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How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

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Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#31

Post by mattmanser »

hackermom wrote: post #18

Having been part of the "XviD scene" for many years in the not too distant past, I have to say that the whole angle on this being profit-driven is just... wrong. NFO-files have been around since the early days of BBS trading in the Amiga scene and the PC scene alike, and the presence of web addresses in these files today doesn't change the reality that people just don't care for reading the NFOs when it comes to audi…

The trouble with a declaration like this is that it has no basis in fact, just your own personal experience.

I have never seen anybody click on an ad on a webpage. By your reasoning that means that obviously no-one clicks them.

And yet google makes billions off it. Apparently 10% of internet users make up almost all the advert clicks.

I would agree that it's even more of a small % for nfo files and txt files in torrents because of the effort of getting to them. It could still easily translate to serious money when you're talking about 75% of the entire torrent ecosystem using only 100 peoples' torrents.

I have no facts, but the odd behaviour presented in this article makes me suspect you're actually way off mark as I find it hard to imagine that there is some small group of altruistic French seeders using one ISP who wish to bring the joy of movies and music to everyone for such a massive amount of effort.

The more likely explanation, just as presented in the article, is that there's good money to be made as long as you take the operation to scale.

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#32

Post by mahmud »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #24

A couple of things struck me while reading this article: 1) Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. That means the art of trading -- your time for a few ads, or whatever -- is happening. The users of Pirate Bay may be sticking it to the man or whatnot, but it's just another marketplace -- albeit one with much cheaper entry and transaction costs. (So it's a winner for the…

Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs.

The truth of that assertion hinges on us not remembering the billion other counter-examples.

It might comfort free-market capitalists like ourselves to paint humanity with that thick brush, but truth tells differently: people don't always gather with the intention to buy/sell, in fact, sometimes, commercial intent is detrimental to a healthy assembly and is frowned upon.

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#33

Post by piguy314 »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #12

There are also cases where one username corresponds with a few IP addresses from the same ISP, which is known as the NAT [network address translation] effect. Aren't they getting this backwards? NAT takes multiple computers (i.e., users) and concentrates them into a single outwardly-visible IP.

Sounds like multiple VPSes/seedboxes

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#34

Post by msh »

mahmud wrote: post #32
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #24

A couple of things struck me while reading this article: 1) Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. That means the art of trading -- your time for a few ads, or whatever -- is happening. The users of Pirate Bay may be sticking it to the man or whatnot, but it's just another marketplace -- albeit one with much cheaper entry and transaction costs. (So it's a winner for the…

Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. The truth of that assertion hinges on us not remembering the billion other counter-examples. It might comfort free-market capitalists like ourselves to paint humanity with that thick brush, but truth tells differently: people don't always gather with the intention to buy/sell, in fact, sometimes, commercial intent is detrimental to…

a market dont require the intention of buying and selling, just the exchange of something in return for something else.

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#35

Post by wladimir »

mahmud wrote: post #32
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #24

A couple of things struck me while reading this article: 1) Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. That means the art of trading -- your time for a few ads, or whatever -- is happening. The users of Pirate Bay may be sticking it to the man or whatnot, but it's just another marketplace -- albeit one with much cheaper entry and transaction costs. (So it's a winner for the…

Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. The truth of that assertion hinges on us not remembering the billion other counter-examples. It might comfort free-market capitalists like ourselves to paint humanity with that thick brush, but truth tells differently: people don't always gather with the intention to buy/sell, in fact, sometimes, commercial intent is detrimental to…

Just that trading occurs anywhere people get together doesn't mean everything is a market. I'd have liked to +10 you. It's so hip these days to see everything in the context of economics, as a market. In my opinion that's actually hurting our understanding of human behaviour, by trivializing every interaction.

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#36

Post by mahmud »

msh wrote: post #34
mahmud wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. The truth of that assertion hinges on us not remembering the billion other counter-examples. It might comfort free-market capitalists like ourselves to paint humanity with that thick brush, but truth tells differently: people don't always gather with the intention to buy/sell, in fact, sometimes, commercial intent is detrimental to…

a market dont require the intention of buying and selling, just the exchange of something in return for something else.

a market dont require the intention of buying and selling, just the exchange of something in return for something else.

