Bad Year For Piracy: 2016 Was The Year Torrent Giants Fell (torrentfreak.com) 116
From a report on TorrentFreak: 2016 has been a memorable year for torrent users but not in a good way. Over a period of just a few months, several of the largest torrent sites vanished from the scene. From KickassTorrents, through Torrentz to What.cd, several torrent giants have left the scene.Another notable website which vanished is TorrentHound. ThePirateBay is back, but is often facing issues. Not long ago, ExtraTorrent noted that it was on the receiving end of several DDoS attacks.
Re: Finding torrents (Score:1)
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Piracy never was an issue. It was a missed opportunity. Just as the music industry screamed foul about Napster while iTunes quietly took their trade away the movie industry will die if it does not start providing the customer with service they want at a fair price. People can and will start making movies outside the studio. Most people are tired of the endless effects and total lack of story or content that the studios churn out and low budget good stories will start arriving in just the same way that t
Re: 2016~~~ (Score:2)
People can and will start making movies outside the studio. Most people are tired of the endless effects and total lack of story or content that the studios churn out and low budget good stories will start arriving in just the same way that the music industry is changing.
A gross misunderstanding of what it takes to produce a film. At its very most basic level a film is a play with a camera and a microphone. Simply producing a play is a tremendous amount of work and pretty expensive. And that ignores the fact that you need talented actors which is harder to manage than you would think... Just go to your local community play.
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eMule takes already care of that with it'sd KAD search protocol. Decentralized directories already exists, just not (yet) for torrents.
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Nothing disappeared, it is just moving to new premises.
http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/ [uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion]
And yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
.. i still have no problem downloading whatever im looking for.
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With the exception of playlater (or owning a ios or android device) how can you download movies you've purchased on amazon to watch offline?
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If you don't already own an Android device, you can always buy an Android device.
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Or just install an android emulator like www.andyroid.net or the bluestacks one if that works for you.
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I thought Android emulators used AOSP, which lacks Google Play Store and Google Play Services, and that many popular applications were exclusive to Google Play Store and/or dependent on Google Play Services. There is Amazon Appstore, which ships with Fire devices and is available through Unknown sources for other Android devices, both Google Play and AOSP. But I've seen app publishers set a policy on Amazon Appstore to hide an app from non-Fire devices in order to deter emulator use.
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nah, andyroid has AOSP installed... I haven't tried using it for anything that needs graphics acceleration, but it'd probably be able to handle video stuff OK. Worth giving it a shot!
Big names are big targets (Score:5, Insightful)
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First there are HUGE public indexes on these nets.
Anyways...
Crime markets and child porn are busted because their operators and ESPECIALLY their users FUCKED UP.
NOT because the networks themselves are flawed.
Yes, until fill traffic becomes part of these networks, it is possible for the NSA to locate servers.
But so long as your opsec is good, that doesn't matter.
And there is no evidence that that has happened yet... just obvious fuckups by ops and users.
So until that happens, and especially for quite frankly
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No offense, but you are smoking crack. Onion sites get brought down all of the time. The Freedomhosting raid killed like 3/4 of the links on the Hidden Wiki. There are probably more FBI honeypots on TOR than there are "legitimate" kiddie porn sites, and they've had a pretty good run unmaski
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Please, the silk road got taken down by complete accident. The guy had a drugs delivery break open in transit and he was raided for that and they found the server by complete accident. It was not their skill but his stupidity. Yes, they can create honeypots, just like you or I could but they cannot track you.
Re:What now? (Score:5, Informative)
If you have discs: Handbrake. If you purchased a digital copy: Playlater.
Just fyi torrents aren't private and Kat is rebuilding at https://katcr.co/new/ [katcr.co]
Decentralized Crime (Score:5, Interesting)
Piracy has always been a story of decentralization. In fact nearly all crime will inevitably rely on a decentralized process. In order to build a large, powerful organization you can't have a larger, more powerful organization trying stop you.
