[Closed] Torrenting? Get It Right.

And of course, the elephant in the room is that streaming is displacing downloading anyway, so all those with Kodi boxen and legally grey add-ons are unaffected...

BT block pirate bay aswell. I think they also throttle torrents before midnight

People still download illegal content? As per your post haven't Kodi etc rendered downloading irrelevant?

TOR wont help with torrenting will it? Anyway after the [url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/extreme-surveillance-becomes-uk-law-with-barely-a-whimper ]latest snooping laws[/url] paying for a decent VPN is just par for the course these days. If you're really serous switch to usenet, which those providers don't support anyway (unless you pay a third party).

I suspect for ISPs this is about minimising traffic anyway, plusnet are especially bad for that.

How long until they just assume VPN users are automatically up to no good?

TOR wont help with torrenting will it?

TOR will bypass the ISPs blocks on URLs like TPB.

IPFilter will block known 'hostile' torrent peers, such as record companies.

I imagine.

How long until they just assume VPN users are automatically up to no good?

It's a concern, isn't it. Guilty until proven innocent.

There are plenty of legitimate uses for VPNs - I use one to access work from home, for instance - so they can't really just blanket-block VPNs without losing a lot of customers. I suppose there's strength in numbers here; the more draconian the measures taken by the government (cf. Snooper's Charter), the more it's going to push "normal" people into exploring technologies such as VPNs. And if everyone is doing it, it's suddenly very difficult to single out those who are "up to no good."

And if everyone is doing it, it's suddenly very difficult to single out those who are "up to no good."

It's a concern, isn't it. Guilty until proven innocent.

The old "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" chestnut. I'd hope the very real impact on business would stop any moves against VPNs but so much of the IP Bill is leveraged by hysteria about terrorism and child protection that I wouldn't count on it. And ISPs wouldn't see a drop in customers if it's mandated that they [u]all[/u] block VPN use.

I hope you're not suggesting that the snoopers charter was a deeply flawed ****ing stupid idea...?

Perish the thought.

I think it'll just lead to more people using proxies. But you are right, who torrents these days anyhow.

I'd think it's probably just lip service anyway, same as virginmedia people where ment to get a letter telling people to stop streaming, still waiting on mine.

ISPs covering their arses is what it is I think.

Plus all if it did get to the stage where they did physically block everything, I'd guess it would just open the market up to new ISPs not beholden to media companies to come in and challenge them for business.

I torrent these days, plenty of music and audio books as well as movies. I haven't gone anywhere near the Kodi type boxes so far. It's flawless, movies just over a gb take less than 10 minutes usually. I'm on virgin media and not had any letter nor do I intend to stop torrenting.

[i]Internet providers will not actively monitor people's online activity in order to find instances of illegal file sharing, nor will copyright holders.

Instead, copyright holders will track activity on peer-to-peer networks to identify instances where their content is being illegally uploaded and shared.[/i]

So, no change then, this already happens?

I torrent these days, plenty of music and audio books as well as movies. I haven't gone anywhere near the Kodi type boxes so far. It's flawless, movies just over a gb take less than 10 minutes usually. I'm on virgin media and not had any letter nor do I intend to stop torrenting.

So, hypothetically speaking of course, for someone who was only ever familiar with the Pirate Bay, where would one start now?

I torrent these days, plenty of music and audio books as well as movies. I haven't gone anywhere near the Kodi type boxes so far. It's flawless, movies just over a gb take less than 10 minutes usually. I'm on virgin media and not had any letter nor do I intend to stop torrenting.

This is pretty much my attitude too. It's easier to download a 1080p movie and stream from my iMac to my Big Telly using Chromecast than piss about with Kodi boxes and their shonky add ons.

That being said I don't download nearly as much these days with the likes of Netflix making more quality programming easily and cheaply available.

If I could get full HBO programming for a reasonable monthly fee I would probably not DL at all.

So, hypothetically speaking of course, for someone who was only ever familiar with the Pirate Bay, where would one start now?

Hypothetically using Opera and it's built in VPN gets round most of your high court judgement type restrictions and allow you access all the torrent sites you like.

Alternatively just google "immunicity". YTS is good for movies and EZTV is good for TV.

All of the above is hypothetical though...

opera browser, enable vpn mode, pirate bay, microtorrent.
i'm told.

Thank you, that is interesting information that I will do absolutely nothing with.

lol.

I actually prefer the kodi app over torrenting because then you don't have to worry about storage/file management/etc

I still download music "illegally" but the type of music I download doesn't exist in HMV and the like, and sharing is somewhere encouraged to spread the music. But either way, I don't use torrents for that.

The old "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" chestnut

I did notice that our MP's exempted themselves from the Snoopers Charter.

Presumably it will continue going the way of Spotify etc. I'm happy to pay a modest monthly fee for 95% of what I listen to via a nice, well made app. Especially when I used to buy £30+ a month in cds anyway.

