they are supposedly waging war now against the riaa and mpaa
hahaha we will see wont we :p

[eclectica]

Here is the staff of Zeropaid (http://www.zeropaid.com/php/crew.php). As you can see, Christopher Hedgecock is CEO of Zeropaid. He is also EVP of ClearKey Solutions (http://www.clearkeysolutions.com/), formerly known as EmpireDRM until July 2003. The company is a Digital Rights Management provider. This is from their website:
ClearKey Solutions is a Rights Management solutions provider that enables the secure delivery of digital media and critical corporate information. ClearKey Solutions' Dominion\99 solution secures digital content for delivery via the Internet, CD, peer-to-peer networks, and email, allowing customers to secure company information, gather data, and sell content.
When it was discovered some time several months ago, that Chris Hedgecock had a job with a company that opposes the interests of p2p, people were either wary of his intentions, due to a conflict of interest, or supportive of his desire to make extra money.

But it was forgotten and business went on as usual for Zeropaid, until I read this poorly written Zeropaid news article (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/08192003d.php) written by Jorge Gonzalez. Then the questionable intentions of Zeropaid again surfaced to me. Is there a connection between Zeropaid, DRM, and the ES5 program?

[eclectica]

As far as ES5 is concerned, there's been a lot of animosity between ES5 and Zeropaid. It's been expressed more by ES5 admins than Zeropaid admins though. It is the members of Zeropaid who have questioned the program, while the admins of Zeropaid are giving it a type of endorsement by devoting a special subforum to it, and by closing or deleting threads which are critical of ES5. When I posted the information on Chris Hedgecock in this Slyck thread (http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1805), it became more ammunition for ES5 in the Zeropaid versus ES5 dispute. The information about Chris Hedgecock is pretty old, like about eight months in my estimate, but it had been forgotten by a lot of people.

If there is collusion between Zeropaid and ES5, they could be trying to hide it by pretending to be adversaries. Or maybe the problem is, that Zeropaid will sell out for money, and the ES5 folks are well-financed, so it appears that they are colluding.

[nanook]

this is an interesting theory, E. i didn't know that info about Chris H.
hmmmmm.
interesting indeed....i would love to talk with u about this, in depth....one of these days.

[eclectica]

Someone suggested that ES5 is really run by Sharman Networks.

[eclectica]

random_nut is the developer of Kazaa Lite. He has studied the ES5 program and has issued a warning saying that the software contains malicious code. See more here:
http://www.p2pforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1340

[nanook]

well, i've had the pleasure of reading random_nut for awhile now, and i can also say that i respect him and his work, and also agree he has nothing to gain by disclosing this malicious code.
i too have had reservations about this app for awhile now, too.
has this been over at ZP, E?
i'm going to look now.
thanks for this link...i think we've finally uncovered the truth about es5...and that screenshot of the convo that sharepro had about the bittorent site....bears a lot more truth, as well.
i don't understand code, so i can have no opinion on random's discovery.
do u, E?
nevermind, i just read this...

It seems that there are very few people who actually wants to confirm this, so I will let you all know that jonnymnemonic (a ZP member) and matt (a ZP mod) have confirmed it.

See http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/10022003i.php . Search for their names to find their comments.

[nanook]

hmmmmm.
what an interesting thread over at es5.
i was looking for the intial post by random_nut, announcing his find on the malicious code, and have instead been reading up on sharepro's very knowledgable insight into the personal lives of Chris Hedgecock and Jorge.
if nothing else, he most certainly does have some major connections in the p2p biz.
u could make a friggin' movie out of his posts alone...lol.
i'm on page 20 right now of http://forums2.es5.com/index.php?act=ST&f=27&t=5645&st=285 thread..."Danger do not use ES5, ES5 too easy to hack."

[eclectica]

I was reading that ES5 forum thread (http://forums2.es5.com/index.php?act=ST&f=27&t=5645) yesterday and it was long as hell. I didn't even get to it today.

I don't know much about programming but it sounds like Random Nut is right about the program. There is a back door which listens and then can allow an outside party to delete files on the computer. Random Nut released an exploit program to prove the vulnerability. ES5 is not denying the vulenerability but instead is saying it was left there by accident, and Random Nut is saying it was put there purposefully. After the vulernerability was posted on several p2p boards by Random Nut, they released a new ES5 version without that particular backdoor, but still labeled it as having the same version number. That sounds like a coverup.

The question is, who do you think ES5 is: RIAA, MPAA, the government, the Business Software Alliance, or Sharman Neworks?

[nanook]

Originally posted by eclectica

The question is, who do you think ES5 is: RIAA, MPAA, the government, the Business Software Alliance, or Sharman Neworks?

i'd like to think that the makers of the app started out, honest enough, but my mind takes me to thoughts, which i've had since the beginning of the whole riaa vs p2p....and that is a tad on the paranoia side...lol.
i'm even wondering about the newest version of winmx....it's like it has been taking so long, because they've been paid off, to include the same sort of thing as es5 or something similar or worse, meaning they had to revamp.....if not paid off, threatened somehow...even though they r Canadian.
i could see es5 streaming the movies as a trap....like the old saying.....u have to spend money to make money...they have to give up something in order to get what they want, and that is a whole hell of a lot of users.......i believe the "honey pot" theory, really.
but who is in on it?? that is what i don't know.
maybe it is all of them.....the riaa/mpaa...had to involve the government....u know to pay someone off for future amending laws in their favor...i'd have to say them.....they have the most to lose.
all kinds of things i could think of.
but i'm glad i had some reservations about es5.


yeah, i will get to your pm....lol.:eatout:

[Criminal_Sniper]

it sucks anyway cant get shit
ive heard all that shit and possibly romour about it but ive spoken to steve the guy from zeropaid
he is a bit shady to say the least ;)
and cant back up a good argument very well without quotes from the site or well we have 15 million users blah blah .....werent developing for english ppl yet and could manage to cod e a multilanguage program but can make seperate ones?
i though i sucked :p
dont know what slob they are paying to code and if u look at the program itself anyway it nothing much to look at or do anything much with
search?
hmm
download speed?
not on this planet!
:confused:
ESV = P.O.S!

