Copyright holders rejoice! The largest torrent site on earth has been taken down by the US government a few days back. After posing as an advertiser they managed to trace the money back to a Ukrainian guy, Artem Vaulin. It's quite the story really, check out the full article here.

What do you think is going to happen now? Is this a hard blow to piracy or are most people just going to use another site? Will there always be another site to take the lead? Discuss.

 

[huma_dawii]

What is more secure, torrents or direct downloads?

For the end user?

 

[RevPokemon]

What is more secure, torrents or direct downloads?

For the end user?

Depends alot to be honest.
Ideally you would be using either a VPN that does not track you or an anonymous network like tor or i2p however I would say if the concern is getting dmca notices and you do not have a VPN then it would be direct downloads since companies can trace your bittorent via malicious peers (peerblocking software does not always work). But seriously geta VPN if you plan on Torrenting and set a firewall up to force all ip connections through it.

 

[Bladexdsl]

What is more secure, torrents or direct downloads?

For the end user?

usenet

 

[Subtle Demise]

usenet

If you're using your ISP's built in usenet access, then it's being tracked and/or censored. If you're paying for usenet access, then you're better off just paying for your entertainment.

 

[kabloomz]

Take one down 5 more will pop up in it's place.... HAIL HYDRA!!!

On a different note... did kat host any of these files or were they just a tracker?

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If you're using your ISP's built in usenet access, then it's being tracked and/or censored. If you're paying for usenet access, then you're better off just paying for your entertainment.

ehh... usenet is not that expensive... considering how fast transfer speeds are you can't beat NGs.

Not to mention the fact there are hard to find things that couldn't easily be bought at retail.

 

[Bladexdsl]

If you're using your ISP's built in usenet access,

doesn't have one

If you're paying for usenet access, then you're better off just paying for your entertainment.

i got invited to a private tracker i can access ANYTHING

 

[NORBIN]

I mean, it was bound to happen eventually.

Not like it matters though since the guys got supporters from every part of the world ready to take the wheel...

 

[RevPokemon]

doesn't have one

i got invited to a private tracker i can access ANYTHING

Even still private trackers are no more safe than a public one in terms of finding your Ip address. It is still best to use a VPN which are pretty cheap (PIA and TorGuard are both under $30 a year if I remember) or use some other anonymous downloading tool/client like Retroshare.

 

[Bladexdsl]

no one gives a fuck here we do what we want. our isps don't care what we do
never used a vpn never need to it's all scare tactics. been using TOR/USN for over 10 years with NOTHING ever happening!

 

[RevPokemon]

no one gives a fuck here we do what we want. our isps don't care what we do

I wish ISPs were like that here stateside. Although the monstrosity that is the DMCA causes that however.

 

[Bladexdsl]

KAT.AM is gone now too

MOFO!

 

[RevPokemon]

KAT.AM is gone now too

MOFO!

This bar, penguins love it to death. I suggest you look there for your needs.

 

[Bladexdsl]

piratebay they suck now

 

[FAST6191]

If you're paying for usenet access, then you're better off just paying for your entertainment.

Have you got a £15 a month service that does downloadable DRM free music, books, games, programs, TV, films and more of basically everything that is made, basically as soon as it is available to the general public?

 

[RevPokemon]

Have you got a £15 a month service that does downloadable DRM free music, books, games, programs, TV, films and more of basically everything that is made, basically as soon as it is available to the general public?

But one must ask is it really better than the cost of a VPN which (at least in America, not sure about the UK) cheaper?

 

[FAST6191]

Technically my usenet comes with a VPN service so best of every world there. For the sake of this I will assume I can trust the VPN service too (I saw some Americans paying an American company using American credit cards for servers located within America... which is crazy).

Anyway prior to this usenet takedown lark then there would be no doubt from me, today it requires you think about things a bit. Am I using this VPN service with a private server or am I going cowboy on public stuff without worrying about ratios.

In either case you could probably do more than you can watch/read/do/play/listen to in the given time period, and in either case whether you will get something popular (or popular and released somewhat recently) if you set out to find it is probably a function of skill at some level, or at least being sent/generating some nice bookmarks.

Also said £15 is top tier provider at current crappy exchange rates + bank commission. Buy a bandwidth block or go with a slightly lesser (though possibly less takedown affected) and prices drop somewhat.

I guess I will leave it at I don't lack time, tools, talents or desire in this computing lark and change is fine by me, I do lack money though. I do not however regret paying for usenet at prices covered.

 

[RevPokemon]

Technically my usenet comes with a VPN service so best of every world there. For the sake of this I will assume I can trust the VPN service too (I saw some Americans paying an American company using American credit cards for servers located within America... which is crazy).

Anyway prior to this usenet takedown lark then there would be no doubt from me, today it requires you think about things a bit. Am I using this VPN service with a private server or am I going cowboy on public stuff without worrying about ratios.

In either case you could probably do more than you can watch/read/do/play/listen to in the given time period, and in either case whether you will get something popular (or popular and released somewhat recently) if you set out to find it is probably a function of skill at some level, or at least being sent/generating some nice bookmarks.

Also said £15 is top tier provider at current crappy exchange rates + bank commission. Buy a bandwidth block or go with a slightly lesser (though possibly less takedown affected) and prices drop somewhat.

I guess I will leave it at I don't lack time, tools, talents or desire in this computing lark and change is fine by me, I do lack money though. I do not however regret paying for usenet at prices covered.

Very good point I must add. Personally I am quite interested in the potential of I2P for downloading although it lacks content severely.

 

[GBAFail]

KickassTorrents San is still working. It's the same website.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Very good point I must add. Personally I am quite interested in the potential of I2P for downloading although it lacks content severely.

You can force your torrent connections to run through I2P depending on the client you have.

 

[RevPokemon]

You can force your torrent connections to run through I2P depending on the client you have.

I know that Vuze can do that but one issue is that a certain private group I am in blocks vuze as it is banned. Also in generally I am just interested in the I2P network.