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

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

#221

Post by 99127912 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:06 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.

Indeed, we should. Comrade Page, comrade Brin, I'd like to have the Google software stack. IP rights are an outdated concept and the collective has decided that Google's stack belongs to the people.

Besides, everything is just bits! If you represent the whole monorepo as a single integer, denying people access to it would be akin to patenting a natural number!

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

#222

Post by chx » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:09 AM UTC

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…

Because these sites do not matter? Torrent sites are pretty much bottom feeders but public torrent sites doubly so? The important sites are scene FTP sites, especially topsites where releases actually happen.

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

#223

Post by gear54rus » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:10 AM UTC

ht85 wrote: post #160

gear54rus wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please share the story you're on about?

Google "Sony Rootkit DLC"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...

> Although the software isn't directly malicious, the used rootkit hiding techniques are exactly the same used by malicious software to hide themselves. The DRM software will cause many similar false alarms with all AV software that detect rootkits. ... Thus it is very inappropriate for commercial software to use these techniques.

> In order to download the uninstaller, he found it was necessary to provide an e-mail address (which the Sony BMG Privacy Policy implied was added to various bulk e-mail lists), and to install an ActiveX control containing backdoor methods (marked as "safe for scripting", and thus prone to exploits).

Freakin' unbelievable. And I have to pay for that shit if I'm someone who is willing to be sony's paying customer...

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

#224

Post by swiley » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:10 AM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #219

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.

Uber did develop a more efficient system by stepping on legal lines and gray areas. They did have troubles after a while but not in the same way. Somehow network distribution has no 'economic' values to the eyes of authorities. I'd love to see some stats, in my mind p2p sharing wasn't growing, even going down Compared to the 2000-2010 era since people have other means to share and content (spotify, soundcloud, ...) a…

Spotify actually does use peer to peer distribution although it's not open source.

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

#225

Post by tomp » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:10 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…

It's not that I want conntent for free, I just don't want to be forced to pay for it. I view copyright terms as extremely excessive and copyright itself a restriction on the freedom of information, and thus, immoral. So I'll do by best to pirate and avoid copyright laws... (simlar to what people do with taxes).

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

#226

Post by tomp » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:13 AM UTC

eggy wrote: post #145

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...,…

The main difference is that Zara uses piracy to earn money, whereas most other pirates don't.

That's the general model of copyright that I support - it's legal to copy anything for non-commercial use.

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

#227

Post by bekirbek » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:15 AM UTC

kat was actually the best torrent website at the moment, and I'd say by far. This is a very inefficient way for the US government to spend resources and money, they won't be getting anywhere.

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

#228

Post by seesomesense » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:21 AM UTC

deftnerd wrote: post #91

aerovistae wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have a professional acquaintance ( my profession, not his) in the anti-moneylaundering division of a large national, non-US bank. He mentioned that their default assumption is that if an account or a transaction involves bitcoin, it is connected to criminals. They log the details and pass it on to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

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

#229

Post by ricksplat » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:23 AM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #203

ricksplat wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of stealing: You deny somebody else the possibility of buying the product. In the case of cloning: You deny the progenitor the claim to its creation. In the case of downloads: You make a copy of something. Whether it equates to a lost sale or not is a the point of contention. In many cases it may simply be the case that the product is unavailable, at all, or through conventional distribution channels. In…

And that's what I meant... You are doing all sorts of mental gymnastics to draw an arbitrary line between two things which are essentially the same. What if the Chinese cloned app was distributed through Bittorrent, would it then become legitimate? What if it the original app wasn't available in China or only available in English? etc. I think the elephant in the room is that most of the "anti copyright" crowd aren't…

and you're talking poorly thought out hypotheticals a "Chinese cloned app distributed through Bittorrent"?

Do you mean a "competing app", in which case it's fair game. Do you mean a straight copy? You might have a discussion there, but why involve Chinese people?

Do you mean something like [legit] "ReactOS" which is a reimplementation of Windows XP? That satisfies the needs of a wider unserved market that still needs it?

Or some hypothetical "vigilante localised" app for people who need it in their own language. Sounds fair enough if the developer isn't serving that market.

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

#230

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 10:28 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]