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

551–560 of 786 posts

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#551

Post by jiveturkey »

dom96 wrote: post #534

So VPNs nowadays are meant to protect from this, but how can someone trust a VPN not to sell the details of what you've been downloading? Is it really worthwhile to use one when the VPN provider may actually in some cases be more likely to sell this data?

> how can someone trust a VPN not to sell the details

you can't. but, you could use 2 nested vpn services, which would help if you can know that the 2 aren't affiliated with each other ... which you can't know.

i mean, it's hilarious that VPN services suggest privacy as one of their selling features. lol.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#552

Post by Scoundreller »

marvelous wrote: post #313
Symbiote wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was "caught" by some monitoring system sharing Knoppix on a machine in the CS lab at university. I'd forgotten about it, and it had been running for months. One of the helpdesk staff told me that it had been noticed, since the bandwidth to that machine was very high, but he unofficially liked the idea of the university being top of the seeding table, so I should leave it running :-D [1] http://torrent.unix-ag.uni-k…

My university did ban p2p, no matter the content. Officially for upload bandwidth savings.

Mine did too. Though oddly the wifi in the classrooms was fair-game, but this was before most people had laptops, and even fewer ones that could last more than 2 hours without charging.

I remember downloading some content over IRC to share on the campus network because I knew how to use it and it was slow, but not blocked.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#553

Post by thaumasiotes »

jandrese wrote: post #535
quickthrower2 wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain the lawsuit?

A few years ago there was a legal firm that specialized in tracking down people from their IP on porn torrents on the assumption that they wouldn't want their name in the public record and would settle for 5 figures. The law firm doing it was so shady they ended up losing the suits and having a judge tell them to knock it off.

Note that the conduct of Prenda which the judge objected to was that they were both the legal representation and the copyright owners, but didn't admit that before the court. There was no suggestion that their tactics posed any problems.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#554

Post by Aeolun »

joe463369 wrote: post #419
sho wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only moral problem I have in your anecdote is the lying about it. With every fibre of my being, I could not care less about torrenting game of thrones .

Can you explain why? I can understand why people want things for free, but thinking that you shouldn't contribute towards the production cost of the programme you enjoy seems strange to me.

I think that people that can contribute to the cost of making the programme should do so, but I’m also happy if people that cannot still get to enjoy it.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#555

Post by doctor_eval »

_jal wrote: post #165
_tbyy wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here is not recognizing that the piracy was actually the problem. In what way was it forgivable? Because everybody does it, that makes it okie dokie? Because you don't have a Netflix account? If everyone treated piracy as theft (it is) then no one would have to waste their time investigating it because the collective will would exist to prevent it.

> If everyone treated piracy as theft (it is) Then everybody would be as wrong as you. You can repeat this as much as you like, but it is simply false. Legally speaking: copyright infringement is an offense distinct from theft. Speaking from reality: copyright infringement does not deprive the holder of the right of their property. Speaking ethically: Copyright infringement is a violation of a particular commercial m…

I agree with your interpretation of copyright and that it is not theft, but your position ignores the fact that very many “properties” would not exist except for the understanding that they might be profitable. In some cases, like GoT, the likelihood of profitability is very high.

In that sense, copyright infringement _indirectly_ deprives the holder of the property through the capital that they invested in order to create the property in the first place.

I mean, if I spend $100 to make a movie with the hope that 100 people will each spend $2 to watch it, and then you make a copy and distribute it for free to my audience, then you’ve deprived me of my $100 in capital, and the $100 in profit. The profit itself is a loss because it is an opportunity cost: if I hadn’t made the movie then I might have spent my time making money some other way.

The distance between your position and mine is, I think, one of scale. Individual infringement of a property with millions of views is a tiny fraction of the cost of creating that property. But as the number of infringers increases relative to the audience, it really does deprive people of property.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#556

Post by Waterluvian »

flak48 wrote: post #89

An intern once thought it was a good idea to torrent a couple of Game of Thrones episodes using my startup's Digital Ocean box. We found out after Digital Ocean forwarded us an email from HBO (who presumably tracked Digital Ocean down via the IP) that we were engaging in piracy. We sent an email to everyone with access, saying whoever was doing it to stop. Then we got a second email (a final warning). Everyone denied…

I once pirated a Tv show and was accidentally on my work VPN for a portion of it.

Had a moment of being a bit frozen and scared.

Decided to email the IT head and explain the situation. I got a “thanks for letting me know” and that was it. Not as big a deal as my head conjured up.

I could have done the wrong thing though and made it a big deal.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#557

Post by svnpenn »

goatsi wrote: post #536
svnpenn wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/sietseringers/MACAddressTool

That's only for Windows, you would need to change the MAC address on the router WAN port for the ISP to notice.

Not sure what you are talking about, I have been using this for years to generate new IPs.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#558

Post by CGamesPlay »

Wow, people at my apartment must download a LOT. Including several items listed as child pornography, about which the site declines to provide additional details; as well as this listed as regular pornography, but which I believe is actually malware-ridden audio editing software. https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com/en/torrent/?id=a8579ced8872...

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#559

Post by senectus1 »

ivanovb wrote: post #65
Tepix wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowadays internet users on cable often keep the same IP address for weeks if not months. Who knows, your ISP could change its configuration tomorrow and always re-assign the same IP address to you as long as its available. I think the point of this website is to show people that using torrents is far from anonymous and invisible.

My IP hasn't changed in about a year, although it is supposed to be dynamic. On the other hand I use extensively a torrent tracker and the site shows nothing.

Mine changes every few weeks.

I found it amusing to see that the OP web link stops showing what my IP has been downloading at the same time that I got the IP only about a week ago.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#560

Post by AlexCoventry »

toxik wrote: post #441
joe463369 wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain why? I can understand why people want things for free, but thinking that you shouldn't contribute towards the production cost of the programme you enjoy seems strange to me.

GoT season 8 is something that happened to me, not something I enjoyed. Like a bully ruining your sand castle after a long day at the beach.

I stopped when they resuscitated Jon Snow. That was blatant pandering, and it was clearly going to be downhill from there.
Post reply on HN