Bye Bye FeedMyTorrents, Hello ShowRSS
Written by enigmax on May 26, 2009This month, FeedMyTorrents finally closed down after legal threats got too much for the owners. Determined to make the shows go on, some individuals have developed a new site to fill the hole FMT left behind, and they have told TorrentFreak that they will never succumb to legal threats.
Last week we reported on the demise of FeedMyTorrents (FMT), forced to close down in the face of legal threats from the recording industry. FMT carried RSS feeds for popular TV shows to automate their downloading via BitTorrent and grew very popular in a short space of time, but sadly it is no more.
However, the closure of FMT didn’t go unnoticed. Over in Spain the admin of Karmorra – an ex-FMT user – became very disappointed that the site was forced to close and decided to do something about filling the hole FMT left behind.
He told TorrentFreak, “I was a FeedMyTorrents user (I loved the service!) and I didn’t like the fact they closed because of legal threats. So, with the help of some friends, I released a service that does the same thing that they did.”
And so showRSS was born.
The site is minimal right now, but very functional. Users are required to register a username and password so that feeds can be customized easily. Once logged in, this is achieved by clicking the ‘my tv shows’ button and choosing the show required and clicking ‘Add to My List’ – this can be repeated any number of times to add multiple shows to a personalized RSS feed.
That’s pretty much it as far as input goes. From the TV shows chosen, showRSS generates a single RSS feed to all your favorite shows. By configuring an RSS-compatible client like uTorrent with the feed, all shows will downloaded automatically when they become available.
All the feeds will only list one torrent per episode, meaning that no duplicates will appear in the RSS feeds. Currently only standard definition torrents are supported, however, showRSS is working on adding high definition feeds as well. There is no doubt that TV-torrent addicts will appreciate the new service, but what if the entertainment industry lawyers come calling?
The admin of showRSS told TorrentFreak that he isn’t worried by legal threats – they’ve even opened a Pirate Bay-style ‘Legal Threats‘ section on the site to showcase anyone foolish enough to send them any. But why the cavalier attitude? It’s quite simple. Since the admin is in Spain and torrent sites have been ruled legal there if no revenue is generated directly from an infringement.
“I won’t get any benefits or put any kind of ads on the website, I’m paying the server with my own money,” he told TorrentFreak.
“In Spain that’s 100% legal.”
Previously: Swedish Minister Takes Anti Pirate Bay Stance
Next: Operation Jackal: Police Track Down Charity Song Pirates
64 Responses
Go spain \o/
good luck showRSS!!
They will never succumb to legal threats…lol. We’ll see what happens when they get a legal threat, won’t we? A lot of people talk big until it comes down to the line, then fold.
@3 Agreed.
Everyone talks shit to till it actually hits the fan.
Then they run away, because shit is flying everywhere.
@3,
you are so right. talking shit is one thing. but standing up is another when they come after your ass to close it down. Legal fees to defend your business is no joke.
Well, I for one would like to give them the benefit of the doubt first, before predicting their demise under legal threats!
The glass sure seems half empty, with you guys above, huh?
@3 -& @6, yeah, just let’s see what happens!
one of the owners (I, that kind of anonimity sucks…xD) – own a “file sharing” service (it’s linked on the bottom!)
I mean, I often have to deal with legal threats. Many of the C&D, legal threats, rely on the DMCA and other shitlaws like the mentioned one. In Spain, IMHO, justice doesn’t works as it should, and the penal code/law says clearly that I’m not going on “dark things”. As far as we are legal here, we’re staying. And if not, we will still try.
Maybe someone can educate me.
How does one define “profit”?
For instance, let’s just say I’m running a business. I sell a product, and I only sell enough product to cover the cost of running my business, but I haven’t actually earned a dime. Does that mean I’ve profited from it?
To me, the profit doesn’t start until I earn one cent more than what I’ve invested in the product which I’m selling. Isn’t this how it’s supposed to be?