We saw this from the beginning. It started with streaming sites and warez sites, but those were trivial to target and eliminate. So people moved on to p2p in order to decentralize the crime. That worked until the law adapted to target the defacto pirates (the application developers). So it moved to even further distributed services: torrents. Without an application developer to pursue the new central authorities which could be attacked were the torrent hosting sites, so the community also developed magnet links to further remove themselves from the process of hosting.
The inevitable outcome is just that the list of magnet links will also become distributed much like the DNS system.
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So long as you remain on clearnet, nothing you do or invent there will ever keep you safe or free.
You must use the darknets now.
Freedom, privacy, sharing, communication, encrypted, distributed, random, worldwide.
It awaits you...
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> In order to build a large, powerful organization you can't have a larger, more powerful organization trying stop you.
--
" Government is the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial complex"
-- Frank Zappa [wikiquote.org]
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Re: Decentralized Crime (Score:2)
Woosh!
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So it moved to even further distributed services: torrents.
You're wrong, fully decentralized systems (with magnet link support) like ed2k/kad and gnutella alredy existed before bittorent's DHT was a thing, with multiple implementations.
Bittorrent is a step backwards for decentralization and it only prevailed because it's faster.
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The inevitable outcome is just that the list of magnet links will also become distributed much like the DNS system.
Doubtful. At some point somebody has to control the index so it doesn't get spammed by bots, you want search/nfo/preview/vote/report/comment features. What I really would like to see though - despite the potential for abuse - is something like an torrent that can be updated. Say you download episode 1x01 of a show, if you "subscribe" to updates the creator can replace it with a 1x01-1x02 torrent, then a 1x01-1x03 torrent and so on without the need to chase down each update. It would probably help seeding an
Re: Decentralized Crime (Score:2)
Every seeder can carry metadata. If you want upvotes etc then you could distribute it through the peers. You could also build a simple trust system where a magnet could be signed with a trusted key. If you like one uploader you could whitelist other content by that uploader. "Only download music uploaded and signed by key XYZ". We already do that for legal content, I would expect the illegal content providers would do the same. With public/private keys as long as a provider keeps their keys safe their uplo
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You're suggesting there's a need for a solution, the solution would benefit people and make money, and that the solution is technically simple, and yet does not exist. Perhaps you need to examine one of your axioms...or get coding!
Anonymous Overlay Networks - USE THEM :) (Score:5, Interesting)
Since the MAFIAA will never give up, and your protests via clearnet sharing operations both
a) do not sway lawmakers minds
b) fail and fall under MAFIAA pressure
You really should move all your operations exclusively onto the anonymous overlay networks and never ever touch clearnet again.
We're talking I2P, Phantom, Tor, GnuNet, OnionCat, Pond, etc... an entire ecosystem of virtually impenetrable encrypted anonymous comms and data sharing channels awaits you. Start searching these names and finding all the new tools that are out there for you to use.
With at least two of these nets, you can plug your favorite torrent clients directly into them because those nets provide a p2p IPv6 tunnel interface.
And many clients such as Vuze and Transmission (the best two out there) can also speak the native addressing schemes of these networks.
The benefit is, by keeping all your sharing traffic entirely within these private netoworks,
you can share and seed 24x7x365 with complete freedom and impunity. A huge fuck you to the MAFIAA.
And they're fast enough too... you can easily share and fetch all a normal person could ever use... a lossless DVD-9 VOB rip, a couple lossless FLAC CD rips, a game, some books... PER DAY, more than you can consume.
And the best part is, that you can volunteer to help these networks and your peers by running nodes on these networks and allocating some of your ISP bandwidth to these nets. Plus, you can run your nodes in private services and relay modes, never ever offering or risking outproxy mode if you don't want. AND, you can set up your own websites, gameservers, shell servers... anything you want... all without ever needing to ask your ISP for AUP policy permission, for FREE from your own home.
These networks are basically THE PERFECT SHARING network solution, but you all have, for MANY YEARS, refused to see and try that.
GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF THE SAND, OPEN YOUR EYES, DO NEW THINGS!!!
Get on the anonymous overlay darknets people.... it's your only hope of survival,
at least until you organize your efforts therein and come out fighting to take back your rights from the powers that be.
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Deep packet inspection will shut all that down. The ISP is the single point of failure we have yet to circumvent.
