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

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

#141

Post by mightykan » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:01 AM UTC

2bitencryption wrote: post #101

ekianjo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you can't, all the content there is DRM'ed. I believe many people care about running their videos where they like. For example, Amazon video does not work at all on Linux because there is no DRM support there.

You're confusing streaming (renting) with purchasing. On iTunes, EVERYTHING is DRM free. If you purchase it, you get a mp4 (or mov), and that's it. No DRM. So nothing is stopping you from paying for much of this content legally.

Actually, everything is DRM encumbered on iTunes except music that is purchased. All other content has Fairplay DRM on it.

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

#142

Post by downandout » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:05 AM UTC

posterboy wrote: post #139

downandout wrote: post #113

This will be interesting to watch. Torrent sites only host torrent files; I'm sure he'll argue that the DMCA requests were invalid because the people filing them didn't own copyright to the torrent files, which were the only thing that the site distributed. Where do we draw the line? Do we prosecute people for posting a magnet link? If a movie studio puts an MP4 of a not-yet-released film on its servers, is it illega…

Aren't file-hashes derived works?

That would be news to me. More likely, they're just going with a conspiracy argument (and indeed he is charged with conspiracy): he didn't actually commit copyright infringement himself, but aided others in doing so. Even then, conspiracy laws have very specific requirements for conviction, and this may not check all the boxes. It will be interesting to see.

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

#143

Post by sergiotapia » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:12 AM UTC

So that's why KAT's been down all day.

Two things: If you're going to build a torrent indexer, don't profit from it. Keep it alive yourself, with NO ads, just plain HTML and JS and images.

Second: This is why I vastly prefer usenet.

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

#144

Post by tn13 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:14 AM UTC

cdumler wrote: post #13

tn13 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Americans have been saying that about drug war, civil forfeiture, surveillance and many others things for a long long time.

Except that civil forfeiture is extremely profitable enterprise [1]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/23/cops-...

Government in general a profitable venture for those in government. You have to produce nothing, please no one and you get to decide how much money is your fair share of what others have worked hard to earn.

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

#145

Post by eggy » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:15 AM UTC

Aside from the legal technicalities here, I mostly ponder the future of IP. I think Napster positively affected the music distribution world in the long run. I am not very black-and-white on this issue, however, since there are many contradictions by both sides.

I read the majority of comments here on HN about dated business models, big corporation dislike, the old executives don't understand the new market, etc..., but then a young indie artist in LA finds out Zara the clothing retailer has obviously copied her designs, and the lynch mobs are out to boycott Zara, send letters and other things to Zara and their attorneys. [1]

I have not inquired directly, but I am guessing a number of the indie artist's supporters have downloaded a torrent or two. How do they morally distinguish the two, or how does anybody who is against copyright or property rights of IP?

[1] https://www.buzzfeed.com/victoriasanusi/an-independent-artis...

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

#146

Post by tn13 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:18 AM UTC

joering2 wrote: post #79

tn13 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Americans have been saying that about drug war, civil forfeiture, surveillance and many others things for a long long time.

... and its important to say, as experience shows, at this point its sadly irrelevant what average americans say. while OP is right -- this doesn't seem to serve majority, the truth is that the system is rigged and this supposed to serve a few multinational corporations that feel their profits are severely cut due to copyright infringement, meanwhile posting record earnings. it is still mind-boggling to me that this…

> to serve a few multinational corporations that feel their profits are severely cut due to copyright infringement, meanwhile posting record earnings.

That almost sounds like a Bernie Sanders level paranoia of words profits and corporations. Honestly share-worthy content exists because of these entities in first and I will never fault HBO, Adobe or Microsoft going after those who are pirating their software. I think it is government who is going after someone who cant defend himself and just pretending to have done something.

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

#147

Post by themartorana » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:18 AM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #85

joering2 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any good examples of when this works the other way around? A US citizen being extradited to another country for non-violent crimes? Something in tune of computer hacking or hosting a website? Other than drugs and murders, I have a hard time believing US govt to give out its citizens to third parties...

You could start with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:People_extradited_fro... Of those, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stein_Bagger , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Bastiaens , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirk_(New_Zealand_politic... are not drug or violence related on a quick glance.

None of those people are US citizens. They're foreign nationals extradited from the US most often back to their country of origin.

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

#148

Post by ank_the_elder » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:22 AM UTC

youngButEager wrote: post #115

"Do you have a legal right to distribute this content?" "No." "Do you respect the people who spent their personal time and their money to make the content you distribute?" "Yes of course." "No you don't or you would get their permission first." "I don't think whether I respect the creators or not has anything to do with making their content available, which is what I want to do." "Will you please get their permission…

"How much did Return of the Jedi cost to make?"

"$32.5 million"

"And how much was the revenue?"

"$475 million"

"So you had a $442.5 million profit!"

"No, no. We had no profit - we use Hollywood accounting"

Repeat for Forrest Gump, Spider-Man, etc.

Real sad, these modern morals. Real sad. If you don't respect others, they ain't gonna respect you.

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

#149

Post by nikdaheratik » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:31 AM UTC

biot wrote: post #134

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.

A person in the US who, for example, wants to watch all but the latest season of Game of Thrones can go to iTunes and, within seconds, purchase and start watching. And it will be in better quality than the torrent which was ripped off some TV broadcast and re-compressed. iTunes is available for both Windows and Mac (plus various iOS) and is super simple to use. And the one purchase lets you either stream or download…

As an American living in Australia, I'd say your perspective is kind of skewed by the American market. A large number of torrenters aren't cheapskates or thieves but are from outside the U.S. and unable to even get ahold of this stuff due to the way licensing overseas works. Or if they do, it's at 1.5x-2.5x the price.

We have a 21st century distribution model tied to a mid-20th century legal framework and business model. It's hard to say what is fair in every case. What I feel is not fair is throwing the book at all of these site owners, especially when the laws are written in the U.S. but are somehow stretched to where they apply to people who never set foot there.

In 5-10 years, they could still be in jail while technology remakes itself to the point where either distribution and payment has finally started working gain, or torrenting has gotten to the point where it's nearly impossible to trace the activity to any one person. Neither option seems unlikely, and punishing people now for something that doesn't hurt anyone too much does not seem like it's worth it.

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

#150

Post by nikdaheratik » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:48 AM UTC

youngButEager wrote: post #115

"Do you have a legal right to distribute this content?" "No." "Do you respect the people who spent their personal time and their money to make the content you distribute?" "Yes of course." "No you don't or you would get their permission first." "I don't think whether I respect the creators or not has anything to do with making their content available, which is what I want to do." "Will you please get their permission…

"Are you trying to blame the people at the end of the failed distribution channel for the failings of the people further up the chain while failing to account for the nuances of a global market with multiple ways that it can fail for any one country"

"Yes"