Not as bothered on the film side, but I assume providers will start rolling in Netflix or similar into your broadband cost, similar to how some phone providers bundle in goolge play etc already.

plyphon - Member
I still download music "illegally" but the type of music I download doesn't exist in HMV and the like, and sharing is somewhere encouraged to spread the music. But either way, I don't use torrents for that.

Just to check.

Posts about fake oakleys = nope
Posts about how to torrent = yup

?

Torrents are not illegal, fake oakleys are.

Currently downloading a whole load of Nintendo 64 and ps1 games for my raspberry pi.

No longer available and eBay prices are ridiculous.
My view is this;

if I paid 9 quid to watch a film in the cinema then I I'm gonna download it when it's released on dvd.

If I bought it on vhs years ago I'm gonna download it. I've paid once.

If I paid 15 quid for that cd in hmv in 1998 then I'm gonna download it. It's quicker than going to the attic and ripping it from disc (Spotify has rendered this all pointless)

If I paid 69.99 for super Mario 64 in 1997 and 49.99 for metal gear solid in 1998 then I've paid. I'm downloading them.

In relation to games companies like Sony really have missed a trick. They have a streaming service called psnow which is expensive and turd. Crap games 95% of which are ps3. Nobody I know uses it. Put the classics from ps1, ps2 and ps3 on there and charge £9:99 a month to stream and I'll bite. Same for Nintendo.

Yeh there was a time on here the mere mention of torrent would get your post deleted and an admonishing email from a mod.

Yeah, I'm surprised the mods haven't jumped on this thread - maybe none of them have noticed it?

I hope all those using Kodi (or torrenting) are doing so behind a private VPN service ...

Yeah, I'm surprised the mods haven't jumped on this thread - maybe none of them have noticed it?

Try cougar. He knows all about this kinda stuff...

😆

[quote=jam bo ]Try cougar. He knows all about this kinda stuff...

Do you think if I reported the OP it would get to him?

Har de har. This has been discussed at length behind the scenes and you must surely appreciate, it's a difficult one to moderate.

You're making snide comments about (currently) being allowed to discuss something, yet if we were to ban such discussions then the other half would throw their toys out of the pram. We, literally, cannot win.

Speaking personally (ie, not for the rest of the team), I don't like censorship not least because it's a slippery slope (in the non-logical fallacy sense). Once you start down that road, where do you stop? From a moderation point of view, if a judgement call isn't clear I'll err on the side of letting it slide.

Yeh there was a time on here the mere mention of torrent would get your post deleted and an admonishing email from a mod.

Would you prefer to return to happier times?

(I don't remember such a state of affairs, incidentally - has that ever actually happened?)

[quote=Cougar ]You're making snide comments about (currently) being allowed to discuss something

No we're (just speaking for myself here, but I suspect I'm not alone) taking the P 😆

Seems to me that film and music houses need to start embracing the new technology to try and steer people away from the illegal downloading and other grey areas.

The practice of constantly re-releasing music and DVD's over and over with extra tracks or a steel box to keep it in isn't fooling customers anymore, the days of being able to rip people off for very little work has to stop. Charging people 15 quid to see a movie at the cinema then asking for more money for snacks and you're looking at a 40 quid film that might be guff.

It's not a hark back to the good old days, but the publishers do seem to almost guide people by the hand to downloading and streaming

Torrents are not illegal

(all iirc, I've not really been keeping up recently)

No we're (just speaking for myself here, but I suspect I'm not alone) taking the P

Well, yes, I know. Poor choice of words on my part perhaps. You get where I'm coming from though hopefully.

The legality (and morality) of things like "unofficial" streaming is grey at best. It's been illegal to reproduce copyrighted material for years, yet we've had VCRs to record from the TV, cassette players to record radio broadcasts (and twin cassette decks, wonder what they were for?). Heck, every library in the country has a photocopier.

Whilst that remains to be the case, I'm not going to be going delete-happy.

seosamh77 - Member

i've not downloaded music for years, 9.99 for google music is good enough, out of curiousity, can you give an example of your obscure taste?

Not really obscure - it's easily found in the right record shops, just the labels that put out the best tunes tend to be run from a bedroom and can't get deals with Google/Apple/Spotify etc. (or even want to be on those services from an ethos point of view)

For example - this is a very highly regarded record label in the UK/house/undergroud scene:
https://soundcloud.com/lobster-theremin

I'd be surprised if you could find any of their stuff on Google music though. These guys actually have their own shop in London, so they're not just a small no effort thing.

I still buy vinyl when I can. Thankfully we have some good record stores still in London & online:

redeyerecords.co.uk is where I get my records from online. Phonica records/Sounds of the Universe in SoHo if I want to shop bricks and mortar. Clone records for overseas/Euro stuff.

Whilst that remains to be the case, I'm not going to be going delete-happy.

Good for you. It's worth celebrating having reasonable modding practices. It's just talk init

I hope all those using Kodi (or torrenting) are doing so behind a private VPN service

By Kodi, you actually mean those using Kodi plus dodgy addons to access dodgy streaming sites.

