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Piracy The Internet Technology

BitTorrent To RIAA: You're 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree' 109

Posted by Soulskill from the can't-we-all-just-get-along dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent a letter to BitTorrent last week asking the company to help stop copyright infringement of its members' content. Brad Buckles, RIAA's executive vice president of anti-piracy, asked BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker to "live up to" comments made by former chief content officer Matt Mason. Two quotes by Mason stand out in particular: "We don't endorse piracy," and "If you're using BitTorrent for piracy, then you're doing it wrong." Both of these remain accurate, but the RIAA wants to see BitTorrent do more. VentureBeat contacted BitTorrent to get their stance on the letter, and the company said, "Our position is that they are barking up the wrong tree, as it seems they were with their approach to CBS last week. ... We do not host, promote, or facilitate copyright infringing content and the protocol, which is in the public domain, is a legal technology.".
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BitTorrent To RIAA: You're 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree' More

BitTorrent To RIAA: You're 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree'

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  • ....now that's funny.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Qzukk ( 229616 )

      Funny, but it's true. If you join a swarm of other people downloading pirated content, you're handing out your IP address to everyone and anyone who asks for it by scraping the tracker or joining the swarm. All of the peer guardians and blocklists in the world don't change this fundamental feature of the protocol.

      If you don't want people to find out what you're downloading, using bittorrent is doing it wrong.

  • Dumb as a bag of rocks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07, 2015 @06:44PM (#50272143)

    I don't endorse murder...that's my view.
    That doesn't mean society or any company can expect me to go vigilante and try catching murderers. In fact if I did that I'd probably be arrested.

    It's not within my power to prevent everything *I* find offensive or immoral.
    Also, not everything I find morally repugnant is a shared world view. There are no moral absolutes.

    Also, who thought going after a file transfer protocol was a good idea? It's a fucking file transfer protocol. It's job is to get files from A to B - it doesn't care if they're MP3s, DOCs or JPGs. It doesn't care if they're MPGs full of donkey porn. It'd be like demanding car manufacturers try to stop cars being used as getaway cars: How the hell do you detect that?? It's all just driving to the car.

  • Bittorrent "members"...? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If I run Chrome am I a Chrome member? What about Notepad? Can I be a member of that too?

    These people are completely clueless.

  • I wonder how incompetent are these people in RIAA. Of they're doing things like this - they can accidentally cause damage to the companies that are not involved in copyright infringements in any way. Someone should fire these guys.

  • Ha hA! (Score:2, Funny)

    by kamapuaa ( 555446 )

    And because this is Slashdot, let's all pretend people use Bittorrent for things besides piracy.

    • Re:Ha hA! (Score:5, Informative)

      by ganjadude ( 952775 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @07:09PM (#50272277) Homepage
      blizzard uses it to push out patches and game downloads. so can steam if i remember correctly

      there are a number of legit uses for it that get used all the time. I believe microsoft is even using it for win 10 updates (opt in)

      • Facebook [torrentfreak.com] and Twitter [torrentfreak.com] as well -- internally, but they do use it.

      • Microsoft is using its own version of P2P that is much like bittorrent, but apparently not actually bittorent. I am quite interested in learning more about it, but all I've been able to find so far is that it is likely based on Avalanche [microsoft.com].

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Actually, getting free linux distros to test for fun is my current use of torrent sites. Everything is streaming now anyway. I don't care how they don't get their money, just that they don't get it. ;)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Vapula ( 14703 )

      It's Slashdot so let's pretend that no one here plays World of Warcraft (update done using Bittorrent protocol) or any other big game using that protocol for update distribution...

      And let's pretend that no one here uses Linux which uses Bittorrent to distribute the ISO as it allows both faster transferts and less charge on the distribution's servers.

      Many people use bittorrent for legal purposes... but sometimes, they don't even know that they are using it !!!

    • More likely you are using BT for legal purposes without realising it, for example,eg: my WoT game client uses bittorrent for updates and installs, windows 10 has an option to use BT for auto updates. In other words BT is basically the industry standard for remote updates/installs.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by KGIII ( 973947 )

        Nope. I am pirating documentaries with it. Quite a few, really. And sharing them. Yes, I kind of am egging them on - I have been for years. They just won't sue me.

    • BitTorrent makers have nothing to do with its use so the riaa asking them to stop piracy is barking up the wrong tree its like asking the maker of tcp-ip or ftp to stop piracy they have no control how people use it.

    • And because this is Slashdot, let's all pretend people use Bittorrent for things besides piracy.

      ...I actually do torrent linux distros... occasionally virtual machine images.
      And I haven't downloaded any movies/music over bit torrent for years now. Most of the time you can find them via http stream or download.

      Netflix Hulu Amazon prime if all else fails search video linking sites for a stream be sure to have enough script blockers to keep the malaware away. Don't feel secure doing that use tor as well it will be slower but even less likely to be caught. want it to watch later use a video downloader (or

    • Most of us (the people who belong here) torrent gigabytes of Linux ISOs regularly while you are trying to figure out what a torrent actually is.

    • Re:Ha hA! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by youngatheart ( 1922394 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @08:14PM (#50272637)

      The first time I used the bittorrent protocol, I used it to get a copy of Debian. I'd never heard of it before, but I read up on it and was impressed how potentially useful it could be. Software updates were the obvious first thing that sprang to my mind (as I work with a program that gets a lot of updates, all from a host that was more or less flat lining every time the updates came out.) When I found out people were using it for copyright infringement, I was shocked since, by it's nature, the protocol shares the IPs of everyone sharing the file.

