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New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

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Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#111
post #104
post #101

This strikes me as a scary first step. The whole "re-education" spin is extra-scary; if I had a kid who downloaded something and was exposed to this kind of treatment, I'd be pretty loudly wondering who Comcast thinks it is to be "educating" my child with its propaganda. What can we as techies do to combat this? How can we add a layer of encryption and anonymity that's so dead easy that it becomes ubiquitous?

VPN software, even setting up tunnelbrick on OSX is pretty easy for techies, but I imagine it can be pretty tough for newbs. It'd be nice if there was a one-click type of process. Maybe where the credentials are transferred via web service using a login auth from the desktop client? The technology for anonymity is there and adequate, just needs some proper UX design and user education.

That's part of the problem, but the other part is that regular people just don't care. I don't think they will care until it's too late, and even when it's too late they might not care to realize it. (I.e. in the future where the internet only works for Comcast-approved sites, and folks are happy with it because at least they can pay Comcast $80/month to watch Game of Thrones in their browser.)

Technology has to step in and make anonymity and encryption basic on some fundamental browser, os, or protocol level, so that the average user doesn't even need to actively search out anonymity solutions.

I don't know what the answer is. I suppose if it were that easy, we would have figured it out by now.

Edit: VPNs are still not a perfect solution, because your activity on them could be logged. (The TOS says they don't keep logs? Then you're just trusting the company to do what they say in their TOS, because when the government comes knocking it'll go right out the window.)

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#112
post #104
post #101

This strikes me as a scary first step. The whole "re-education" spin is extra-scary; if I had a kid who downloaded something and was exposed to this kind of treatment, I'd be pretty loudly wondering who Comcast thinks it is to be "educating" my child with its propaganda. What can we as techies do to combat this? How can we add a layer of encryption and anonymity that's so dead easy that it becomes ubiquitous?

VPN software, even setting up tunnelbrick on OSX is pretty easy for techies, but I imagine it can be pretty tough for newbs. It'd be nice if there was a one-click type of process. Maybe where the credentials are transferred via web service using a login auth from the desktop client? The technology for anonymity is there and adequate, just needs some proper UX design and user education.

Plenty of these exist on the marketplace. Personally, I use HideMyAss (http://hidemyass.com/vpn/) (no affiliation other than a happy customer.) I use it for privacy reasons, although I'm sure there are plenty of folks who also use it for downloading. It's an OpenVPN client with its own configured servers and a friendly, easy-to-use GUI for Windows and Mac. It is so fast that sometimes I forget I have it on when I'm doing normal web surfing.

It's also come in handy for me with troubleshooting. For instance, once I was able to track down an issue with Cloudflare's CDN where customers in certain parts of the world could not access a website, by using it to appear as though I was coming from that area of the world. Cloudflare support confirmed the issue and fixed it once I was able to screencap with my home connection vs. my HideMyAss proxy IP in a different "location."

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#114
post #31

LOOK MA, NO GOVERNMENT! With SOPA destroyed by the combined efforts of giant internet companies and internet users calling their congressmen, Hollywood was able to engage another group: ISPs. Note: this is done completely without government. It is one of the best illustrations to date of what I was saying, about nannies curtailing liberties being possible even if government doesn't do them. To all libertarians that s…

No government? The telcos are government controlled, sponsored, and protected corporations. The entire industry is practically one giant government sponsored monopoly system. We live in an era in which the US Government has the power to directly control every single aspect of the economy. Either directly or indirectly via threats. There are laws on the books to dictate everything and anything, using one agency or ano…

> We have a Hollywood sponsored President

wat

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#115
post #104
post #101

This strikes me as a scary first step. The whole "re-education" spin is extra-scary; if I had a kid who downloaded something and was exposed to this kind of treatment, I'd be pretty loudly wondering who Comcast thinks it is to be "educating" my child with its propaganda. What can we as techies do to combat this? How can we add a layer of encryption and anonymity that's so dead easy that it becomes ubiquitous?