For instance, you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t profit from it. Like with that independent Star Trek movie some time ago and Paramount couldn’t do anything about it. What about all the finances the independent group put in to it’s production? If they spent $50,000, isn’t that a loss? Now if they distributed it and collected $50,000 in donations, isn’t that still non-profit? Now if they collected $50,000 and one additional penny, doesn’t that penny constitute profit making them prone to the lawyers of Paramount?
So if this spanish site spent say, $50,000 on bandwidth and servers in the first year and didn’t collect donations or income from running it, isn’t it in fact a loss? Now lets say they collected ad revenue and pulled in $50,000 a year and not one penny more, isn’t that still non-profit?
Seriously, someone needs to explain this to me.
i wanna have Spain’s babies.
@9 You are completely right but then take a look at who runs the trials and all these people care about other stuff than fairness.
Great site, thanks for the tip.
Not exactly about showRss, but TVRss is down here. Anyone can confirm this? Any info if they also closed?
I cant connect to tvrss
but the rss feed is working
http://tvrss.net/feed/legacy/eztv/
He should just make a site with ads that people get redirected to every once and a while, then he can make money for the ads there and pay for server costs or bandwidth with it. It would be legal (or should be) because the ads wouldn’t be on the site itself.
You know, just in case it’s illegal to get any money from the site at all, regardless of profit/loss.
So there closing down torrent based sites that might have been willing to cooperate, which are soon replaced by ones founded on the premise of never cooperating with any pro copyright group under any circumstances. That is brilliant.
The TVRss rss feed seems to be down now also.
Olé!
@13
TVRSS feeds are not working here.
I’ve never been a part of FMT, but after reading this article, I’ve signed up to ShowRSS and am now watching an RSS feed with uTorrent that contains both House and Family Guy.
<333 TorrentFreak.
god i love spain
simulataneously a thousand movie execs start to cry
“we don’t have too much money so we’re likely to save money in toilet paper. Send us as many C&D you want (it’s better in toilet paper format, by the way), better soft paper. Be nice.”
Never used the last site… but will give this a go.
Thank you lawyer/industry people for giving this site free advertising!
Apparently People think things go like this
1. Torrents
2. ???
3. PROFIT!
is there a way to donate money to ShowRSS to help pay for the hosting?
I can’t find it on the site.
I never used FeedMyTorrents but I’m going to start using ShowRSS! Looks great! Long live ShowRSS!
amtech.exofire.net
Is there a torrent site dedicated to History Channel or Science channel shows. Some of those documentaries are neat.
I like the initiative but it’s very stupid of them to do that legal page. It’s just inviting all sorts of trouble and blatantly saying that they are involved in copyright infringement.
$ host tvrss.net
tvrss.net A 127.0.0.1
Damn it!
We don’t need showRSS to -not succumb to legal threats-, we just need someone to take over the project (like he took over FeedMyTorrents)..
“How does one define “profit”?”
If your money ends up in RIAAs bank account, then it is profit. If not, it’s piracy.
Well if people would take 5 min and look at hte eztv website they could find their rss feed in no time.
why do you need a 3 website to get rss feeds.(or use you’re favorite private tracker :P)
Where is TVrss? I found out today after checking the net that my rss feed stopped! EZTV does not do an overall feed. Showrss apparently does not either but it looks promising. I want something I can rely on to without looking on a website. I live outside the US so shows are not advertised I have to find out by looking at what EZTV has. TVrss puts it all in one place. Simple and yet elegant.
I looked at the http://tiny.cc/rsses rss feed instructions on EZTV. They recommend you use TVrss. They do not actually provide rss.
????? ???? ????????? ??????, ???????!
I am now using the Mininova’s RSS.
Bienvenido al mundo libre :D
what’s wrong with thepiratebay.org ? :-s
@Captain Illiterate
“We’ll see what happens when they get a legal threat, won’t we?”
Yes. And we’ll see absolutely nothing happen, because without putting ads on the site, there are exactly zero charges that can be brought against them under Spanish law.