anyway the fute of p2p will not be that shit anyway it will have to be a hybrid bit torrent on top of freenet (faster - though secure ;))
would never diss freenet i like very much :)
bt needs to connect better and faster and no snubbing argh
or as ive said a few times multi server sulti sourse soulseek
:beer: :beer: to good times ahead
cheers

[Criminal_Sniper]

just though has anyone tried or is it possible to run a tracker on freenet?
hmmm thinks

[Criminal_Sniper]

and it couldnt be the riaa
are they really that stupid!
they could have said this is the riaa we are going to make a p2p sell music for 75 or so cents (aussie dollars) a song and maybe $10 for a cd
covers pics maybe a nice little forum for music lovers everywhere
different formats maybe mp3 maybe full format for cd (forget what they are)
they could have been winning the war years ago they are behind and they cant accept it and arent changing
what play mp3's? mp3 player the obvious no 1 but dvd players stereo systems some discmans car stereos mobile phones
mp3 players on computer (winamp 2.91 and foobar 2000 being the best of the best)
mpaa even same deal and bsa too
dosent leave much the gov hasnt stepped up a lot yet right?
hmmm sharman?
:eek: :coward: :p dont use it much easier hey?

[eclectica]

Originally posted by Criminal_Sniper
has anyone tried or is it possible to run a tracker on freenet?
I tried Freenet (http://freenet.sourceforge.net/) and I found it was not really useful as a p2p filesharing application, because you couldn't search for a particular song. Instead if you were looking for the song you would have to find a fan's page from the main directory, and then hope to find it there. Freenet was made for people who want to set up web sites which are critical of governments. Content of web sites is stored in an encrypted fashion on the computers of individuals. When you open a web site you are retrieving components from different people. I think it uses proxying too, so that the content would be going through a third person's computer to reach you. It is a slow process.

I think when p2p filesharing users use Freenet they are doing it a disservice, because they are slowing down the network, and the level of persecution which they risk (RIAA lawsuits) is frivolous when compared to why others use it (political dissidents operating in countries with no First Amendment protection, avoiding jail sentences or death).
:behead:

In a Zeropaid interview (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/05072002a.php) Ian Clarke says:
One of the problems we encounter is that some people download Freenet with the expectation that it works in the same way as software such as Napster, Kazaa, or Morpheus, yet Freenet's user interface is not designed to make it easy to share mp3s, as this isn't our goal. Rather, people should view Freenet as an alternative to the WWW, which is slower, but where information can be published and consumed without fear of censorship.

ES5 boasted to be the most secure network, which turned out to be a lie. But that's always how it is with people who boast. Open-source software is the most secure, because it can be verified and tested by the public, which forces honesty on the developers.

Seeking security in p2p is wrong for two reasons. For one it is wrong because it provides a false sense of security. And the second reason is that it drives the p2p movement underground. It is the cowardly alternative to civil disobedience and to confronting the RIAA directly.

[eclectica]

A Google search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=619-210-2500&btnG=Google+Search) for the number 619-210-2500 gives two names. One is "Steve Taylor" of ES5 and the other is "Steve Cohen". Stephen Cohen is the person who hijacked the domain site sex.com from Gary Kremen in 1996. He was sued in 2001 and the domain was given back to Gary Kremen, and he was ordered to pay him $65 million in damages.

[eclectica]

The domain name sex.com was registered to Gary Kremen in 1994, who didn't use it for anything and let it languish. Steve Cohen sent a fraudulent letter to the registrar Network Solutions in 1996 and got a hold of the domain name. He then used the porn-related site to generate millions in revenue. In 2001, Gary Kremen sued Cohen to get his domain back, and also for lost income from not having the domain for five years. A court decided in his favor and awarded him $65 million in damages. Steven Cohen fled the country without paying anything, and his lawyers continued to appeal the decision up until the US Supreme Court decided against him in June 2003.

From the beginning in March 2003, Earthstation 5 has been a bit of a mystery in the p2p community. It received much attention through spamming on various p2p forums. Outrageous claims were made about the size of its network and the number of employees it had. The site was owned by "Ras Kabir" with an e-mail of raskabir@gaza.net, and had as their spokesman "Steve Taylor" with an e-mail address of steve@17q.com.

In the middle of December 2003 it was discovered that the phone number 619-210-2500 showed up in search engines as both "Steve Taylor" and "Steve Cohen". It was then realized that the two people are one and the same. ES5 officially announced their affiliation with Steve Cohen on January 3rd 2004 in their forum. Here is the official announcement made by "Ras":
"We have hired Stephen Michael Cohen the prior owner of Sex.Com as a consultant to Earthstationv Ltd. who will directly report to myself."

It appears that Steve Cohen is the fictitious "Ras Kabir" as well as the fictitious "Steve Taylor".

Steve Cohen and ES5 seem to have commercialized p2p ambitions like Sharman Networks (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=245). They are not trustworthy and we can only assume that their bottom line is profit. Steve Cohen seems to have modeled his business after Sharman Networks, or perhaps he has a partnership with them. The ES5 company claims that it is incorporated on the island of Vanuatu. We don't know how far they will go in order to satisfy their profit motive, and how badly they will sell out their users. That remains to be seen in the future.

There will be many willing people in the p2p community who are attracted to ES5 because of its promised security. In their attempt to be safe from the RIAA, they make the mistake of being even more unsafe by trusting a company with dubious intentions. It is important for a p2p program to be trusted, because people need that trust in order to install and use their program. Unfortunately many fools have abandoned good caution in their fear of the RIAA. That culture of fear is what ES5 is capitalizing on. Why should we trust ES5? ES5 has given us all the signs of being untrustworthy; with their lies, deception, and silence.

[Criminal_Sniper]

that ball licker steve i knew it
he couldnt come up with many answers
and if there were any they were almost word for word from the site or past quotes and lot and lot of bullshit and backtracking and damn did he get done over
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
feels good hey?
lol
:rolleyes:

[Criminal_Sniper]

and one more thing the program was the the most cheesy gui/theme ive seen since crappy educational programs at school (primary school this is)

[iso]

Originally posted by Criminal_Sniper
that ball licker steve i knew it
he couldnt come up with many answers
and if there were any they were almost word for word from the site or past quotes and lot and lot of bullshit and backtracking and damn did he get done over
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
feels good hey?
lol
:rolleyes:

you should stay informed before posting about the gui--you can change it you know---there are many es5 skins built into es5, btw i like to set in my settings no skin:)
also you can change the forum to look more like inivision, with the baby blue colours and big buttons much the same as your fourm p2p forums

[iso]

hmm, interesting read on 'steve"----
so steve is Ras-----?---do you know this for sure, ?--

hey did you dial the telephone number, and if you did who answered?

