More BitTorrent Users Go Anonymous
Written by Ernesto on June 22, 2009Users of BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks are increasingly seeking solutions to hide their identities from the outside world. With pressure from anti-piracy outfits mounting on ISPs to police their networks and warn those who share copyrighted content, many file-sharers have decided to negate this by going anonymous.
The UK government has high hopes for the piracy warnings Internet providers will be required to send to copyright infringing customers. The warnings are designed to scare users away from illicit file-sharing, but when we asked our readers what action they would take upon receiving a warning letter from their ISP, many were unmovable. A massive 41% indicated that they would take steps to conceal their identity, while only 7% of our readers said they would obey the warning and stop sharing.
The results of the survey clearly showed that avid file-sharers would rather hide their identities than stop downloading. And indeed, more and more BitTorrent users are seeking ways to protect their privacy online, rendering all the newly proposed anti-piracy laws useless.
TorrentPrivacy, BitBlinder and The Pirate Bay’s Ipredator are just a few examples of services launched in the past year, targeted at concerned BitTorrent users. The goal of these and other anonymity applications is clear; hide the IP-address of the file-sharer so he can’t be tracked down while swapping files.
Currently in beta, The Pirate Bay’s Ipredator uses the same tech platform as the VPN service Relakks. For a few dollars a month it routes all your traffic through its servers, hiding your IP address. Ipredator is currently limited to 3000 users but according to the Pirate Bay team there are another 180,000 users on the waiting list, eager to join.
Running a VPN network for hundreds of thousands of hungry BitTorrent users will prove to be quite a challenge. The infrastructure and bandwidth required by a service targeted at file-sharers is significant, not to mention costly. This undoubtedly leads to problems.
The aforementioned Relakks saw its subscriptions double in just a month when the controversial Ipred law came into effect in Sweden this April. This surge in subscriptions led to to major problems with support and updates according to Relakks’s chairman Jan Erik Fiske.
Unlike more traditional VPN services, BitBlinder recently introduced a free solution. Instead of routing the traffic through a central server BitBlinder passes it on through multiple peers. Each peer in the chain only knows the IP address of the next person in the chain, not the original requester/sender.
A few days after its launch BitBlinder had signed up more than 30,000 new users. Right now registrations are temporarily closed to make sure everything runs smoothly for those already using the service, and while they iron out bugs. “We want to make sure it works, and is secure for everyone,” Josh Albrecht, one of the creators of BitBlinder told TorrentFreak.
Because of the increasing interest in anonymity, the Swedish ISP Alltele decided to offer a free service to conceal the IP-addresses of its customers. According to Alltele’s CEO Ola Norberg thousands of users have downloaded the application, which nearly killed the server it was running on.
These examples clearly show that the scare tactics of the entertainment industry are not going to work. There is no doubt that with every new anti-piracy initiative introduced, more and more users will find their way to one of the many anonymizing services out there.
Instead of stopping the pirates in their tracks the entertainment industry has simply inspired a new ‘industry’ worth millions of dollars.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
Next: Anti-Piracy Lawyers Lose License To Chase Pirates
113 Responses
GO ANONYMOUS
And also to the article,
Fuck it, I’m not going anonymous. I don’t need to.
Anyone know when the pirate bay IPREDATOR wil open to everyone?
And then the entertainment industry will sue the companies offering anonymous torrenting.
Question -
Those of you who use or have used one of these services, which would you recommend?
The more anonymity the better! Stop those pesky ISP’s from looking at my traffic when I’m pirating all of the music and movies.
Thanks,
Mr S Wilson
24 Heartfield
Glasgow,UK
G66 8EF
Put simply – the industry continues to dig a deeper hole for itself – when will they learn?
lets go ANONYMOUSLY
OFCOURS EVERONE HERE KNOWS THAT THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY MUST STOP DECREASING OUR FREEDOM.
LONG LIFE THE PIRATEBAY!!
You only talked about VNP services… but you forgot about the encryption! which is the easiest, most basic and effective form of bittorrent anonymity.
Complete idiots.
Look up “Hydra” in Greek mythology, you cigar-chomping Mercedes-driving fatcat executives!!!!!!
Hydra: cut off the head, 2 more spring up to take its place.
MAFIA, you have lost. It’s over. The genie’s out of the bottle.
Cry, scream, whine, complain, sue, scream, stomp all you want. It’s over. The world is changing.
You can’t sue Asif in Turkey. You can’t sue Manuel in Colombia. You can’t sue Wang in China. Even if you go after 1st-world country inhabitants, there will always be a need & a market for sharing material. And once Wang rips the CD or the movie, it’s effectively available to every filesharer on the planet.
So just stop the denial & the resistance. You have lost.
Just make it affordable, unencumbered and high-quality and people will buy it.
> These examples clearly show that the scare tactics of the entertainment industry are not going to work.
Not really. They are working, but not producing the results they’d like to see.
Try Onioncat.
A bit slow, but it is on top of Tor.
Stack multiple links maybe:
http://hackdopi.wikidot.com/
Seedbox is the way to go!
