Cashing In on Naive BitTorrent Users
Written by Ernesto on February 29, 2008BitTorrent sites are overloaded with ads for malware ridden BitTorrent clients and paid tutorials that promise to quadruple your download speed. They try to lure naive users into downloading their products with catchy phrases such as “Breakthrough Information Will Have You Downloading Torrents Up To 475% Faster”. It’s time to take them down.
Last year we reported several times on the family of malware supported BitTorrent clients such as Torrent101, BitRoll, TorrentQ and GetTorrent. These clients promised ‘high speed downloads’ but actually installed a payload of malware onto the victim’s PC. It seems that our articles resulted in the desired response, with most torrent sites effectively banned their ads.
Recently, however, we have noticed an increase in ads for paid tutorials. A couple of months ago we posted about highspeedtorrent.com, a site that promised to boost download speeds up to 500% faster. Unfortunately they are still around, the only thing they have changed since then is their initial claim, they now promise a 475% increase in download speed.
The only thing these people are after is money from naive BitTorrent users, and they do this by advertising their ‘revolutionary’ tutorials on BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, Mininova and Isohunt, making thousands of dollars a month. Technically there is nothing illegal about selling something like this, but the absurd claims they make will only disappoint people who get tricked into paying up.
Luckily, most BitTorrent admins agree with this. The administrator of BTjunkie is the most active opponent perhaps, as he told us: “I don’t allow it on our site because it’s a scam. It’s like a bad infomercial for torrents.” He even went as far as complaining to Paypal and Adbrite to stop these people, so far without result. “I’ve had lots of backs and forths about this with Adbrite,” he said “They just keep telling me it’s not possible to permanently ban them unless you want to approve every ad that goes on your site.”
TorrentFreak contacted a few other admins, and they assured us that they will do everything they can to stop these ads from appearing on their sites. Pirate Bay’s Brokep told us: “We’re making sure they never comes back now, or I’ll tell Adbrite we need to kick them out.” We honestly hope that the others will follow this example, for now, this seems to be the only way to get rid of them.
The funny thing is, scammers are not only ripping off innocent BitTorrent users, they also rip each other off. Here is an email that the owners of fastspeedtorrents sent to a torrent site admin, pouring his heart out he wrote:
I own the site fastspeedtorrents.com. I’ve been trying to buy a flat rate ad on your site but it would always get declined. What happened was I bought the site highspeedtorrent.com and the person that sold me the site said that you were a main advertiser and to purchase flat rate ads. Well, something changed and I haven’t been able to buy an ad since I purchased the site. Then this person went and started a site called rocketspeedtorrent.com which is basically just a copy of a site that he sold me which he legally shouldn’t have done and now I see his ads on your site somehow.”
Poor guy…
Do you want those superfast downloads for free? Help yourself to some of our guides, hints and tips. There’s 20 more of the best right here.
All 100% free. Now that’s a guarantee.
Previously: RIAA Keeps Settlement Money, Artists May Sue
Next: BitTorrent Rip Off Sites, and How to Avoid Them
133 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Everyone I tell about downloading via torrent network I tell about torrentfreak.com! because especially noobs need to know what’s going on…
I have made a comment on Mcafee’s Siteadvisor and mentioned this article. Check Siteadvisor here:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/highspeedtorrent.com
utorrent no #1
i don’t really care about n00bs
they don’t even know the first thing about d.loading,all they know is click and open the client,whats really going on,nahh they don’t care about it
ive came across people that don’t even know what a tracker is !
they can get bent or set on fire for all i care
[quote comment="300567"]i don’t really care about n00bs[/quote]
Elitist bastard. Everyone starts out somewhere - you would do well to remember that. Nobody deserves to be scammed, although it takes only a modicum of effort to avoid it.
well said dave. Would bet my life on WTF being a leacher too
Yes, noobs make the world go round, if only they knew how to google…
bittorent users are already naive, they are too stupid to find movies and warez without the web. faggots. naive bit torrent user is an oxymoron.
It also doesn’t help when sites like PC World also advertise for them.
http://downloads.pcworld.about.com/downloads/file/fid,45534-order,2-page,1-c,htmlauthoring/description.html
Seriously anyone that believes that a bit of software can improve your hardware deserves it anyway.
Download this file to turn your mouse and keyboard to solid gold! Break apart your keyboards and sell them to jewelers!
Link: SpYbOtZ.exe
At 9:
Anyone that shops in PC World deserves it too.
@9, Can’t believe they put it under HTML Authoring!
@11, Very true
What about fuckin SUMotorrent? Would you like a torrent site with your ads sir?
@11 Yeah, I just searched google to find out how popular these things were. Just thought PC World, idiot editors who don’t know jack about computers.
advert on your site whilst i was reading this article….
Download speed slow?
accelerate for torrents download Speed up 100% and protect HD.
http://www.soft4kids.com
how ironic…
Gallus
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sharing is caring, not only in p2p world. speed is irrelevant, but education is very relevant.as some1 said, we all started as newbies, and every newbie needs help. don’t patronize, help. 1 newbie less = 1 educated sharer more, 1 win more for all
AdBlock Plus
That’s correct #17. Whenever I see people having trouble with the simplest things like unraring and mounting I always try to help them as best as I can. When they know what to do and see someone who needs help they’ll be able to help even more people, and the chain goes on.. I feel pretty good about it too, first time I downloaded something that was in rar’s I asked for step-by-step help. Everybody need help the first couple of times and then they’ll be able to help others.
