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Rarbg Is No More

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Re: Rarbg Is No More

#401
post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the site. RARBG themselves were responsible for many of the video encodes, hence the "RARBG_DO_NOT_MIRROR.exe" included in many of them: https://torrentfreak.com/rarbg-adds-exe-files-to-torrents-bu...

They don't, many encodes were from other P2P or release groups and they just stripped the names and attributed to themselves

Got any proof for this wild claim?

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#402
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem appears to just be "it's too expensive to run" at least according to the banner

How expensive can a link sharing site be to run, genuinely? They're not serving any of the content (unless they are, in which case, yeah...) But if they're just serving up .torrent files or magnet links, these sites should be pretty cheap to run I would assume?

It tends to run a little more when you're using hosting in a country that doesn't respect US copyright (and similarly for most EU) along with keeping your information private to begin with. When I had looked into it, it's been roughly 2x what a typical western dedicated server provider might charge.

This doesn't count the issues with a site that is very popular, from bandwidth to even simple database search overhead. If I were to guess, it's that RarBG probably spent in excess of $10k/month, which isn't much if you're a startup with a runway of VC capital or a revenue stream, it's a lot more if you're in a smaller country or don't have an excess of revenue.

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#403
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've yet to see Google not return a piratebay link at any point in history. Is it a loophole where they take it down, but their indexer then immediately puts it back in the next pass, lol? No. If you pay attention there can be a message at the bottom of the search results telling you how many results were removed due to takedown requests. IIRC, they used to even link directly to the request, but now I think you hav…

I'm not being nit-picky or contentious - I'm asking from a genuine point of curiousity ... but in the case of Google linking to the pirate bay, isn't the pirate bay the one linking to the pirated content? Google is 1 step removed in that node graph because they are just linking to the pirate bay. I guess if they directly linked to a pirate bay page that had a magent link on it .... maybe (?)

A court is unlikely to care about the distinction between actually linking to pirated content, and linking to a page with both instructions and a link to the pirated content. To add, enough TPB torrents contain screenshots.

Also, Google's takedown request handling in Google Search is not a matter of DMCA or a legal matter at all - instead, it's like Content ID, where they have their own system for evaluating takedown requests separate from any law. Rights-holders can still send Google legal requests, but it's easier to go through the expedited processes Google provides that also won't increase rights-holders' liability if they happen to submit a false takedown.

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love when thieves act like they're such noble saints.

Your useless copypasted comments brought nothing to this discussion. You have changed nobody's mind. Have you wrote all that to make yourself feel good?

I don't think you know how copy/paste works.

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love when thieves act like they're such noble saints.

I love when soulless corporations bribe governments to keep a stranglehold on works of art that have impacted cultures around the world and prevent future artists from being able make more art and prevent the proper collection and preservation of these works and block the access to them, all so they can keep making money off of decades old IP. It goes both ways. There are no Saints to be found on either side. I don't…

Don't pretend you care about artists when you refuse to pay them.

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#406
post #18

RARBG was originally Bulgarian, like many other trackers and warez stuff. Eastern Europe - inside EU or outside of the EU - has always been major player in this scene. RIP. I'm still curious how it's possible to run such global illegal operations without being exposed or caught. How is it still possible to remain anonymous on the Internet, considering in this age the thing is very mature and well commercialised?

>> How is it still possible to remain anonymous on the Internet, considering in this age the thing is very mature and well commercialised?

Because at the core, identity on the internet is not well defined. Authentication is a hard problem. You might wonder why it's hard, why better more secure protocols haven't emerged. Answer: that makes end to end encryption easy, among other things that give individuals too much power.

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#408

I keep wondering all the time why torrent search is based on websites (centralized), which can be taken down, etc., while once you have a torrent file or a magnet/hash everything is distributed. Is there a main reason why there isn't (AFAIK, even though I haven't really researched) a distributed search that wouldn't have these problems? Is it a tech problem that literally can't be solved? Or it just hasn't been done?…

The problem is not search, it's curation. Any system that accepts everything will be overrun with things you do not want (fakes, *very* illegal things), and so there needs to be some authority that determines what is allowed. At that point, you are centralized, and hosting a website doesn't significantly hurt you. This is also the problem with all distributed social networks. In the end, your options are formal centr…

It's pretty much impossible to support Anonymous + Distributed + Free from poison/injection attacks. Not to mention, you still largely need at least some known points of entry into such a system.

Re: Rarbg Is No More

#410
Ctrl+F "covid" Phrase not found

Seriously, a huge part of the internet is down because the team was taken out by Covid (both death and complications), and no one even mentions this? All the evidence points to the covid complication rate compounding with each infection. Rarbg is only the start of where we can all expect to be in 5-10 years without more serious long-term mitigations (universal indoor air filtration).

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/28/opinion/last-pandemic.htm...

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