:)
I’m using IPREDATOR and I’m in Sweden, I’m getting full speed on torrents and browsing so it seems to work well for me. I’m not sure what sort of speeds people are getting from elsewhere though.
Anonymous is legion.
Anonymous does not forgive.
Anonymous does not forget.
Now to let the RIAA kno…
WAIT! They already do, thanks VPNs! ^__^
@15
Anon=faggots
I whole heartedly agree with the file sharers’ ethos, and will no doubt turn to the life of the anonymous if (when!!) virgin in the UK start “bumping” our connection speeds.
However, i find it hilariously ironic that pirates and file sharers are willing to pay (albeit a small amount by comparison) to be able to download copyrighted material without infrigment that they should really be paying for.
@15
GTFO and GB24chan.
:D @ Simon Wilson, you’ve got balls I tell ya.
16 called himself a faggot
@17
Its not the downloading we pay for, its just another middle finger at theindustry. if they offered unlimited downloads at the same cost as a vpn my money “might” have gone to them.
After all the shit they pulled i wouldnt even visit that site nfor fear of generating ad revenue for them.
When they were ad adversary chasing down commercial pirates nobody cared. now they criminalise us, hunt us in the net convice governments we the people are the enemy and blackmail and bribe their ways onto us. So I say fuck em
Okay, I was under the impression that torrent users only like free stuff and will shy away from anything that requires money.
But since you have to pay to use ipredator, why not instead pay for something like a rapidshare or megaupload account? Both of those filehosts have enormous network infrastructures, while the pirate bay is just getting started.
And since you do not have to upload anything in return while downloading from those file hosts, technically, you are not sharing anything and away goes the “illicit online distribution” lawsuits.
What’s more is a simple google search like “Movie.Year.DVDRip.XviD-Grp rapishare” will usually get you what you are looking for. Not to mention the thousands of forums where Rapidshare links are available around the clock, usually not more than a quarter of an hour after stuff is released by the scene.
So, if you are willing to pay 10 bucks a month to use ipredator, wouldn’t you rather pay for a premium filehosting account? It’s faster, safer and much much more easier than having to configure a torrent client or finding a suitable tracker.
@20 LOL u right!!
“ANONYMUS” said anon=fag
@21
Totally man. On the nose.
@ 18
What does 4chan actually? Forgive my ignorance, i saw something with a 4chan reference on it. I didn’t like the content, so didn’t pursue any further. Plus the fear of reprocussions.
cool story bro :)
enter charges of conspiracy to commit (insert charges here)
@21
Do those services you mention not keep a record of activity of some sort?
The big advantage of Torrents is ‘No central server’; No record.
I have been using BTGuard for some time now and have seen very good results for not a lot of green.
@17
Of course we will pay for a VPN. Cost comparison makes it an easy choice. I can pay 10 bucks a month to conceal my identity or I can buy one CD or DVD at 20 bucks a pop.
Pirates are not against paying for something. But when you ignore a better way of distribution and drive technology underground and make criminals out of the same people that promote and share, through word of mouth, about the content it puts a bad taste in our mouth.
Wow! World shocking news! Let’s make an article about it! Seriously, the above is soooo obvious and known it isn’t newsworthy. meh.
I don’t find ironic that we are willing to pay for privacy instead of pay to keep alive an industry that have done everything on it’s power to destroy this privacy.
The idea is there are pay services available that will hide your identity, the irony is in the fact that there are free services that do that same thing much like pay for media services and bit torrents. I am sure that the free services are probably better than the pay services just like the free bit torrent files allow a wider amount of media selections to be made available. You just need to know where to look.
@ 28 : as a matter of fact yes, they keep a log of what is downloaded from your account and your e-mail address. But since you don’t have to upload anything to get whatever file/ movie/mp3/etc you’re after, even if they tap into your line and see that you are downloading something, they have virtually nothing they can charge you with, since you are not distributing anything. And also, we’ve all heard how isps throttle p2p/bittorrent traffic, TF has even reported on that multiple times. Well, as I keep saying, since you don’t have to upload anything back, you’ll not only be using up less of your monthly bandwidth cap, but also, since it’s http downloading, there is a much lesser chance of your line speed being reduced by the isp.
If you aren’t convinced, well, think about it this way, up to now, nobody downloading from a file host has been sued.
>>25
4chan is a board where anons used to hang out. Most of the folks on there now are NOT real anons.
@31
again ironic that you would actively strive towards breaking an industry meaning that there would be fewer copyright items to available to you.
I’ve posted this in just about every other news release and will keep doing so – if the industry prefers I pay 10 EUR to a VPN instead of to them for legalizing everything I do p2p wise online, that’s THEIR CHOICE and accordingly, their decision and problem.
If they don’t WANT a “culture flat”, then screw them. It’s not about not wanting to reimburse the folks creating content, but the question is to which extent I actually CAN(not everyone has a well diversified/big enough income).
You can’t milk me for cash I just don’t HAVE.