@ 16 I agree whether someone is using IE or FF the site admin could put up a warning disclosure to ignore offensive ads, with instructions possibly on using ‘Adblock Plus’ a free firefox addon, or ‘SelectView’ for IE from free IE addons at microsoft.com.
@ 13 LOL WE77 PUT MAN :)
[quote comment="300596"]advert on your site whilst i was reading this article….
Download speed slow?
accelerate for torrents download Speed up 100% and protect HD.
http://www.soft4kids.com
how ironic…
Gallus[/quote]
you need to sort out your adblocker then
People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…
LOL they should show kazaa ads and that stupid usenext stuff… So users will try, be cheated and think “oh man torrent is much better…” lol
“i don’t really care about n00bs
they don’t even know the first thing about d.loading,all they know is click and open the client,whats really going on,nahh they don’t care about it
ive came across people that don’t even know what a tracker is !
they can get bent or set on fire for all i care”
Yes, because you were never a noob, and were born with this information already implanted into your brain.
Come on, everyone started somewheres, some of us in the good old BBS days, others last week, sites like this are great and also bad. Great, as they help get the noobs up to speed, bad because they make it too easy and accessable, which is why there’s a huge crackdown on torrents now, how many IRC busts have you heard of lately? EXACTLY…
[quote comment="300639"]That’s correct #17. Whenever I see people having trouble with the simplest things like unraring and mounting I always try to help them as best as I can. When they know what to do and see someone who needs help they’ll be able to help even more people, and the chain goes on.. I feel pretty good about it too, first time I downloaded something that was in rar’s I asked for step-by-step help. Everybody need help the first couple of times and then they’ll be able to help others.[/quote]
I try to do that but then people ask me what is ‘My Computer’ and then i give up.. some people just dont need to be on a computer..
[quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.
and just like evolution,these noobs
will either learn to be smarter p2p(if they survive) o got weed out by the scam,never to use p2p again.
however my concern here is that these scam will eventually employ hacker-turned-greedy to attack normal p2p users to the point they un-useable unless we are using part of thier software/subscription.
this scam is just like those mafiaa o riaa or wahtever u call them that sucks $$$,while 1 side pretend to fight on the side of “artists”,the other pretends to fight along side p2p users,both trying to make lot’s of $$$.
the recording industries failed/did’nt weed those riaa out when they r small,and now u have anti-p2p problem.this time we must act to weed out scamers that think they can profit on the side of p2p users while they r growing,else they grown into somting big,
It’s not just about noobs or pros,it about sharing,..for free n fair,and not paying.btw i’m just a noob too,n thanks to all that cared n wrote those guides n tips,it helps..
[quote comment="300649"][quote comment="300596"]advert on your site whilst i was reading this article….
Download speed slow?
accelerate for torrents download Speed up 100% and protect HD.
http://www.soft4kids.com
how ironic…
Gallus[/quote]
you need to sort out your adblocker then[/quote]
i havent got one on my work machine :P only just get away with having mirc on here
naivety deserves to be punished!
[quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
As I mention, half of the stuff on here is BS, that leaves the other half to read. There’s such a thing called “critical thinking” fucktard.
trust is a fools game!
(..but Sharing is caring.)
Greedy downloading is partly what drives those ads. Sometimes people just aren’t happy. Never satisfied. Need more speed.
But I do agree with helping new users. It’s part of the game. If you’ve ever been flamed for asking for help, you’ll likely agree.
1337 fuxxors can go screw themselves.
[quote comment="300664"][quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
As I mention, half of the stuff on here is BS, that leaves the other half to read. There’s such a thing called “critical thinking” fucktard.[/quote]
Your not ‘Critical Thinking’, your ‘Complaining about the website’. So please stick a dick in your mouth and shut up.
WOW seriously…
we were all noobs once. Some a little quicker in the learning department then others. No need to be a dick to them.
I wonder if someone was a dick to you back in kindergarden when you were learning about stuff.
Myabe your parents didnt teach you ’so you learned on your own?’ leet fuckin hacker u!
I can honestly say, I’m still a noob, but I have never clicked on any ads on any torrent site.
Why not look at it all the other way around?
There obviously *are* ways of making millions on P2P. Why not let those that know how to do it continue ripping stupid people off?
Did anyone mention Darwin? Those of us in the know don’t have to worry about it anyway so why bother?
@35
“I wonder if someone was a dick to you back in kindergarden when you were learning about stuff.”–m!chael jacks0n style ?
[quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
Um…I was. Then I pulled the trigger.
Hello ernesto.First of all i think that your article is scaring people from clicking ads on torrent sites which is bad cause ads is the only way a torrent site can survive from the other hand YES a lot of torrent sites are showing ads that will harm your computer or make you pay for nothing the best solution for this problem is to have a guide of what people must avoid to click i know a lot of that and of course i do not use them on my site although they will bring be more $$$.If you wish i can make a list of bad ads and torrent sites that host this kind of ads so torrent community can ban these bastards.