VPN software, even setting up tunnelbrick on OSX is pretty easy for techies, but I imagine it can be pretty tough for newbs. It'd be nice if there was a one-click type of process. Maybe where the credentials are transferred via web service using a login auth from the desktop client? The technology for anonymity is there and adequate, just needs some proper UX design and user education.

Running a p2p protocol like BitTorrent over a VPN is pretty horribly inefficient. At that point, I'd just use a seedbox and download my final product over https (optionally on a VPN, too)

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#116
post #53

Game of Thrones (the most pirated show of last year) comes out in March. Still not for sale at any price unless you have a cable package AND one of their authorised ISPs (plus $18+tax/month). Maybe companies like HBO should update their business practices to something roughly compatible with 2013, instead of trying to legal threat everyone into submission. If they sold it on iTunes, YouTube, or Hulu+ they'd convert t…

This is a tired argument born out of ignorance. You have no provided no evidence that the pirates would pay for it if they could, nor have you provided any evidence that HBO would make more money selling Game of Thrones to individuals than selling their network to the cable companies as an exclusive option for consuming their content.

I'm not sure about HBO making more money one way or another, but there's ample evidence at least some people would pay for movies they are now downloading if they could download them in the same convenient manner with good quality and reasonable timeframe and price. I, personally, would gladly ditch my TV subscription and pay the same - or even slightly more - say, $50/month to an internet solution that would deliver me the same dozen or so of shows I am watching in a convenient manner. I'm not using 99% of the channels I'm paying for anyway. In fact, I am regularly checking current offers from various places - Hulu, Amazon, etc. - but none can offer enough coverage and convenience for me to go with them. And if my brain-dead DVR (my punishment for being cheap and getting into Dish contract I can't wait to end) misses an episode or they decide to run a baseball game over the time and the brain-dead DVR doesn't know how to adjust, I'm pretty much out of options when online solutions won't feature it for a year or so and I can't continue watching the series since whole story arc will be messed up. That unless I do the obvious thing and just download it - because unlike what Dish or Amazon could offer, somehow those pirate guys actually can deliver convenient, easy to use and reliable way to get the content to me, and I could watch it anywhere any way I like. I'd pay money for something like that if somebody would bother to do it for me for money.

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#117

Game of Thrones (the most pirated show of last year) comes out in March. Still not for sale at any price unless you have a cable package AND one of their authorised ISPs (plus $18+tax/month). Maybe companies like HBO should update their business practices to something roughly compatible with 2013, instead of trying to legal threat everyone into submission. If they sold it on iTunes, YouTube, or Hulu+ they'd convert t…

It actually just came on DVD a few days ago (Feb 19th). http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Complete-Blu-ray-Digital/...

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#119
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there's an alternative. Wait a few months until it's available for purchase. Works fine for me.

Unacceptable. If my friends/family are watching some awesome show like say, LOST, I'm not waiting for TV companies/netflix/whoever to get their act together. The moment people around me want to discuss the show is the moment I want it and not a second later. I will pirate it if need be. I won't "wait a few months". I'm not here trying to justify piracy either; think whatever you want of me - I'm not waiting, that's a…

If TV shows are such an important part of your social life, why don't you watch the shows with your family and friends? You know, as in go over to their house, bring some munchies, and socialize? The argument that you have no option but to pirate it in order to be socially relevant is absurd.

Re: New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

#120

Well, here come the Dark Nets: "The RetroShare network allows people to create a private and encrypted file-sharing network. Users add friends by exchanging PGP certificates with people they trust. All the communication is encrypted using OpenSSL and files that are downloaded from strangers always go through a trusted friend. In other words, it’s a true Darknet and virtually impossible to monitor by outsiders. http:/…

the real answer is seedboxes and VPN's, which are readily available for reasonable prices
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