# 50,000 BitTorrent users sued for alleged illegal downloads



## LightyKD (Jun 10, 2011)

Source

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/10/technology...wsuits/?npt=NP1

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The turn of the 21st century was rife with bitter anti-piracy lawsuits pitting studios against their potential customers, with music labels banding together to blast Napster -- and its massive user base -- to smithereens.
Get ready for round two. This time, it's BitTorrent users facing off against the movie studios.

Nearly 50,000 users of BitTorrent's peer-to-peer downloading software have been targeted in a sting over the past few months, accused of illegally downloading one of two movies.

Voltage Pictures, the studio behind 2009's The Hurt Locker, is suing almost 25,000 BitTorrent users who allegedly illegally downloaded the flick. That came just weeks after 23,000 were sued for downloading The Expendables, produced by Nu Image.
Both of the lawsuits were filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Copyright Group, an outfit formed by Washington-based law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver. The group filed its Expendables lawsuit in February, then followed with its Hurt Locker lawsuit in April.
"They're copyright trolls," says Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization. "They take a dragnet approach to litigation."

The USCG did not respond to multiple calls asking for comment.
A spokesman for Voltage Pictures, the Hurt Locker studio, defended the sweeping lawsuits.
"The lawyers are just doing their jobs," he said. "Somebody stole our property and we are trying to get it back." The representative declined further comment.

The new anti-piracy clampdown: Legal skirmishes over digital piracy happen constantly, and BitTorrent is often in the crosshairs.
The free software program lets users swap and download large media files. It's got plenty of legitimate uses -- online education pioneer Khan Academy recently made its free video catalog available through BitTorrent -- but is also heavily used to illegally trade movies, TV shows and other copyright-protected content.

BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker said that his company merely provides the software, and it can't control what its customers do.

Suing John and Jane Doe: What's striking about this batch of lawsuits is that USGC went after tens of thousands of "John Does," issuing subpoenas to Internet service providers including Time Warner Cable, Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500), Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and Earthlink for the identities of those users.

ISPs are complying and handing over the details, according to those tracking the case.
"Time Warner Cable has fought the subpoenas, but most ISPs are coughing up about 100 to 150 IP identifications per month," said Eric Menhart, a CyberLaw attorney who is representing about 50 defendants in the Hurt Locker case.
A Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) spokesman confirmed that his company traditionally fights these kinds of legal requests. Representatives of Comcast, the nation's largest ISP, did not respond to a request for comment.

The EFF's McSherry is troubled by the move to prosecute thousands of individuals as one linked class. USCG "isn't letting people who have legitimate defenses raise them," she said.
Holding individuals accountable for illegal acts committed through IP addresses they're linked to is tricky. For example, should a parent be responsible for a child downloading a movie through the family's IP address? What about a landlord who supplies Internet to a tenant?
Years after those issues first arose, courts are still grappling with them on a case-by-case basis, legal experts say.
For those hit by the lawsuits, the costs of defending themselves can be daunting.
Dozens of the "John Does" in the Locker case have complained to the court about the distance they'd be required to travel to appear in Washington. Others say multiple computers were linked to their IP address.

So far, the court has thrown out the Does' moves to quash subpoenas sent to their ISPs seeking their personally identifiable information.
Threatened into settling? USCG launched in early 2010 and has filed a stack of digital piracy cases, typically going after a few thousand defendants at a time. Many choose to settle out of court.
McSherry and other critics have attacked the USCG for what they say is a "pay up or we'll getcha" method -- that is, pay a relatively small fee to settle or face tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and potential penalties.
BitTorrent user Dmitriy Shirokov filed a lawsuit last year making the case that the firm has made a business out of threatening people. The suit alleged that USCG exploited copyright law -- and that its goal was to frighten people into paying up a small settlement of $1,500 to $2,500 rather than face litigation.

The case is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Booth Sweet attorney Dan Booth, who filed that suit, said that USCG hasn't responded to the claims, and has moved to have the case dismissed. It also asked the court to sanction Booth Sweet, a Massachusetts-based law firm, for taking the case.
Menhart said he's seen "an uptick in this style of litigation" over the past two years. The small sums at stake can add up fast.
As TorrentFreak, the first blog to report on the Locker case, points out: If only 10,000 of the alleged infringers pay a $2,000 settlement, it would net $20 million for Voltage and USCG. In comparison, The Hurt Locker grossed $17 million at the U.S. box office.
Menhart hopes mass dragnets like this one will draw attention to a legal issue that's faded into the shadows in the years since Napster collapsed. Nearly everyone agrees illegal downloading is wrong. But how draconian should the punishment be?
"I think there will be a call from people asking, do we really want Grandma to pay $2,000 to settle over a movie her grandson downloaded?" Menhart said. "There's just something about it that doesn't feel right."