Why does it matter if the close down coz of legal threats…another site will just open up straight after! The hydra lives on!
i love the people out there that know how to do shit. open up a site in a friendly legal environment and offer the service for free. the way the net was meant to be. thanks and props to you, Karmorra =)
Well done!
IP location: France
looks totally stable, bro’
Are donations considered profit? Or are those allowed?
Thanks, ShowRSS!
TVRSS.net has been down for at least 27 hours now… are people only just noticing?
Does anyone know what happened to them?
TVRSS feeds have not gone down on me
but the red head across the road has
“TVRSS.net has been down for at least 27 hours now… are people only just noticing?”
It has been down here too since yesterday. The site is down and the feeds are not updating.
Yeah, also down for me:
host tvrss.nettvrss.net has address 127.0.0.1
Pretty bad :(
tvrss is gone
hm, tried it a minute ago, but for all my favourite shows there are no torrents whatsoever stored. then what’s the service for if there are no torrents to load?
Love the spirit of torrent! it is best when smart ppl who live in torrent-legal areas decide to help us out! cheers from Hong Kong!. Thanks a lot bros. keep spreadin the torrent love =)
I never used FeedMyTorrents but I’m going to start using ShowRSS! Looks great! Long live ShowRSS!
Automobiles reviews
coded a rss feed mirror of eztv.
http://feedz.newagekllrz.com/eztv.php
I just grabbed their twitter posts and reformatted.
Torrentfreak, why did you report on FMT and not on TVrss? I would think TVrss was much more popular than FMT.
(mods note: the owner of TVrss told us he didn’t want to discuss it, and didn’t want an article about it. He also closed *AFTER* FMT)
For every torrent site that gets closed at least two more will be created in its place.
Pretty wiggly…>:)
Here’s some first hand experience from someone who’s been utterly compromised by Torrent. I write this I hope to give both the writer of this article and followers of posts a glimpse at the other side. I have a small company that makes children’s TV shows. I made my first last year. It took 3 years to get it off the ground – 3 years of doing crappy jobs, remortgaging and doing everything I could to get the funding together to make the show. Funding can often be made up of DVD deals etc etc. I got it away. The series donates thousands and thousands of books to children in care and is educational. I did not make huge amounts of money from it – far from it. Series I is all about putting as much money as you can on screen to enable to fund second series. The ability to do this relies on getting DVD and Download to own etc deals. These release funding for second series. Without this – it is more than likely that it won’t happen. My series has now been compromised by sites such as these. Whilst you may think when you complain about legal threats that these are from huge corporations, there are others like me, who can’t even afford to do this. This site compromises my show and is now compromising donations to thousands of underprivileged children. I wonder just how much many of the commenters above have ever considered the consequences of what they’re doing. Not every copyright owner is some corporate giant – some of us are people who’ve struggled like hell to get their work to screen, only to find it trashed by things like Torrent.
@57 Thanks to torrents and the internet as a whole, people who would never have access to your show, would never be able to support it, can now have access to it, and support it if they so choose. It’s free marketing, and yet you are complaining.
@57: Don’t care.
@57 Owning a small business has lots of risk involved. A few people who otherwise would never heard of your show (I still haven’t) sharing with some one who did is the least of your worries. Think about all of the competition for children shows. Plus children have very short attention spans so they are always losing interest. A children show is different from an adult show in that respect (although many adults have very short attention spans). The biggest issue is that your biggest problem is not how people see your work, it is if they get to see it at all. Who knows, one of the people who ‘pirated’ your show really liked it and may try to fund your work someday.
Thank you torrentfreak for the quick reply about TVrss.
@lefty thanks it works amazingly!!
@ice_mouton
No problem, as long as they keep posting them on twitter in the same format as they are now, it should keep on workin.. :)
if theres a problem with it, let me know by posting in my forums @ http://forums.newagekllrz.com/viewforum.php?f=4
¡Muchisimas gracias!
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