I wonder, why I2P is not mentioned? This anonymous, live network runs already a few years, constantly being improved. It has own BT servers…
Figures… You losers hide behind a computer all day being anonymous and you have no real world value.
So go anonymous, hide like the little bitches you really are. as for me i see i am doing nothing wrong. If i was i still wouldn’t be doing it since the mid 90s… I was there, as were most of you, through the battles from the music industry… they stopped so will the movie industry. They just cant win and we all know it
I download and upload over a few gbs a day i had received letters from comcast so i moved to someone who doesn’t conform to “the man”.
All i can say is im waiting for them to stop me… seriously, bring it. The big surprise will be on them not me.
Big media fighting against p2p is plain funny… just face the facts already! #10 has the solution in the last line… If big media would just price the products accordingly – it would become clear to consumers that all the time, hassle and bandwidth it takes to download something will simply not be worth it. Most people would hang up the file-sharing hat. It’s clear that the industry is too hung up on making obscene and excessive profits that they cannot settle for plain old competitive profits. Wake up media clowns: You CAN sell more units at lower prices and actually increase your revenues by the end of the day. Hire economists, not lawyers.
Anonymous is legion.
Anonymous does not forgive.
Anonymous does not forget.
Anonymous says: F*CK RIAA/MPAA !
screw anonimity !
if they want to fight COME BITCHES
Didn’t TPB already join Anonymous in the fight against Co$? Why cant we all just… get along? We even made you guys a cake….
from ship to sub ,, don’t ya just love this stuff ;)
anon is everywhere and nowhere!
Anonymous is for lamers.
Encryption is not anonymous, if someone connects to you and stabilish a connection he/she/it can still se your IP address.
To be anonymous you have to have a way of transfering data without the end part not knowing your mac or IP and at the moment you have two viable options that are in use a TOR like network(bitblinder, stealthnet, retroshare, gnunet and others) or dining cryptographers protocol(herbivore). There are others protocols but or they don’t work very well or people stoped developtment or is just in the academic realm right now. No I didn’t forgot VPN’s, VPN’s are not safe you cannot trust a VPN server because laws can be changed to make them uselless(law proposal C-46 in Canada) and there is no guarantee that a server cannot be compromised. People can’t go inside the server and inspect it, you cannot expect in the real world that people will not violate your privacy or be forced to do so in secret but if you wanna pay one feel free to do so.
Options to fileshares:
- Move to a country that does not care about downloads like Canada, spain or japan.
- Start using alternatives like Miro for TV and Movies and Jamendo for music this they will never be able to stop. Your media now comes with responsibility if you don’t care you will have to play by their rules if you do care you will only download things that are opensource, CC commons and give you liberties.
- Find encrypted anonymous solutions there are many.
http://www.planetpeer.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
- Make it in the old ways, go on a sunday to your friends house with a terabyte drive on your hands and copy everything you can this could be fun if you make a party out of it.
Someone need anonymous apps?
http://www.anonymous-p2p.org/programs.html
“Seedbox is the way to go!”
Yeah, thats right!
(Until you get scene access :)
Don’t you have to use real information to pay for seedboxes?
What make people think that they will be protected using something like that?
There is anonymous cache I know that but how many people now how to use it?
oops!
cash not cahce sorry.
People who use VPNs are just cowards who can’t stand up for their rights.
The best response we could have for all the abuse of the copyright lawswould be to not to use vpn, try to cover your tracks or whatever. We all should strive to be sued, sued hard, get fined for hundreds of millions of dollars. Only by civil disobedience will we conquer what we want, raise awareness from the ignorant, and change the laws on our favor. Indeed, unless you are trully millionaire (in which case you should be looking for another avenue of protest), no one is able to make you pay the kind of fines they are asking for.
@55 Jun 22, 2009 at 22:27 by Voice of History:
Please don’t come with this fools talk, if you are fighting for freedom and civil liberties it makes no sense in trying to curb how people go about it doing that it may even limit the pool of ideas and forms that works. You see I’m a practical person I don’t see bad or good I see working and not working, and we are not by a long shot in need of drastic measures yet.
If anonymous P2P works why should people go and risk everything in their life’s just to prove a point when you can do it without enormous sacrifice are you insane?
Besides most people are not even trying to fight anything they just want to listen and watch things like they been doing for hundreds of years.
Fuck VPN. Just use usenet. No upload, max download speed, completely anonymous (ssl). Even isp can’t see what you’re doing.
@58 Jun 22, 2009 at 22:41 by Dave – usenet guy:
Usenet is the same thing as a VPN.
Have a server and an encrypted line to it. If the server is tapped you can be tracked down unless you use an anonymous way to connect ot it like I2P but if you pay it you have to give your information what make meaningless all effort to stay anonymous or I miss something?
vpn or usenet server Cloud user
In the cloud you have your ISP, routers, other users and etc.
Those are the ones cryptography protects you from no body can enter a encrypted pipeline but like all pipelines and encrypted pipe have to end points. If you force one point to show you what is being done you know what the other side is doing too.