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## KazoWAR (Jun 10, 2011)

meh


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## cwstjdenobs (Jun 10, 2011)

Even if you didn't use a decent block list or use any encryption unless they sat between you and the rest of the peers while you where UL'ing shit they can't prove that the IP they logged is real. BT makes shit like that well easy to fake.

I'd also warn anyone who torrents Linux distros and the like to expect some letters. Don't give in, especially if that is all you really did.


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## Miss Panda (Jun 10, 2011)

@OP
Are they targeting Americans or other countries as well?


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## SamAsh07 (Jun 10, 2011)

I use uTorrent, a pretty old one. Lol.


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## lordrand11 (Jun 10, 2011)

this is stupid and reminds me of the frivolous lawsuit against limewire's creators "The amount of music and digital content downloaded through Limewire is about $90 Trillion dollars and we want every last red cent."


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## godreborn (Jun 10, 2011)

the expendables?  r u ****ing kidding me???  if anything, Nu image should be paying us for releasing such a piece of trash movie.


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## Valwin (Jun 10, 2011)

does peer guardian help ?


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## naka69 (Jun 10, 2011)

don't worry about recovering my copy of the hurt locker I deleted that piece of crap without finishing it and my punishment will be loss of my bandwidth and the fact I'll never recover the time I wasted trying to watch that awful movie


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## Nathan Drake (Jun 10, 2011)

So basically, if you are big on torrenting movies, you are potentially screwed.

I find it weird that The Hurt Locker shit is *still* going on, and now The Expendables is suddenly media gold that has to be sued over too.


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## gifi4 (Jun 10, 2011)

Hopefully this is just in the USA, otherwise, I'm dead...


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## Nujui (Jun 10, 2011)

Now, how much are they suing them for? Probably for a lot of money, which is stupid. If they really want their property back, sue them for the cost of the actual cost of said movie, instead of bankrupting the person. I highly doubt that if you sue someone for a lot of money over downloading *1* movie, is fair, that's a bit much. Now if they pirated a bunch of movies, then just keep adding to the cost with the cost of the other movies.


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## Amber Lamps (Jun 10, 2011)

People use torrent sites for movies? that just screams "sue me" all over it.  fail.


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## Hop2089 (Jun 10, 2011)

I don't download movies, I heard that's an invitation to too much trouble, seems like it's the case.


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## Panzer Tacticer (Jun 10, 2011)

So Sony gets hacked and everyone with the ability to type wants them ass raped in court for something they were not even responsible for.

Yet thousands employ a program that lets them butt fuck the various digital data based industries on the planet, and when THEY get sued it is suddenly somehow wrong to sue thieves?

Don't want to get sued, get your dumb ass off the internet and stop stealing other peoples property. And this is where I ask all those 'explaining' to me the definition of theft to stfu and get real.

I download and I don't care. But I live in a REAL free nation, unlike the United Sue me of America. So whatever they wish to do to anyone THERE means nothing to me HERE. I'll live with my own nations crazy ideas.

As it stands, chances are Bell and their ilk will kill off the internet before long in Canada.


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## Guild McCommunist (Jun 10, 2011)

I think they should be paying us for actually downloading and watching the Expendables. That movie was a piece of shit. I expected it to be a typical gruff testosterone filled action flick but it was basically just Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone crying about girl problems with some shooting. Really boring.


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## Rydian (Jun 10, 2011)

Panzer Tacticer said:
			
		

> Don't want to get sued, get your dumb ass off the internet and stop stealing other peoples property. And this is where I ask all those 'explaining' to me the definition of theft to stfu and get real.


Theft = Larceny, criminal law.
Piracy = copyright infringement, civil law.

Theft = Bad because of loss of property.
Piracy = Bad because of lack of respect for limiting rights.

US law even says you're wrong, so stop trolling.