      I recalled there was some company that was using it for software updates so I googled for it, and not only found that, but some other rather significant users [makeuseof.com] of bittorrent protocol:

      • Blizzard Entertainment uses its own BitTorrent client to download World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo III.
      • Facebook and Twitter both use BitTorrent internally to move files around.
      • The Internet Archive recommends people use BitTorrent to download its content, as it’s the fastest method and allows the non-profit organization to save on bandwidth costs.
      • Linux ISO distribution, as I first discovered it, is a big use.
      • The UK government released several large data sets showing how public money was being spent.

      Then there's NASA, and BitTorrent Sync and all the legal music and videos Bittorrent Inc puts out. P2P file sharing just makes sense for so many things, I'm still surprised people associate it with copyright infringement. I think the real key to understanding that association is all the media coverage of the *AA battles against Napster, Limewire, Mopheus and The Pirate Bay. I suspect there would be a lot less infringement if the public wasn't constantly hearing news about how people are getting content without paying.

      What I find most newsworthy is that Microsoft is using P2P to distribute updates now. Maybe the makers of the software I work with will finally get the hint.

  • Nope (Score:2)

    by DMJC ( 682799 )
    Fuck off RIAA, bitorrent is distribution for Linux ISOs, nothing more, nothing less. It's like jacking a bus and using it for a robbery
    • it make no difference what its used for its like ftp or tcp-ip the maker have nothing to do with its use.

  • ...we should also ban money.

  • Actually, RIAA isn't far off base (Score:4, Informative)

    by Dynedain ( 141758 ) <slashdot2NO@SPAManthonymclin.com> on Friday August 07, 2015 @09:48PM (#50273011) Homepage

    For once the RIAA actually gets it. They aren't claiming that BitTorrent (the protocol) is illegal or that it doesn't have legitimate uses.

    Instead, they very specifically said that of the illegal file sharing happening over BItTorrent, the majority of it is coming from uTorrent, the client published by BItTorrent (the company).

    They're clearly looking hoping the company will implement filtering to combat piracy (likely knowing full well that they'll kill the company in the process). This tactic has worked against other companies in the past who published software that was used more for piracy than legitimate uses (MetaMachine and eDonkey anyone?). Don't go after the technology - go after the company supporting the technology.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes they are! They do not "get it" at all! Copyright infringement is NOT piracy, nor is it in any way as serious or heinous as piracy. The RIAA/MPAA/Publishers will never completely stop copyright infringement. The only way to slow it to a crawl is for the RIAA/MPAA/Publishers to stop all of the geo-blocking, delayed releases in certain formats, and stop trying to create an artificial scarcity of their products. They need to create quality DRM-free products, and make them easy to get over the Internet

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        > They need to create quality DRM-free products, and make them easy to get over the Internet at what consumers consider a reasonable price.

        Indeed. Last time I bought music was when lala.com was offering full-length previews of tracks along with DRM-free downloads. It was so awesome that I immediately signed up and spent about $100 over the next few months, as the full length previews made it easy to sample potential purchases and find new music I wanted. Then Apple bought them and killed them. So I w

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by KGIII ( 973947 )

          I will start by saying that I know that I have no right to insist on being able to buy things in a manner that suits my needs best. I do not have that right and, by my account, that means I am ethically obligated to do without that material. Being ethics, and not morals, they are subject to change - as in situational ethics. So, I happily pirate and assist others in doing so.

          For my desires, not needs, I want them to get together and centralize a single site. At this site I want to be able to buy unencumbere

          • I have no right to insist on being able to buy things in a manner that suits my needs best

            We do have that right. If a seller accepts cash only, and you wish to pay by credit card, you absolutely can take your business elsewhere or refuse to buy.

            I would pay a few hundred bucks a month for full, unfettered, access like that.

            The trouble is that their business model of selling copies never did work that well, and now that copies are incredibly easy to make, doesn't work at all. It's only inertia, pity for those poor starving artists, and respect for the law that keeps their impossible business model on life support. You propose a different business model that I think isn't

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by KGIII ( 973947 )

              I think you will find people are too greedy and that we will lose a lot of creative works with that method. Times have changed... I do not say that they have changed for the better or anything. Just that they have changed. We used to have patrons. I do not see that being viable today. I suspect we will never agree on that.

    • Yes, you're right. Because killing the messenger always works.

      RIAA/MPAA/monopolistic-whatever could wipe peer-to-peer communications off the face of the earth (and out to geosynchronous orbit) and piracy rates would stay the same. Same for DRM. The underlying issue is that bits are fungible. If you can copy a document file you can copy a film or music file. This even precedes bits: they used to make dual video decks so that it was really easy to make illegal copies of video tapes.

      So going after a specific

    • Their OS allows the storage and playback of these illegal files, not to mention it allows piracy apps like uTorrent to run!

  • huh? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This is like asking the estate of the inventor of bullets to stop gang violence.

  • Dear RIAA,

    tl;dr: Fuck you!

    body of response letter

  • i don't dowload ... (Score:3)

    by Skapare ( 16644 ) on Saturday August 08, 2015 @04:57AM (#50274083) Homepage
    ... any RIAA crap. i use Magnatune [magnatune.com].
  • Shooting the messenger was always easy. I wonder why the RIAA does not drag USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL to court. After all, they 'distribute' plenty of copyrighted material.

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