aXXo is the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

alias Alias may refer to: * Pseudonym * Pen name * Nickname Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Alias'' (2013 film), a 2013 Canadian documentary film * ''Alias'' (TV series), an American action thriller series 2001–2006 * ''Alias the ...

of an individual who released and standardized commercial film

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s as free downloads on the Internet between 2005 and 2009. The files, which were usually new films, were popular among the

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...

community using

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...

file sharing

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

such as BitTorrent. A download-tracking firm

BigChampagne BigChampagne was a technology-driven media measurement company acquired by Live Nation Entertainment. The BigChampagne dashboard was used primarily by music industry professionals such as concert promoters, venues, radio programmers, managers, ...

found — in a sampling period in late 2008 — that almost 33.5% of all movie downloads were aXXo torrents. aXXo encoded files to approximately 700 MB – the same size for a

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

. Due to the re-encoded quality of an aXXo file, the suffix "aXXo" was often used by imitators.

History

aXXo first appeared in November 2005 on the

message board An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

"Darkside_RG". In November 2007, aXXo deleted all of their files released after September 7, 2006 from

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute mag ...

protesting that the site was allowing harassing comments to be added to their torrents by "possible members of

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

". While past aXXo torrents remained available on other torrent sites, uploads of new aXXo files stopped on November 11, 2007. After an absence of four months aXXo returned to uploading, starting with the movie '' I Am Legend'' on March 9, 2008. On December 15, 2008, aXXo's thousandth movie upload, a copy of the

Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a British-Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series '' 24'' (2001–2010, 2014), for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Glo ...

horror film ''

Mirrors A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

'', appeared on an Internet forum for the Darkside Release Group. On March 11, 2009, aXXo stopped uploading new files after releasing '' Punisher: War Zone''. For a while they logged into

Mininova Mininova was a website offering BitTorrent downloads. Mininova was once one of the largest sites offering torrents of copyrighted material, but in November 2009, following legal action in the Dutch courts, the site operators deleted all torrent ...

until the site switched to only hosting torrents that were Content Distribution free or torrents with no copyrights. On April 19, 2009 aXXo made their last known comment on

"Darkside_RG", in response to rumors that they had stopped posting on Darkside_RG. They stated:

Format information

aXXo converted commercial

movies into approximately 700 MB

.avi Audio Video Interleave (also Audio Video Interleaved and known by its initials and filename extension AVI, usually pronounced ), is a proprietary multimedia container format and Windows standard introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as par ...

files which were then used to create a

.torrent In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file or meta-info file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computer ...

file that were

uploaded Uploading refers to ''transmitting'' data from one computer system to another through means of a network. Common methods of uploading include: uploading via web browsers, FTP clients], and computer terminal, terminals (SCP/ SFTP). Uploading c ...

Bittorrent Tracker A BitTorrent tracker is a special type of server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. In peer-to-peer file sharing, a software client on an end-user PC requests a file, and portions of the requested fil ...

s allowing the movie to be

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

ed. On

websites, aXXo files attracted large followings with more than a million users downloading aXXo files each month. Files released by aXXo followed the naming convention "Name.Of.Movie

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

vDrip ngaXXo.avi", where "DvDrip ng implied it was ripped from an English-language disc and "

avi Avi is a given name, usually masculine, often a diminutive of Avram, Avraham, etc. It is sometimes feminine and a diminutive of the Hebrew spelling of Abigail. People with the given name include: * Avi (born 1937), Newbery award-winning Americ ...

" referred to the resulting

file format A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free. Some file formats ...

. The video was encoded according to the

MPEG-4 ASP MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual (formally ISO/ IEC 14496-2) is a video compression format developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. It uses block-wise motion compensation and a discrete cosine ...

standard, compatible with the

Xvid Xvid (formerly "XviD") is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 video coding standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP). It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi mas ...

codec. The aXXo postings also carried a .nfo file about the movie and an attached text file that states, in part: "Be aware of bogus sites and lamers, download your aXXo files from aXXo accounts. Enjoy!"

Identity

In a purported interview of a person claiming to be aXXo, they described themselves as a single individual who has been ripping DVDs since they were a teenager.

Imitators

Due to its popularity in the file sharing

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

, the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

aXXo is falsely assumed by a variety of individuals and groups to mimic the source identity as a disguise for their own uploads on file sharing websites. A portion of such decoys is made available by a range of companies in the field of copyright enforcement, such as BayTSP,

MediaDefender MediaDefender, Inc. (now Peer Media Technologies) was a company that fought copyright infringement that offered services designed to prevent alleged copyright infringement using peer-to-peer distribution. They used unusual tactics such as flooding ...

, or

MediaSentry MediaSentry was a United States company that provided services to the music recording, motion picture, television, and software industries for locating and identifying IP addresses that are engaged in the use of online networks to share material in ...

, with the aim of suing to make a profit. These faked files, or groups of files, would normally contain useless or potentially malicious data. The type of maliciously fake files include RAR format files that require the users to download a

trojan Trojan or Trojans may refer to: * Of or from the ancient city of Troy * Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans Arts and entertainment Music * ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 1890 ...

disguised as a

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or da ...

needed to view associated AVI format files. Other fake files encourage the users to register on dubious websites or require the users install the DomPlayer software. Fake files may also contain

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...

with the capability to send the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

of the user's computer to a private server. For years aXXo has been warning followers to “beware of bogus sites and lamers” in the .nfo files which accompany their torrents. About a year after aXXo signed off in 2009, another user YIFY began uploading torrents and eventually launched its own website known as YTS.

References

External links

aXXo related articles
at

TorrentFreak __NOTOC__ TorrentFreak (TF) is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, as well as on copyright infringement and digital rights. The website was started in November 2005 by a Dutchman ...