The server in both VPN and usenet is the Achilles heel of those solutions, if anyone think that others will fight for you and defend your privacy instead of their own hides or cannot be forced to comply that would be naive to say the least.
in a way this will hurt other users and hurt sites. it makes it harder for sites to ban ip addresses when a users does something wrong. of course banning an ip address does not work in all cases, but in some countries the isp give their users a somewhat static ip address. if a site was to ban a vpn address or proxy then it would hurt other users. some people may not see things like this a problem but who knows it may cause problems. there will be a lot of other hurdles or problems out there to like servers crashing, people getting scammed from fake services, slow torrents because of companies trying to make the extra buck so they overload their 100mb line when they should get a 1gb line and etc. for the heavier users a seedbox is the best way if you can find a service which is going to protect your personal info. for moderate users then a vpn or proxy will work. so people think smart before you sign up for anything and do what is best for you.
So, go right ahead and use your real name here then, “neostyles”. ;)
who gives a shit if they know who you are.let them try and sue me,i will not pay!.put me in prison and i still will not pay.the only way to beat them is through their own bad publicity.so MPAA do your worst!.you will still loose!!
Can we stop hiding already?
When will the first global, internet inspired and organized mass protest happen around the world for net neutrality, 1-2 years for copyright, and abolition of patents?
I considered signing up for IPredator when it launched, and even got an invite for it. But I found a better VPN service that had servers in 18 different locations worldwide, so not only can I be anonymous with whatever I download, I can also bypass regional restrictions on services like Hulu and BBC iPlayer.
I’ve also mostly switched from torrents to a Usenet subscription, which has most of the same or better content as torrents and a guaranteed high speed over an encrypted SSL connection.
fuclk the Riaa shit im not scred even tho i might be scared a little but shit i cant aford movies right now all hell pirates AHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRR
Dear TF, when a comment is deleted, please leave some kind of placeholder so that those comments who have responded @ someone by number don’t then shift and appear to be responding to the WRONG comment.
This would make things more readable, thank you.
It will not happen soon, people have more pressing matters than privacy unless people can show the general population direct links that affect the normal person in a very real way no one will stand up for privacy.
P2P is not a primary concern for most people.
Copyright on the light of fair competition is on the other hand, if you can show them that copyright is inflating food prices because the supermarket have to pay licenses for the music you hear inside the store people will listen, if you show them that people are being charged for eating in a restaurant they will listen, if you show them that for them to use a gym they are paying licenses they may here you.
How is that copyright affects your life really?
This is the real question, but you have to think about it in real terms not vagaries of the mind inquiring about possible scenarios. People don’t take things seriously unless they are affected by it. So what is that you can prove with evidence that shows how copyright change your day to day life into something bad and don’t forget to point out the good for copyright existence, it is not all bad there is a reason why it endured all those years without nobody contesting it.
I would like to see where people are going.
@68 Just because something doesn’t effect everyone’s everyday life doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t help to stand up for what you believe.
Look at Anonymous for example. They have been protesting against the church of scientology for a few years now and are making an impact, but how many people do you know that are directly effected by this church?
I use peerguardian2 and have not received a “warning ” letter from my isp since i started using it.It works fine with utorrent.
@70 Jun 23, 2009 at 02:34 by Anonymous:
I didn’t say it would not affect them what I did say was people don’t listen to what they don’t feel it.
Try going around and telling people to prepare for natural disaster and see the reactions are. Remember the tsunami that hit asia do you think people were worried about that before or would have listened to someone or would have laughed at the idea to prepare for something?
People just don’t care, unless it is affecting them, in a very real tangible way and you have to show them otherwise you are just wasting your time.
About Scientology I don’t see any real gains, they still are there, they still take money from people and believe in aliens, do you have any proof of the contrary? Are they loosing worshipers? do you have any numbers? because if you have none I just will have to assume you “want to believe” and are not serious about it. What brings me to another very important point, without real evidence and nice presentations what people say is just hot air, many people say absurd things and don’t bother to look for facts and that is why people don’t listen to what people say but pay attention to numbers and facts that can be verified and if those facts are good people will naturally make their minds about it no need to fight or scream or get hysterical as some here do, you just need to collect data and organize it in an easy understandable way so people can see and decide for themselves.
z-man said “I use peerguardian2 and have not received a “warning ” letter from my isp since i started using it.It works fine with utorrent.”
If I gave you a little wooden stick, and you went out into a thunderstorm with that stick in your pocket, and didn’t get hit by lightning, then the stick protected you from the lightning, just as much as peerguardian protects you from warning letters. The reasoning is the same. getting letters and being struck by lightning are both extremely uncommon events. In both cases as well, you will increase your chances of being ‘hit’ by doing certain things, but as a matter of course, the odds are on your side.
As a side note, every study into such blocklists has found them to have zero effectiveness, at stopping letters. One study indicated there might even be a negative effectiveness (as in, you have a greater chance of letters using them).
The fact that they are running, if anything, proves beyond any last doubt that they are guilty.
Let’s see.