Every one was a newb at one point, so lets not hate on them. but i do have to agree that some people just stay newbs forever, and those are the worst people, because they don’t care about anything but downloading. any hardcore torrent user should be involved in the fight against the RIAA and MPAA
nubs lol
Sorry, but I use a huge host file that blocks almost all adds. I know about host files cause i researched a way to block specific web sites. I know about port forwarding because I researched ways to increase my dl speeds. If you are to lazy to do some research you can only blame yourself. /L2 google
I can’t bear the hypocrisy!!! Ads for these very sites on TorrentFreak: http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tfhiponi7.png (First ad on the right of the page and others)
How can you let this happen?
haha. this site has adds?
[quote comment="300786"]Sorry, but I use a huge host file that blocks almost all adds. I know about host files cause i researched a way to block specific web sites. I know about port forwarding because I researched ways to increase my dl speeds. If you are to lazy to do some research you can only blame yourself. /L2 google[/quote]
i agree do some research learn about port forwarding. I also have an adblock host i see NO ads.
I dont understand why people trying to STEAL movies and music would PAY for a guide. If you want to get better dl speeds, why not type “bittorrent guide” into the search box of whatever torrent site you use. Besides, almost EVERY torrent site has a link on the front page to instructions on how to download and they usually 1. recomend a malware free client 2. give you some tips about setup and 3. link you to a page with real, in depth information on how to setup more advanced options.
The pirate bay has all this information linked from the front page.
This is what i use on both pc’s
http://everythingisnt.com/NoAdHOSTS.exe
I don’t use any anti-ad tools but I block a couple of ad domains, simply because they massively slow down surfing. I suffer from ad blindness anyway. If I notice an advertisement at all, it has more likely a negative effect on me than a positive. The collapse of the whole finance-by-ads model is imminent anyways.
[quote comment="300567"]i don’t really care about *SLAP*[/quote]
STFU, lackwit…
Format your drive and install Linux, it’s free and you can choose from several bittorrent clients.
If you still use Windows you’re a fucking fool and deserve whatever rootkit you get. Windows is the biggest piece of shit ever.
[quote comment="300581"]bittorent users are already naive, they are too stupid to find movies and warez without the web. faggots. naive bit torrent user is an oxymoron.[/quote]
Wow! Two tards - no waiting!
N00by BT users may be “too stupid to find movies and warez without the web”, but I bet they understand terms like ‘oxymoron’ - unlike you.
Try not to use words you don’t understand, you utter dullard.
Here, this may help. I’m so sorry it’s “the web” & not your über-1337 PVT-FTP:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oxymoron
HTH
HAND
kthxbai…
[quote comment="300839"]Format your drive and install Linux, it’s free and you can choose from several bittorrent clients.
If you still use Windows you’re a fucking fool and deserve whatever rootkit you get. Windows is the biggest piece of shit ever.[/quote]
hey! that was just mean…
I wasn’t aware that a significant amount of people actually fell for these scams. The ads so obviously reak of “scam”, making outrageous “too good to be true” claims, and using overly enthusiastic language.
I don’t think this is a “noob” problem, or a problem with stupid people in general. I think public education is to blame. Kids today aren’t taught how to evaluate sources of information, or use critical thinking. For proof of this, just take a look at all the college students who think wikipedia is a suitable resource for a research paper (I’m not saying wikipedia is terrible, but it doesn’t have as much credibility as a peer reviewed scholarly journal).
More people must be taught media literacy, so that they can approach advertising and web content with a reasonable amount of skepticism. Although I do get bored reading articles like these on torrent freak, I’m glad that they post these sorts of articles to raise awareness. Thank you.
[quote comment="300839"]Format your drive and install Linux, it’s free and you can choose from several bittorrent clients.
If you still use Windows you’re a fucking fool and deserve whatever rootkit you get. Windows is the biggest piece of shit ever.[/quote]
I would have to agree in every respect but gaming. I almost converted to fully to ubuntu, but until wine 1.0 (full xp support) comes out, i will keep my vista dualboot so i can actually play stuff without getting a wine BSOD. Otherwise there is no reason to give any money to M$ at all.
However, for a bittorrent client in linux i use uTorrent 1.8 Alpha + wine, as it is much faster than transmission and the linux clients, and doesn’t use up 700megs of ram like azureus.
yeah cus you were the ones who made them lulz
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Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the Torrent community that largely supports the illegal/immoral downloading activities are complaining about a different illegal/immoral usage of their software?
So illegal/immoral activities are fine with BitTorrent so long as they aren’t annoying to the users? That’s the line we don’t cross? Everything else is fair game?
Either way, if someone wants to go illegally download the latest Coldplay album and is too much of a moron to figure out that they downloaded a trojan instead, I do not have much sympathy. Learn to use a computer.
“…scammers are not only ripping off innocent BitTorrent users…”
Innocent BitTorrent users. yeah.
[quote comment="300790"]I can’t bear the hypocrisy!!! Ads for these very sites on TorrentFreak: http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tfhiponi7.png (First ad on the right of the page and others)
How can you let this happen?[/quote]
Dude, you opened abiut 4 tabs of TF just to “catch” some google ads and then bitch here? You sir needs to get a life.
Can;t believe that people are still using internet explorer:)) do a google search for “firefox”, your life will chage forever.
@8, Burrito.
Wow you’re so smart you don’t need to use Bit-Torrent to get your warez and movies. I wish I was as cool as you.
In actual fact there are people out there who have specialised interests, for example rare genre specific music or software.
These people will use multiple sources to find what they want. Some people need DC Hubs, Alt.Binaries, Filesharing Sites, P2P Networks ala Limewire, Bit-Torrent, Email/Messenger-Groups, Private Networks, Stealing or plain old hand-to-hand sharing. There’s probably more ways too and all have their advantages and disadvantages.
