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Chris Jacob
So, let's see: Any good trackers now? TPB's still out there but a PITA and often 'overloaded', ISOHunt has gotten confusing with 'releases', Demonoid's still down, and the other private trackers are still all elitists that never open signups.
Mininova has been crap for the last year, ever since they put in place those damn copyright filters, so it's not like this is some huge surprise. Don't worry, there's still ISOhunt and EZTV.
Anyone able to get this working properly in Parallels Desktop 5 after converting the image to Parallels format (via Transporter)? I get to the login screen, but networking is unavailable no matter which mode I select, and as such login is failing.
Just to be clear, this isn't Google Chrome OS (in the VM), it is a Chromium-based OS build. As has been called out in the Chromium discussion boards, there is a difference. Google Chrome OS isn't released yet (even in VM form).
Runs abominably slow in VMWare for me. Probably just my host machine though.
What they have right now is very rough and basic - essentially just a Chrome browser for Linux - but I can see what they want to do and it's very promising.
I've recently taken to using jDownloader in tandem with something like Filestube.com for some of my shows, since the download speeds are outrageously faster, or at the very least more consistent, than public trackers.
It's a little messier than using a torrent though, and admittedly more trouble than Usenet or a private tracker, so I only use it to download HD video or things that could hurt my seed ratio (a major deal with private trackers). Plus it's free. #thepiratebay
@qbrad: It's not that I don't seed (my overall ratio is somewhere around 6-to-1.) It's just that on private trackers, not many people leech the huge 1080p video downloads, and typically after 3-4 weeks of seeding my ratio on those files never gets any higher than .7, bringing down my overall stats.
The condescension is noted though. How old do you think I am?
@impliedsurprise: btjunkie.org aggregates a ton of torrents. I find it works decently well (still lacks the large # of comments that made The Pirate Bay truly useful). #thepiratebay
Seriously, why are you writing about The Pirate Bay when there are so many legal alternative, that actually give the producers their rightfull compensation? Pirates should be shot.. #thepiratebay
@Chris Hansen: So would that would include NOT stealing intellectual property from other people? Because I think that's what Godseye was referring to. #thepiratebay
@NorwoodIsMyHero: Dude. You and Godseye? You're not helping.
If you want to open a dialogue over how damaging you think piracy is to the industry (which is debatable, but we'll hear it nonetheless), go ahead. If you want to talk about alternative methods of distribution, and the increasing irrelevance of pirated content, please continue.
However, if you want to lump every single person who's ever used Limewire into the "dirty rotten thieves" category, you are welcome to shut it and shut it alone.
The copyright debate is confusing enough. And it's taken damn near forever to convince even a remotely significant portion of the non-pirate community that some of the fault may actually rest with distributors. That some blame may be on folks who lock down their content and treat all of their customers as potential criminals.
We'll give fair credit to those where it's due, like this Fricklas guy (see the current front page), or some of the folks behind Hulu, Netflix, and other legal alternatives. In return, stop, please with this incessant "content pirates = thieves". It's not so simple. And with that complicated debate that to this day folks don't quite understand, you're not helping. #thepiratebay
@NorwoodIsMyHero: I don't nessecarily agree or disagree with his opinion. I'm a pirate myself and as much as I don't want to be shot by someone as radical as him, I would like to pirate less.
I do buy PC games and I've spent plenty on iPhone apps but I just don't make enough money to suppory my love of music at the moment. I'm only 16 and I'm not working at the moment. When I become older and hold a job, I'd love to buy music from my favorite artists. They deserve it. #thepiratebay
@OCEntertainment: Dude, I was only joking. then Hansen goes and says "be nice to other people" and then admits to the most common form of piracy. Godseye was kinda trolling with his comment, hence I joked about it.
I don't think piracy is damaging to the music industry in any meaningful way. I think if it became more widespread and gamers found ways to take pirated versions online for multiplayer it would be for the gaming industry. But whether or not something is damaging isn't the point.