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## ecko (Jun 10, 2011)

and this, my dear readers
is why you dl per http.
they can do jack shit against the uploaders or downloaders if u use a filesharing site(megaupload and the likes)


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## machomuu (Jun 10, 2011)

Rydian said:
			
		

> Panzer Tacticer said:
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He's not entirely wrong, if wrong at all.  You're still stealing a copy of a copy, and causing a _possible_ sales loss.


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## Rydian (Jun 10, 2011)

machomuu said:
			
		

> You're still stealingNo, it's not stealing and not theft because nothing is lost.
> 
> QUOTE(machomuu @ Jun 10 2011, 05:08 PM) and causing a _possible_ sales loss.


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/20...-lost-sales.ars

When people can sue over shit _that didn't happen_ it makes a mockery of the legal system.


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## Sterling (Jun 10, 2011)

As much as the Media say Piracy hurts (undoubtedly it does, but as minimal as it is, it's more like free advertisement) it's definitely not the scale it claims.


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## m3rox (Jun 11, 2011)

Sterling said:
			
		

> As much as the Media say Piracy hurts (undoubtedly it does, but as minimal as it is, it's more like free advertisement) it's definitely not the scale it claims.



Prove it.  I'm serious.  I want to see actual factual proof that piracy is no big deal.  And don't use the claim that it's just copying.  That point is moot.


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## Shinigami357 (Jun 11, 2011)

Some dude in youtube was talking about this. Apparently, said movie earned so-so at box office. Now, if even just a few thousand of the people they sued pays up, the money they get will actually eclipse their total box-office take. Pretty good business, if he had his figures right.


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## Sterling (Jun 11, 2011)

m3rox said:
			
		

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Is there any proof that it is quite serious? Is there any reason the Movie industry and Music industry still make millions every year? As I said, Piracy is very minimal. It's nowhere near as bad as many outlets make it seem. Sure as time goes on it gets worse, but it isn't something to worry over now. Like I said, its basically free advertisement. If I had friends who couldn't burn CDs, or didn't care. I play music they like, they either ask me to get it for them (to which I point them to wal-mart, or another store), or they find it themselves. For every music track pirated, there are hundreds more buying the physical product, or there are people who own all their music they pirate. It's not detrimental to the point where they should sue people. If anything, the money they make from suing people every year is as much or more than their sales are in a month. Minus the legal fees, they make minimal amounts.


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## GreatZimkogway (Jun 11, 2011)

m3rox said:
			
		

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It's been proven many, many times before.  Look it up.  I'll give you an example, though.  I download...say...SMT Devil Survivor.  AKA Pirate it.  Had I not liked it, I wouldn't've bought it.  I had absolutely no plans on buying it before that, either.  I merely wanted to try it.  That sale never happened.  Thus they lost no money to that.  It doesn't matter if they COULD have sold it.  It didn't.  Had they bought it, and then taken it back, not liking it?  Guess what.  Lost sale.  The money sale never happened.


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## Nimbus (Jun 11, 2011)

So help me...if they send me a letter for downloading a Linux Distro....so help me god....

It will be war!

Not that it would ever happen, but....still...


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## Bladexdsl (Jun 11, 2011)

that's why usenet is much better, faster and my isp even lets me download for free! (just uses my bw)
plus it will never get shut down


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## RiotShooter (Jun 11, 2011)

Its called private trackers....  People that use public sites are asking for it.


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## Holified 2x (Jun 11, 2011)

Wow I use Bit and U torrent but only ps2 games gosh I hope I don't get caught and sued


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## Rydian (Jun 11, 2011)

m3rox said:
			
		

> Prove it.  I'm serious.  I want to see actual factual proof that piracy is no big deal.  And don't use the claim that it's just copying.  That point is moot.


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/20...s-are-bogus.ars
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/20...-lost-sales.ars
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2004/07/4008.ars
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/06/...nt-creation.ars

Even Nintendo admits that some shit doesn't sell not because of piracy, but because it sucks.
http://gbatemp.net/t259065-nintendo-piracy...hind-poor-sales


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## TwoBladedKnight (Jun 11, 2011)

I download movies all the time. Being a uni student I have little money to spare. I've pirated tonnes of movies and haven't gotten any letters or anything.


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## godreborn (Jun 11, 2011)

I bet the producers of the hurt locker r still pissed that they lost to avatar at the academy awards in 2008.  after all, one of them was banned from the oscars for trying to persuade the judges to vote for the movie.  now, they're trying to blame everyone who pirated the movie as the reason they lost.  what true pieces of hollywood garbage!