[Criminal_Sniper]

to iso:
shut the fuck up
and i am more informed than most ive used the once and its pathetic
and gui is really nothing usefull anyway
so it not a huge issue just a bonus
and u have to change it to make it good isnt that the developers job?
get a brain and use it
i bet ur a season es5 user
dinding nothing
just like fucks saying ares has all the files when its clear is has next to none (under 20k users now)
go away

[eclectica]

Originally posted by iso
so steve is Ras-----?---do you know this for sure, ?--

hey did you dial the telephone number, and if you did who answered?
I don't know for sure, but that is my feeling. I didn't call the number, but doing a MapQuest lookup (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?areacode=619&exchange=210) on the area code and exchange pinpoints the telephone central office on the map with a red star, and it is about 20 miles east of San Diego, California.

[Freakinweasel]

Originally posted by eclectica
the area code and exchange pinpoints the telephone central office on the map with a red star, and it is about 20 miles east of San Diego, California.

Isn't that about where that owner guy from ZeroPaid lives?
Hmmm the plot thickens.....lol

[eclectica]

The IP address of 207.158.50.108 has four websites on it:

www.Crucialonline.net
Organization:
Crucial
Greg McCarty
5010 Cadet St
San Diego, CA 92117
US
Phone: 619-850-8843
Email: mccartygm619@yahoo.com

www.Digipig.com
Organization:
Zeropaid, Inc.
Jorge Gonzalez
5010 Cadet
San Diego, CA 92117
US
Phone: 619.318.6613
Email: jorge@zeropaid.com

www.Facesoffilesharing.com
Organization:
Zeropaid, Inc.
Jorge Gonzalez
5010 Cadet
San Diego, CA 92117
US
Phone: 619.318.6613
Email: jorge@zeropaid.com

www.Zeropaid.com
Organization:
Zeropaid, Inc.
Jorge Antonio Gonzalez
5010 Cadet St.
San Diego, CA 92117
US
Phone: 858-272-4085
Fax..: 760-588-3733
Email: info@zeropaid.com

All the phone numbers of the first three listed work out of the same central office as Steve Cohen's number, 20 miles east of San Diego (or the eastern part of San Diego). But the phone number for Zeropaid.com is in the neighborhood of the address 5010 Cadet Street, which is about 20 miles north of San Diego.

There's some kind of rivalry that's been going on between Zeropaid and ES5, but that could be all staged so that people don't believe there is a connection between the two. It will also affirm the loyalties of the members of each board if they believe that they are under siege and they have enemies. They both have exaggerated amounts of membership on their boards, with Zeropaid claiming to have 179,000 users and ES5 claiming to have 39,000 users.

We ought to be wondering why they went against sound judgement at Zeropaid and created a special ES5 subforum (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=81) for the program and why they accepted advertising from ES5 for several months, and continued the advertising even while having their rivalry. I don't feel bad for Zeropaid. They deserve the 2003 losers in p2p award for how they sold out their members to ES5.

[Lurker]

Some interesting findings there. While I don't believe there is a connection now between ES5 and ZP, I do know that one time there was. Supposedly the story goes that Jorge Gonzales was to be contracted to design and administer the ES5 board but a price could never be agreed upon and ES5 decided to go a different route.

As to the identity of "Ras Kabir" , I would have to agree that he is indeed Steve Cohen/Steve Taylor. No solid proof that they are one and the same but Ras Kabir is an Arabic term for Big Head so I seriously doubt that is his true name. I also can find nothing on a Nasser Kabir so I'm starting to believe this is also a pseudonym.

Now the ZP forum numbers are probably inflated as the database ZP uses was carried over from their days as a Gnutella search page so the actual number of people that have signed up since the forum switchover is a lot fewer than 149,000. Also members there post under numerous duplicate names and that tends to pad the numbers. When asked about it Chris Hedgecock wasn't in favor of purging unused accounts and that's probably to keep their status as the biggest P2P portal site and the potential revenue that being the largest site has.

The whole ZP/ES5 affair wasn't staged in my eyes. The administration of ZP has little interaction with their site, let alone the ES5 site, and were oblivious to the attack of ES5 until a mod from ZP alerted them to it. Only then did the ZP admins begin to distance themselves from ES5 by removing the banner and printing a statement in the forums.

As far as being biased when ES5 had a banner there, they may have been. My feeling is that the mods were unsure what to do. I think they wanted to be fair and unbiased but also didn't want to do anything to put them in the doghouse with the admins by trashing a sponsor. Bottom line is the admins did a bad job by letting ES5 buy banners there in the 1st place because having a network place a banner on a site that purports to be neutral is just unprofessional and leads to all kinds of headaches when people have to weigh being fair against losing a meal ticket.

[bullshit]

ES5 has been around for over a year. I keep hearing about "conspiracys" but then my files werent deleted nor were any other es5'rs.

They dont work for the RIAA. If they did, then the RIAA and MPAA would need to pay each and every one of those artists and movie makers each time we hear a song on http://es5radio.com/chat.php

or each time we watched a streamed movie. I mean come off of your conspiracy theorys already. When is the RIAA going to jump out of the rabbits hat? In like 10 years? Yeah right!

The fact that Steve Cohen is behind this with other arab wealthy partners is okay with me. Who are we to judge Steve Cohen when we all are doing p2p which is uploading and downloading "illegal" content"?

At least we know that Steve Cohen doesnt work with the RIAA. Hell, he cant even step foot in America. So there goes your stupid theory.

ES5 and ZP? Are you out of your mind? Sharepro of ES5 ruined ZP. Everybody knows that. If they were "friends" then both forums would compliment eachother.

Anyway, I can see this is a small forum. ES5 has had over 1,300 people on their forum at the same moment. No other p2p forum has ever had that many people in at one time. The most ZP ever had at the same time was 200 people.

I dont see any other p2p network providing free ftp, free movie streams, free sex, free radio, free everything and all the security that ES5 has.