Taking stuff you don't have a right to take is wrong. Where in the Bill of Rights were we provided to the right to have information and media from private sources that we feel should be free? Nowhere.
If you are taking something that legally you do not have a right to take, you're wrong, end of discussion. If you want to be able to take it, lobby to make it legal to take. Don't take it and expect those of us who try avoiding it to listen to those who are taking it illegally.
I agree that there's nothing more grating to those of us willing to listen to both sides of this debate than the "Vive la Revolucion" and "Free the Music" preening that comes from one side, and the corporate doublespeak complaining about profits when their industry is collapsing irrespective of piracy that comes from the other. That's still no excuse to break the law. #thepiratebay
@NorwoodIsMyHero: First off, I appreciate the dialogue, and apologize for any overreaction.
However, I think for starters, how "damaging" piracy is to an industry is essential to the "piracy is stealing" argument. See, if I make a copy of a movie, I take nothing from the person I copied it from. They still have that movie. The reason that copying movies and music gets equated to stealing is because of a roundabout effect that, I'll admit, exists to a small degree (which is then overinflated for theatricality). Namely, that if you download something, that's a lost sale. The entire argument against copyright infringement hinges on this. If there's no actual measurable loss to copyright owners, then any and all litigation against piracy is pointless, subject only to varying levels of what folks feel is or isn't right.
Truth be told, some folks do pirate because they don't want to spend money. And, if they had no avenue of piracy, they would pay for some movies. These folks are called jackasses. I know a couple. Piracy aside they're decent fellows. But for whatever reason, be it arrogance, ignorance, or just plain douchiness, they believe that if you can download it, you should.
I hate doing it, but I'm going to use myself as an example. I rarely ever pirate. I much prefer going to Hulu and Netflix for my video. I'd love to support free alternatives rather than resorting to piracy. Through Hulu, I found the show Community. Were it not for this free method, I wouldn't know about it. Nor would I have shared it with close to a dozen other friends. Recently, some of those folks wanted to get in on the action, but earlier episodes were unavailable. So I downloaded the first five episodes. One download.
And while you'll have to take my word for it, I know that I will be buying Community season one whenever it comes out on DVD. In the meantime, a room full of people got to see the content that they would otherwise not have seen. The debate about whether that effect is good or bad is a complicated one. And not one likely to be resolved anytime soon.
The point stands, though, that one download doesn't equal a lost sale. In fact, it further solidified at least one future sale that will be made. And maybe more.
The problem is, never before has there been an easy method of 1-to-1 copying. Before the internet, making copies of a work would be incredibly difficult and resource-consuming. Thus it would likely only be done by professional pirates, folks out to make money off of other people's work. Though no direct loss would be made to the artists, there's very real loss in sales. Copyright law was specifically designed to deal with this problem. With digital piracy, that's not always the case, and thus people who might have otherwise been safely outside the jurisdiction of older copyright law are now squarely inside the crosshairs.
The short version (too late, I know): I take issue with folks who claim that pirates are simply thieves, and more importantly that a download equals theft. It's a disingenuous claim.
I'll give you this, though. It is illegal. The law is part of the problem. The DMCA was signed in 1998. It's a much different internet today, and frankly I feel it's ill-suited for today's network. Yes, it's illegal. But I don't think that illegal always equals wrong.
Again, apologies for any overreaction. #thepiratebay
@OCEntertainment: Then we agree more than we initially thought.
That said I do feel that if someone, even a big corporation, creates content they have a right to squeeze every last drop of value out of it, at least for the first stretch of time it's available. They spent their money, time, and energy creating that content, and should have first dibs for a bit to make as much profit as they can, and continue to be incentivized to create more content.
There are definately situations such as you described where allowing it to go free to some users will result in increased sales, but there really is no viable way for a digital provider to reasonably determine which free content users will result in actual sales and which will just result in lost dollars.
This problem is compounded by the fact that it is very difficult to to provide industry with a reasonably objective and concrete study proving one way or another. The data has a vast number of variables and many different influences, making id difficult to parse out very effectively.