Open your mind little boy.
[quote comment="300925"]“…scammers are not only ripping off innocent BitTorrent users…”
Innocent BitTorrent users. yeah.[/quote]
Not everything you download using bittorrent protocol is copyrighted, idiot.
Where is the RIAA when you need them ?
http://www.jerkbossesihaveknown.com
People on public sites deserve to be scammed like this.
i have never seen one single ad on piratebay thanks to adblock plus..fuck those spammers!
[quote comment="300952"]People on public sites deserve to be scammed like this.[/quote]
Do people on the street also deserve to be scammed somehow? It’s also a public place. :P
This effects not just torrent sites but a good 80% of web sites on the internet.
There’s so much crap out there when it comes to advertising.
Why you would surf without some ad blocking is beyond me.
[quote comment="300912"]Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the Torrent community that largely supports the illegal/immoral downloading activities are complaining about a different illegal/immoral usage of their software?[quote]
Are you? That depends… Who else here is a blithering moron? Raise your hands.
It must take an I.Q. approaching negative to “find” a parallel between sharing copyritten material for free, and selling free material for a cost. Those two concepts are at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Making you one heaping pile of FAIL.
Wow, the RIAA trolls are into everything these days spreading their BS propaganda and searching for our “secrets”. Someone said we should be actively fighting them in this “war”. What do you mean by that? It will all sort itself out, and there’s nothing we can do, except to help others by informing them of what’s going on, so they can make decisions about their music etc, and not be turned away or give up, which is what the thugs hope for.
You shouldn’t be attacking one another in this common cause, as why increase negative stress when it’s just about discussion. People can put across their views civilly, and should be able to without being flamed. If it does happen then why not just ignore it?
Another thing is that I’ve always just ignored the stupid ads, but they become quite a pain when they disturb normal surfing with slow speed Internet by slowing it even further, and increasing cost to those with data limits. Especially when they are configured to load up before anything else, to prevent the user from stopping them after the page has loaded. Also the aggressive malicious and sneaky kind. You just know that these are scams. If not, I wouldn’t patronize them anyway on principle. But obviously some do, otherwise they’d have to give up. People should stop clicking through them, and if they lock up your options, shut down the browser forcibly, and don’t use that site again.
Btw I am NOT the fictional character, but I won’t complain. Good manners are never a waste of time.
fuck n00bs
easy money to keep sites up for us elitist bastards = AWESOME>
ppl that fall for that shit are idiots.
i might’ve paid for 500% increase but 475% is just weak. i’ll pass on this one.
For the last time—”LOSE”, as in the opposite of “find”, is spelled L-O-S-E. Not loose, as in you have a screw loose.
L-O-S-E. Lose. L_O_S_E. Lose.
Learn it. Live it.
L-O-S-E! L-O-S-E! L-O-S-E!
God almighty, will you please learn how to spell. Nothing you say is given any weight when your post is full of spelling errors. People that refuse to learn how to spell properly are not “loosers” but L-O-S-E-R-S.
Class dismissed.
[quote comment="300808"]This is what i use on both pc’s
http://everythingisnt.com/NoAdHOSTS.exe/quote
This Fuckin Works NOOBS AND ELITIST ALIKE…$
darwin called he said “i’m balling bitches”
learn to forward ports and you will download faster… those people that buy those guides deserved to get screwed over… fucking stupid noobs.
1st of all, y do u need to increase ur speed of bittorrent. it is fast enough w/out optimization. 2nd, the noob who falls for it probably cant download 2 much faster cause they r runnin dsl. 3rd, y would u pay for faster when we r downloading illegaly. 4th, i bet the feds r in on this one. — by no means do i say that the noobs deserve it but thats just dumb
Dey be steelin ur moneyz wit there scams
All da homeez be eeting clams
wow wow wow someone is stealing my name and stealing my job, this is nonsense!
and the raps are terrible, misspelled, and all out terrible, clearly from a white person, registered names FTW
Break a leg!
[quote comment="300570"][quote comment="300567"]i don’t really care about n00bs[/quote]
Elitist bastard. Everyone starts out somewhere - you would do well to remember that. Nobody deserves to be scammed, although it takes only a modicum of effort to avoid it.[/quote]
Downloaders deny artists of billions of dollars in revenue and then wail and gnash teeth when someone takes advantage of THEM. What a bunch of hypocritical opportunists.
[quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
Wow, “love it or leave it”. Great rebuttal, Rycon, did you construct that counter-arguement all by yourself?
[quote comment="300937"][quote comment="300925"]“…scammers are not only ripping off innocent BitTorrent users…”
Innocent BitTorrent users. yeah.[/quote]
Not everything you download using bittorrent protocol is copyrighted, idiot.[/quote]
YEAH!!! About 1% of 1% of the traffic is made up of actual legal downloads!
[quote comment="301177"]Downloaders deny artists of billions of dollars in revenue and then wail and gnash teeth when someone takes advantage of THEM. What a bunch of hypocritical opportunists.[/quote]
Tap water drinkers deny water bottle manufacturers of billions of dollars and the wail and gansh teeth when someones takes advantage of THEM. What a bunch of hypocritical opportunists.
Really, the denying someone of income argument is getting really old.