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You can easily and cheaply run wifi both short and long range.
You can easily and cheaply run ethernet or fiber in simple trenches you dig in the dirt between all the neighbors around you with their help once you explain things.
You can easily and cheaply run OpenVPN tunnels for guerilla networks over the internet to the next urban zone if you're unable to get the help of farmers land for fiber.
But that's talking guerilla networks, not the already existing anonymous overlay networks as the OP mentioned.
Re: Anonymous Overlay Networks - USE THEM :) (Score:2)
Or instead of running fiber through town you could just spend $5 a month for a legit streaming service...
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Deep packet inspection only works for some traffic.
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The ISP can simply drop packets that don't match whitelisted protocols. 'Darknet' traffic is trivial to block.
Re:Anonymous Overlay Networks - USE THEM :) (Score:5, Interesting)
Then the ISP will be loaded with complaints when each new online multiplayer game comes out, as its datagrams and/or streams will not "match whitelisted protocols."
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In the shared monopolies/duopolies who's going to listen to any complaints? Especially now that the government will soon be more inclined to protect the ISP's interests? Until people actually vote for people with consumer interest in mind who will write laws with teeth, the problem is only going to get much worse. Meanwhile their 'complaints' will go straight to /dev/null. Each new online multiplayer game writer will have to buy a license to get on the whitelist, and most of them will comply. They might gru
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Which home ISPs with a substantial user base have already implemented a protocol whitelisting policy like this?
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The 'darknet' issue isn't big enough for them to care at this moment. When the order comes down it will be done. We should be ready for it. Bypassing the ISP is critical to that purpose
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Whitelisted protocols like HTTPS?
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Man in the middle has been used in the wild for seven years [mozilla.org]. I've already run into public Wi-Fi hotspots that attempt to MITM the TLS connections of their users, even if only to redirect all users to the TOS page. It wouldn't be too much of a step for an ISP to require subscribers to install the ISP's root certificate so that the ISP can MITM everything.
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these nets really are the way to go.
Yes, they work for now because only a tiny part of the traffic travels over them. As soon as they become even close to ubiquitous, the party's over.
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You really should move all your operations exclusively onto the anonymous overlay networks and never ever touch clearnet again.
What would you say about [github.com] cjdns [hyperboria.net]? It claims to fully encrypt everything and only communicate with trusted peers, and people using it say it is very fast, but it still seems to be quite small and obscure. Does anyone here think it looks like a viable future protocol?
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For the purpose of torrenting copyritten materials while remaining free from criminal and civil harassment, both for the functions of uploading and downloading, CJDNS seems reasonably sufficient. In general, it affords more protection than VPN can offer, yet less protection than using stronger overlay networks.
Every network has weaknesses so you really need to *read and understand* CJDNS, and the other networks, before using them.
But they are all far better than stupidly firing up Vuze on clearnet or over s
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Legalization is the other way to survive. Create more pirate parties, then proceed to vote pirate.
A lot of gay people and marijuana users were prosecuted before it becoming legal. Keeping it on the clearnet and sharing despite the law, in massive quantities and every type of media will enshrine the practice. People being prosecuted for doing something common and moral will eventually grow enough outrage that it will stop.
The first step, besides sharing, is to stop the sharing = stealing narrative.
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Would mod insightful. I'm from one of those countries, that's why the (somewhat wrong) reasoning about pirate parties. I guess that leaves the responsibility of creating and voting pirate to the other countries, to avoid the trade agreements that the US uses to push censorship and criminalization of sharing. For the US people tough, as bad as it is, I can only hope that things get worst to the point were marijuana got, so that it is legalized too.
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I'd agree with you except speed limits are still set too low in most of the country (for limited access highways), despite everyone mentally adding 9 to all of them when they set their CC...
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#1 pirate site YouTube is still up (Score:1)
Not only can I download music there for free, the creators upload their music! It's great!
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If the creators offer it to you, it ain't piracy.
