Well we all switched from TPB to Kickass... which one do we switch to next?
1337x.to maybe?
Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
301–310 of 356 posts
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#302Wow, this sucks, I love KAT, what now? TPB is rubbish.
Whip out that credit card and start buying stuff instead? Who cares if you don't use it much, it's all relative. I like buying CDs and Bluray, then I rip them for everyday use. But its nice to have something tangible to back it up. Plus its all legal and protected, since I don't rebroadcast any of the content, just private enjoyment.
If it's protected, how are you ripping it?
If you're circumventing DRM then that's a crime. A practice that you shouldn't support with your hard-earned cash.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am honestly not aware of what Netflix contracts look like. I'd have thought they also pay lump sums to get the streaming rights per territory. Also I am proposing the subscription increases to get access, possibly per territory you want access to.
These contracts are seldom made public. For one example of what we do know: House of Cards is not available on Netflix in Europe [1]. I'm sure Netflix is not happy with the situation but we can only guess as to what it would have cost them for the rights. [1] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-subscribers-eu...
That is not correct anymore. At least in Germany, House of Cards is indeed on Netflix.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#304ArsTechnica seems to have the most detailed and best linked (PDF + DoJ press release) article as of now: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/07/kickasstorrents-a... Somewhat more/complementary details seem to be available on: https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-... — e.g. regarding methods: [...] The complaint further reveals that the feds posed as an advertiser, which revealed a bank acco…
> investigator cross-referenced an IP-address used for an iTunes transaction with an IP-address that was used to login to KAT’s Facebook account The article implies that the investigator had a FB and iTunes IP address and THEN Apple gave the rest of the user's details but that doesn't really make sense. I'm guessing that they gag-ordered and subpoenaed FB for account info, but how did the investigator get the iTunes…
The FBI found out his bank account information from buying ads. He probably bought something on iTunes and that would be sufficient for Apple to be given a search warrant for any data related to x IP address, billing info, email address, or name. Any identifying details they collected at that point.
Not hard to connect the pieces once you have a money trail. That's an investigative gold mine.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
While this comment and its siblings do mention methods that can, in theory, be used to launder bitcoin, it's still really difficult to do it correctly. People vastly overestimate the privacy benefits of bitcoin. In many practical cases, bitcoin is probably one of the least private ways to get payment; every transaction is publicly recorded and can easily be traced through the blockchain without subpoena, warrant, soc…
> This is a treasure trove for law enforcement and will likely allow them to find criminals that never would've otherwise appeared on their radar.
If this was the case then why has it never been used as a means to catch someone so far? There have been hundreds of darknet related arrests and none have been related to bitcoin.
Pretty much every other investigative means is easier than tracking down bitcoin like that.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're free to ask your congressmen to change the copyright laws. Until then, they should be enforced: Having some manager deprioritize certain crimes because he thinks they're too expensive to enforce moves power from the legislative to the executive. You didn't directly make this distinction, but your point about preferring to allocate tax dollars to physical crimes would be a strange way to view changing the law.
Your congressman is most likely accepting large sums of money from companies supporting these draconian laws. Sums you can never hope to compete with. So break these laws. Break them as much as is possible. Convince others to do the same. Civil disobedience is the engine of progress.
If you have a concrete example of this occurring, then consider whether it's bribery:
18 U.S. Code § 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses "directly or indirectly gives, offers, or promises anything of value to any public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official, for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official; or
being a public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official, otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty, directly or indirectly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such official or person; "
My understanding is that prosecutors would be heavily incentivized to find an underground bribery operation on Congressmen; it would be a career-making move, and they could make press releases to everyone. People clearly care about corruption and bribery, as evidenced by this election cycle.
The commenters in this subthread have already agreed that it is good to give prosecutors extensive leeway in prosecuting crimes, or even deciding whether something is a crime. And in this particular case, the incentives line up. So it seems unlikely that congressmen are engaging in outright bribery, with the prosecutors letting them get away with it.
Again, if you know something that the prosecutors don't, you can contact your state Attorney General to report a crime. They would probably at least open up an investigation. For example, it looks like 5 Congressmen have been prosecuted over the last year alone, so they're hardly immune to the law:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dem-congressman-conv...
Additionally, the FCPA makes it a crime for US companies to bribe foreign officials(such as in the Ukraine, where this article's criminal seems to be based). I've had to sit through 3-4 of these anti-corruption seminars, and it sure seems like another law that prosecutors would love to follow up on.
My guess is that the lobbyists are simply more persuasive, and seem to care about the law a lot more than the other types of people who comment on the law.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that civil forfeiture is extremely profitable enterprise [1]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/23/cops-...
So is the drug war. It all depends on where you're standing.
Prisons, lawyers, judges, social workers running drug rehab programs, feds (DEA, FBI), local police, defense industry selling helicopters, airplanes, surveillance technology, etc, etc.
An unthinkable amount of money has been spent and made from the drug war for highly questionable ROI to the public.
What type of reduction in police work would take place if the drug war was ended today? 20%? 30%?
The war on drugs is a job machine. DEA agents fly around like international playboys from the books I've read. Plus international governments get tons of money from the US to run their own interdiction programs.
There has to be some level of influence to keep the 'war' going from these perverse incentives.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#308Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the moral difference may lie in the balance of power between the IP holder and IP infringer : In Zara vs indie designer, Zara steal the design and uses its power to distribute and sell it to the whole world. The indie designer cannot compete, or fight. The fact that Zara used her designs will not advertise her own products or make her money (maybe it did after the public outcry, but I guess it will not be the…
I think a power analysis is incorrect here. Zara can and most likely will be held accountable for any illegal acts their lawyers committed by trying to intimidate the indie artist. I am holding up the simple concept of property rights whether you are a big, and not necessarily bad, company, or you are a struggling moral artist. If you download torrents for any reason, it is still against the IP laws that protect them…
I agree that in both case (downloading torrents / copying design), one infringes IP rights. However, that does not necessarily mean that you are against the concept of IP : you could be against the way it is applied, or its extent.
Regarding power balance, I think it cannot be considered alone. Another justification to IP infringement is the damage or loss you potentially cause to the IP holder.
Not being against the concept of IP, I would like to see it applied with more nuance. For example : big company stealing from indie is wrong to me, but big company stealing from big company seems less wrong in my mind. To continue on indie games : downloading torrents for AAA game seems less wrong to me than downloading indie game. The relative damage that I cause is more important if I don't buy the indie game.
I am still struggling with this reflection. I would like to be able to remunerate each IP holder in proportion to the value the content had to me. And also, to add objective value in the calculation on top of my perceived value.
Re: Alleged founder of world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site arrested
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Don't most torrent sites run advertising? Yes some of that likely goes to maintain the server, but I doubt it all does in most cases. A lot of sites distributing content like this are set up as for profit ventures.
I think that's a false dichotomy. If these sites were unambiguously legal, people (like myself) would donate money for the costs of running them. But the problem right now is, that even if a site wasn't making any money (no ads, no nothing), the operators could still be thrown into jail.