I think that, in the long run enough companies will move to a more open ended software/content provision idea, that we'll be able to know once and for all if wielding the suit/copyright hammer is more profitable for content providers and creators. The few companies that have are all small start ups and are probably not very good barometers for how such a platform would affect entire industries. #thepiratebay
@NorwoodIsMyHero: "Then we agree more than we initially thought."
So we do. Man, usually these internet arguments take longer than this. I was quite sure I'd heart-clicked you before, but apparently not. Ah, well. You earned this one. Good sparring with you, sir. #thepiratebay
Anyone know of a good torrent client for Windows 7 64-bit? I read that installing uTorrent, the client I currently use, results in some issues in 7. Any recommendations would be useful. #torrent
@mjt308: I'm running uTorrent on Win 7 64-bit - no problems here. Lifehacker mentioned if you do run into problems, run it in XP Mode as an Administrator and that will fix it, but so far that's been unnecessary for a majority of people. #torrent
11/27/09
11/27/09
Nope, Mini is a tracker.
11/27/09
11/26/09
Google is still the best pirating tool in my experience.
11/26/09
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need Demonoid back up NOW!
Okay.... okay... I guess I can still get Dexter from elsewhere since mininova isn't a tracker but man is this grim....
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/21/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
What they have right now is very rough and basic - essentially just a Chrome browser for Linux - but I can see what they want to do and it's very promising.
11/20/09
[lifehacker.com]
11/20/09
11/20/09
(I <3 the poster though)
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
[gdgt.com]
11/20/09
11/18/09
11/17/09
It's a little messier than using a torrent though, and admittedly more trouble than Usenet or a private tracker, so I only use it to download HD video or things that could hurt my seed ratio (a major deal with private trackers). Plus it's free. #thepiratebay
11/17/09
11/17/09
The condescension is noted though. How old do you think I am?
11/17/09
Does anyone have a demonoid invite that they don't need? please?! #thepiratebay
11/17/09
11/17/09
11/17/09
11/17/09
11/17/09
If you want to open a dialogue over how damaging you think piracy is to the industry (which is debatable, but we'll hear it nonetheless), go ahead. If you want to talk about alternative methods of distribution, and the increasing irrelevance of pirated content, please continue.
However, if you want to lump every single person who's ever used Limewire into the "dirty rotten thieves" category, you are welcome to shut it and shut it alone.
The copyright debate is confusing enough. And it's taken damn near forever to convince even a remotely significant portion of the non-pirate community that some of the fault may actually rest with distributors. That some blame may be on folks who lock down their content and treat all of their customers as potential criminals.
We'll give fair credit to those where it's due, like this Fricklas guy (see the current front page), or some of the folks behind Hulu, Netflix, and other legal alternatives. In return, stop, please with this incessant "content pirates = thieves". It's not so simple. And with that complicated debate that to this day folks don't quite understand, you're not helping. #thepiratebay
11/17/09
I do buy PC games and I've spent plenty on iPhone apps but I just don't make enough money to suppory my love of music at the moment. I'm only 16 and I'm not working at the moment. When I become older and hold a job, I'd love to buy music from my favorite artists. They deserve it. #thepiratebay
11/17/09
I don't think piracy is damaging to the music industry in any meaningful way. I think if it became more widespread and gamers found ways to take pirated versions online for multiplayer it would be for the gaming industry. But whether or not something is damaging isn't the point.
Taking stuff you don't have a right to take is wrong. Where in the Bill of Rights were we provided to the right to have information and media from private sources that we feel should be free? Nowhere.
If you are taking something that legally you do not have a right to take, you're wrong, end of discussion. If you want to be able to take it, lobby to make it legal to take. Don't take it and expect those of us who try avoiding it to listen to those who are taking it illegally.