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## Rydian (Jun 11, 2011)

RiotShooter said:
			
		

> Its called private trackers....  People that use public sites are asking for it.


That's not to say private trackers are safe.  Many "private" sites also list stuff on external trackers, and even with stuff hosted on their trackers it's possible to find you pirating stuff without having to have an account on the site.  Big companies have access to a lot more info and hardware than the average person.


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## Chhotu uttam (Jun 11, 2011)

Torrent users are sued(not the makers).
I don't think Skidrow,Fairlight,etc will stop posting on torrents.


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## ehayes427 (Jun 11, 2011)

i usually don't download that much illegally, especially movies, so i'm good!


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## Bladexdsl (Jun 11, 2011)

pfffffft i'm gonna go download duke nukem forever at 13mb/s


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## Narayan (Jun 11, 2011)

i just started using utorrent...
also can they sue me if i'm from the philippines? 
i'm outside of their jurisdiction right?


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## s4mid4re (Jun 11, 2011)

I don't really torrent that many movies.

The most I torrent are anime, which are alright as long as it's unlicensed.



			
				Narayan said:
			
		

> i just started using utorrent...
> also can they sue me if i'm from the philippines?
> i'm outside of their jurisdiction right?


True because copyright laws vary in the US and Philippines.


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## ShadowSoldier (Jun 11, 2011)

Man what is this UseNet people talk about?



			
				QUOTE said:
			
		

> So Sony gets hacked and everyone with the ability to type wants them ass raped in court for something they were not even responsible for.



I'm keeping this short so we don't change this subject:
A)Unencrypted Data
B)Outdated Security
C)Late on warning people.

/discussion.

I don't download a whole lot of movies, except for ones that are sort of old. I mainly download tv shows that are no longer on tv.


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## melkor42x (Jun 11, 2011)

As far as anyone is concerned Usenet doesn't exist.  We don't talk about it.


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## Bladexdsl (Jun 11, 2011)

ShadowSoldier said:
			
		

> Man what is this UseNet people talk about?


it's the motherload 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nzb


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## Zekrom_cool (Jun 11, 2011)

Well using Ares or μtorrent is much safer than bittorrent.


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## Wombo Combo (Jun 11, 2011)

Zekrom_cool said:
			
		

> Well using Ares or ?torrent is much safer than bittorrent.



Utorrent is a program that uses the bit-torrent protocol.


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## TheDarkSeed (Jun 11, 2011)

A guy I know was sent a C&D letter for downloading some movie off of The Pirate Bay. I guess they are getting on peoples asses, so I  shall watch mine.


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## Bladexdsl (Jun 11, 2011)

that's great now i'm gonna go download Paul at 13mb/s


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## damedus (Jun 11, 2011)

People still use torrents? wow I just get everything off direct download or watch it streaming, I use a forum for movies where every movie even in BR quality is on Megaupload 1 links which means you can see the steaming.


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## shakirmoledina (Jun 11, 2011)

some ppl wont ever be caught because they know to keep low but still 50k is a huge number. more risks than the benefits in accordance to the things that are downloaded.
here, i feel the isp members themselves download such stuff


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## Panzer Tacticer (Jun 11, 2011)

Rydian said:
			
		

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Something tells me he typed all that crap just because I said not to 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




First off I am Canadian, and quoting the US understanding of the matter, well it means precisely nothing to an non American. I couldn't care less what the US legal system has to say about anything on any matter of law regarding anything whatsoever. Not relevant, I am a Canadian.

I intentionally leave on the legal scmeagle warnings on my copies simply out of a desire to show how little I give a damn.

Torrents though, a torrent is a clumsy methodology at best. Worthless for anything other than the uttmost ultimately must have data at the moment it is as such. If you expect to get a file that is a year old on a torrent, you better have a while to get it. 5 minutes for the recent anime ep, 5 days if it was produced a few years ago.

If I want data and want it efficiently, I get it from a newshosting service (which is paid for) and I sleep easy knowing, that no matter how you want to spin it, the newshosting service is the only one that owes sweet fuck all to the source. yes, I know, they have disclaimers 'oh don't use us for doing illegal downloads'. Oh fuck off and get real, you jerks know damn well why we need unlimited massive data transfer options. It's not for bloody Linux updates.

11 bucks a month with Astraweb, and I can ransack virtually anything that was ever made in digital data form.