Torrent Privacy. Hails from good ol Mother Russia, a country well known for spammers and malware. Not surprising. Russia was recently cited by a senate report on countries with abysmal copyright enforcement. Rumor also has it that most of the crimes in russia, go unsolved. This includes murders, burglaries, etc. Their justice system is almost nonexistent, so it figures.
BitBinder. Looks like they got an A in Piracy Justification 101. “Internet Freedom.” Haven’t they ever heard about crying fire in a crowded theather. You can’t just go punch a random person or run a redlight because of your so called freedom. Jesus, these guys are so dumb. Why do they even bother trying to legitimize themselves. If I were them, I would just save my time and instead put “We are trying to hide you from the law while you steal music and movies.” Then again, I supposed that would be a tad bit intimidating and pirates don’t really like to face themselves either..
Now, we have the chumps that started it all! The pirate Bay’s very own anonymization service! The very own inventors of the “stealing is a human right” line! Im not sure about it though! If the pirate bay get’s taken down, Ipredator is gonna go down with it to! I hope Gottfrid Svartholm has something in mind of the bottom of the deep blue.
Hi, neostyles! Haven’t seen you here for a couple days. Anyway, nice to see that we’re keeping up the pattern of “you post, I plane.”
Ladies and gentlemen, here we have a prime example of what we like to call “fallacious logic.” Notice the assumptions, the accusations. Notice the poster assuming that taking steps to protect yourself automatically means guilt. For my part, I would like to remind the poster that simply because you’re doing what you think is right doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to protect yourself from people who have different points of view. If you’re fighting a revolution, do you refuse to wear bullet-proof vests simply because you are afraid of being seen as “guilty?”
Good. We need more of that in the world. Say, everywhere. That way we’ll be one step closer to people not simply screwing each other all the time!
I may need a few volunteers’ worth of fingers to count the number of problems with that statement, and the paragraph it originates from. For one, you’re calling filesharing a crime. How many times are we going to need to drill into your head that it is not a crime to share copyrighted material? Calling sharers criminals means intentionally attaching irrelevant labels to them in order to make people think that your point of view is right. Two, here’s the key word of the part I just quoted: Rumor. If something is a rumor, you cannot use it in an argument. For example, if I were to say that rumor also has it that you are a paid MAFIAA troll, I would be discredited for using personal attacks. Keep the rumors out of your posts and back up what you claim.
Punching a random person has a direct effect on someone. You could potentially break the iPhone in their pocket. Running a red light is the same; you could run over some old lady or hit a police car. People do not have the freedom to simply do whatever they want if their actions would put others in danger. However, since filesharing does not accomplish this, and since it does not otherwise harm anyone, we have the freedom as human beings to do it. Once again, you’re using fallacious analogies.
Yawn, personal attack. At least try to be /a little/ creative instead of saying things that make you sound like an eight-year-old.
You have my official permission to make me “face” whatever you want. We’ve been down this road before. Why don’t you come up with something new to annoy people with?
Filesharing is not stealing. I swear, if I keep seeing the same dull material from you, I’m just going to compose an automated response and post it whenever I see that you’ve posted on here, without taking the time to read your comment first. I mean, why bother? You say the exact same things every time: “Piracy is theft.” “Pirates are honorless thieves.” “Piracy is a crime.” “Everyone who downloads is a criminal.” Since you have thus far been unable to refute my claims to the contrary, all of TorrentFreak, and indeed the world, can assume that you are, in fact, throwing around drivel, and I am correcting it with the truth.
Which is not going to happen, of course. I recommend you go ahead and pinch yourself just to make sure that you’re currently in the real world, and not the dream world that you so often seem to occupy when you post on here.
Your score is a D-. Come up with something new before coming back.
@neostyles
To continue my awesome usage of terms from Anathem (Neal Stephenson — he’s a literary god, even you can appreciate it, go look him up), I shall now engage in a Periklynian dialog with you.. and utterly plane you.
SO!
“Only wrongdoers have to be worried about Internet surveillance.” That fallacy is EXACTLY what this statement is suggesting — that that which goes after what the law calls “wrongdoers” isn’t of any concern whatsoever to anyone of just cause. I mean, even IGNORING the issue on the ethics of “piracy”, it’s obvious to see that. I don’t like having my privacy violated in ANY case. Just because you suspect someone of commiting a “crime” (I hate having to succumb to the usage of your terminology here but I guess it makes things simpler), you do NOT have the right to automatically without any reason infringe on their privacy. Innocent until proven guilty. Stop parroting it and think about the IMPLICATIONS of it. Tired of duckspeak and Brave New World-like conditioning.
SLAVSYA OTECHESTVO! NASHE SVOBODNOYE! DRUZHBY NARODOV NADYOZHNY OPLOT!
Err… right. Where was I? Planing you? Mmmkay.
I forget the statistics on how many cases go cold here in the USA but I bet it’s more than you’d expect, anyway. And why pick on people for using something from a certain country? Are we stuck in the ’50s? One, Communism is not and has never been inherently “evil”. Two, persecution of it like how it happened was not right. It caused LOADS of long-standing damage to our collective psyche as Americans and… well, you’re a great example.
