 | |
| Type of site | News site with articles about P2P networking and file sharing |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Tom Mennecke |
| Created by | Tom Mennecke, Ray Hoffmann |
| URL | Slyck.com |
| Registration | Optional (to post on forum) |
| Launched | 2000 (as Slyway); 2001 (renamed Slyck) |
| Current status | Offline |
Slyck was a website that produced and aggregated file sharing news stories, as well as offering a forum for users.
History
Ray Hoffman began operating Slyck.com as Slyway.com in 2000, which initially was an aggregate news site with some original content, and contained guides to the most popular file-sharing resources at the time, whilst providing statistics of P2P file sharing networks, which included Napster, iMesh, Scour, Usenet and IRC. On the 10th of August 2001, Slyway was renamed Slyck.
Impact
Due to the lack of mainstream news coverage on P2P topics, file sharing, and discussion of copyright legislation, Slyck had a significant impact as a news site: New Scientist cited Slyck as a "popular file sharing news site", Digital Audio Essentials (2004) referred to Slyck as "an excellent resource" for news and information on file sharing, and in Steal This Computer Book 4.0 (2006) the site was considered to be "up to date on the latest file sharing technology and news".
Content
The website conducted interviews with file sharing software developers and intellectual property role players, maintaining statistics of P2P file sharing networks, and notably shed light on the developing conflict between file sharing users and intellectual property owners, which covered the legal battle against copyright and intellectual property infringement, such as the takedown of torrent websites like LokiTorrent and Suprnova.org, events that were covered in mainstream media from input by the intellectual property owners, which lacked the views of file sharing users which Slyck coverage aimed to represent. Notably, Slyck extensively covered BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay, and the efforts by Swedish and other national authorities to shut down and prosecute the founders and operators of The Pirate Bay. Slyck covered other news topics such as rollout of broadband Internet, new and emerging technologies, device hardware, and advances in computer networking.
Slyck news writers were able to interview notable individuals such as:
- Michael Weiss of StreamCast, Nir Arbel of SoulSeek, and Pablo Soto of Optisoft S.L and Kevin Hearn of WinMX were interviewed regarding their software and P2P networks.
- Jon Lech Johansen, nicknamed DVDJon, was interviewed, regarding the DeCSS software that allowed for DVD discs to be played on the Linux Operating System, and allowed for development of duplicating software for DVD discs.
- Muslix64, a software hacker who first circumvented the AACS protection scheme for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, discussed his reasons for the circumvention of the Digital Rights Management software.
- Dean Garfield, then head of the MPAA's legal team, was interviewed by Nicholas Parr about the MPAA's legal campaign against movie piracy.
Legal threat
In March 2010, Slyck was threatened with legal action by the controversial UK law firm ACS:Law for defamation, due to comments made by forum users on Slyck.com's UK file sharing Allegations/Lawsuit Discussion sub-forum. Nothing came of the threatened legal action.
Current status
By June 2016 Slyck had ceased publishing new news articles, with the last file-sharing news article being posted on 16 June 2016.
As of April 2020, Slyck is no longer accessible. The final archival by the Wayback Machine is dated 8 March 2020.
References
- ^ "Slyck 2.0" Archived 2010-01-14 at the Wayback Machine Slyck forum, April 5, 2006.
- "Slyck.com". Archiveteam. 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
- ^ Wilson, Drew (2020-04-14). "The Beginning, The Middle, The End". Freezenet.ca. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
- "Movie file-sharing hubs poised to decentralise" Archived 2008-03-15 at the Wayback Machine. Will Knight, NewScientist.com, December 22, 2004.
- Digital Audio Essentials. Bruce Fries and Marty Fries, O'Reilly Media, 2005. p 94. ISBN 978-0-596-00856-7. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- Steal This Computer Book 4.0. Wallace Wang, No Starch Press, 2006. p 165. ISBN 978-1-59327-105-3. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- "LokiTorrent caves to MPAA" Thomas Mennecke, Slyck.com, February 10, 2005
- Torrents "Suprnova.org Closes" Thomas Mennecke, Slyck.com, December 19, 2004
- "Interview with the CEO of StreamCast Networks". Slyck News, August 16, 2003.
- "SoulSeek Interview", Thomas Mennecke, Slyck News, December 26, 2003.
- "Interview with Pablo Soto of the Manolito P2P Network", Thomas Mennecke, Slyck News, February 17, 2004
- "WinMX Interview". Thomas Mennecke, Slyck News, December 25, 2003.
- "The Future of WinMX" Archived 2007-02-08 at the Wayback Machine Thomas Mennecke, MP3newswire.net, January 27, 2003.
- Slyck.com Interviews Jon Lech Johansen. Thomas Mennecke, Slyck News, April 4, 2005.
- "Interview with muslix64, Developer of BackupHDDVD" Archived 2007-01-26 at the Wayback Machine. Slyck.com, January 24, 2007
- "Hi-def DVD security is bypassed". BBC News, January 26, 2007.
- "Why One Angry Customer Broke AACS". Derek Slater, Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 26, 2007.
- "Hacker Opens Crack In High-Def Movie DRM - HD movie player format cracked". Antone Gonsalves, InformationWeek, January 26, 2007.
- "Slyck Interviews the MPAA". Nicholas Parr, Slyck.com, December 22, 2005.
- "Wank Plan Goes Wrong ACS:Law Threatens Slyck.com With a Lawsuit". Thomas Mennecke, Slyck News, March 21, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
- Piracy letter campaign 'nets innocents' BBC News, January 26, 2010.
- Major law firm drops filesharing threats - Staff continue 'bullying' at smaller outfit Chris Williams, The Register, May 12, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
- "UK Filesharing Allegations/Lawsuit Discussion Sub Forum". Slyck Forum.
- "Hacker Posts over 51 Million iMesh User Accounts for Sale on the Dark Web", Amanda Marie, Slyck News, June 16, 2016. Retrieved 2017-07-16
- "Slyck.com" Internet Archive, 2020-03-08. Retrieved 2024-06-13