Some day the powers that be will get their collective heads out of their 20th century thinking mindsets, and either SHUT DOWN newshosting services (regardless of whether they CAN do legit services), or they will just go on being data raped.
In any given month, a person with a decent ISP like Teksavvy, can download 300 gigs of data of any sort.

With the right router to mask your data, and the right options like virtual networks, there is absolutely nothing the powers that be can do to really keep you from doing it.
The only people being caught, are dumb ass schmucks that know nothing at all about downloading.


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## Narayan (Jun 11, 2011)

Panzer Tacticer said:
			
		

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then get out of this thread...


tell ya something... a local online game's direct downloads isn't working, i only found an installer through torrent from fellow gamers...  there are some things only torrent can provide. well, you probably don't care.


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## Panzer Tacticer (Jun 11, 2011)

What? annoyed that the Canadian is laughing at your troubles 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Land of the free, my ass 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Home of the brave? Hardly, have you seen the levels of paranoid fear the way we on the outside perceive it?

Fortunately a lot of what is great out there on the market was not made or sold from the US.


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## Narayan (Jun 11, 2011)

Panzer Tacticer said:
			
		

> What? annoyed that the Canadian is laughing at your troubles
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look at my flag, i'm not having troubles... regarding being sued. just pissed at someone saying something is shit and useless knowing it'll offend people...


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## Guild McCommunist (Jun 11, 2011)

Stop crying Panzer and get back on topic.

I'm too much of a cheap asshole myself to pay for filesharing sites for faster speeds and stuff so torrents are usually preferred for me.


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## Panzer Tacticer (Jun 11, 2011)

Ahh missed the flag.

Regarding file sharing services, really they only fail in that it is too focused. The newsgroup scene is wider ranging in files selection for the most part.

I think the only real attraction for bit torrent is the fact it is so absolutely free no charge whatsoever. Trouble with it is it is so visible in most cases.

You simply never hear anything much of non torrent option hassles out there. The MPAA and the RIAA are always back slapping over crushing some torrent operation and claiming a big victory, but I don't think torrents move as much data as the non torrent options (no that is mere conjecture of course I have no data to point to).

The day they start beating up news hosting services is the day they maybe get somewhere.

I can't seem to understand why they have yet to do so though. One of life's mysteries. Likely has something to do with 'invasion of privacy' laws. Although the feds here in Canada DO seem to be working on that issue (yes a LOT of dialogue online over that matter).


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## Narayan (Jun 11, 2011)

well, regarding file hosting sites, you pay for them... in torrent they're free. most pirates like free stuff. why pay when you can get it without paying anything at all? 
but torrent users must also understand risks in using it. 

i still use file sharing sites, but don't pay for premium, well, i wait... i don't want to pay... one way or another, if it's possible, i'll get it. with the least cost possible. not sure about the others.


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## chrisrlink (Jun 11, 2011)

I smell a shit storm of hacking on the horizon maybe lolz perhaps?


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## TVNewsIsBiased (Nov 28, 2012)

Panzer Tacticer said:


> I download and I don't care. But I live in a REAL free nation, unlike the United Sue me of America. So whatever they wish to do to anyone THERE means nothing to me HERE.


 
As a fellow Canadian, I wish you were right. Unfortunately for us however, *you couldn't be further from the truth.*.

In 2011, a controversial bill (C-11) was *passed* in the Canadian Parliament known as the Canadian Copyright Modernization Act which stripped you and all of us of our comfy protections afforded to us by our previously outdated copyright act.. This is now history and to enforce this fact, here are some interesting cases for you, based on this act:


In 2011, a Canadian was fine $60,000 by a U.S court for piracy.
In 2012, in fact last *week* a BC court in Burnaby successfully prosecuted a group of 50 Canadians for copyright infringement, for their use of the Torrent protocol for downloading (Admittedly crappy..) movies.
The same company that identified and levied that Burnaby lawsuit claims they have collected "files" on over 1 million Canadians (Article also references previous Burnaby lawsuits) and they are actively planning their legal assault on them in the coming months.
I'm afraid we are indeed in the same boat as our American neighbours. It's important to remember that historically, Canada has *always* followed suit when the U.S went on legal offensives. *Always*.. Even _before_ this act, Canada was shamefully guilty of extraditing Canadians (Maher Arar, anyone?) to the U.S to face U.S-based charges (That later turned out to be completely false, predicated on racial profiling.)



m3rox said:


> Prove it. I'm serious. I want to see actual factual proof that piracy is no big deal. And don't use the claim that it's just copying. That point is moot.


