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Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

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Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#131

Post by kagamine »

provoc wrote: post #37
pipeline_tux wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Torrents are filling the gap where the traditional media companies are still failing. Here in NZ there are 7 different streaming services that I can immediately think of, each with exclusive rights to some content. I'm not paying $80 a month to sign up to each so I can watch their popular "exclusive" show they own the rights to. If the rights-holders made their content accessible and at a reasonable price to consumer…

So your excuse for this theft of service is that you simply don't want to pay? It's lucky for you that prosecuting torrent users is so rare, as I really can't see that one holding up in court. If you can't afford it, don't steal it. It's as simple as that.

> theft of service is that you simply don't want to pay

Prices in Norwegian kroner (NOK)

    Apple Music    99 / 149

    Spotify Prem.  99

    iTunes Movies  49 to rent 24 hours

                  159 to buy (~same as DVD in supermarket)  

    Netflix        79	   99	     129

    HD?             x	    y	       y

    Nr screens      1	    2	       4
I don't know how much these services think I can spend on entertainment every month, they are all priced as though they are the only service in the market and like I have nothing else I want to spend money on. The film prices on iTunes are mental, I can buy a DVD from as little as kr79, so 49 to rent one seems excessive (also aware that Apple are not solely responsible for setting prices here).

As an anime fan too, torrenting is literally the only way to obtain content. THE ONLY WAY. There are 2 good free streaming sites I can think of that are not blocked in my region, and one of them daisuki.net doesn't support flash on Linux (groan) so I have to use the 'wrong' PC at home for that.

The state of legal streaming and content availability was a laughable disaster 5+ years ago. Now it's a case of being indignant and feeling righteous about giving these idiots the middle finger. The entertainment distributors are their own worst enemy.

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#132

Post by jpalomaki »

nabla9 wrote: post #122
dineshp2 wrote: post #28

The reason piracy is so popular is because it is free and because it's incredibly convenient, in that order. The convenience factor is basically, if you want some content (movie, game) it's a simple search and download away (streaming torrents seem to be gaining traction). No legal alternative offers this level of convenience. I suspect piracy will become harder for the average user due to three letter agencies makin…

Torrent sites have huge advantage over streaming services is that they can distribute all content. If streaming services had everything, people would pick one based on price and quality of the actual streaming gladly pay more than current prices are. There is no change in hell that customers pay for Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Amazon at the same time. There is obvious business solution for this. Content producers should…

My understanding is that in US many people are paying quite much for cable. One article says the average monthly bill is $100. http://bgr.com/2015/09/09/cable-tv-bill-price-100/

No idea if that is true or how many people are putting that much money for contents on monthly basis. Compared to the streaming services this is quite much and with that money you could get a monthly subscription to several services.

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#133

Post by mountaineer22 »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #90
scrollaway wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to have a Spotify subscription. Then I moved out of Sweden and lost half my playlists. Never subscribed again. I never had a Netflix subscription because I don't have a good enough connection to stream high quality videos - Additionally, I rewatch some series a lot. It's simply more convenient to have them on my hard drive. The US gov is running around the internet policing copyright for very specific companie…

Sidenote2: Hollywood got started because of a move from NYC to get around having to pay licenses to Edison. Hollywood exists because they wanted to infringe the protections without paying. MPAA would prefer we didn't remember that.

Do you think Edison was not a rent-seeker?

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#134

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

mamadrood wrote: post #80
provoc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's theft of service, so it is stealing. And uploading many small pieces of files with up to millions of anonymous entities rather stretches the usual connotations of the word "sharing". Regarding constitutional directives, it's unreasonable to think that "free access to culture" is supposed to imply "steal movies, music and software via the internet". The idea that musicians make most of their money from gigging is…

Yup, except piracy always had a good impact on creators, sure it may hurts the big companies but it's the best way to promote non mainstream artists. If you download an album you weren't going to buy anyway it may incite you to go to a concert you wouldn't even consider before. The same thing can be applied to any pirated content. Look at Game of Thrones, it's one of the most pirated content of all time. It's also on…

>really never hurts the creator,

No, this is nonsense. As I keep posting here - I personally know of music plug-in makers who dropped out of the industry because piracy killed their revenue stream.

Piracy very much hurt the creators in those examples. It also hurt buyers, because good products disappeared.