[quote comment="300912"]Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the Torrent community that largely supports the illegal/immoral downloading activities are complaining about a different illegal/immoral usage of their software?
So illegal/immoral activities are fine with BitTorrent so long as they aren’t annoying to the users? That’s the line we don’t cross? Everything else is fair game?
Either way, if someone wants to go illegally download the latest Coldplay album and is too much of a moron to figure out that they downloaded a trojan instead, I do not have much sympathy. Learn to use a computer.[/quote]
It makes perfect sense that the other posters should disagree with your post, Daniel.
Number 1, they are in total denial that sharing copyrighted files is illegal. Number 2, these scammers are actually affecting THEIR pockets, not the RIAA (generic term for whoever they are stealing copyrighted material from). Number 3, based on the ‘arguments’ that are used in here, it’s not a computer they need to learn how to use, it’s common sense.
[quote comment="301196"][quote comment="301177"]Downloaders deny artists of billions of dollars in revenue and then wail and gnash teeth when someone takes advantage of THEM. What a bunch of hypocritical opportunists.[/quote]
Tap water drinkers deny water bottle manufacturers of billions of dollars and the wail and gansh teeth when someones takes advantage of THEM. What a bunch of hypocritical opportunists.
Really, the denying someone of income argument is getting really old.[/quote]
Lol, tap water costs money. Bottled water costs money. Either way, you are paying for a product. You’ll find that in an Economics 1A book, page one.
Really, the arguement that “I’m not stealing nothing” is REALLY getting old, especially when it cannot be defended with even the barest shred of validity.
Wow the RIAA shills are really out tonight.
@Rintaro: I hope you’re getting paid for this, cz otherwise you’re a fucking idiot.
[quote comment="300567"]Lol, tap water costs money. Bottled water costs money. Either way, you are paying for a product. You’ll find that in an Economics 1A book, page one.
Really, the arguement that “I’m not stealing nothing” is REALLY getting old, especially when it cannot be defended with even the barest shred of validity.[/quote]
[quote comment="301199"]
Internet connections cost money. Hard disks cost money. burners and removable media cost money. Either way, you’re paying for a product - you’re just not paying the people who made it.
And if piracy is stealing, point out a *single* person who has been convicted of theft because of it. You can’t, can you? because it’s not stealing - you’re not denying someone anything, it’s copyright infringement. The only reason people pull out words like stealing and theft is because they’re emotive and help fight the propaganda war.
props to TFreak. i enjoy reading postings here. funny thing is, once the technologies advance we are all n00bz and it takes a community to support each other with a *free* knowledgebase. with teh EU kicking millions into the research of the nextGen btorrent concept for file and information exchange, it is really a revolutionary wave that is changing how we do things on the intarwebs. there are many analogies that can be drawn from the comparison to a gun. its who uses it and how. i dont get into the right or wrong, rich or poor in the equation… just that i see new ways to do things and connect information (whatever the content) with others.
Noobs are great. We all learn by teaching them. They ask us questions we hadn’t thought of and we have the ability to find the answer.
Plus, they can entertain. My personal fave urban myth is of the lady whos display was Dodgy. She phoned her pc helpline and they asked her to “right click on the desktop”
So she took out a pen and wrote “click” on her desktop.
Amazing.
let the noobs be noobs. they gotta learn their lesson some day. let them be scammed
All you tech nerds that use the words Noob, nubs newbie…all those dumb-ass bullshit words to describe all the people that don’t know as much about torrents, technology or what ever stupid subject you feel the need to comment on REALLY need to get a life. There is nothing worse or more PLAYED OUT than grown men using playground terminology to show their prowess about computer knowledge!!! YOU ALL were new to the technology at one point. Get over yourselves. No one gives a shit about you, your two cents or your technical proficiencies! See forums are for people who like to exchange ideas and help each other out. If you want to complain, do it on you’re myspace page or your own personal blog and let the people who want to USE forums USE them!
[quote comment="301199"]
Lol, tap water costs money. Bottled water costs money. Either way, you are paying for a product. You’ll find that in an Economics 1A book, page one.
Really, the arguement that “I’m not stealing nothing” is REALLY getting old, especially when it cannot be defended with even the barest shred of validity.[/quote]
Copying = Ctrl+C
Stealing = Ctrl+X
As for your first argument. Transferring data over my internet cable does costs money, as does storing it on my harddrive.
This is however irrelevant, as economics has nothing to do with being able to charge money for things. Neither does economics have nothing about getting payed or paying for anything you do.
Economics is simply about the matching up the demands of the seller and buyer resulting in a possible trade if both parties agree, and no trade if the parties don’t agree. In many caes, such trade is done without money ever getting involved.
In the case of file sharing, the buyer thinks that the seller is charging too much for the distribution and instead chooses to trade with someone who is willing to distribute for free, although often with a hidden agreement that he should distribute it to someone else in exchange.
More advanced protocols such as bittorrent splits the information into pieces making it easier for both parties to ensure that the other party forfills his hidden agreement by conducting a more or less fair exchange of information.
As information is cheap to replicate, this works out great for both parties in the transaction. Of course, the original distributor that wanted to charge a lot of money for doing the same thing isn’t too happy about it.
The biggest misunderstanding that people have about economics is that Market Value is the same as the Real Value. This is a complete misunderstanding. It is actually the opposite.
The further apart the market value and the real value is, the better. Just look at air. You would spend a large part of your salary on air if you had to, but fortunally the market value is low (as in free) because of the great supply. This is a huge economic boon for society as a whole.
