Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked • Hacker News Board

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#91

Post by spicyjpeg » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 2:46 PM UTC

_chu1 wrote: post #78

From how out of touch I am with my generation I fail to realize how many people watch TV and anime and whatever through those weird, peculiarly named "free TV and movies" websites with the pop-up ads and kinda-okay quality that have JS scripts and tons of protections to prevent you from downloading the content, one even somehow activated my browser's back button if I opened the developer tools. Who is owning these we…

These sites do get taken down relatively frequently, but their owners are masters of ban evasion and quickly reopen them under another name or sell them to someone else who does, as it recently happened with a certain anime site formerly named after a green-haired swordsman.

There usually is a hefty layer of indirection and obfuscation between the sites and the actual content served, presumably to make these moves easier (moving a frontend is certainly much easier than moving a multi-terabyte library of pirated media) while also preventing other similar sites from leeching off the same content. The smaller ones additionally tend to employ fairly aggressive SEO techniques, which is why finding them is easy despite the continuous takedowns and name changes; the largest ones seem to rely mostly on word of mouth, just like their torrent counterparts.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#92

Post by npn » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #53

npn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

already there, as there is no guarantee that a video will exist forever on Youtube. many people hoard youtube videos just because they fear that those video will disappear when they need them.

There was a great fan-made film clip to a John Zorn song that was on YT for years. Then one day, gone. Erased from the internet a magnificently disturbing piece of artistry. Luckily I downloaded it, but that means in time it'll cease to exist. I could re-upload it, but that feels like an invitation to have my account terminated with prejudice.

For me those were some viral videos from the older internet. It is not because those videos violate YouTube policies or anything. The uploaders just closed their accounts. Some videos just exist in my memory now.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#93

Post by tmtvl » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 2:55 PM UTC

edgineer wrote: post #8

tmtvl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty long I'd guess, seeing as you can just put down €7 for a month of ad-free viewing.

It's already happening. Why sign up for yet another subscription service to see that one members-only video?

What do you mean "that one members-only video"? I'm saying that with Premium Lite (which is 7EUR) you can watch videos ad-free for a month on YT. For people who care about not seeing ads it seems like a decent deal. Much better than Twitch where it's 5EUR per channel you subscribe to, which means if you want to watch videos from more than 1 creator ad-free it's already a better deal.

And people who don't feel like paying 7EUR/month can choose to either:

A) Just watch the ads, or

B) Build up a backlog and then binge it all in a month.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#94

Post by tmtvl » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

polygamous_bat wrote: post #10

tmtvl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty long I'd guess, seeing as you can just put down €7 for a month of ad-free viewing.

And Netflix for another 20, and Disney plus for another 20, and peacock for another 20, and another 20 for the BigCo CEO retirement fund, and voila!

Why do you need Netflix and Disney and YT at the same time? How much free time do you have in a month?

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#95

Post by tmtvl » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 2:58 PM UTC

wkat4242 wrote: post #21

tmtvl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty long I'd guess, seeing as you can just put down €7 for a month of ad-free viewing.

That's a lot of money IMO especially if you don't use it that much. I cancelled my Spotify too as I would use 2-5 hours a month and €11 is not worth it.

If you don't use it that much you can just build up a backlog, then get 1 month of ad-free viewing and binge it. Though if you don't use it that much you probably won't be bothered that much by the ads anyway.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#96

Post by roxil » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 2:59 PM UTC

Alifatisk wrote: post #71

wkat4242 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but be careful. In some countries like Germany with low consumer protections you will get extortion letters from random lawyers when you use popcorn time.

> In some countries like Germany with low consumer protections you will get extortion letters from random lawyers when you use popcorn time. I believe there was some cases in Sweden or Denmark aswell were users got those extortion letters aswell. Scary stuff, out of curiosity, how much do you have to torrent in order to be a target by these lawyers? I guess seeding those torrents makes you a bigger target?