Something being from a certain place doesn’t automatically invalidate it in and of itself. Next!
I’m thinking of a word… it starts with an L… has two syllables… rhymes with saw-chick…
Logic!
Please apply it? Please? Some decent debate strategies? You’re killing me, here.
Your examples are completely nullified by the fact that THOSE ACTIONS CAUSE DIRECT HARM TO ANOTHER. Immediate and direct — that is what makes them wrong. No, they are not protected by freedom of speech or action or whatever because they are harmful. “Piracy” is not. It is not done with the immediate intention of nor does it CAUSE immediate risk of harm, injury, etc, etc. Therefore there is no inherent problem with it. Gimme back my freedom, plz.
The distribution of the program in question does NOT imply inherent infringement. (Hey, accidental assonance! And again! But that one was less accidental… er. Back on track! [Accidental rhyme!!!]) Just because they are giving out a program that makes it EASIER for people to infringe with less risk of being caught does not mean they automatically endorse such activity. There are MANY legitimate, non-infringing uses of torrents — again I must bring up Iran and the videos being circulated. (This has been taking up all my life and energy for over a week now, so… it’s a big deal to me.) Programs that make those within Iran anonymous could save their LIVES right now. And you want to remove that AS WELL AS all the other benefits just so you can chase people for a perfectly fine act? Sigh…
Also, “pirates don’t really like to face themselves either”? Er, generalizing AGAIN. :)
See my tackling of your first example and the issues I raised with your regarding something as illegitimate solely due to its origins. Is… is this… generalization? A form thereof? SHOCK AND HORROR I think it may be. :O
So… you haven’t changed, good buddy. You did give me an awesome way to let off some intellectual frustration, though. That was nice. I like writing.
Victory is so much sweeter when Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is running through your head…
@Reasoned Mind/neostyles
“The fact that they are running, if anything, proves beyond any last doubt that they are guilty.”
Yes, and fact that Jews resisted during the Holocaust, if anything, proves beyond a doubt that they should have been exterminated.
Your logic is ironclad.
@Reasoned Mind/neostyles
““We are trying to hide you from the law while you steal music and movies.
“stealing is a human right”””
Liar, liar, liar, liar. No matter how many times that you regurgitate the lie that filesharing is stealing, it will never be anything more than lie, and you will never be anything more than a liar for telling it.
Which makes your obsession with “morality” all the more hilarious and hypocritical. Watching you preach about morals is like watching Joseph Goebbels(rest his soul) preach about truth in the media.
Can you tell I’m on a WWII theme tonight? :D
@Reasoned Mind/neostyles
“Now, we have the chumps that started it all!”
Oh, really? The Pirate Bay invented filesharing did they? I think it’s time for the nice men in the white coats to come visit you again and give you your nightly dose of meds.
People have to care because in the end it will affect their day to day lives. If you don’t care one day you will be waking up living in a parallel universe where fascists and totalitarian regime rules the world.
Wait a minute!?
I’m gonna stick with Rapidshare, its quick I don’t have to seed and I can find pretty much anything I want instantly without having to worry about having seeders
@76
Godwin/Reductio ad Hitlerum. Just when I’d been reading about it, too!
It now seems so…wonderful to live in a tropical country all of a sudden. Sure, the politics is driven to hell, you’re under a constant curtain of fear from both crime, healthcare and future legislation….but piracy is legal.
We endorse it, actually, seeing as all those products we’re supposedly “stealing” are artificially inflated anywhere from two to four times their original price. You say we’re stealing, but it’s a mere act of retribution against others stealing our own money.
And while you worry continuously about getting blocked, about getting your country restricted, about even being arrested for copyright infringement…we sit here calmly pirating all we want because whoever’s running the ISP either does not care about the traffic or doesn’t know how to use it as a tool in the first place.
A bit ironic that what we see as “towers of dictatorial evil” like Russia, China, or, hell, myself in Venezuela, have more freedom than the very “Land of the Free”.
I think it’s time to start questioning that label even more.
Just a heads up: the BitBlinder link takes you to the TorrentPrivacy article.
@ Ben Jones
Bt with pg2 turned on.
Then Upload of torrent started.
MediaSentry gets blocked.
Is this a sign of it not working?
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/12/nettwerk-ceo-terry-mcbride-puts-fans-in-charge-of-bands346.html
People who don’t call their fans thief’s are having a great time according to the article in the link above.
Netlabel gives music for free to their fans LoL
@82 Jun 23, 2009 at 08:01 by my 2 cent car crash:
Peerguardian is based on lists and lists don’t work they get things wrong all the time and are not reliable how do people really know where the bad guys are?
They can’t, people assume a lot and all that media sentry have to is change proxies every week to defeat peerguardian.
It may block some bad things and that is good but it will not catch everything so it’s not secure enough don’t trust it to save you from landing in a court of law, peerguardian is like a small shield that can protect some parts of your body but not all.