When market value and real value is close, it is usually because of either high production costs, low supply or both. In either case, society will profit if production costs goes down or supply increases.
Yes, it is more expensive to create a piece of information in the first place. This is why a goverment instituted distribution monopoly exists, which is pretty much the opposite of a market. However, a large percentage of the population disagree with it as they see the huge efficency losses it causes and are willing to illegally bypass it. Of course they are saving money on it also (which is how they recognize the inefficencies). Filesharing is a far better trade.
And no, stealing isn’t a trade since there aren’t two parties that are in agreement.
[quote comment="301375"]let the noobs be noobs. they gotta learn their lesson some day. let them be scammed[/quote]
I very much prefer the word beginner which is much more neutral.
Anyway. There are several things to be considered here. First of all, malware such as these should be illegal. Of course, that doesn’t help when criminals in hard to reach places do it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t atleast put the foot down in civilized countries.
Now on to issue at hand. There are several levels of stupidty and non-stupidty involved here. Take for example shareaza.com. A well known site for a well known program that was highjacked. You can’t really except every single person that goes to that site to know that it is has been highjacked. As such, I feel pretty sorry for those who fell for it, trusting information that used to be correct.
However, this article is about people who click on random banner and download/buy completly random products without even doing the most basic fact checking.
I simply can’t feel as sorry for people who fall for such scams. I will tell beginners to be careful and not trust things, but that is about as much I can do. After that it is up to each user to use their brains.
I still want to see the scammer punished though. Just because I don’t have as much empathy for the victim doesn’t make the act itself any better. It is simply a crime where I don’t feel much empathy towards either side.
And more than anything else, I blame bad eductation systems (not targetted at the US, but pretty much every country) for not being able to teach kids to be critical of unknown sources.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LswZV5Djik
There are people who click every thing flashing or popping up all the time, kinda makes me sad..
[quote comment="301193"][quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
Wow, “love it or leave it”. Great rebuttal, Rycon, did you construct that counter-arguement all by yourself?[/quote]
I guess I have to clarify this again to another person who hasn’t really turned on there brain. That wasn’t a ‘Love it or leave it’ counter-argument, he was complaining about the site, and at that point when your calling the site owners ‘hypocrites’ you need the get off the site.. because you obviously don’t agree on the sites content. He could of proved his point without attacking the owners for simply posting news. So please.. read the entire post and think about it before barking off another pointless response.
[quote]Every one was a newb at one point, so lets not hate on them.[/quote]
Don’t you hate someone?
How do you hate on someone?
“They just keep telling me it’s not possible to permanently ban them unless you want to approve every ad that goes on your site.”
This sounds like site admins don’t control/know what ads are running on there sites.
I was already leery of clicking any ad on websites I vist.
More so now.
The hate towards noobs is so fucking hypocritical.
The haters should remember they didn’t know shit when they came out of that stinking garbage dumb called their mom’s womb.
Your little fetus ass was worthless, too bad that whore called mom didn’t abort you.
But, I’ll do my part and pray that all those assholes who were noobs at one time but hate noobs today get cancer.
Dear God, please finish the job and give these assholes colon cancer.
Please let them bleed and die a horrible fucking death.
Thank you God, Amen.
[quote comment="300596"]advert on your site whilst i was reading this article….
Download speed slow?
accelerate for torrents download Speed up 100% and protect HD.
http://www.soft4kids.com
how ironic…
Gallus[/quote]
lol… Their graph is kinda disappointing and pretty obviously bad. Anyway I’d rather use an exponential graph to decide my BT dl speed than a logarithmic graph. I hope not too many people fell for that.
[quote comment="301197"]
Number 1, they are in total denial that sharing copyrighted files is illegal.[/quote]
Three guesses as to the brain size of this hired cockwarmer.
Walnut? Pea? I’d wager it’s on the scale of a deer tick.
[quote comment="301655"][quote comment="301197"]
Number 1, they are in total denial that sharing copyrighted files is illegal.[/quote]
Three guesses as to the brain size of this hired cockwarmer.
Walnut? Pea? I’d wager it’s on the scale of a deer tick.[/quote]
[...] _before_ it’s eaten, no doubt. =]
[quote comment="301655"][quote comment="301197"]
Number 1, they are in total denial that sharing copyrighted files is illegal.[/quote]
Three guesses as to the brain size of this hired cockwarmer.
Walnut? Pea? I’d wager it’s on the scale of a deer tick.[/quote]
…and that _before_ it’s dined.
Dear consistent yet caring fans of Rapper Alliance,
It fills my body with absolute disgust (and freight) to have to write something like this to such a strong, large fan base as yourself. Now days it seems as if any person with 3 dollars and a can of green beans can act like me, and well, fact is, it hurts, it really hurts, it really hurts, it really hurts,,,,. So to make a long story short, (there are fakes out there ruining the true rhymes that can only come out of the true Rapper Alliance lips/keyboard!). I am hereby retiring. It was fun, TorrentFreaks.
Deeply caring,
but never sharing,
nigga bust my chops and he’ll be pairin’ with my mack 10 NIIGGGGGGAG NIGGGAGAA WHAT IMA BEAST
Rapper Alliance (The Real One, nigga)
[quote comment="300839"]Format your drive and install Linux, it’s free and you can choose from several bittorrent clients.