As a recipient of such a letter, I can tell you that the amount you torrent isn't really the problem, it's about the specific content. It works like this: copyright lawyer company monitors torrent trackers, then goes to a copyright-friendly court/judge with a list of IP-addresses that were up/downloading the copyrighted content of the media company they represent, they get some kind of court order from the judge to pressure ISPs to give up information about users behind the IP-addresses.

The letter I got was from Universal's lawyers and amongst the various movies I downloaded, all they cared about was the new "Dune". The letter was detailed with lots of lecturing, legalese, timestamps, info hash of the content and at the end they ask for 400€ or else they might escalate in court. I didn't want to pay or risk it, so there is another lawyer who specializes in these letters who you can pay 200€ to take care of things.

I saw the whole thing as a lesson learned that yes, I am being surveilled and no, my ISP is not my friend, but an adversary who keeps logs and doesn't care much about protecting my privacy. From now on I do most of my browsing and all torrenting via Mullvad VPN, paid for with Monero.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#97

Post by wkat4242 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:16 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #35

wkat4242 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really justify. I just pirate because I can. I don't really care about the moral discussion at all. YMMV of course. I did share a Netflix account before the clampdown but now I pirate again. I just take the road of least resistance. Like water.

Indeed, and those who take items from the aisle at Target and walk out the door are also taking the road of least resistance. Such a hassle to go and check out, after all.

First of all, it doesn't feel the same to me at all.

Second, it's about the chance of getting caught. With online piracy this is zero. Doing that at target will net you a criminal record even if you're really good.

Conisder another example: You're hiking through the hills, are getting hungry and there's an apple orchard you can easily reach from the trail. Would you take an apple?

PS I didn't mean to make this a heated discussion, though it's obviously a hot take. I just wanted to explain my point of view. I'm kinda beyond justifying this.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#98

Post by wkat4242 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:18 PM UTC

Alifatisk wrote: post #71

wkat4242 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but be careful. In some countries like Germany with low consumer protections you will get extortion letters from random lawyers when you use popcorn time.

> In some countries like Germany with low consumer protections you will get extortion letters from random lawyers when you use popcorn time. I believe there was some cases in Sweden or Denmark aswell were users got those extortion letters aswell. Scary stuff, out of curiosity, how much do you have to torrent in order to be a target by these lawyers? I guess seeding those torrents makes you a bigger target?

Once is enough. They just need to catch your IP once. Like roxil said, they are looking for specific content usually. Mostly new releases. I guess this looks better in front of a judge too, instead of going to court over watching a blurry episode from a show from the 80s that has been rerun on free TV hundreds of itmes.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#99

Post by wkat4242 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:19 PM UTC

yard2010 wrote: post #50

wkat4242 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but be careful. In some countries like Germany with low consumer protections you will get extortion letters from random lawyers when you use popcorn time.

Always use a good vpn.

I do, yes.

But I just wanted to point this out to those that don't know.

Re: Some Pirate Sites Received More Visitors After Being Blocked

#100

Post by jachriga » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

jjulius wrote: post #49

Mindwipe wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they didn't.

This is just what I could find with a quick, cursory Google search... >In a March 10, 2017, Twitter thread that was promoting its original series Love, Netflix wrote, "Love is sharing a password." The single tweet in the thread garnered more than 15,000 likes and more than 4,600 retweets.[0] >Netflix CEO Says Account Sharing Is OK[1] [0] https://www.newsweek.com/netflix-encouraged-subscribers-shar... [1] https://tech…

> “We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch,,” Hastings said. “That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.”

> To illustrate this example, he spoke of how a parent may share their login with their child. And when that child grows up, they will usually subscribe to Netflix, too.

> “As kids move on in their life, they like to have control of their life, and as they have an income, we see them separately subscribe,” Hastings told reporters at CES. “It really hasn’t been a problem.”

> While Hastings didn’t directly address how he feels about non-family members sharing their credentials – such as in the case where friends or roommates may split an account

From [1], at least, it doesn't appear that he ever intended password-sharing among multiple households to be a thing?

Even in [0] (which I would consider a poor reference since it's about the crackdown and therefore starts out trying to prove a point...), I think there is a fairly reasonable interpretation of "Love is sharing a password" that doesn't include 3+ households sharing an account.