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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

#191

Post by kalleboo »

philh wrote: post #171
kalleboo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

The EU also has more languages than the US. Even if it was legally a single market, that wouldn't make it a single market culturally.

Agreed, but making things available and advertising them are different things. You can hold off advertising them until you have a dubbing or subtitle available, but people who want to watch it anyway can go ahead and find it with a direct search. In several EU countries, a majority of the population is already English-fluent (or can get by with English subtitles), and those realities aren't reflected by the market.

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

#192

Post by nickpsecurity »

mikegerwitz wrote: post #163
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…

The term "piracy" doesn't help the problems any---it's a smear term that tries to put downloading and sharing on the same level as murder and kidnapping. https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-banned-from-using-piracy-and-t... . I prefer the term "sharing". As you mention, intent is not always to avoid paying. Some people may want backups, may have lost their copy after paying for it, may be frustrated by DRM-laced copies tha…

I also like "illegal sharing" for the description. Almost anyone can understand that with little, additional info. "Copyright infringement" is not something I can explain in 10 seconds. They'll probably remember it wrong over time, too.

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

#193

Post by Nullabillity »

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.

> There's still some fuckery going on with DRM in some companies, but that's the minority.

Sadly it seems to be coming back, with all the recent Denuvo garbage.

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

#194

Post by Nullabillity »

scrollaway wrote: post #154
Freak_NL wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yeah, emulation or containerization works nicely for old games. However, newer games have server components which are required to run the game and/or have any content. When the money runs out, the servers get shut down and usually aren't redistributed. This isn't a problem torrents can solve, unfortunately.

> When the money runs out, the servers get shut down and usually aren't redistributed. This isn't a problem torrents can solve, unfortunately.

IIRC, the cracks for the old always-online UPlay DRM basically contained a MVP implementation of their servers.

And of course, you have MMORPG "emulators", but those take a lot of effort, only come out for ridiculously popular and lasting games, and end up rewriting most of the game logic based on speculation. So the end result is more like Minetest vs Minecraft than cracked Assassin's Creed vs legit Assassin's Creed.

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

#195

Post by soylentcola »

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…

Convenience is definitely a factor. We pay for cable TV, Netflix, HBO, and Amazon Prime (with video). I recently bought a nice big TV for my basement den and while it has Netflix and Amazon apps built-in, Comcast blocks you from authorizing the AndroidTV HBOGo app so I need to cast from my phone to watch that. And for cable shows, I'd need to rent another shitty cable box that doesn't work worth a damn anyway.

So instead if it's not on Netflix or Amazon (god their TV app just got even worse) I often just fire up the VPN and stream a torrent. I've paid for the shows but I just don't want to rent another cable box or deal with casting from mobile. Programs like Popcorn Time are great in that you can bookmark your favorite shows, see which episodes you've already watched, search for new shows from a Netflix-type interface, and watch in 720 or 1080 on demand.

If there was a legit option like this from Comcast (heh, that'll be the day) I'd gladly pay double what you pay to rent a cable box. It's really just that simple and it works much better than any Comcast gear despite being a hacky program with several forks and questionable approach.

I don't hold any illusions about my entitled attitude. I understand that my convenience and preferences don't get to dictate the business policies of content creators and distributors and I know that just because I pay for stuff doesn't mean it's legal to violate copyright in this manner...

...but I don't feel that what I'm doing is particularly immoral even if not particularly legal. At some point I just take stock of how I do things and keep an eye out for better ways to do them. If I can find a way to improve my spare time and how I spend it, I don't mind finding my own ways to do so.

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

#196

Post by softawre »

pipeline_tux wrote: post #27
provoc wrote: post #22

Good. Maybe this will deter people from stealing music, films and software. It's a disgrace that so many work so hard on their craft, only to have the fruits of their efforts ripped off by the immoral. I hope the authorities shut all these torrent search engines down, and prosecute the owners to the full extent of the law.

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…

Don't most people pay that much for entertainment though, through their cable bill?

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

#197

Post by fwn »

dalore wrote: post #78
HugoDaniel wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware that the authors are the least privileged in current copyright laws ? Where I live the state even invented a special tax on digital supports (USB, Hard Drives, etc...) to "favor the authors" because of "piracy". Never met a single author that benefited from that. And trust me I know a lot of them. Copyright laws were made, and exist, to privilege the industry (which does include authors, at the bottom,…

If there is a tax, that makes it legal. If I was paying a piracy tax then I would feel justified in pirating since I've paid for it. But if the tax isn't going to the copyright holders, then sounds like the tax is stealing from the copyright holders also.

> If there is a tax, that makes it legal.

Well yes, the storage device is legal. If you meant that this tax legitimised the process of unlicensed content reproduction: You'd probably be better off by lowering your expectations in law makers consistency.

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

#198

Post by fnord123 »

josho wrote: post #184
mikegerwitz wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "piracy" doesn't help the problems any---it's a smear term that tries to put downloading and sharing on the same level as murder and kidnapping. https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-banned-from-using-piracy-and-t... . I prefer the term "sharing". As you mention, intent is not always to avoid paying. Some people may want backups, may have lost their copy after paying for it, may be frustrated by DRM-laced copies tha…

Sharing is just as bad as pirating. Let's call it what it is. Copyright infringement.

A lot of the infringement is of works that have been stolen from the public domain by copyright term extensions. This theft has gone unpunished for decades.

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

#199

Post by OzzyB »

josho wrote: post #184
mikegerwitz wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "piracy" doesn't help the problems any---it's a smear term that tries to put downloading and sharing on the same level as murder and kidnapping. https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-banned-from-using-piracy-and-t... . I prefer the term "sharing". As you mention, intent is not always to avoid paying. Some people may want backups, may have lost their copy after paying for it, may be frustrated by DRM-laced copies tha…

Sharing is just as bad as pirating. Let's call it what it is. Copyright infringement.

> it's piracy > it's sharing > it's copyright infringement

How about we call it what it really is, Broadcast.

There's a distinct difference between sharing a couple of mixtapes with your friends at school, to broadcasting it all over the internet for millions of your "neighbors" to see.

I agree that the term "piracy" has been redifined to be a crime inline with rape or murder, which sucks; but let's not kid ourselves that publishing a public torrent for everyone to see is just "sharing".

The difference between sharing a half dozen copies to thousands/millions, is indeed broadcasting/publishing, and that IMO is the distinct difference that's conveniently overlooked in these debates.

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

#200

Post by wangchow »

josho wrote: post #184
mikegerwitz wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "piracy" doesn't help the problems any---it's a smear term that tries to put downloading and sharing on the same level as murder and kidnapping. https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-banned-from-using-piracy-and-t... . I prefer the term "sharing". As you mention, intent is not always to avoid paying. Some people may want backups, may have lost their copy after paying for it, may be frustrated by DRM-laced copies tha…

Sharing is just as bad as pirating. Let's call it what it is. Copyright infringement.

I'd argue that copyright infringement is: making a derivative work of something and selling it for a profit; or stealing an idea outright and profiting from it.
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