Let me guess, you use Kazaa's spyware infested client? How about Imesh's popup infested client?

Dude, you are full of shit. You have spammed your own forum (which nobody comes to anyway) with ES5 but fact is, ES5 just continues to grow. Heck, they've grown on you to.

Now dont think that you can get my IP address cause I'm using the GATTLE PROXY that ES5 gave me for free! Hows that for anonymous web browsing!

[Lurker]

LOL! Spoken like a true ES5 Stepford Wife. Oh btw ES5 didn't ruin ZP. If anything it gave the troublemakers on ZP a place to go where they could bitch about how unfair ZP was to them because of their anti flaming, anti spam, etc. policies. In the long run it has actually helped the ZP forums because the people that never contributed anything positive migrated over there. The ZP forums are now populated by people that give a shit about true discussion about all P2P networks and they don't have to fear getting trampled on by the promoters of the various networks.

And since we're comparing ZP and ES5 let's look at both factions:

1: ZP was founded by people whose day job include some development in DRM. This was never denied and explained to the members almost 2 years ago. The fact that they have done DRM work has never once endangered a forum member of ZP nor have they forced people to use DRM protected media. There are people out there who want to protect their work and so they pay people to do that. If that seems like a conflict of interest then so be it but there are several companies that engage in conflicts of interest ventures all the time. It's all part of the game when you host a sight to make money.

2: ES5 is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. They are funded by a supposed Arab financier with ties to the PLO going by the name RAS KABIR (which translates to BIG HEAD in English)which is obviously fake because no information on this man is available other than the sound bites about ES5. They claim to be primarily located in the Jenin Refugee Camp even though evidence has shown they have ties in Mexico, Israel, Vanuatu, and possibly Russia. (The Russian tie is purely speculation on my part based on a sound bite where RAS claimed to have Russian programmers and backers) They have constantly lied about network numbers and developer numbers and their supposed inpenatrable network was penetrated by a feature they designed and kept silent about. Whether it was by design or just sloppy programming, the fact remains that it was there. Then instead of thanking the person who found the flaw, they resorted to exposing the person's name and address. For a company that prides itself on being anonymous, they had no problem naming people from other networks.

3: ZP doesn't promote any network. At one time ZP was a Gnutella search engine portal but when they started covering other networks they dropped their Gnutella only stance and began open discussion on all networks.

4: ES5 promotes only their network by using spamming techniques to plaster their name over other forums without respect to the owners and contributors of these forums. Not only were they banned from P2P portal sites, they've been banned globally from some message board providers for their relentless spamming. They started their spamming long before they even had a beta to test and continually encourage their users to spam people using IM and forum sites. They also continually go out of their way to bad mouth and mud sling other developers and networks to make them look inept.

5: The ZP/ES5 war was started by a vocal minority on the ZP board that felt they had the final say on what was posted on the ZP board. Once ES5 people started spamming they latched on to the ES5 tactics because these were the same tactics these individuals used before ES5 showed up. When ES5 cobbled up their own forum, these individuals migrated over there and signed up fake accounts of ZP mods and regular users in an attempt to cause embarassment to those individuals that were signed up. This coupled with the fact that Filehoover got banned for flaming gave Sharepro the fuel and the means with which to attack the owners of ZP who really have little to do with the day to day operations of ZP. He couldn't silence the critics so he instead chose to try and ruin the place the critics converged.

6: ES5 was given several opportunities to change the way they were perceived at ZP. They had several chances to openly discuss the network and answer questions but the people representing ES5 couldn't give honest answers to questions without ridiculing and flaming so the mods at ZP had to resort to moderating and closing their threads. These same tactics have been used numerous times in the past to regain control of the forums from the different network "enthusiasts" and were generally successful in doing just that. In other words they made their bed and then were forced to sleep in it.

7: Steven Michael Cohen is nothing more than a con artist. He conned a website owner out of millions and then fled when he lost the case and is nothing more than a wanted fugitive. There is evidence that he funded ES5 from the beginning and the coincidence that he is now officially involved with ES5 after this news broke seems a little too coincedental to me. Since they won't answer the question leads me to believe they have something to hide. If anybody wants to dispute that then show me the evidence.

Let me state for the record that ZP and it's mods have made mistakes and the forum is a tough forum to get accustomed to. They tend to be merciless to new people and some of the mods do need to lighten up a bit. The owners are guilty of engaging in activity that seems to be direct conflict to the attitude of many of ZP's users and past associates like Christopher Levy have done nothing but reinforced that conflict but , and this is a big but, they have always been upfront and honest about it. They don't go and slam other people when negative criticism is thrown their way. They don't reveal names and addresses of developers of other P2P players. They don't brag about sabatoging other networks. They aren't affiliated with wanted individuals on the lam. They don't encourage their forum members to spam other forums. They don't encourage blind loyalty to their methods and ideas. This is not a conspiracy theory this is fact. So go ahead and fire up that gattling proxy all you want. ES5 has never been upfront and honest about anything and until they are they don't deserve any type of sympathy from the P2P world.


Just out of curiosity, how do you know the proxies ES5 supplies are anonymous? I'm not inferring anything here but I'm curious why anybody would trust people that have been proven to stretch the truth about their network in the past.

[Miranda]

Stephen Michael Cohen , He is a very interesting person. I have a friend who is writing a story about him. From what we have learned I do not believe that Earthstation 5 was started or is owned by Cohen.

It is a well known fact that Cohen is the real owner of the 5 star Kempinski hotels. I noticed by researching the RIPE.NET\92S (Whois) today that Cohen's e-mail address was changed from steve@kempinskithis.com to stephencohen@mail.com.


It has been reported in the news around Europe that Cohen also owns 38 casino\92s and hotels from Brussels to Russia over and above his ownership in the Kempinski's Hotels.

Ripe also shows his relationship, or should I say ownership of the Las Vegas Casino in Budapest. It is also well known that his partner in these casino\92s is none other than Ze'ev Rozenstein.