@ 55, Voice of History
You first.
Name
Address
Date of birth
etc.
Idiot.
@84
Who’s getting ripped off by filesharing?
If you’re going to post something, elaborate on it.
@Anonymous
And the copyright holders are inarguably ripping off the artists. So what’s your point?
I dont see a reason to use vpn. As long as there’s hundreds of thousands of people torrenting, were all in the clear. The numbers alone show there some truth why it’s ok to pirate.
It can’t go on like this forever, but for now, it’s all we got. It’s justice for the injustice. They owe us and society as a whole trading money for happiness at an extortion level.
No it’s not. That would be why I’m asking for clarification.
Not true. You’re not taking anything from them, so how can you rip them off?
@RainyDays
There are millions of people torrenting. :)
A lot more people will use VPN with the recent case ruling. The VPN industry will get quite a boost from this.
I use the net full of torrents like a try before I buy and tivo service all rolled into one. I buy plenty of blu-rays, plenty of PS3 games, plenty of CD’s. I mean plenty. And I do this after checking them out. If the ol’ entertainment industry nabbed me, they’d have a field day, mainly because they would completely ignor the fact that I’ve either bought the original, or deleted the download after I realised it wasn’t good enough.
Why don’t they wake up and change their business model? I’d pay £30 – £40 a month for an unlimited download service, where the files died after a month. Now you could either just download it again next month, or buy it for real. Just how many albums do you listen to each month, and you realise that paying £30 – £40 a month would actually make the industry cash. WTF? Everyone would be happy. I’d get to not worry about a knock on the door whilst watching and listening to everything I want. The entertainment industry would get a user who pays for four or five virtual albums/movies a month. That’s an enormous bucket load more than the average consumer today (well, maybe not more than me at the moment, but that’s cos I’m greedy and want to keep the real thing). Anyway, back to the annon services. I’m interested!
@ criticizers, I an only quote Benjamin Franklin:
“Those who would trade a little freedom for a little security will deserve neither, and shall lose both”.
See ya on the news when IPv6 becomes a reality (so you can be uniquely identified by your IP), and VPNs get outlawed.
@ criticizers, I an only quote Benjamin Franklin:
“Those who would trade a little freedom for a little security will deserve neither, and shall lose both”.
See ya on the news when IPv6 becomes a reality (so you can be uniquely identified by your IP), and VPNs get outlawed. Shouldn’t take more than 3-4 years.
We are Anonymous. You cannot catch us.
#58
The usenet provider is still situated in a country; that in turn has jurisdiction, that in turn could be that they need to keep records of your useage.
And you’re full circle.
There are some hints at what the real problem is however; VPNs and other obscuring measures are just a way to get around the now, but what we need is a SOLUTION. Either the laws or the industry need to go away, because filesharing surely isn’t.
I have been voting Pirate Party and will continue to do so until this saddened state of big brotherism and consumer oppression stops.
I’d rather live in a world with “no content” or only “shitty homemade content” (because I know that hobby bands can play quite awesome, thank you very much pro-industry fagtards) rather than be considered a criminal for duplicating bits(i.e. not even stealing, but simply increasing total available count/amount of information).
Things need to change. Go out and vote so that they do. Don’t be a forumtard.
Another solution to the problem might be using of the steganography technology (http://stegoshare.sf.net)
For anybody looking for a PG2 solution for Vista\Windows 7 .. Check out ipfilter updater avail here.. http://sites.google.com/site/whitehat2k9/Home/my-programs/utorrent-ipfilter-updater ..
Enjoy..
@93
Hey moron digital reproductions (MP3s and avi formats) are not 1:1 copy!
Still didn’t get invited to BitBlinder… :( ‘Tis a shame too, as I would be willing to act as an exit node…
I really dislike shit like this.
What makes p2p users hard to handle is their vast open numbers. When some go to VPNs, the rest will be easier to handle. Also, the ISPs will have an easyer time blocking or throtling the VPNs IP lists. It’s a lose/lose situation for the p2p users.
If you really want to support the BT community, consider donating to the trackers, seed more, helping eachother, etc.
To pay for destribution (directly or indirectly) I would prefere getting stuff from iTunes and etc, but it would null all the concept.
I compare people who gets in the VPN p2p specialized subscription scheme to those in here that read something and throw a panic fit(running in circles screamming and pulling hair out comes to mind) without thinking racionaly for two secounds.
Civil desobidience IS the key. Manifest, rallys, meetings, letters, posts, blogging, etc. And the bigger the numbers, the bigger chance we have to keep the p2p (and the Web) free. Pressure the bastards!
You can’t expect to keep afloat when you’re divided.
what program offers the best anonymousness (thats not a word is it)
the easist site for torrents (movies, music, software, games) is http://www.entertane.com – faster, simpler – and you can search all your favorite torrent sites.
Why do we not hear more and more about Freenet now. It has come on leaps and bounds since I first became interested in the project and it kills many birds with AK-47 let alone stones.
It has become a whole lot easier to install these days too.
