Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

iknowwhatyoudownload.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 786 posts

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#421

Post by Cyph0n »

dingaling wrote: post #349
tstrimple wrote: post #22

Laughs in Usenet. The proliferation of streaming services and restricted content has me investing in alternative options more these days. It's not about paying for content, it's about content becoming less accessible again.

> Laughs in Usenet The rise in pirate binary groups is what killed Usenet feeds on most ISPs. I used to be a great follower of text groups but it became more and more difficult to find a feed and the overall signal:noise ratio faded. Eventually I gave up. Thanks for nothing, you folks who want to watch other people's content for free.

I don’t get this argument at all. Are you saying that the rise of online forums and then social media had absolutely nothing to do with it?

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#422

Post by Godel_unicode »

Floegipoky wrote: post #353
Godel_unicode wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The movement away from physical copies I just don't understand this argument, physical copies of virtually any type of media absolutely still exist. If you want to own even Netflix shows on disc, you can do that pretty cheaply. I'd you want to get Blu Ray discs delivered to you by mail for a subscription fee, you can probably do that (although this is slightly more geographically restricted). This argument is simpl…

These are not a small number of counterexamples, these are patterns that are pervasive throughout modern media distribution. Let's look at Star Wars as an example. I bought a Star Wars box set and I can't watch it on my computer without installing malware. I can't play "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" without installing malware. I can't watch the new Clone Wars or Mandalorian show without paying for yet another streami…

"Civil disobedience" is a rather grandiose way to dress up not paying for things you use because the person who owns them didn't sell them exactly the way you wish they did. You're not marching in the streets, you're watching TV.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#423

Post by rightbyte »

Wistar wrote: post #253
RyJones wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a place where our internet was bad, but not that bad. We were coming up to a release and things were fubar. I asked the network guy to find what was up - a guy that reported to me was torrenting child porn.

I worked at a place where, one morning, the guy in the next office over got swarmed by company security and the police. He was trafficking in child porn on the company network. He was a super smart, super dumb guy who lost everything over it, his wife, custody of his kids, friends and a very high-paying career. His car sat in the company garage for weeks.

When I read stories like this I always wonder if they are setups. Like, it feels too stupid.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#424

Post by elcomet »

jjice wrote: post #304
NullPrefix wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends, was it a paid internship?

Even if it wasn't, I bet the experience of the internship would be worth more than the cost of a personal VPN. Unless the internship didn't really provide much value.

If you have no money, it doesn't matter what's the value of the internship.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#425

Post by aaronchall »

sixothree wrote: post #324
debacle wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side: When I was an intern I once had four people arrive at my desk (including an HR lawyer) for torrenting ubuntu server. Thankfully I shared a cube wall with someone smart enough to realize the confusion, and explain me out of being walked out. They were monitoring for torrent traffic, but weren't paying attention to what was being torrented. Apparently a company-wide warning had gone out the week before I…

Not long after we started WFH I needed to share a pre-configured VM with a coworker. We tried all sorts of stuff and finally just decided to torrent it. Zipped it up tight with a password and private torrented it overnight. Next morning we were up and running.

How do you do that?

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#426

Post by nullify88 »

gcbw3 wrote: post #398
lwhalen wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, and how did that work out for you?

I'd bet that was a bouncer/client set address, for the joke. Sigh, people probably trust things like this today because FB(whatsapp)/Google/slack/discord forces you to sign up with valid phone numbers and probably expose that as your ID.

His resume has that place of work listed. Of course it could be part of the joke too, but thats elaborate.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#427

Post by Godel_unicode »

alextheparrot wrote: post #220
Godel_unicode wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The movement away from physical copies I just don't understand this argument, physical copies of virtually any type of media absolutely still exist. If you want to own even Netflix shows on disc, you can do that pretty cheaply. I'd you want to get Blu Ray discs delivered to you by mail for a subscription fee, you can probably do that (although this is slightly more geographically restricted). This argument is simpl…

I agree that the statement "Physical copies don't exist for digital media" is false (And I wasn't trying to assert that, of which I could have been more explicit), time of release aside. I can still hold the above position and not be in conflict with that, though. The issue we saw is that there is no way to legally lend a digital resource to someone else, which is a constructed limitation. Lending here involves two t…

> Access to digital goods was restricted further than physical goods

You only have two choices as a rights holder when it comes to digital works; much less sharing or much more. There's no workable digital equivalent of the kind of sharing limits imposed by having to move a physical thing from one place to another. In order for sharing to be viable with digital versions the DRM would need to be much more sophisticated, or the prices would need to be much higher.

Edit: if you want a concrete example of the harm caused by this attitude, go look into why there's no HD remaster of DS9 or Babylon 5. The studio broke down sales figures for previous SciFi remakes and then the degree to which those shows are torrented. If even an appreciable fraction of the freeloaders ever actually bought the discs, then it would be worth it to make one. You don't, so they don't.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#428

Post by Wistar »

rightbyte wrote: post #423
Wistar wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a place where, one morning, the guy in the next office over got swarmed by company security and the police. He was trafficking in child porn on the company network. He was a super smart, super dumb guy who lost everything over it, his wife, custody of his kids, friends and a very high-paying career. His car sat in the company garage for weeks.

When I read stories like this I always wonder if they are setups. Like, it feels too stupid.

I knew him well and he was well-liked and professionally well-regarded throughout at least my division of the company. He was a high-energy, tireless guy with great ideas and worked nearly daily with senior-level management, often traveling with them all over the world.

I, along with a whole lot of others, were absolutely dumbstruck by his profound fall from grace.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#429

Post by tinus_hn »

Hyperborian wrote: post #390
tinus_hn wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they supposed to know what you’re torrenting?

Oh god... you're not under the impression that bittorrent is a secure or anonymous protocol, are you?

No but all they see is parts identified by hashes. How are they supposed to know whether is a Linux distro or a movie?

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#430

Post by wongarsu »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #309
jjice wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't the intern have paid for his own bare bones VPS and done it from there? Or used a different paid VPN service, which cost roughly the same ~$5? Seems like the cost of a VPN compared to the value of his internship wouldn't even compare. All for some campus clout.

It's potentially less anonymous to the people who might prosecute you. Probably didn't realize how anonymous it wasn't to the employer and didn't factor that cost in to the decision. But if you're willing to $5 to get a show, you're probably less likely to pirate it anyway (or at least be the seed).

That guy pirated for the glory of being the first to share it with his peers. I wouldn't be surprised if he was willing to pay for that.
Post reply on HN