Here is some easy reading on this subject:

Politics Agora - Deadly bomb blast in Tel Aviv.
... terrorist attack. Reports circulated that Israel's top mafia crime boss,
Ze'ev Rozenstein, was seen rushing away from the scene. "We ...
www.politics-agora.com/thread4130-1 - 65k - Cached - Similar pages
Politics Agora - Deadly bomb blast in Tel Aviv.
... attack. Reports circulated that Israel's top mafia crime >boss, Ze'ev
Rozenstein, was seen rushing away from the scene. > >"We know ...
www.politics-agora.com/thread4130-2 - 87k - Cached - Similar pages
Recent organized crime headlines
... said. Reports circulated that Israel's top mafia crime boss, Ze'ev
Rozenstein was present at the scene and was wounded. (Fox News). ...
www.primetimecrime.com/ Recent/recent%20organized%20crime.htm - 101k - Cached - Similar pages
The Noble Pundit: Not A Good Day To Be Jewish
... Apparently there are reports that Ze'ev Rozenstein, Israel's top mafia boss, was
seen leaving the area early this afternoon and it has been confirmed that he ...
noble.cbnoble.com/archives/000972.html - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
File: lomza2/ /This is part 2 of 2 parts/ -PAGE 16- LOMZA YIZKOR ...
... OFENBERG AVRAHAM PI 161 ALSO 184 O250 OKON OKON ZE'EV PI 327 ... ARIE CL R252 ROGINSKI
ROGINSKI MINA PI 167 R252 ROZENSHTEIN R252 ROZENSTEIN ROZENSHTEIN/ROZENSTEIN ...
ftp.cac.psu.edu/genealogy/roots-l/ genealog/genealog.lomza2 - 80k - Cached - Similar pages
November 4, 2001 Aryan Update
... DE LA SECRETARIA DE AGRICULTURA Y GANADERIA ) MARIO ROZENSTEIN SZRAIBER ( PRESIDENTE ... ON
THE ROAD TO JEWISH AMERICA, the author Israeli Ze'ev Chafets, chapter ...
www.resist.com/updates/2001updates/ 11.04.01aryanupdate.htm - 101k - Cached - Similar pages
Hal Lindsey Oracle
... Related Israel's top mafia crime boss, Ze'ev Rozenstein, was seen rushing away from
the scene of a Tel-Aviv explosion that killed 3 and injured at least 28. ...
hallindseyoracle.com/?JKCA=Next&JKC=2137 - 54k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Our investigation shows that the \93Moscow Kempinski Hotel\94 is worth over 500 million dollars in today\92s market. The other Kempinski hotels all together are worth more than 8 Billion dollars. When you call the local Moscow government they do not hesitate to tell you Cohen is the sole owner. When you ask Cohen, he states he never heard of the Kempinski hotels. At least that is what he told three local newspaper reporters who wrote about the new owner of the Kempinski hotels.

The 38 Casino\92s including their hotels that Cohen and Ze'ev Rozenstein own are worth over 1 billion dollars as reported to several government licensing agencies.

It is no secret that the real partner of Earthtation5 is Ze'ev Rozenstein as reported in several newspapers.


We believe that the Palestine relationship started when Ze'ev Rozenstein entered into a deal to open a casino in Palestine. That casino had several partners who were wealthy Palestinians. The Israel newspapers claim that ARAFAT was one of the partners. When the bombings started in Israel a few years ago, the State of Israel bombed the Casino and destroyed it. We believe that It is with this relationship that Rozenstein and his partners started Earthstation 5 in order to promote online gambling of which they would control.

It looks like Rozenstein became frustrated with Earthstation 5 and asked his Casino partner Stephen Cohen to help him out with Earthstation5.


I forgot to mention, Cohen tells everyone that he lives in France when in fact he lives in a small 50 million euro dollar Villa in Monte Carlo. The French newspapers last month reported that Cohen\92s private Jet was citied and fined for not paying a landing fee at the Paris Airport. It seems that his pilot forgot to pay the fees. According to the news report, Cohen sent word to his pilot to bring him cases of French wines.

The only real question that we have never been able to answer is why are Cohen and Rozenstein both partners, what is the connection? Does anyone know this answer? Are they related or is Cohen in the Mafia?


Miranda5@bonbon.net

[Miranda]

Chlothed Person
Our investigation had nothing to do with someone called \93Sharepro.\94 I doubt that Sharepro is in fact Stephen Cohen. We think that the person who calls himself Sharepro is nothing but a low level management employee of Earthstation 5.

Cohen does not hide from the fact he is Stephen Cohen. Cohen does not have a brother named Daniel Cohen, nor is there a Daniel Cohen that is related to Stephen Michael Cohen that we can find. For your information, Cohen\92s was forced to give over 18 hours of depositions in the SEX.COM case. These depositions are on the sex.com web pages and also on the Luke Ford web pages.

Cohen gave full disclosure on his complete family history numerous times in these depositions. No where is a Daniel Cohen mentioned. I would without verification discount that Daniel Cohen is related to Stephen Michael Cohen.

Our investigation does show that two of the persons who actually own ES5 are multi-billionaires. We have identified both Rozenstein and Vladimir Kumarin as being two of the six owners of Earthstation 5. Both are multi-billionaires. We know that Kumarin supplies some of the programmers for Earthstation 5 as reported in the Russian news.

Our investigation has no information on Shaun Garriock aka 'Random Nut and we do not believe that he is in any way connected to ES5 as an owner.

If you do some checking into Rozenstein and Kumarin you will see that very little effects their way of life. We know why they set up Earthstation 5 with the Palestinians for control of mass gambling on the internet through P2P

If you check out Cohen\92s past you will find out that he used to own a swing club called \93The Club\94 and is very much into that lifestyle. He lives with 2 ladies in a tri-sexual relationship. He does own hotels, casinos and we know he also owns a construction company, even though he claims he is broke. He has been married several times which all resulted in divorces.

We think he is helping ES5 because of Rozenstein.

What we do not know and of which are willing to pay for, is the verified answer as to what the real connection is between Cohen and Rozenstein. Several writers are writing about Cohen and one movie producer for the BBC is doing a special on COHEN, KREMEN and Sex.com. They are all willing to pay for this information. If you know that answer, please contact me at once with verification.

[eclectica]

http://www.lukeford.com/stars/male/stephen_cohen.htm

They ought to make a movie out of all of this.

[Miranda]

I do research for various writers and journalists

There are many stories about Stephen Michael Cohen and sex.com. What is exciting about Cohen is how he took millions over night and made them into billions with the help of a few of his friends, or should I say the mafia friends.