So please.. n00bs to the idea of online privacy take a look. It might be the best chance we have at a free file sharing world.
http://freenetproject.org/
How come Torrent Freak seems to avoid known anonymous networks that can be used to share files (via torrents) anonymously such as I2P?
I’ve commented on a few other posts on TorrentFreak about I2P but just in case others don’t know…
I2P allows one to share files via torrent, gnutella and other means without the data ever hitting the normal internet. I2P has it’s own torrent trackers also.
After some testing, I highly suggest 0.7.4-3 version of I2P (with the GUI). It is way faster than 0.7.4-0 (latest stable). You can pick up 0.7.4-3 here (public way to access the echelon.i2p eepsite):
http://echelon.i2p.to/0.7.4/0.7.4-3/
Pup2p (Puppy Linux remaster aimed for I2P use) has finally been released. It is a Linux LiveCD distro with a lot of I2P related apps including the above mentioned version of I2P. The easiest way to share files via torrent on I2P is to install I2P and i2pfox, launch both and once everything is going, check out the “Torrents” bookmark folder. i2psnark is the torrent client. Tracker2 is the main torrent tracker on I2P. It may take some use to get used to but once you know how to use everything, it’s easy.
Pup2p:
http://www.censorshipsucksballs.com/2009/06/pup2p-puppy-linux-livecd-aimed-for-use-with-the-anonymous-network-i2p/
Ahh yes the ripping of trip-clause … well …
Money is ripping of my time, my thoughts and my creativity to create and build what ever I want and enjoy myself of giving it to someone and receiving a smile and warmth of joy. Money puts me trough school and into a world without perspective on a 70h/week job that I hate. Bound to the everyday pressure circle of “geting money in” to survive in that slavery system just to feed my children, pay my bills and buying anything else because of lacking SPARE TIME to build it myself or think it all out.
copyright is like money … a human illusion made out of thin air to get all humans to think in one way that can be easily predicted. Well thanks to paper, letter printing, books and finally the Internet and the early modem days … it isn’t just big philosophers and presidents that get the word out and discus it with a lot of people (besides the past is public common! At least a lot of it is). And of course as in every system … forces want to control and cencor that power and use it to their own interest and profit.
What ever is needed is maybe enough with a exit-node-cloud system on the current ipv4 system … but it will be obsolete within a ipv6 system. politicians and lobbies take ipv6 as new control perspective … so they will push it!
Sadly I don’t have time to put it all together. What ever is needed it will not be a exit-node-cloud system relaying peers in between a connection to servers. And no company will “sell” us the solution! that whole One-Server/N-Clients concept need to be redesigned more redundant and clusterd over peers whatsoever.
Todays business is based on ripping of. Good Deals are those ripping of to some extend on human- or material- resources.
I don’t buy music, because labels will rip of the artists and studios so I donate on existing paypal account or buy stuff like shirts and posters to be sure that they see more of my money. I never was into movies or series .. but I really like documentaries so producers and studios will get some donation or I buy some of their fan merchandise. I try to take the least-rip-of way to get most of my money to the people who deserve it.
Technology changes over time. They can sue all they want, cause nerds are working hard on newer and faster ways to share files.
They can’t keep up its a FACT.
We will not let them take this away..we are hidden but we are an intelligent powerful ARMY.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
http://www.entertane.com – the easist site for torrents (movies, music, software, games) – faster, simpler – and you can search all your favorite torrent sites.
That’s the reason why many **AA groups have held meetings with ISP’s. That’s why caps are being introduced. Hey you want to be anonymous? that’s fine, we’re still going to make sure that you have to buy our content or pay a premium for bandwidth.
@111: There are still ISPs with good upload bandwidth. Mine just isn’t one of them ~__~
I’ve seen some ISPs in this area (outside of my ability to get service but still near here) that offer 3-5 times more upload bandwidth than I get for the same price I’m paying. Enough bandwidth to actually make P2P interesting.
I find it sad that it’s necessary to pay for your own privacy now. Have we come this far?…
OFF-Torrents are anonymous Torrents
http://offsystem.sf.net
Just to build on what ‘Censorship Sucks Balls’ (#107) said, personally I’m a mac user who likes easy software with intuitive GUI, and I confirm that having i2p up & running is very easy and it opens up a world of possibilities (anonymous torrent with i2psnark, anonymous gnutella with i2phex, and anonymous kamdelia with imule).
After extensive search of anonymous file sharing, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the best solution to date, with none of the flaws of the much (too much) advertised Bitbinder, VPNs, rapidshare, usenet, etc, and it’s free.
Granted, the i2p project has managed to keep itself quite discreet, and as a result it does not have yet the wealth of material that popular torrent sites have.
But with the clampdown on file sharing, I do believe that it is the only truly viable solution in the long run, and I expect that more and more people will join in.
And as more people join in, more material will be available and faster will the transfers be.
In sum, keep using what you currently use, but join us as well on i2p, until i2p becomes the only necessary tool.
Let’s rock that boat a little bit.
What a wholesome flamewar :)
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