Chaos Project

General => Electronic and Computer Section => Topic started by: G_G on December 09, 2014, 11:43:16 pm

Title: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: G_G on December 09, 2014, 11:43:16 pm
As most of you probably know by now, The Pirate Bay servers have been seized. Actual physical server and computer equipment has been confiscated, leaving our beloved torrent site to be gone for quite awhile. As far as offsite backups go, the only one I know of is a collection of all magnet links, titles, and comments made back in Feb 2013 and you can actually download it for under a gig, which is incredible considering the amount of torrents that exist on the site. To be honest, as much as I hate to say it, I think the sites down for good, luckily there are a handful of other sites just like it out there that are just as good.

As far as I can tell, the only way to access anything from the site is using the trusty Google cache.
Spoiler: ShowHide
(http://puu.sh/dov8N/30c45a8d69.png)
Click Text Only
(http://puu.sh/dovlB/f1a54c333a.png)
Profit
(http://puu.sh/dovoy/66109f9f13.png)


More on what actually happened here.
http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/

So, for those of you who do pirate the occasional movie/show here and there, or even those who use P2P more frequent than others, what are your thoughts? Do you think the site will come back? What other sites are out there that you personally use? (NO DIRECT LINKS. NAMES OF SITES ALLOWED.) Does/will this affect your lifestyle at all? Any and all speculation is welcome.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: winkio on December 10, 2014, 12:14:15 am
Anything that reduces mainstream pirating such as this is good.  Tech savvy people and kids will always be sharing (illegally) movies, music, software, and other files.  But taking a popular site offline will force a substantial amount of older, less tech-savvy users to other means, such as netflix, etc.

In my opinion, people should be able to get any productive software (think Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, MATLAB, etc.) for free if they are a kid or make under a certain amount a year, because developing skill with that software will open up a lot of opportunities for that person in the future, which would lead to a purchase of that software once they find a job that requires it.  A separate argument could be made that free access to movies and music could expand a child's development, but it is not quite as strong.

In time I think we will build up a better online consumer experience with universal access to content for a single monthly payment, but it is going to take a while to develop.  The less people there are pirating stuff, the more people there are willing to test out the next generation of Netflix, etc., so the quicker we can come to a solution that actually works.  Of course, this is not anywhere near the main obstacle at the moment, I would put low bandwidth connections and lack of support from movie studios / record labels as the top two factors impeding progress.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: G_G on December 10, 2014, 01:06:09 am
The point you made is what I've been trying to use to justify myself.

As far as income goes, I haven't had to pirate software/games in quite awhile. Other than major costly ones such as Photoshop. Growing up through school, downloading movies/tv shows is actually what kept me out of trouble. Kept me entertained enough to not want to go out and drink/smoke/whatever. It kept me home and it helped with developing my programming skills so I had something I could resort to when I needed to take a break. Same with games at the time.

Currently, I make a decent enough amount of money to get whatever I want essentially, but I still get movies/tv shows to try and reduce the amount I spend on entertainment. Not to mention I'm a huge problem with impulse buying and it gets really bad around the holidays.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Blizzard on December 10, 2014, 01:32:36 am
Winkio already put it nicely.

Similarly to gameus, now that I have an incom, I tend to pay for movies and games a lot more. There is sometimes the ocassional movie/game that I don't pay for because it's not worth the money. e.g. I watched Lucy a few weeks ago at the theater and I regret it, because the movie is shit. On the other hand Interstellar is more than worth it and I would pay to see it again. As for games, The Stick of Truth was fun, but 40€ for 10 hours of gameplay is too much so I torrented it. On the flipside I got Kingdoms of Amalur which was fairly entertaining 60+ hours for 6€, more than worth it. I would have paid double.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: legacyblade on December 10, 2014, 02:01:35 am
That's a shame :/ While I'm not particularly fond of pirating, I end up doing it just like everyone else. Though I never pirate games anymore, since steam is so convenient. And most of the movies, tv shows, or anime I torrent, I either already have or plan to buy physical copies.

But that's because I make money now. When I first got into college, there was no way I could have afforded even something as cheap as netflix. And it didn't even have all that much on it to begin with at the time. I don't think pirating is the great evil big companies make it out to be. I ended up becoming a paying customer once I had a source of income. But I probably never would have even gotten into anime or other forms of media consumption without piratebay.

