'Darknet' tools

Following are resources for users to take control of their digital media:

Remix culture

Creative Commons: More than 12 million works are now under a CC license. Creative Commons lets you fine-tune your copyright for the digital age.

ccMixter: Find works you can mash-up, remix and reuse with this Creative Commons tool and community music sharing site.

Beatmixed.com: A great place to learn more about the do-it-yourself, mash-up, amateur remix community.

SourceForge.net hosts the largest largest repository of open source code and applications on the Internet.

Video

VideoLAN is a free open-source video streaming player for every OS.

Burn4Free is free software that lets you burn your movies, games, and TV shows to CD and DVD.

Doom9.net is a site used by millions of visitors to back up their DVDs.

Doom9: How to rip a DVD, plus ripping and descrambling guides.

SmartRipper is a DVD VOB file extractor, or DVD ripper. It's free, though not entirely easy for newbies to install. (Here is the Doom9 guide and the DVD-replica guide to the program.)

Flash DVD Ripper is another good DVD converter software program for converting DVD to MPEG, AVI, VCD, SVCD. Cost: $31.

HandBrake is a well-regarded multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter for MacOS X and GNU/Linux.

MacTheRipper from ripDifferent is a free program that lets you rip DVDs so you can watch them on your Apple laptop instead of carrying them around during trips. It's apparently under siege by the MPAA and may have been supplanted by Fast DVD Copy, also from ripDifferent.

DownSeek lists dozens of so-called video cutters, rippers, joiners and splitters.

You can also search for DVD ripper programs at AfterDawn, BurnWorld, Digital Digest and DVDRHelp.

DVD Demystified: What are region codes?

Region-Free Guide: How to make your DVD player region-free.

Codec Corner will tell you which codecs are installed on your computer and which ones you're missing.

Doom9: How to convert from one video format to another, such as DivX, VCD, SVCD and AVI.

DVD Demystified: All about DVDs, including dozens of FAQ.

Matt Haughey's PVR Blog: All about PVRs (personal video recorders, or digital video recorders).

Doom9: How to capture analog TV programming and convert it to DivX using VirtualDub.

EFF attorney Wendy Seltzer: How to build an open-source MythTV-based high-definition personal video recorder.

About.com: Top 10 TV capture cards.

VideoHelp: How to stream video from your capture or TV tuner card, and more.

Ourmedia video: How to publish video to the Web.

Ourmedia tools: Download FireANT, the first app for subscribing to RSS video feeds.

TechSmith's Camtasia screencasting app is a terrific program for capturing video on your PC screen, though DRM defeats it in some cases.

Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro X is an unbeatable app for capturing video on Macs, regardless of the DRM built into it.

versiontracker: DVD Capture is freeware that lets you grab a screen shot from your Apple DVD player's window. You ordinarily can't do so — even from your own home movie — thanks to Apple building unreasonable restrictions into the player.

Audio

How to record Internet radio.

High Criteria's Total Recorder will let you record almost anything off your computer — streaming audio, Mic input, Line-in input as well as CDs and DVDs — and it's almost impervious to DRM. Download here.

Streamripper is an open source application that lets you record streaming mp3 to your hard drive, creating separate files for each track. Runs on Windows and Unix.

Audiograbber software grabs digital audio from CDs by copying the audio digitally — not through the soundcard — which enables you to make perfect copies of the originals.

iRecordMusic from Bitcartel for the Mac is a quasi-radio TiVo. It records streaming Internet radio feeds, whether they are served by QuickTime, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player. After recording, the content is encoded as unprotected AAC (MP4), MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) or LAME MP3. Cost: US$24.95.

Hymn (Hear Your Music Anywhere) and PyMusique for iTunes allow users to strip or bypass the DRM schemes implemented by online music stores such as iTunes. Here's why some folks do it.

Ourmedia: How to publish audio to the Web.

Audiotoolsfactory is where you can find audio editing and conversion tools.

BeSweet is an audio transcoding tool that lets you convert audio files from one format to another, including MP3, AC3, WAV, MP2, AVI, Aiff, VOB and Ogg Vorbis.

Hydrogenaudio is the leading newsgroup for discussions of advanced audio encoding.

File sharing

Despite the impression given by the mainstream media, file sharing is neither illegal nor wrong — it all depends on what you're sharing. Here are some popular p2p networks, listed for educational purposes:

Multinetwork file sharing programs:

Shareaza can connect to multiple file sharing networks, such as Gnutella and eDonkey.

iSwipe connects to Gnutella, FastTrack, OpenNap and OpenFT.

Project: gIFT connectes to Gnutella, FastTrack and OpenFT.

The Poisoned Project accesses Gnutella, FastTrack and OpenFT.

MLdonkey connects to FastTrack, DirectConnect, Gnutella and more.

BitTorrent

Some of the better BitTorrent clients include Azureus and BitComet.

PirateBay lets you search or browse hundreds of thousands of torrents.

TorrentReactor claims to track the most active torrents on the Web.

TorrentSpy also breaks down torrents into browseable categories.

Media sharing networks:

isoheaven
Movies, TV shows, video games

ShareMonkey
Music, movies, video games, software

Hash link search engines:

FileDonkey
Whatabig

Warez sites:

Warez.com
AppzWorld
EasyWarez

Programs to back up a copy-protected DVD or CD:

Daemon Tools
Alcohol 120%
Clonecd

Source: Steal This File Sharing Book, by Wallace Wang

Anti-P2P software

Packeteer
Allot
AssetMetrix
Audible Magic