If you still use Windows you’re a fucking fool and deserve whatever rootkit you get. Windows is the biggest piece of shit ever.[/quote]
Rootkits appeared on Linux before they ever appeared on Windows.
It was 1996, to be precise.
I agree with Psi:
“Seriously anyone that believes that a bit of software can improve your hardware deserves it anyway.”
http://www.adverit.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cLdmeZm0ek
Sorry Norm,
There has never been any widespread or viruslike distribution of rootkits for Linux. As a concept, rootkits have existed for Unix since the end of the seventies and the principles could be also applied to Linux. But you have to have root access to install such a system, inserting a music CD or visiting a website is not enough. A hacker “might” be able to install a rootkit in a badly maintained system but that is something else.
In fact there have never been any widespread viruses, trojans, spyware or adware for Linux. Proof of concepts have existed but how could they be installed or spread? Should every Linux user with his particular dialect/version of Linux start to compile and install some suspicious code? I don’t think so.
BTW, is everybody under 15 here?
Hans, what you write isn’t correct. Just recently there was another major vulnerability in the Linux kernel allowing completely compromise of the system (like installation of a rootkit) which doesn’t require root access at all. What you are talking about is a concept. Unix is much safer and more secure by design than Windows which is really just broken by design. However implementation and design isn’t the same. The former have almost always bugs and Linux is no exception. The most stupid Windows users would not be better off without Linux because security and safety require that you act appropriately. As you write a hacker can break into a “badly maintained” system. The problem with Windows is not just that it’s Windows but that most of the installations are indeed badly maintained and most of its users couldn’t even tell what exactly they are supposed to maintain. If you dumb down Linux enough, it’ll attract the same stupid users. Running things as root if it doesn’t work or quits with “permission denied” is very common for new users. If you use your system as root, there’s no advantage over Windows at all. Even the safest car would get you and others killed if you are drunk. Computers are no different except that they rarely cause physical damage. Driving a car safely much easier than using a computer safely but the latter requires no license or training certificate whatsoever.
[quote comment="300912"]Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the Torrent community that largely supports the illegal/immoral downloading activities are complaining about a different illegal/immoral usage of their software?
So illegal/immoral activities are fine with BitTorrent so long as they aren’t annoying to the users? That’s the line we don’t cross? Everything else is fair game?
Either way, if someone wants to go illegally download the latest Coldplay album and is too much of a moron to figure out that they downloaded a trojan instead, I do not have much sympathy. Learn to use a computer.[/quote]
Bit torrent isn’t illegal or immoral. Bit Torrent has many legitimate uses that don’t involve copyright infringement, and many of us consider even some forms of piracy moral.
Say this gives me an idea: How about do an article about the RIAA’s internet brigades.
TF is clearly pro file sharing. So why do I always see comments accusing file sharers of stealing? If these people hate file sharing so much, why did they visit a site like this? It’s clearly labeled as a pro file sharing community.
It’s obvious that the RIAA or some anti piracy group is paying people to post these comments. Why not do some investigation. Can you trace their ips? Or somehow trace them through their email? That would make a great article!
“So why do I always see comments accusing file sharers of stealing?”
The industry thinks of their customers as scum. Scum with money though. Unfortunately for the industry, people are not as stupid as they would like them to be. Eventually all their propaganda and lies will backfire. I can assure you, many people who have never used file-sharing at all and spent a lot of money on DVDs and CDs are sick and tired of the industry and boycott them silently. Industrial commercialization of art was of course a mistake in the first place. It worked for some time and it would have worked much longer if the industry wasn’t so inhumane, greedy and full of themselves. If a parasite becomes too selfish, it’s just killing itself.
[quote comment="301495"][quote comment="301193"][quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
Wow, “love it or leave it”. Great rebuttal, Rycon, did you construct that counter-arguement all by yourself?[/quote]
I guess I have to clarify this again to another person who hasn’t really turned on there brain. That wasn’t a ‘Love it or leave it’ counter-argument, he was complaining about the site, and at that point when your calling the site owners ‘hypocrites’ you need the get off the site.. because you obviously don’t agree on the sites content. He could of proved his point without attacking the owners for simply posting news. So please.. read the entire post and think about it before barking off another pointless response.[/quote]
Whether Wack was complaining about the site or the posts, an offhanded “get the fuck off the site” without any indication as to why is still a very poor response. You didn’t offer any sort of rationale for your venom until you were called on it. Your opinion, justified or not, is irrelevant when you can’t or don’t even explain why you feel that way.
So next time please…think, and come up with a coherent criticism, before barking off a totally meaningless response.
[quote comment="302391"]Say this gives me an idea: How about do an article about the RIAA’s internet brigades.
TF is clearly pro file sharing. So why do I always see comments accusing file sharers of stealing? If these people hate file sharing so much, why did they visit a site like this? It’s clearly labeled as a pro file sharing community.
It’s obvious that the RIAA or some anti piracy group is paying people to post these comments. Why not do some investigation. Can you trace their ips? Or somehow trace them through their email? That would make a great article![/quote]
Hahaha! How naive of you Norm to think that everyone on this, or any website, is in total agreement with the content. To think that the only reason someone would disagree with you is because “the RIAA or some anti piracy group is paying people” is delusional.
I envy you Norm. It must be quite an exciting existence to see conspiracies and plots around every corner. Get fired from your job? It’s not your fault, the RIAA planned your downfall. It sounds like the plot to a two bit Hollywood thriller. Why not go steal one and keep telling yourself that it’s not illegal. You may actually believe it someday.