Earthstation 5 is well funded with mafia money and is seated under the laws of Palestine where there are no copyright laws.

The State of Israel and the Palestinians are at war with each other and who is in bed with the Palestinians, none other than Mr. Rozenstein a citizen of Israel and the partner of Stephen Michael Cohen. That worth a movie!

I wouldn't hold my breath that Earthstation 5 is going to die because of a little thing like copyright.

You are correct; the poor are always the easiest one exploited. Mr. Cohen has a 65 million dollar judgment and a warrant for his arrest for failure to pay. That warrant is unenforceable outside of the United States. In short, Mr. Cohen flipped the bird at the court and to Mr. Kremen. On top of that, he is now a multi-billionaire living in luxury while the winner of the sex.com case is almost broke according to latest wired article. They say crime doesn't pay, who are they kidding?


Miranda

[berzoi]

Why should anybody care who's associated with the program? So what if you can't trust them? Why would you NEED to trust them? As long as you're getting what you want from them it doesn't matter, does it?

I've been using it lately, and since giFT was added, it's a useful prog. They haven't asked me for anything in return for all the free movies and music I've downloaded direct from their servers, or from the networks.

If worst comes to worst, what are they going to do to me, you, or anybody else? Come on, get real; you pretend to be advocates of P2P, yet you criticize and discount a perfectly good prog on the basis of other people's unproven accusations! Why should anybody trust your judgement?

[eclectica]

Shin Bet is a branch of the Israeli government's secret service, and targets the enemies of Zionism. They are criminals and they perform kidnapping, torture, and assassinations.

[Miranda]

Originally posted by wishful thinking
was reading the official announcement section of the es5 forum and saw this (http://forums.es5.com/index.php?act=ST&f=50&t=15046)



Here's a link i googled (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2004/01/23/yossi_ginossar_58_envoy_to_palestinians/) up about it.

why would such a man as this..be a partner in a p2p program?


We have through out our investigation of Cohen been told that Cohen at one time worked for the CIA. Several reporters have aksed Cohen and he stated this was nonsense. We have spoken to some of Cohen\92s ex-wives this week who confirm that Cohen was in fact an employee of the CIA years ago.

One of Cohen\92s ex-wives gave us a copy of a document that further confirms Cohen\92s prior employment with the US Government in the late 60's and again in the 80's.

I called one of Cohen\92s ex-wives and confirmed that Cohen used to regularly received telephone calls from Mr. Yossi Ginossar from Israel. This story gets more interesting each and every day.

We now think that Rozenstein was introduced to Cohen by Yossi Ginossar. Ginossar and Arafat (through his finance minister) were partners with Rozenstein in the Palestinian Casino.

[Macdaddy]

We have through out our investigation of Cohen been told that Cohen at one time worked for the CIA. Several reporters have aksed Cohen and he stated this was nonsense. We have spoken to some of Cohen\92s ex-wives this week who confirm that Cohen was in fact an employee of the CIA years ago.

One of Cohen\92s ex-wives gave us a copy of a document that further confirms Cohen\92s prior employment with the US Government in the late 60's and again in the 80's.

I called one of Cohen\92s ex-wives and confirmed that Cohen used to regularly received telephone calls from Mr. Yossi Ginossar from Israel. This story gets more interesting each and every day.

We now think that Rozenstein was introduced to Cohen by Yossi Ginossar. Ginossar and Arafat (through his finance minister) were partners with Rozenstein in the Palestinian Casino.

Okay, I agree. This calls for a movie. I mean look, I hated es5 when it came out cuz they bashed in uninvited and bitch slapped anybody who didnt go along with them. I tried es5 like 8 months ago and HATED THE GUI and didnt understand any of the options.

Lately, all of my friends keep telling me wonderful things, but I continued dismissing it all as just Noob talk. Anyhoo, a couple days ago I was at a friends dorm (UCLA BABY!!!) and he had it installed.

If you asked me 8 months ago, I'd tell you it SUCKS!. Today I have to endorse it. I mean the program does everything you want it to. It automatically downloads proxys, has a cool media player that doesnt require you to download the music but you can still hear the music (does that make sense??) and overall, it has a better look and feel than Kazaa Lite. Better yet, it connects to Kazaa, Gnutella and a bunch of other networks.

I dont care who owns es5. Its a decentralized network and there is no adware or spyware so I mean whats all the commotion about? I think if you dont like it then dont use it.

But I do recommend you install the new version. believe me im no hyper and I could give a crap, but I think you will find it nice and easy to use. Thats my 10 cents for today.

[eclectica]

there is no adware or spyware so I mean whats all the commotion about? I think if you dont like it then dont use it.
They've said at some point that they plan to make money off of the program. I am opposed to any type of commercialism in p2p programs. I think it is a bad mixture and that is why I despise Sharman Networks or any programs which have adware or spyware in them. Also, I care more than just about myself. I also care about my fellow p2p filesharers, so even though I don't use ES5 myself, I am concerned about the other folks within the community who may use it.

[Drake]

I've never used ES5 either but a friend of mine downloaded it several months ago and said he couldn't find anything he was looking for. He also had to format his system shortly after installing ES5 because it kept crashing. Coincidence?

[vacantmind]

I heard ES5 was LOADED with spyware and other bad shit.

[napho]

I've done my own research. Cohen and Rozenstein are only lackeys. The real Mr Big is none other than Allen Stewart Konigsberg :evil:

[LIE-EXPOSER-51]

The following was posted publiclly on ES5's register-only forums by Ras Kabir, current owner of ES5. I've enboldened the most significant sentence in the post. Whether this is true or not remains unknown, but the fact is Steve Cohen either is or can own and run EarthStation5.

"I would gladly give it to him NOW if he would return." - Ras Kabir, commenting on Steve Cohen's possible ownership of EarthStation5

Reads as follows:


Dear Mr. Kremen who by the way is also known as Sally and Boycott-ES5 :

Mr. Kremen you are barking up the wrong tree here. Our users can care less about you, or for that matter, my friend Stephen Cohen and or your legal action against Mr. Cohen. For your information, Stephen has not been on this forum for a long period of time.