Unless of course some giant TV network used his song without licensing it and YouTube's ass backwards automated content watchdog finds out that the same sound bite is used by some no-name artist and Big-Ass-Network, thinks that the BAN has to be the rights holder because it's BAN and the other one is no-name-artist, and suddenly the creator gets a YouTube strike for putting his own creation up on YouTube...
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The creator of a work is not necessarily the rights holder.
If the creator and rights holder is fighting with each other over how to distribute music, the rights holders have far bigger problems than, and won't care about, people downloading the music from the creators.
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The creators are offering it to you to stream with their ads. But there are only a billion different tools to extract the mp3 from the video.
YouTube is, by far, the largest pirate site. You can get pretty much any music file ever on there to download. They also have a ton of TV shows/movies you can download off there as well.
Big-Ass Network violates YouTube TOS (Score:3)
If Big-Ass Network used no-name artist's work without an exclusive license, then BAN is obligated to scrub no-name artist's work from the reference material uploaded to the video host's fingerprinting service. Otherwise, BAN is violating the video host's TOS, and no-name artist has grounds to sue BAN for slander of title.
On the other hand, if BAN's work came first and no-name artist was subconsciously "inspired" by a BAN work, then no-name artist can be held liable because copyright is strict liability. How
Whack-a-mole continues (Score:5, Funny)
I think it's time we get trackers for trackers to find out what is the latest replacement for a tracker that was just shot down by the content industry.
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Just use Google/Duck Duck Go to search for what you want plus "magnet" or "torrent".
The Pirate Bay seems pretty reliable for me. VPN to block ISP/music industry interference.
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I like unblocked.uno.
This is great news! (Score:5, Interesting)
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The next iteration is darknets, encrypted end-to-end file sharing, completely under whatever radar they can come up with. I've been farting around with ZeroNet lately and it seems pretty good. And if all of it shuts down, we'll just go back to the ol' "hard drive fulla goodies" passed around like we did back when half of the people who had Internet access had dialup. Good luck tracking that.
Princess Leia Organa: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
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In Japan, there is "Perfect Dark". An darknet style filesharing software.
It is commonly used for sharing anime, in a country that isn't very kind with pirates (it is ninja-land after all).
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Especially the malware! Malware has come SO far since limewire. It's like we get free software with our stolen software!
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Re:This is great news! (Score:5, Funny)
They shutdown torrents and we get Usenet! I love progress.
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"They shutdown torrents and we get Usenet! I love progress." ... gotta be humor
As usenet pre-dates even arpanet and tcp/ip; yeah gotta be progress. Yep, usenet is still out there.
Bad year for privacy also (Score:1)
We have to circumvent the ISP to fix the problem.
Bad year for piracy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or the title should read "Good year for the copyright cartel after buying off more politicians and judges with brown envelopes".
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The brown envelope encloses the checks payable to the candidate's campaign and the IEOPAC(s) supporting him.
News of their demise is greatly exagerated (Score:5, Informative)
As of two weeks ago, KAT is back on the scene.
https://torrentfreak.com/kicka... [torrentfreak.com]
Kazaa/gnutella as the future? (Score:1)
I'm curious, will the magnet links ever shift to a platform such as kazaa or gnutella? Where instead of uploading files, just the magnet links get distributed?
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No, the only bittorrent client with distributed search engine is Tribler, unless other clients start implementing it there isn't much chance of that happening.
Yes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tiniest violin (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Tiniest violin (Score:5, Interesting)
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For me to buy the several hundred films in the cultural canon on Bluray or DVD, it would take me years and so much money that I also wouldn't have anything left over for purchasing culturally important recordings or books. Torrent sites are just as important as Sci-Hub in bringing important information to the average person who doesn't enjoy a huge salary or well-stocked library.
No excuse. VPN and Netflix/Spotify. At least you're paying for it.
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Funny how pirates always see "I can't afford it" as an actual JUSTIFICATION for stealing...as if the price of something determines whether or not it's morally acceptable for a poor bum to steal it instead of pay for it.
I'd maybe have more sympathy for that if you were stealing food, to survive, but no...you're arguing the movies and shows you pirate (educational ones I'm sure) are "important information" for the "average person," therefore you're well within your right to steal. In fact, it helps you to aff