(Opinion not paid for by the RIAA, CIA, Boy Scouts of America, or Amway)
[quote comment="301381"][quote comment="301199"]
Lol, tap water costs money. Bottled water costs money. Either way, you are paying for a product. You’ll find that in an Economics 1A book, page one.
Really, the arguement that “I’m not stealing nothing” is REALLY getting old, especially when it cannot be defended with even the barest shred of validity.[/quote]
Copying = Ctrl+C
Stealing = Ctrl+X
As for your first argument. Transferring data over my internet cable does costs money, as does storing it on my harddrive.
This is however irrelevant, as economics has nothing to do with being able to charge money for things. Neither does economics have nothing about getting payed or paying for anything you do.
Economics is simply about the matching up the demands of the seller and buyer resulting in a possible trade if both parties agree, and no trade if the parties don’t agree. In many caes, such trade is done without money ever getting involved.
In the case of file sharing, the buyer thinks that the seller is charging too much for the distribution and instead chooses to trade with someone who is willing to distribute for free, although often with a hidden agreement that he should distribute it to someone else in exchange.
More advanced protocols such as bittorrent splits the information into pieces making it easier for both parties to ensure that the other party forfills his hidden agreement by conducting a more or less fair exchange of information.
As information is cheap to replicate, this works out great for both parties in the transaction. Of course, the original distributor that wanted to charge a lot of money for doing the same thing isn’t too happy about it.
The biggest misunderstanding that people have about economics is that Market Value is the same as the Real Value. This is a complete misunderstanding. It is actually the opposite.
The further apart the market value and the real value is, the better. Just look at air. You would spend a large part of your salary on air if you had to, but fortunally the market value is low (as in free) because of the great supply. This is a huge economic boon for society as a whole.
When market value and real value is close, it is usually because of either high production costs, low supply or both. In either case, society will profit if production costs goes down or supply increases.
Yes, it is more expensive to create a piece of information in the first place. This is why a goverment instituted distribution monopoly exists, which is pretty much the opposite of a market. However, a large percentage of the population disagree with it as they see the huge efficency losses it causes and are willing to illegally bypass it. Of course they are saving money on it also (which is how they recognize the inefficencies). Filesharing is a far better trade.
And no, stealing isn’t a trade since there aren’t two parties that are in agreement.[/quote]
Blabbity blah blah blah. All those words and not a lick of any relevant sense.
Warner Brothers produces a movie. They spend, let’s say, $30 million to make it. To earn back their investment, they sell theater tickets and DVD copies of the movie.
And you really want to see this movie! But you decide that the $10 to $20 price tag to watch it is just too high. The studio has provided a perfectly legal and equitable way for you to watch it. But no, you decide that $15 to watch a movie legally is too great a price, so you break the law and illegally download an illegally distributed copy that originally came from some other schlub that actually bought the DVD and illegally copied it.
Taking your arguments to an extreme, it would be perfectly ok in your world for one person to buy the DVD, copy it, and distribute it to the entire world. The studio would receive a total of $20 for their $30 million production, but that’s ok, to you that’s fair.
No, what is fair is for you to just not watch the movie. You do without. You wait for it to hit channel 13 and sit through the commercials instead. That’s the honest way. Sad but true. Anything short of that is stealing. As far as your “willing to distribute for free” nonsense, of course he is! He stole it, didn’t pay a dime for it! And even if he did, it is illegal to distribute a copy of the movie, song, book, etc, regardless of what percentage of the society disagrees. Start a grass roots movement to get the laws changed. Fight city hall, as it were. But do not try to “prove” that downloading a copy of a movie is not illegal by shoehorning the idea into a superficial analogy made up of Econ babble. You make yourself look deluded and irrational.
You can look at air all you want (I got enough of the hot kind out of your whimsical farce), but you can’t change the fact that all of these “advanced protocol” transactions originate with stealing, a situation where two parties (studio and thief) are not in agreement, as you pointed out. This little tidbit that you talked around until the last nullifies your entire charade. All you have is ill-gotten supply and greedy dishonorable demand.
I wonder how this is possible. It must be affecting the right people if they fall for it.
it is quite ironic that you mention btjunkie and piratebay against that scam site.
both btjunkie and piratebay have run ads for that site for several months.
btjunkie had displayed the ads as text link on the index pages, and TPB had advertised that site on the right sidebar. i have seen the scam site being advertised on these two high profile BT sites for many months. and now, after making money promoting a scammer, they’re coming clean and washing their hands? i find it a little bit hypercritical
that guy who sold the original high spe’ed torr_ent site to the current owner, was a junkie. in fact, he sold some exotic drugs through one of his site allegrande ltd.
I have a guide on most popular P2P technologies at http://sriraminhell.blogspot.com/2007/08/p2p-brief-introduction.html and on Bit Torrent at http://sriraminhell.blogspot.com/2007/08/peer-to-peer-ii-bit-torrent.html .
so fastspeedtorrents is a scam? figures im dumb enough to believe them but i thought demonoid would not have crappers like that on their site. cost me 25 bucks. oh well i have called everyone i can think of penpal, the guys who provide the domain for fastspeedtorrents and they are going to do an investigation for abuse and scam. maybe i was dumb but i sure as fuck will fight back.
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