Your post is just another version of the "Work for nothing for exposure" bullshit. It's not the George R.R. Martins and the Kanyes who are hurt by piracy - it's the niche start-up artists on (e.g.) Bandcamp who produce quality music without the backing of a huge media corp, and will give up if not supported.

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#135

Post by scrollaway »

Freak_NL wrote: post #123
scrollaway wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to have a Spotify subscription. Then I moved out of Sweden and lost half my playlists. Never subscribed again. I never had a Netflix subscription because I don't have a good enough connection to stream high quality videos - Additionally, I rewatch some series a lot. It's simply more convenient to have them on my hard drive. The US gov is running around the internet policing copyright for very specific companie…

You would think music, film, and games would be comparable, but I find that these fall into distinct categories for me. I am totally okay with paying a monthly flat fee for films and series (mostly watch once and be done with it). I am also okay with paying once for a game and not keeping the downloaded files around after I finish it. Rather, I let Steam or the HumbleStore handle that, and if these go belly-up one da…

Games are essentially solved as far as consumption goes. There's still some fuckery going on with DRM in some companies, but that's the minority.

However, they aren't solved when it comes to archival. It's getting constantly worse with the rise of online-only games with closed source, undistributed servers. A subject for another day, though.

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#136

Post by skoczymroczny »

kalleboo wrote: post #112
Svenskunganka wrote: post #65

Torrents and copyright infringement is related, we can all agree on that. But I believe that pirating is related to a very fuzzy legal system regarding this topic and unfair treatment by the major movie studios & music labels. I'll try to explain as good as I can. Being a european citizen, it is very frustrating knowing that pirating is illegal even though being a Netflix, HBO & Spotify customer. Pirating is a much b…

> I don't understand why the EU isn't doing anything about it The problem is that right now the EU isn't one copyright market - each EU country is a separate market, with a tonne of legacy exclusive distribution deals in place. If the EU was a single market, it would be the same size or bigger than the US market and would probably get better attention. The EU is working on it, it just moves at the speed of bureaucrac…

Wouldn't making EU single market and getting rid of geoblocking pretty much remove regional pricing? The piracy then would surge even more, because in Eastern Europe you can't expect people to spent 10% of their salary on a new videogame.

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#137

Post by moretrees »

kinleyd wrote: post #62
moretrees wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't found anything on the internet regarding idope.se but it seems to be pretty nice. I suppose you're the admin? How sure are you that "servers never go down"?

No, not the admin. Just been searching around since kat's been gone.

It's not really an alternative to torrentz though, is it? As far I can see, it only has kat torrents. It does not list other public trackers..

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#138

Post by malka »

kalleboo wrote: post #124
tormeh wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The EU is working on it, it just moves at the speed of bureaucracy I would guess the speed is more limited by 27 governments having to agree on everything.

Getting 27 countries to agree on something sounds like bureaucracy nightmare to me :) So, I just looked up the word "bureaucracy" in a dictionary and it says "a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.". I always thought that was what a technocracy was. The secondary definition is "excessively complicated administrative procedure…

Technocracy is more about "experts make the décisions"

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#139

Post by mountaineer22 »

Tharkun wrote: post #44
hueving wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intent matters. The vast majority of people that buy a gun do not murder people. The vast majority of people that download iron_man.torrent only intend to do one thing with it.

If intent matters, then guns are doubly problematic. They are specifically designed to kill people. They have no other use or purpose.

What about defending yourself against a bear while camping?

Is that not okay?

Re: Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell

#140

Post by Freak_NL »

scrollaway wrote: post #135
Freak_NL wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would think music, film, and games would be comparable, but I find that these fall into distinct categories for me. I am totally okay with paying a monthly flat fee for films and series (mostly watch once and be done with it). I am also okay with paying once for a game and not keeping the downloaded files around after I finish it. Rather, I let Steam or the HumbleStore handle that, and if these go belly-up one da…

Games are essentially solved as far as consumption goes. There's still some fuckery going on with DRM in some companies, but that's the minority. However, they aren't solved when it comes to archival. It's getting constantly worse with the rise of online-only games with closed source, undistributed servers. A subject for another day, though.

Fair point. The archival question is complex because of the inherent difficulty in keeping old software running on modern operating systems. At some point it doesn't pay to keep supporting newer operating systems even if you still have sales; only for the really popular titles. Perhaps containers would work?
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