 
Well it's kind of hard to prove a double-negative, sir.

However, here's a couple anecdotal case-studies ( Everyone loves Anecdotes, right?!  )

*1)* So my fav. television show right now is AMC's _"The Walking Dead"_. Unfortunately, my satellite provider does not carry AMC. There's absolutely _nothing_ I can do.. When I go to the AMC website, thinking I can watch it like I watch _"The Colbert Report"_ & _"The Daily Show"_ on the Comedy Network, I get an error that I'm not an "AMC Subscriber" which makes sense, 'cause I'm not... 'course not by choice. I'd love to have AMC. The only way I can watch it is online, "illegally".

So pray tell, how have I caused a loss in revenue for AMC when I have no avenue to purchase their services to begin with?

*2)* My wife and I quite simply do _not_ go to the Movie Theatres or buy movies anymore. It's no longer economically viable for us. It's a purely economical choice. If I watch a movie online, or not, it does not change the fact that we do _not_ go to the movies or buy DVDs. We are completely off the "radar" of any recording industry's market research..

So pray tell, how have I caused a loss in revenue for the Recording industries when I wasn't a customer to begin with?

*My* answer.. Is that these trumped up "losses" the recording industries are complaining about aren't fictitious, however the reason is not entirely Piracy. Why are these big million dollar studies completely oblivious of the rampant inflation that has affected the Music and Movie prices?

Why is it that my Wife and I seem to be the only ones that find a problem with entertainment valuations these days? Think about this for a second, 'cause we do every month: A loaf of bread is ~$3 and can provide a week of school lunches for our oldest son or a 4L bag of milk that can provide breakfast for my kids for a week at $5... Yet the Recording industry puts a $30 valuation on a *2 hour entertainment disc*... *2 fucking hours!*.

When we were kids, my wife and I vividly remember going to a movies (Which included basic drink and snacks..) for $5 or less. This is *2 hours* of entertainment, people.. Get ahold of yourselves!

Why not go take a look at the operating revenues of these corporations before crying a river about the "damage" pirates are doing..


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## FireEmblemGuy (Nov 28, 2012)

TVNewsIsBiased said:


> As a fellow Canadian, I wish you were right. Unfortunately for us however, *you couldn't be further from the truth.*.
> 
> In 2011, a controversial bill (C-11) was *passed* in the Canadian Parliament known as the Canadian Copyright Modernization Act which stripped you and all of us of our comfy protections afforded to us by our previously outdated copyright act.. This is now history and to enforce this fact, here are some interesting cases for you, based on this act:
> 
> ...


You know the post you're quoting was written more than three months before C11's first reading, and more than a year before it was passed? At the time of his post he was correct. I really don't see the point of dragging up posts from nearly a year and a half ago just to go on a political tirade.

Also, despite your claim that you're a Canadian your flag is set to Germany. Am I to take this as a not-so-subtle statement of opinion against copyright Nazis?


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## AlanJohn (Nov 28, 2012)

I know that by pirating the company making the game/movie/music loses money, that's one of the main reasons why I pirate.
In example, let's say that Call Of Duty Black Ops Warfare 4: Hardcore Edition™ has came out and Activision is getting millions from the little kids buying the game. One copy of the game costs around $59,99. Every time someone pirates the game, Activison loses $59,99. So, I pirate it around 10-15 times a day, doing the math Activision loses around $599 - $899 every day. I've been doing this for years, and it's quite effective.
I will never get caught on this, since I live in a shitty post-soviet 2nd world country that still thinks the internet is a magic entity which connects computers to a server somewhere in Kiev. Fuck even my ISP doesn't know where I live. There are no anti-piracy laws here and there never will be. Feels good.

/rant


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## TVNewsIsBiased (Nov 28, 2012)

Since the world is full of amplifiers that really don't do anything but read or hear an opinion and then go around broadcasting it everywhere... I'll go ahead and do that research for you.

So, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is a "trade association" that represents the *6* largest motion picture studios in the U.S. This is:


Walt Disney Studios
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Paramount Pictures
20th Century Fox
Universal Studios
Warner Bros.
So, 2011 was a big year for rampant lawsuits and valuation inflations. The cost of these shitty movies inflated more than 5% in 2011 and quite literally *hundreds of thousands* of customers were smacked with frivolous lawsuits based on a perceived "loss of revenue". What about the revenues, though?