And I totally agree with Winkio. There should be a student version of productive software. It shouldn't be usable for commercial work (to a point, anyways), but companies should still let people learn how to use their stuff before expecting a huge payment. (I'm looking at you, photoshop :P) I think Unity does this really well, and is probably a big part of the platform's popularity.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: ForeverZer0 on December 10, 2014, 02:07:07 am
I am sad. Ethically, I could care less, and I download whatever I like without it bothering my conscience even a little. I have not been using the bay near as often lately, I use other sites for the majority of software or movies (which is my primary thing I DL), but I did still use the bay for finding some early releases and the occasional screener/cam that I didn't want to wait until it's release in stores.

Either way, even if the site never does return, more will take its place, and there is still the many other places that already exist to torrent from, though I will miss how large the bay was, it was a nice "one-stop-shop" for anything digital you may require.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Blizzard on December 10, 2014, 02:44:23 am
I don't bother with conscience either. It's more of a thing that I develop games myself and I would like as well that not everybody pirates them. So it's somewhat of a mutual respect thing.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: R.A.V.S.O on December 10, 2014, 02:54:36 am
coming from someone who lives in Mexico,

TPB helped me (and my career surprisingly) in unorthodox ways....

Yes, it's true TPB is a very common source for your pirated games, movies, pr0n etc... but coming from Mexico most of the stuff you'd genuinely like to
obtain through legitimate means is quite scare due to such content simply not being available over here, this is a double edged blade.

take Netflix as an example, over North America Netflix hosts entire series and movies with little to no restraints, over here you're lucky if you
find the same exact series complete (most have either seasons 1-2 barely complete or simply season 1), also to add insult to injury the movie
catalog is heavily restricted as well (apparently Netflix Mex, does not add a series or movie if it doesn't have a spanish dub or sub at least)
I know some of you might say.... why not use a proxy? indeed I could have, but when my relatives eventually want to do this on their own
or the proxy is an overall slowdown, there were alternate less stressful methods, TPB was one of them, simply because chances are what you
were seeking was not available for Netflix (heck Naruto fans in Mexico are still bitching about how shippuden is still not available over here)

afaik most people in Mexico resort to Netflix because as far as they know it's the only source of their movies, and the few people that decided to
seek content not found in netflix decided to try their luck at TPB, heck I've resorted to TPB myself for Linux isos more than movies itself
simply because it was easier and usually came with some form instructions, same with Maya 2015,

long story short, yes while it was used for piracy it was also used for access to content that might have been restricted elsewhere.
either way, afaik TPB will re surge, somewhere someday, like the old saying says.... keep circulating the tapes.  
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Heretic86 on December 10, 2014, 03:43:12 am
Everyone knows that Bit Torrent is a company that is owned and operated by CBS, right?  So um, if Bit Torrent is the problem, why go after the Pirate Bay?  Oh yeah, cuz if you have enough money, nothing you do can be illegal.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: ForeverZer0 on December 10, 2014, 03:44:35 am
BitTorrent is the problem? When did this happen?
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Ryex on December 11, 2014, 04:20:03 am
BitTorrent and the P2P protocol are not one and the same and it has legit uses aside from illegally acquiring copyrighted works. not that I'm into this sort of thing but a good 45% of the torrents on TPB were Pornographic in nature and legit. and another 5-10% were free or public domain works. now I'm hardly going to make the argument that they weren't really distributing that much copyrighted material because let's face it they were, they were the face of the internet when it came to getting free movies or what not.

personally I fully support the existence of TPB my use of it has significantly declined over the last two years because like the others above I've become able to buy my entertainment, infact I now bought every game I've ever pirated. I don't even really go for music with it these days. photoshop and it's ilk however I still go that route. Pirating was never about "getting stuff for free" for me so much as it was participating in a culture I enjoyed but could not afford to.

TPB going down isn't going to do much for the P2P userbase as a whole. the torrents are still there, all the trackers are still live, there are other databases out there and they industries aren't going to get any reparation money out of those who were hosting it.  all they've done is inconvenience 20 million people in the defence of an archaic business model that refuses to adapt to the pace of the tech that made them possible in the first place. TPB was a solution to a problem, and taking it down won't solve it. only better businesses like netflix, spotify, crunchyroll, ect. that give consumers what they are looking for at an affordable price will do that.

on a slightly tangential note. copyright has been abused and manipulated over the last 100 years to become something it was never intended to be. The law and intention of it's invention was to preserve the incentive of creators by ensuring that had a chance to implement and profit from their ideas before that became public property open to who ever could find the best way to implement and sell the product of the idea.

