Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested • Hacker News Board

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#91

Post by deftnerd » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:21 AM UTC

aerovistae wrote: post #75

drcross wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should have used bitcoin :(

Wouldn't help much once the bitcoin is exchanged for another currency, thus linking the bitcoin address to his personal information if the authorities compel the exchange to provide the info.

There are ways to "launder" the payments. Could use JoinMarket to tumble the funds to a decent extent.

Could also send the BTC to shapeshift.io and convert it to Monero and then convert it back to Bitcoin at xmr.to.

I am really shocked they had an advertiser pay to a bank account, especially one in the owners name. It's a huge OpSec mistake.

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#92

Post by burger_moon » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:21 AM UTC

aerovistae wrote: post #75

drcross wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should have used bitcoin :(

Wouldn't help much once the bitcoin is exchanged for another currency, thus linking the bitcoin address to his personal information if the authorities compel the exchange to provide the info.

Isn't that what bitcoin tumblers are for?

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#93

Post by eevilspock » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:23 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #30

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This seems like a bus-factor problem. Why does it keep happening? Why aren't these sites being run by multi-national teams that can survive a loss like this? Trust. You have to be sure the people you're working with are diligent, careful, and won't turn you in (and likewise for them).

It feels like you could factor off the trust requirements into a much smaller kernel, though. For example, you could operate (your instance of) your pseudo-legal service yourself, but open-source the codebase (sticking it on GitHub even) and accept patches from anyone. You could also implement a simple replication architecture for your service, where at any time one node (yours) is considered to be the 'canonical mas…

A distributed blockchain sounds right. Now imagine that "mining" for this blockhchain is serving torrents, and you have to spend currency to download. The currency can be sold for monetary currency (e.g. dollars or bitcoin), so leechers could pay seeders.

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#94

Post by thatcat » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:26 AM UTC

mrep wrote: post #46

derefr wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like you could factor off the trust requirements into a much smaller kernel, though. For example, you could operate (your instance of) your pseudo-legal service yourself, but open-source the codebase (sticking it on GitHub even) and accept patches from anyone. You could also implement a simple replication architecture for your service, where at any time one node (yours) is considered to be the 'canonical mas…

I think you just discovered the first actual use case for ethereum. Albeit, the architecture would have to be a little different and there's a lot of complications in that. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if ethereum came to be a way to host illegal websites considering bitcoins main market is for illegal transactions.

bitcoins main market is speculative investment, its a good hedge against inflation

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#95

Post by androtheos » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:27 AM UTC

Time and resources well spent, glad we have our priorities in order. Maybe Hollywood actually runs the country and not the banks and corporations, ahh, ahh, I mean elected officials of the government.

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#96

Post by dwaltrip » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:28 AM UTC

AlexCoventry wrote: post #90

rhino369 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whackamole has uses. Sure diehard users will find new trackers but it makes it harder for the average consumer to pirate. My dads favorite tv show tracker went down and he couldn't figure out how to get another private one. He's had to get a dvr and borrow my HBO password.

> it makes it harder for the average consumer to pirate. How diehard do you have to be to type "Best torrent sites" into google?

You are ignoring a few factors. The knowledge on how interpret the results intelligently, the likely feeling of discomfort or danger of viruses, confusion about which torrent client to use, etc..

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#97

Post by novaleaf » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:28 AM UTC

Very interesting. It seems he got busted by making the mistake of once-upon-a-time hosting in the US and Canada, thus providing them grounds for persecution.

So reading in that context, they would have been free and clear if it were not for that mistake!

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#98

Post by thatcat » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:29 AM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #74

derefr wrote: post #19

It seems like a lot of the most well-known pseudo-legal BitTorrent "groups" (PopcornTime, YIFY, ISOHunt, now Kat) turn out to be one-man shops, and as such, just completely dissolve as soon as their owner crosses paths with law enforcement. In some cases, these services are integral enough to the "scene" to be brought back by others. But other times, everything just stops for a while. This seems like a bus-factor pro…

> Meanwhile, there's no single country that could shut down e.g. Wikipedia. You don't have to shut it down, you can simply prevent access to it, like in China. Problem solved, if that's something you considered a problem in the first place.

Wikipedia is designed to be easily downloaded and distributed in other ways

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#99

Post by necessity » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:29 AM UTC

serge2k wrote: post #12

kayman wrote: post #5

The cat and mouse game continues. Remember The Pirate Bay? Why don't studios have their own similar sites where they allow free torrents of some shows and offer paid torrents. As a busy person, I'd much rather pay for something which guarantees: - high quality - no subtitles - no buffering issues - no viruses - click and play

You mean like netflix/hulu/hbo now/AIV (+ prime) Generally hits good enough on all categories. of course torrents still win in content. Especially newer movies. I want to watch a newer movie. Is it on netflix/hulu/hbo/prime? Nope Is it on AIV paid? Yes. How much? 20 dollars. That's too much for a movie I probably will only watch once. Any other options? At best a rental on AIV for a few bucks. That's pretty borderlin…

Those are streaming websites, correct? I downlowd my music instead of using spotfy so I can listen to it where and when I want, the same with movies. HBO Go I would pay for though as I rather watch their shows as soon as they come out than download it later. But it's not available in my country.

Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested

#100

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 1:34 AM UTC

CaptSpify wrote: post #3

As an American, I wish we would stop doing this. It isn't effective, and it's a waste of time/resources that could be better spent elsewhere. I'd even argue that its counter-effective to progress. Instead of punishing people for making more efficient systems, we should reward them, and try to integrate.

[deleted]