Exchange of what? Goods and services for other goods and services of comparable value, or cash, or notes of debt?

Is that not the definition of a market?

Here is a human gathering for you: a funeral. What goods & services are changing hands? And please don't say "the family's savings going to the funeral home".

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#37

Post by peterwwillis »

JonnieCache wrote: post #13
mukyu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the content on tpb comes from the scene which does not condone p2p sharing. These people just have access to scene releases early and want to profit from it. http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-releasers-slice-the-top-o... http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-releasers-are-the-new-kid... Sadly, the report does not list any of the usernames of those that they studied. However, if you just go to a category, pick a…

Yep. "The scene" really hates p2p in all its forms. They have been having inter-group drama over it for years. Pretty hilarious all round. See: http://www.scenenotice.org/details.php?id=1847 http://www.scenenotice.org/details.php?id=1920 and many others on that site.

Haha, that's awesome! The FTP scene is so big they need distributed ftp agents to FXP their wares?

I always thought their drama and "wars" over shit like sharing files (....like it's not going to happen? not like they're using DRM or something) was incredibly overblown, even as a kid. Glad to see they're just as retarded now as ever.

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#38

Post by hippich »

hackermom wrote: post #18

Having been part of the "XviD scene" for many years in the not too distant past, I have to say that the whole angle on this being profit-driven is just... wrong. NFO-files have been around since the early days of BBS trading in the Amiga scene and the PC scene alike, and the presence of web addresses in these files today doesn't change the reality that people just don't care for reading the NFOs when it comes to audi…

So, where is profit for groups like XviD?

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#39

Post by Goronmon »

mattmanser wrote: post #31
hackermom wrote: post #18

Having been part of the "XviD scene" for many years in the not too distant past, I have to say that the whole angle on this being profit-driven is just... wrong. NFO-files have been around since the early days of BBS trading in the Amiga scene and the PC scene alike, and the presence of web addresses in these files today doesn't change the reality that people just don't care for reading the NFOs when it comes to audi…

The trouble with a declaration like this is that it has no basis in fact, just your own personal experience. I have never seen anybody click on an ad on a webpage. By your reasoning that means that obviously no-one clicks them. And yet google makes billions off it. Apparently 10% of internet users make up almost all the advert clicks. I would agree that it's even more of a small % for nfo files and txt files in torre…

I have never seen anybody click on an ad on a webpage. By your reasoning that means that obviously no-one clicks them.

And yet google makes billions off it. Apparently 10% of internet users make up almost all the advert clicks.

I disagree that NFO files are anything like web ads. Web ads are in your face and surround content you are trying to access at all times. They are more like spam e-mails that show up in your Spam e-mail folder. You have to open that folder to see them, and then decide if you want to click through any links contained inside.

Plus, the demographic that is a much more specific demographic than users of the internet as a whole.

Re: How ~75% of PirateBay traffic is seeded by 100 people driven by profit

#40

Post by cynicalkane »

wladimir wrote: post #35
mahmud wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is a market. Any time people get together, for any purpose, trading occurs. The truth of that assertion hinges on us not remembering the billion other counter-examples. It might comfort free-market capitalists like ourselves to paint humanity with that thick brush, but truth tells differently: people don't always gather with the intention to buy/sell, in fact, sometimes, commercial intent is detrimental to…

Just that trading occurs anywhere people get together doesn't mean everything is a market. I'd have liked to +10 you. It's so hip these days to see everything in the context of economics, as a market. In my opinion that's actually hurting our understanding of human behaviour, by trivializing every interaction.

It's a generalization, not a trivialization. Saying all human interactions are markets is like saying everything in computer programming is an object (or everything is a function, or everything is data, or whatever). It's a particular way of looking things that yields insights depending on where, how, and how well it is applied.
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