It is no secret that I did in fact offer Stephen an ownership of Earthstation 5 of which he declined to accept. I would gladly give it to him NOW if he would return. Instead he is building a new hotel/casino in Macau. Don\92t you Americans listen to the news? Stephen has been all over the news about his new hotel/casino.

Why don\92t you take your obvious hate and obsession of Stephen Cohen up with him directly?

I will assist you with Stephen\92s published information:

Stephen residence is located at::
12, Avenue de Grande Bretagne
Monte Carlo 98000 Monaco

However, he is currently in Macau.

Stephen can be reached through his email account stephencohen@mail.com

I know that Stephen carries two GSM cell phones, one being a Macau phone and the other being an Amsterdam phone. The Amsterdam phone is listed, so I will give you that number:

00 31 62 941-3311 from the US I am not sure what you dial for a long distance number. On this side of the world we use 00 for long distance.

If your obsession is so great that you need to visit Stephen then here is his location in Macau. By the way, I had no problem finding him last month in Macau.

Stephen is currently residing on a 180 foot double haven \93Feadship\94 named Roxanne which is located in the Macau harbor while he builds his new hotel and casino. Stephen has an 18 person crew that attends to his daily needs and everyone in the harbor knows his vessel.

Now that you have Stephen\92s information there is no reason for you to say on our forums since you have nothing nice to say about our company or our software.



Ras Kabir
+972 673 51065.

[JiMiThInG]

If ES5 has proven anything, its that they are not to be trusted.

[Anonymous500]

SharePro, Steve Cohen, Ras Kabir, et al all want P2P laws all the more restricted so they can [in their opinion] push their other agendas.

Where as all P2P'rs are batteling for a legal stance on technology, EarthStationV want quite the opposite so they can profit from the idiology that P2P is wrong and should be made illegal. They are in this game for their own benefits -- Do not be fooled.

[Unregistered]]

we all know sharepro used to post racist and antigay comments under his other nick Naked Truth but it seems now he is posting anticommunist rants under his SharePro account. i found these on the verifiedfiles boards
Old crap not worth even speaking about. Those kinds of links can always be found. Problem is that the people who post them contribute very little in content and act like we owe them the world. In my opinion, they are a bunch of fucking communists.
Your remind me of a fucking communist. You think everybody owes you something.

there r dozens more if u want to find them

[eclectica]

One thing I would like to clarify, is that my main reason for distrusting ES5 is not because of its affiliation with Steve Cohen. I don't think his hijacking of the sex.com domain makes him a bad person, or that he deserved the domain any less than Gary Kremen. Gary Kremen is no saint, that's for sure, currently making money off of an online pornography site. I see in Steve Cohen's sentencing the unfairness that courts often show, with inflated estimates of damages, by having to pay $65 million. That reminds me of how a p2p filesharer could be sued $150,000 per copyrighted mp3 by the RIAA.

The thing that bothers me about ES5 is their constant exaggeration or lies about their program and company, and the fact that they want to turn it into a commercialized p2p service. I enjoy their bad boy culture of being anti-establishment, and I find their antics amusing and entertaining. I think they've created a lot of negative discord in the p2p community, but they've also brought up a lot of unpleasant subjects and issues of corruption which should be discussed, such as the links between Chris Hedgecock of Zeropaid and DRM. One has to avoid the tendency to either totally agree or disagree with someone depending on whether he likes the person or not. Instead it's good to take what a person says point by point, and find the good and the bad that way.

For me the bottom line is that ES5 is hardly different from any other commercialized p2p enterprise like Sharman Networks's KaZaA or RazorPop's TrustyFiles, and that is why I am opposed to the program.

[tim]

Just noticed it's gone...none of the url's are working for it.
Mind you I'm not complaining...just curious as to the official explanation if there is one.

[nanook]

Actually, I was just thinking that same question the other day, whilst reading Eclectica's thread about p2p & Sharereactor. I haven't even tried going there in ages, even to read the forums. I've never tried the app, so yeah, I've been wondering about them. So everything's gone? Hmmm. I'm not surprised.

[tim]

Actually, I was just thinking that same question the other day, whilst reading Eclectica's thread about p2p & Sharereactor. I haven't even tried going there in ages, even to read the forums. I've never tried the app, so yeah, I've been wondering about them. So everything's gone? Hmmm. I'm not surprised.

i think it died of a broken heart.

[Eli]

By Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press | November 9, 2004

TEL AVIV -- Police arrested a reputed Israeli underworld figure yesterday on an international warrant for allegedly smuggling drugs from the European Union to the United States, authorities said.

Zeev Rosenstein was arrested after an investigation that spanned three years and several countries. He is believed to be a dominant force on the world ecstasy market, said David Tzur, the Tel Aviv police commander.

Rosenstein's warrant called for his extradition to the United States, a process that could take several months. Federal documents released in Miami yesterday accused him of trying to export 700,000 ecstasy tablets to New York.

"I imagine he will sit behind bars for many years and we are very happy to have him do so in America," Tzur said. "The main thing is that he will be in prison."

Rosenstein's arrest followed a joint investigation conducted by Israeli authorities and the US Drug Enforcement Agency, authorities said.

The investigation began in 2001 after US law enforcement officials questioned two men arrested in New York with 700,000 ecstasy tablets, said Danny Avimeir, an Israeli police commander. The investigation also included arrests in Bulgaria and Spain.

Rosenstein's lawyer, Benny Nahiri, said he was unaware police were conducting a drug investigation against his client.

"I was very surprised by this charge," he said. "I am hopeful it will be disproved."

Rosenstein, 50, has long been accused of being one of Israel's top mob leaders, but aside from a brief stint in prison for armed robbery in the 1970s, he had eluded authorities.

In December, a bomb attack targeted Rosenstein -- the seventh attempt on his life -- leaving him with scratches but killing three passersby and wounding 18 others in Tel Aviv. The attack was believed to have been ordered by rival mob bosses, police said.

Before that attack, Rosenstein had been questioned by police after a hit man reportedly said Rosenstein had ordered hits on some of his rivals. Police later said the accuser was lying and released Rosenstein.

\A9 Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/09/reputed_israeli_mobster_arrested/

[Miranda]

Stephen Michael Cohen is back at Earthstation 5!

[Miranda]

Guess who one of the owners of Baikal Finance Group is?