Think about it, current law assign OWNERSHIP of an idea made PUBLIC to it's creator for up to 75 years AFTER said creator is dead. thats basicly two lifetimes worth of lost progress. Think about what that implies about the properties of an idea. to me there mere concept of an idea being owned is ludacris. if someone tells me about an idea, they have passed on that knowledge and it became my idea as much as theirs. the origination of the idea should still be credited to them by I can irritate and implement on the idea too and the product of my mental efforts should be mine not theirs just because they thought of the base concept first. It is right to ensure that a creator should be able to claim first dibs of implementation of an idea. it is wholly wrong to stretch that line of thinking to the point of cementing thous rights in stone until they are dead and gone their children are retiring
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: ForeverZer0 on December 13, 2014, 08:47:18 pm
New domain.

.cr
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Blizzard on December 14, 2014, 02:45:01 am
Man, that was fast. xD
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: R.A.V.S.O on December 14, 2014, 03:58:43 am
Technically speaking TPB.cr was always there,

it works as a side-server, but mostly used by people near costa rica when they have trouble accessing .se
it's almost the same except that it might look a bit less organized then .se did.

sweden only has jurisdiction over .se, and when it got taken down, site savvy uploaders focused over to .cr
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: G_G on December 14, 2014, 09:54:01 am
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-copycats-flourish-after-raid-141212/

QuoteIn recent days we have received more than a hundred tips from readers who announced that TPB has returned on the thepiratebay.cr. While this site does look familiar, it's by no means an official incarnation.

In fact, as we highlighted earlier (https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-has-not-been-resurrected-yet-141210/), the .cr domain used to be one of the many Pirate Bay proxy/mirror sites. It has no upload functionality nor can visitors sign up to add torrents. Interestingly enough (and adding to the confusion) the site's operators started to populate the site with new content themselves a few hours ago.


They must have just added support for login/registration and adding torrents, but it doesn't have nearly the amount the original site did as far as I'm aware.
(http://puu.sh/dujVc/f6dc7f03b6.png)
Considering it was uploaded "Today" but I just wanted people to be aware it's not the official site. Though it's kind of nice to see it "back", it's definitely not the same.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: R.A.V.S.O on December 14, 2014, 12:31:15 pm
I wonder if they'll decide to take over the flag and enable uploads + the original features .se had.

either that, or there's always kickass torrents
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Ryex on December 16, 2014, 04:04:19 am
there is also isohunt.to and demonoid.pw
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: MetalZelda on December 16, 2014, 11:00:04 am
If the governement think that this is gonna stop illegal download they're wrong.

1 site closed = 10 more created with the same goal.  :naughty:
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: PhoenixFire on December 16, 2014, 12:45:29 pm
Quote from: MetalZelda on December 16, 2014, 11:00:04 am
If the governement think that this is gonna stop illegal download they're wrong.

1 site closed = 10 more created with the same goal.  :naughty:


Basically, this. I do not have a strong opinion either way on thi subject; like others, I used to download things out of lack of money, or, I wanted to try it out fully before purchasing. Many items I purchased, I purchased after trying them out. Haven't done illegal downloads in quite some time, but I support the statement made earlier..

Quote from: legacyblade on December 10, 2014, 02:01:35 am
But that's because I make money now. When I first got into college, there was no way I could have afforded even something as cheap as netflix. And it didn't even have all that much on it to begin with at the time. I don't think pirating is the great evil big companies make it out to be. I ended up becoming a paying customer once I had a source of income. But I probably never would have even gotten into anime or other forms of media consumption without piratebay.

And I totally agree with Winkio. There should be a student version of productive software. It shouldn't be usable for commercial work (to a point, anyways), but companies should still let people learn how to use their stuff before expecting a huge payment. (I'm looking at you, photoshop :P) I think Unity does this really well, and is probably a big part of the platform's popularity.
Title: Re: Pirate Bay Seized
Post by: Blizzard on December 16, 2014, 03:17:47 pm
Yeah, trying out is a great thing. I believe that the "loss of profit" created by piracy would be heavily reduced if everybody would create higher quality products for reasonable prices. After all, e.g. when you watch a bad movie at the cinema, you can just leave in the middle (or was it at the end?) and ask your money back. You don't feel that you got your money's worth and are asking it back. Similar to a lot of pirated products. You try it out and if you don't like it, don't pay for it and stop using it.

I have bought a bunch of games of games that I pirated previously. Why? I already beat them, why would I pay for them afterward? Because I want to support the developers to make more great games.