Slyck.com
Encyclopedia
Slyck.com is a website dedicated to file sharing
. It offers news, reviews, and opinion, and has a user forum.
, iMesh
, Scour, Usenet
and IRC.
Slyway began writing its own news articles, which became a notable feature of the site due to the fact that there were very few other sources of news on P2P and filesharing development. This became the primary responsibility of their first news writer, Thomas Mennecke. Slyck.com would become one of the first sites dedicated to P2P and file-sharing with original news. A year after Slyway opened, it was renamed Slyck.com. The site was reviewed favorably in print: New Scientist
cited it as a "popular file sharing news site", Digital Audio Essentials (2004) referred to Slyck as "an excellent resource, and in Steal This Computer Book 4.0 the site was "up to date on the latest filesharing technology and news."
In March 2010, Slyck.com was threatened with legal action by the controversial UK
law firm ACS:Law
for defamation, due to comments made by forum users on Slyck's UK Filesharing Allegations/Lawsuit Discussion Sub Forum.
Currently all news articles attributed to Slyck are written by Thomas Mennecke, this since the departure of other writers.
Slyck.com was one of the first news websites for P2P, but it is no longer the market leader. According to Alexa Internet
, Slyck has been surpassed in the number of web pageviews by both Zeropaid.com and TorrentFreak.com
since about 2007.
, Pablo Soto
of Optisoft S.L. and Jon Lech Johansen
(DVD Jon), cited in James Boyle's The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. In 2003, Slyck was the sole news source to interview Kevin Hearn
of WinMX
about that network's future. It gained some fame for interviewing Dean Garfield of the MPAA in 2005. In 2007 Slyck interviewed Muslix64, the hacker who first circumvented the AACS
protection scheme for HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs, which was cited by the BBC news website, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
and InformationWeek
.
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
. It offers news, reviews, and opinion, and has a user forum.
History of Slyck
Slyck began operations as Slyway.com in 2000, owned by Ray Hoffman. During this time, Slyck was an aggregate news site with some original content. It also had guides to the most popular file-sharing resources at the time. These included NapsterNapster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
, iMesh
IMesh
iMesh is a media and file sharing client that's available in 9 languages. It uses a proprietary, centralized, P2P network operating on ports 80, 443 and 1863. iMesh is owned by an American company iMesh, Inc. and maintains a development center in Israel...
, Scour, Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
and IRC.
Slyway began writing its own news articles, which became a notable feature of the site due to the fact that there were very few other sources of news on P2P and filesharing development. This became the primary responsibility of their first news writer, Thomas Mennecke. Slyck.com would become one of the first sites dedicated to P2P and file-sharing with original news. A year after Slyway opened, it was renamed Slyck.com. The site was reviewed favorably in print: New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
cited it as a "popular file sharing news site", Digital Audio Essentials (2004) referred to Slyck as "an excellent resource, and in Steal This Computer Book 4.0 the site was "up to date on the latest filesharing technology and news."
In March 2010, Slyck.com was threatened with legal action by the controversial UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
law firm ACS:Law
ACS:Law
ACS:Law was a United Kingdom law firm specialising in intellectual property law. Prior to 2009, its most notable case was the defence of a British national accused of public indecency in Dubai. The firm is best known for its actions against persons allegedly infringing copyright through...
for defamation, due to comments made by forum users on Slyck's UK Filesharing Allegations/Lawsuit Discussion Sub Forum.
Currently all news articles attributed to Slyck are written by Thomas Mennecke, this since the departure of other writers.
Slyck.com was one of the first news websites for P2P, but it is no longer the market leader. According to Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
, Slyck has been surpassed in the number of web pageviews by both Zeropaid.com and TorrentFreak.com
TorrentFreak.com
TorrentFreak is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing. TorrentFreak was started in November 2005 by a Dutchman using the pseudonym "Ernesto Van Der Sar"...
since about 2007.
Notable Articles
Slyck has interviewed notable individuals such as Michael Weiss of StreamCast, Nir Arbel of SoulSeekSoulseek
Soulseek is a peer-to-peer file-sharing network and application. The term Soulseek might refer to one of the two networks, or one of the three official user client interfaces. Soulseek is used mostly to exchange music, although users are able to share a variety of files...
, Pablo Soto
Pablo Soto
Pablo Soto was born in Spain in 1979. In 2001 he developed the MANOLITO protocol, Blubster and Piolet - two peer-to-peer file-sharing servents.He apparently left the MP2P Community in 2004, subsequently Blubster and Piolet slowly began to lose their user base...
of Optisoft S.L. and Jon Lech Johansen
Jon Lech Johansen
Jon Lech Johansen , also known as DVD Jon, is a Norwegian programmer famous for his work on reverse engineering data formats....
(DVD Jon), cited in James Boyle's The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. In 2003, Slyck was the sole news source to interview Kevin Hearn
Kevin Hearn
Kevin Neil Hearn is a Canadian musician who is currently the keyboardist of Barenaked Ladies and his own group, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. He is also a former member of Rheostatics.-Early life:...
of WinMX
WinMX
WinMX is a freeware peer-to-peer file sharing program authored by Frontcode Technologies that runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems, created in 2001. According to one study, it was the number one source for online music in 2005 with an estimated 2.1 million users...
about that network's future. It gained some fame for interviewing Dean Garfield of the MPAA in 2005. In 2007 Slyck interviewed Muslix64, the hacker who first circumvented the AACS
Advanced Access Content System
The Advanced Access Content System is a standard for content distribution and digital rights management, intended to restrict access to and copying of the "next generation" of optical discs and DVDs. The specification was publicly released in April 2005 and the standard has been adopted as the...
protection scheme for HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs, which was cited by the BBC news website, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
and InformationWeek
InformationWeek
InformationWeek is a weekly print magazine, an online site with corresponding face-to-face and virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California and was first published in 1979 by CMP Media, later called CMP Technology. On February 29, 2008, CMP Technology was...
.