I agree that there's nothing more grating to those of us willing to listen to both sides of this debate than the "Vive la Revolucion" and "Free the Music" preening that comes from one side, and the corporate doublespeak complaining about profits when their industry is collapsing irrespective of piracy that comes from the other. That's still no excuse to break the law. #thepiratebay
11/17/09
However, I think for starters, how "damaging" piracy is to an industry is essential to the "piracy is stealing" argument. See, if I make a copy of a movie, I take nothing from the person I copied it from. They still have that movie. The reason that copying movies and music gets equated to stealing is because of a roundabout effect that, I'll admit, exists to a small degree (which is then overinflated for theatricality). Namely, that if you download something, that's a lost sale. The entire argument against copyright infringement hinges on this. If there's no actual measurable loss to copyright owners, then any and all litigation against piracy is pointless, subject only to varying levels of what folks feel is or isn't right.
Truth be told, some folks do pirate because they don't want to spend money. And, if they had no avenue of piracy, they would pay for some movies. These folks are called jackasses. I know a couple. Piracy aside they're decent fellows. But for whatever reason, be it arrogance, ignorance, or just plain douchiness, they believe that if you can download it, you should.
I hate doing it, but I'm going to use myself as an example. I rarely ever pirate. I much prefer going to Hulu and Netflix for my video. I'd love to support free alternatives rather than resorting to piracy. Through Hulu, I found the show Community. Were it not for this free method, I wouldn't know about it. Nor would I have shared it with close to a dozen other friends. Recently, some of those folks wanted to get in on the action, but earlier episodes were unavailable. So I downloaded the first five episodes. One download.
And while you'll have to take my word for it, I know that I will be buying Community season one whenever it comes out on DVD. In the meantime, a room full of people got to see the content that they would otherwise not have seen. The debate about whether that effect is good or bad is a complicated one. And not one likely to be resolved anytime soon.
The point stands, though, that one download doesn't equal a lost sale. In fact, it further solidified at least one future sale that will be made. And maybe more.
The problem is, never before has there been an easy method of 1-to-1 copying. Before the internet, making copies of a work would be incredibly difficult and resource-consuming. Thus it would likely only be done by professional pirates, folks out to make money off of other people's work. Though no direct loss would be made to the artists, there's very real loss in sales. Copyright law was specifically designed to deal with this problem. With digital piracy, that's not always the case, and thus people who might have otherwise been safely outside the jurisdiction of older copyright law are now squarely inside the crosshairs.
The short version (too late, I know): I take issue with folks who claim that pirates are simply thieves, and more importantly that a download equals theft. It's a disingenuous claim.
I'll give you this, though. It is illegal. The law is part of the problem. The DMCA was signed in 1998. It's a much different internet today, and frankly I feel it's ill-suited for today's network. Yes, it's illegal. But I don't think that illegal always equals wrong.
Again, apologies for any overreaction. #thepiratebay
11/17/09
That said I do feel that if someone, even a big corporation, creates content they have a right to squeeze every last drop of value out of it, at least for the first stretch of time it's available. They spent their money, time, and energy creating that content, and should have first dibs for a bit to make as much profit as they can, and continue to be incentivized to create more content.
There are definately situations such as you described where allowing it to go free to some users will result in increased sales, but there really is no viable way for a digital provider to reasonably determine which free content users will result in actual sales and which will just result in lost dollars.
This problem is compounded by the fact that it is very difficult to to provide industry with a reasonably objective and concrete study proving one way or another. The data has a vast number of variables and many different influences, making id difficult to parse out very effectively.
I think that, in the long run enough companies will move to a more open ended software/content provision idea, that we'll be able to know once and for all if wielding the suit/copyright hammer is more profitable for content providers and creators. The few companies that have are all small start ups and are probably not very good barometers for how such a platform would affect entire industries. #thepiratebay
11/17/09
So we do. Man, usually these internet arguments take longer than this. I was quite sure I'd heart-clicked you before, but apparently not. Ah, well. You earned this one. Good sparring with you, sir. #thepiratebay
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
I guess if you'd like an alternative you could go for Azureus (or Vuze as it's called now).
11/12/09
11/12/09