*Walt Disney*
*40.893 billion* operating revenue.. UP from 2010's figure.​*8 billion* of that was *profit*.. UP from 2010's figure.​ 
*Warner Bros.*
*12.638 billion* operating revenue.. UP from 2010's figure.​*1.236 billion* of that was *profit*.. UP from 2010's figure.​ 
*Sony*
*8.021 billion* operating revenue.. UP from 2010's figure.​*416 million* of that was *profit*.. UP from 2010's figure.​ 
*Paramount*
*1.2 billion* operating revenue.. UP from 2010's figure.​*300 million* of that was *profit*.. UP from 2010's figure.​ 
*Universal Studios*
*4.239 billion* operating revenue.. UNKNOWN change.​*27 million* of that was *profit*.. UNKNOWN change.​ 
*Twentieth Century Fox*
I'm having a terrible time finding their 2011 figures. The best I could find were figures from a *single quarter* of 2011:​In the 2nd quarter (Q2) of 2011, Fox brought in *$189 million* in *profit*.. That is _staggering_ :\​


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## TVNewsIsBiased (Nov 28, 2012)

FireEmblemGuy said:


> You know the post you're quoting was written more than three months before C11's first reading, and more than a year before it was passed? At the time of his post he was correct.


 
Jah, good point.. I did not notice this (blush)



FireEmblemGuy said:


> Also, despite your claim that you're a Canadian your flag is set to Germany. Am I to take this as a not-so-subtle statement of opinion against copyright Nazis?


 
Nothing subtle or implied about the flag I picked or the date of birth I selected. Just random noise


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## osm70 (Nov 28, 2012)

They should sue creator of BitTorrent.


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## NightsOwl (Nov 28, 2012)

Well. Anyone got a suggestion for a low profile Torrent program?


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## BORTZ (Nov 28, 2012)

osm70 said:


> They should sue creator of BitTorrent.


lolwat

Thats like suing Sony for people figuring out how to disassemble a PS2 and being able to guide nuclear warheads with the disk laser.


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## TVNewsIsBiased (Nov 28, 2012)

NightsOwl said:


> Well. Anyone got a suggestion for a low profile Torrent program?


 
In my honest opinion, Torrents aren't the ideal way to watch online. Stream over the HTTP protocol.. The mixture of free and nonfree streaming content flowing over the http protocol and the sheer volume of the data makes DPI totally ineffective. Esp. when the majority of it is being sent in Adobe's heavily compressed flv container, adding yet another layer of complexity to the problem.

As far as sticking with Torrents, just make sure you use a client that supports protocol encryption and stop allowing unencrypted and legacy connections. This circumvents the DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) algorithms that identify the Torrent protocol to begin with.


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## Janthran (Nov 28, 2012)

Rydian said:


> Theft = Larceny, criminal law.
> Piracy = copyright infringement, civil law.
> 
> Theft = Bad because of loss of property.
> ...


If it's just a lack of respect thing, shouldn't Americans be covered by the freedom to say what we want about the government?


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## wrettcaughn (Nov 28, 2012)

what would my grandfather say...  something about...sleeping in my bed after I make it...
or was it...something about...gleaning what you disseminate...
I'm terrible at these old sayings...


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## shakirmoledina (Nov 28, 2012)

I've given up on torrent since I found out you can download safer with filehosts.


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## TVNewsIsBiased (Nov 28, 2012)

shakirmoledina said:


> I've given up on torrent since I found out you can download safer with filehosts.


 
Touche!

There's _so many_ good stream capturing extensions out there for various browsers ( Firefox, Opera, Chrome they all support the Netscape Plugin API.. Who gives a shit about IE and it's retarded ActiveX Controls  ) that you can use to save streams easily.

Adding to the value is the widely-adopted policy by these filehosts to _not_ have any logging enabled. That's why when you hear about MegaUpload, etc. being brought down it doesn't escalate into all their users being slapped with lawsuits, too (In fact that's why they get so angry, haha, they find nothing but servers spread all over the world stuffed with copyrighted material but with all logging disabled.)

I personally use the *cough* aptly named *cough* "Flash Video Downloader" but like I said, there's all kinds of them and they all work generally the same way.


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## Guild McCommunist (Nov 28, 2012)

Have any of you realized that this thread is well over a year old?

No necrobumping please.


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