Kodi is a media player. Nothing more, nothing less, and is 100% perfectly legal and ethical. No need for a VPN for Kodi.

edit: oh and actually the same is true of torrenting. Only need to pay attention to your habits if torrenting copyrighted material. Not all torrenting is illegal. Indeed most of my torrenting is 100% legal, ethical, and a benefit to the community. One of these days, I do expect to get a rollocking from ISP for torrenting Linux distros, and a warning about distributing copyright material.

As is accessing the dodgy streaming sites via Kodi

The benefit of Kodi being you don't have to visit the dodgy site, it just loads the player for said site.

No different to someone uploading episode of stuff on Youtube for you to watch until a copywrite person catches up and removes it.

[quote=Cougar ]The legality (and morality) of things like "unofficial" streaming is grey at best. It's been illegal to reproduce copyrighted material for years, yet we've had VCRs to record from the TV, cassette players to record radio broadcasts (and twin cassette decks, wonder what they were for?). Heck, every library in the country has a photocopier.

An interesting discussion in itself, if (thankfully) we're all grown up enough to discuss this without anybody getting upset. My understanding is that the way most people used VCRs was totally legal. I presume taping from the radio wasn't, as the copyright involved works differently and there isn't the specific time shift exemption.

I reckon photocopiers in libraries is a bit of red herring though, as whilst doubtless they do get used illegally, the intention is certainly that their use should be covered by "fair dealing".

Of course whilst it is correct to argue that streaming and torrenting is not itself illegal, it's also reasonable to point out that the vast majority of it is in at least a technical sense. I think most things I've ever torrented have been technically illegal, though mostly I have owned the copyright to the IP in some form (the only obvious exceptions being Linux distros as mentioned above, though I've only torrented them a couple of times - the ones I'm interested in tend to be available as direct downloads).

as km79 says, torrent is a delivery/sharing method, it's what you torrent that may get you into trouble.

It's not just that. The argument is that it's illegal to share copyrighted material but not illegal to consume it.

How watertight that argument is, I have no idea; to the best of my knowledge it's never been tested in court. "Yes Mr Cougar, you stand accused of taping numbers 16, 12 and 3 of the Top 40 from Radio 1, how do you plead?"

It's not just that. The argument is that it's illegal to share copyrighted material but not illegal to consume it.

So looking at legal options (everyone wants legal options don't they?)
https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Doctor_Strange_2016?id=cYEoYjQLn24
Not sure about regions but
https://www.amazon.com/gp/channels/offers/signup/ref=atv_channels_mig?ie=UTF8&benefitID=hbo - HBO Sub from amazon prime
and Showtime
https://www.amazon.com/gp/channels/offers/signup/ref=atv_channels_mig?ie=UTF8&benefitID=showtimeSub
That is a lot of content. As I understand some of up longer term rights deals were signed to the likes of Sky that means they have to expire before the online platforms can release everything online an cut the broadcast guys out of first place.

1mb download speed means torrenting is the only way to watch some stuff. When's this 10mb countrywide roll out. That's what I want to know

So Plusnet are gonna bum me for using a Soulseek client....

So, hypothetically speaking of course, for someone who was only ever familiar with the Pirate Bay, where would one start now?

Magnet Bay

stgeorge - Member

So, hypothetically speaking of course, for someone who was only ever familiar with the Pirate Bay, where would one start now?

Magnet Bay

Or Pirate Bay Proxy

I dont torrent anything but if I did download somebodys music I would send them a PP gift for their work 🙂

but its quite likely I might forget to include a donation to the parasitic distribution network...

I torrented a bunch of films just last week, for the kids to watch on their hudls on a four hour bus transfer (hence Kodi is no good).

It was very easy. Zen don't (as far as I noticed) block Pirate Bay or torrent traffic. Downloads of good quality HD movies took around 10-15 minutes.

I don't feel remotely guilty as they were all movies we watched in the cinema and/or own on DVD anyway. Disney/Pixar/Dreamworkd etc have had more than their pound of flesh from me!

snownrock - Member 
People still download illegal content? As per your post haven't Kodi etc rendered downloading irrelevant?

Just swapping illegal downloading for illegal streaming. Oh, of course everyone's paying for those official streaming app subscriptions aren't they? Hmm 😉

Anyway, most the torrent search engines seem to be thoroughly killed. Not sure if that's a mass attempt to kill them at source or ISPs blocking them (certainly mainly dead on PlusNet).

Torrents illegal? No. Most torrents I download are legit downloads of large software distributions.

Though it's far less relevant these days with content delivery networks (Akamai etc), ISP caching and such. Some of the little guys with limited money for hosting or paying CDN bills still rely on torrents though.

The main "not quite legit" torrents I look for are obscure or antique TV shows or films that just aren't available on any other media, or bootleg concert stuff. Some of the latter is even sanctioned by some bands.

"Yes Mr Cougar, you stand accused of taping numbers 16, 12 and 3 of the Top 40 from Radio 1, how do you plead?"

Guilty to a terrible taste in music, m'lud

Loads of legal material at archive.org , old film, TV and lots of live music. Torrent or download.