That is owned by Cohen and his friends. Very interesting! Mr. Cohen I am looking at everything you own.

[SMC Interested]

You seem to have great information! Is there a way to contact you?

[Miranda]

BY NANCY HOWARD

SEX.COM owner arrested for Child molestation and possession of heroin.

http://www.oreilly.com/spamkings/archives/2005/06/new_chapter_in_1.html

[eclectica]

It seems to me that Gary Kremen is a domain name squatter and doesn't deserve $65 million. In court cases, damages are often exaggerated and are not fair. It's the same type of business that goes on when people claim damages against hackers or filesharers. It's good that Stephen Cohen didn't pay him, because that would be money supporting more decadence, though I don't know if Stephen Cohen is any less decadent. But considering that all that supposed money of Stephen Cohen is something that he acquired by way of his entrepreneuring, I think he deserves it more than Gary Kremen. Gary Kremen would have us believe that he is a pillar of the community and an eligible bachelor (http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/dec03_4.html) who has a good heart, and is a crime victim whose domain name was stolen from him. While the law has ruled on his side, he is not in the right.

Giving money to Gary Kremen is wrong, just as it would be wrong to buy anything by The Beatles, because that money would go to Michael Jackson and his empire of child molestation and decadent living at Neverland. Though perhaps there would be some good if Gary Kremen were to receive his $65 million so that he could compete with Michael Jackson and build his own Neverland, creating a balanced multipolar world in the spirit of Jacques Chirac.

[eclectica]

There are some new developments regarding the ES5 venture. The biggest development was the 2005-10-27 arrest of Stephen Cohen in Mexico. What's left of ES5 is now seen at Earthreactor (http://www.earthreactor.com/). The following was posted by sharepro in the Earthreactor forum regarding the news of the arrest of Stephen Cohen. It was posted 2005-11-19 here (http://earthreactor.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1903).

Hey Dinmor,

Nah, this is the real me. I've just been preoccupied. As for Steve Cohen, well you obviously know that Steve Cohen and I never get along.

I dont judge Steve because of the Sex.Com case because ultimately, the case was civil and not criminal. Steve isnt wanted on criminal charges, he was detained because he didnt pay the 60 million dollars that Kremen had won in a civil case. OJ SIMPSON hasnt paid his 30 million dollar settlement to Nicole's or her lovers family after killing them, yet Mr. Simspon continues to live happily in Florida in a million dollar mansion.

We all know that Simpson killed her, and most probably Steve manipulated the domain name Sex.com to be registered in his name. But again, civil and criminal criminal courts are two different things. Maximum, Steve is in contempt of court. Big Deal. Owing money is still not illegal in the United States. My guess is that he will file for bankruptcy and be freed cause no judge can keep somebody in jail just because they owe money on a civil case. But then truthfully, who cares?

On one side, I admire Steve's ability to singularly maintain the largest internet site on the web (back in 1994-2000) for over 5 years. He had Sex.com before there were major search engines like Yahoo or Google. Back then, Sex.com literally was the YAHOO of the internet. Now, after meeting with Steve, and knowing what type of a vulgur, insensitive, and control freak that he is, I personally dont feel any sorrow for his latest arrest. But knowing him, he will probably slime his way out of it.

As for me being quiet lately, I simply got tired of the fighting and bickering. For almost a year, since ER's new format, we have only grown larger and larger, and not because of fighting or any promoting of any singular p2p network. This portal kinda proves that ER doesnt need flame, spam, hyping or any other type of bullshit to succeed. So yah, I've been quiet.

I've seen the SharePro imposters on the boards trying incite shit, but then most people know that its not me.

Cheers,
SharePro

I was contacted by a journalist named Michael Gross in August 2005 for information on Stephen Cohen and ES5. I did not have much solid information and could only offer speculation. Michael Gross has created an 8-page article called "THE TAKING OF SEX.COM", which can be found on page 48 of the February 2006 issue of Playboy.

The article is mostly devoted to the ventures of Gary Kremen and Stephen Cohen. It is an interesting biography of Stephen Cohen because his personality and mannerisms can be learned. His energetic personality shows a tendency towards fraud, deception, charm, and sex. Gary Kremen comes across as subdued by comparison.

ES5 was mentioned twice in the article. Here I will quote the two paragraphs where it is mentioned, which are both from page 138:

Alas, the Internet porn boom was over by then, and the dot-com bubble had burst. Though Kremen made $500,000 in each of the first few months he owned Sex.com, the revenue soon plunged. For a moment Cohen, who had founded Earthstation 5, a peer-to-peer file-trading network (a la Napster and Kazaa), seemed more prescient than Kremen, but the network was exposed as a fraud in The Washington Post and the geek community turned against it.

Kremen began to feel he was free from his own form of bondage. He actually laughed when Cohen called to offer him a share of Earthstation 5 in lieu of the $65 million he owed him (which with interest has now risen to $82 million). Kremen's learned to laugh at himself, too. Asked if he's come to love litigation--he sues so frequently now it seems like a hobby--he replies, "They don't teach you about the use of law at Stanford business school."

One thing I learned after reading that article was that ES5 was owned and controlled by Stephen Cohen from the start. In light of his personality traits, I suspect that the energetic poster SharePro on the former ES5 forum was Stephen Cohen himself. I wonder who is currently running Earthreactor and if the venture could be considered to be part of Stephen Cohen's assets.

It is my guess that ES5 was a venture created by Stephen Cohen to make money. He wanted to emulate the success of Sharman Networks with Kazaa by trying to create a popular filesharing program. While there were many naive people using Kazaa he was unable to persuade the millions of users to switch over to ES5 and never achieved critical mass. I believe that if ES5 were to have grown to be a large network that it would have done worse things than Kazaa. I suspect it would have been used as a giant botnet which would have either sent out spamming emails from each person's ES5 client, or have been used to launch DDoS attacks on websites to extort money out of their owners, or cause them to capitulate and sell their sites to him.

I would like to also point out that if Kazaa were introduced today as a new filesharing program it would not be popular because the filesharing community has higher standards and demands that programs be free of adware and spyware. While Kazaa's network FastTrack still has 2 million users according to Slyck statistics, that can be attributed to the inertia from its former existence as the biggest of the filesharing networks in a time when people were more naive and had fewer quality options.