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A curated list of warez and piracy links

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Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#81

Post by zinekeller »

idontwantthis wrote: post #72
capableweb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private Internet Access (PIA) is involved in the whole Freenode fiasco, and has Mark Karpelès (of Mt Gox fame) as their CTO of the parent company. They also run ads all over the internet. Everything pointing towards just caring about the profits. Mullvad is a low-profile company based in Sweden (strong guarantees for privacy) where you can even sign up by sending cash in an envelope. It doesn't get more anonymous tha…

Can you stream US only like HBO and Hulu with Mulvad?

Unfortunately, often not. Unlike other VPNs which tries to blend into residential connections, Mullavad is simply for user privacy and oftentimes is known as AS39351 (which is 31173's AS - https://www.31173.se/). Note that this simply means that a particular user was using Mullavad, not that it identifies a specific user.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#82

Post by commoner »

m_a_g wrote: post #27

I can't decide between mullvad and private internet access. Any suggestions?

Consumer Reports' Digital Lab rated Mullvad as the top VPN in a comparison of 16 VPNs, including Private Internet Access:

https://digital-lab-wp.consumerreports.org/wp-content/upload... (PDF)

> Although Mullvad, IVPN, and Mozilla VPN—in that order—rose to the top, there are still improvements that can be made.

> Of the 16 VPNs we analyzed, Mullvad, PIA, IVPN, and Mozilla VPN (which runs on Mullvad’s servers)—in that order—were among the highest ranked in both privacy and security. However, PIA has never had a public third-party security audit. Additionally, in our opinion, only IVPN, Mozilla VPN, and Mullvad—along with one other VPN (TunnelBear)—accurately represent their services and technology without any broad, sweeping, or potentially misleading statements.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#83

Post by vukgr »

mikaelsouza wrote: post #45

I remember most if not all cracked games used to have virus on their executables. People always said that you shouldn’t care about what the antivirus said, but now I am wondering, why the antivirus alerted about viruses? Does anyone know? Were they really safe or not?

As someone who works on mods for games with no mod api, so using dll injection, hooking, code editing, etc... (basically very similar to what cracks do), it's very easy to get flagged for doing stuff like that.

But even doing simple stuff like compiling with winsock, or with the wrong(!?) compile flags will trigger most AV. We almost always have to just report the dlls as false positive and pray microsoft actually adds them to the whitelist, and I'm guessing that's not really an option for cracks.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#84

Post by belter »

rg111 wrote: post #62
chiheisen wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leeching is. Seeding is not. Its also more of a legal grayzone rather than a blanket "this is allowed".

Only German lawyers are disgusting enough to go after seeders and downloaders who never intend to distribute "illegally" downloaded content. Sometimes they themselves seed torrents and monitor who else is seeding or leeching. If they happen to not use VPNs or proxy, and based in Germany, they get a legal notice from them. Nobody ever went to jail doing this. Some paid hefty fines, though. But a friend said that you c…

Its a rite of passage in Germany to get a "Waldorf & Frommer" letter. I plastered mine on the wall and use it as target practice.

https://kanzlei-bennek.de/en/waldorf-frommer-warning/

Ignore these people and never reply.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#85

Post by ogogmad »

cercatrova wrote: post #76
ogogmad wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> But I asked whether copyright enforcement was necessary for films to get adequately funded. > I addressed that by referencing a study that concludes piracy has no measurable impact on revenue. I'm weary of studies in general because they're capable of justifying absolute bullshit. Anyway, your study was conducted in a regime where getting films for free is illegal and therefore somewhat less convenient than it cou…

>We don't have access to a world in which that isn't the case, so your study is kind of... not able to answer my question? Then your question is moot, as no one can answer it. Perhaps it is you who should actually look up unfalsifiable statements.

You're saying that for a statement to be falsifiable, a logically invalid falsification needs to be accepted. How can you argue that a counterfactual can be proven without actually setting up the counterfactual scenario? Or doing something else that makes logical sense?

[edit]

Also, to be clear, I think that if a study is being used to justify a counterfactual, a long-form argument needs to be made about why it does that. You can't just give the study results (which don't actually test the counterfactual scenario). The relevant counterfactual here is "If copyright law were to be abolished then it would not hurt producers of media like film".

This whole discussion reminds me of the 2000-2010 internet. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-o...

Finally, I've edited out some insults and comments which didn't make sense.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#86

Post by theon144 »

>I am aware that a number of websites featured in this list rely on operating under obscurity, and that this list could potentially contribute to their demise through excess exposure. I'm sorry about that - I just like making lists.

Well, at least the author is responsible and owns up to being one of the cheaf reasons sites like these die :)

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#87

Post by cercatrova »

ogogmad wrote: post #85
cercatrova wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We don't have access to a world in which that isn't the case, so your study is kind of... not able to answer my question? Then your question is moot, as no one can answer it. Perhaps it is you who should actually look up unfalsifiable statements.

You're saying that for a statement to be falsifiable, a logically invalid falsification needs to be accepted. How can you argue that a counterfactual can be proven without actually setting up the counterfactual scenario? Or doing something else that makes logical sense? [edit] Also, to be clear, I think that if a study is being used to justify a counterfactual, a long-form argument needs to be made about why it does…

I don't know what to tell you, you said yourself that your question cannot be answered, so why even ask it?

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#88

Post by lawl »

strobe999 wrote: post #57
hwers wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? It's legal? Would that mean someone running a torrent site should move their operation to switzerland to avoid getting prison time?

OP couldve been a bit more precise in their statement. Downloading is legal, uploading isnt.

Uploading isn't legal, but neither is collecting the IPs of people who upload from torrent swarms, so enforcing that is... Uh... Difficult.

Edit: Source (german) https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei...

Machine translation (deepl):

> According to today's ruling by the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne, IP addresses are clearly personal data, which means they fall under the Data Protection Act. Furthermore, in a majority decision, the highest court considers it inadmissible for private companies to secretly research IP addresses. According to today's Federal Court decision, there is no sufficient justification for this. With immediate effect, the company Logistep AG is no longer allowed to collect and pass on data, i.e. it must stop all data processing in the area of copyright.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#89

Post by CyberShadow »

mikaelsouza wrote: post #45

I remember most if not all cracked games used to have virus on their executables. People always said that you shouldn’t care about what the antivirus said, but now I am wondering, why the antivirus alerted about viruses? Does anyone know? Were they really safe or not?

Word of warning - I noticed that frequently enough, antivirus alerts from pirated software were true positives. Repackaging warez with a malicious payload and then using a botnet to boost its seed count and place it at the top of listings was apparently lucrative, and I've had to deal with one instance of a user's account and website compromised due to what was most likely an infected keygen.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#90

Post by zepearl »

underlines wrote: post #46

I grew up in the late 90ies with internet in Switzerland, and as a broke pre-teen and teenager I was used to getting EVERYTHING pirated and this habit sticked with me, even though when in later years I was working as a software developer. Torrenting, sharing with friends and family is still completely legal in Switzerland. Only after pay services like spotify became a thing and were more convenient than managing and…

> Torrenting, sharing with friends and family is still completely legal in Switzerland.

Downloading might be legal (not sure if there are some clauses, e.g. only for own/private consumption), uploading definitely is not.

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