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LegalTorrents Offers CC Works Via BitTorrent

Posted by timothy on from the but-p2p-is-for-haxx0r-p1r@73z dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A site called LegalTorrents has just launched that hosts trackers and seeds for digital media licensed under the Creative Commons license. ('We distribute content with the full permission of the rights holders and use the peer-2-peer file-sharing technology called Bittorrent.') The site even provides a way to donate money to artists you like. (LegalTorrents takes 15% off the top unless you are a member, which costs $50 one-time during the beta period.)" It's always good to see "legitimate" content distributed in ways that make it hard to demonize the distribution system itself — something Lawrence Lessig in particular has been doing for years, and his book "Free Culture" is one of the audiobooks available through LegalTorrents. Note that LegalTorrents has been around for a while now, rather than "just launched," but the current beta period won't last forever.

129 comments

  1. First post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This post is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license version 3.0.

    1. Re:First post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      This post is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license version 3.0.

      We don't care. We sue anyone whether we have a case or not. We even sue people who have never used a computer before in their lives. We get new technologies declared illegal in and of themselves. We try to get judges to let us browbeat and interrogate 10-year old girls. You will be sued one way or the other.

      - RIAA

    2. Re:First post by Malevolyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'll give LegalTorrents about six months before an "accidentally on purpose" attack.

      --
      Your ad here.
    3. Re:First post by Ihmhi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How's this OffTopic? This is very relevant to the topic considering that this has happened once before.

      I'd mod you back up if I had the points.

      --
      Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
    4. Re:First post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does the site have Creative Commons pr0n?

      Rule 34.

    5. Re:First post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >I'll give LegalTorrents about six months before an "accidentally on purpose" attack.

      I don't think the copyright infringers would feel so threatened so as to be driven to doing this.

    6. Re:First post by Bourbonium · · Score: 1

      Now wait a minute. LegalTorrents has been around for years. I first read about it in Wired Magazine when they included a CD filled with free, CC-licensed music as an insert in each copy. The CD had a link to the LegalTorrents site. It was also discussed extensively in the accompanying article. That was in the November 2004 issue, almost four years ago. See http://creativecommons.org/wired

  2. So wait... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So wait, you donate money to the bands but LegalTorrents takes money off of there for what? Yes, servers are expensive and hosting isn't free, but really, it isn't your bandwidth, or anything. It is like saying you have to pay $15 to host your files on TPB. Just another reason to support the artist by going to the artist's website and donating or buying CDs/going to concerts. Seriously, LegalTorrents makes money off of what? Making a logo?

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:So wait... by McGiraf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If the site becomes popular enough , it gives exposure to the artists.

      There, that was not so hard to figure out.

    2. Re:So wait... by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      15% isn't all that outrageous when you consider that the credit card and banking fees are included in that total. They are providing a value-added convenience... you don't have to track down the artist's site, the artist doesn't have to contract with a payment service, etc.

      Plus, since it isn't mandatory, I'd say this is a perfect example of the free market at work. Unlike, say, the record company system where the only way to compensate the artists is through their record company. May the best distribution model win! If people don't like this, it will go away :)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:So wait... by Narpak · · Score: 1

      Indeed, paying the artists directly might be the only way for them to get the full amount. However, that only works for artists you know or have heard about(not to mention that they have to have a working system for accepting donations). Sites like LegalTorrent can help make it easier for new artists get some recognition (and money). Handling what is most often minor donations is probably easier if done at a slightly larger scale than any one artists is able to maintain. Of course you could always just send money to the artists by mail or check I suppose, but doing it online is just so much easier.

      --
      The Long Now Foundation
    4. Re:So wait... by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      But so does every other torrent site. So does Last.fm and other Internet radio stations. It isn't unique to LegalTorrents. And I can bet you that more people will use TPB then LegalTorrents even to get CC licensed works.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    5. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right, you're always able to freeload off LegalTorrents in order to find and download the music you like, and then you can always donate to the artist separately if you so choose, and then LegalTorrents ends up having to foot the bill for their servers (however minimal it may be).

      So in order to recoup the costs of all the freeloaders, they have to charge the good samaritans 15%.

    6. Re:So wait... by rm999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If we REFUSE to give any money to the people who put effort into publicizing artists, music might as well as be dead. I don't buy the record studio's argument that we need them, but in their absence the grassroots movement needs some funding.

      If you are too cheap to tack 15% on top of your donation, just go to the artist's page and donate directly.

    7. Re:So wait... by McGiraf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unknown artists are not uploaded by anyone anywhere except by the artist , they are the only one with the file. Where will they upload it, somewhere they might get money from it or TPB? Sure if they get popular the file will end up everywhere but poeple looking for new stuff and people who love real music will go there instead sifting trough all the RIAA crap on the other torrent sites.

    8. Re:So wait... by Darkness404 · · Score: 1

      If we REFUSE to give any money to the people who put effort into publicizing artists, music might as well as be dead. I don't buy the record studio's argument that we need them, but in their absence the grassroots movement needs some funding.

      But, if they were HTTP downloads I might agree with them, for FTP downloads or something other then P2P downloads, I would say that it is good for them to charge 15%, but when something that costs minimal bandwidth is being hosted, I find it hard to agree with them charging 15% on donations. Now, don't get me wrong, I think that this is a great idea, but honestly, 15% is kinda expensive considering they don't do much. And when you figure in how every other torrent site does the same thing without taking 15% from "donations to the artist", I find it hard to believe they really are promoting the artist as much as trying to get rich.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    9. Re:So wait... by giorgiofr · · Score: 0

      I also think that 15% is way too much (I'd be OK with maybe 1-2%) but then again if it's really so easy to make a site like this and run it for much less, somebody else will do it and win all the customers. Come to think of it, this kind of site can be coded in a couple of days :) I guess promotion is going to cost, though.

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    10. Re:So wait... by smallfries · · Score: 1, Interesting

      If it becomes popular enough?

      Currently:
      LegalTorrents - about 70 files
      ThePirateBay - about 1.2 million files

      How popular do you think they will become while most people continue straight down the street to the all-you-can-eat-for-free next door?

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    11. Re:So wait... by Firehed · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but I expect that running a tracker can get fairly pricey even if the http side of things for the website people use to get the torrents is cheap. And if it's a few people making this their full-time jobs to improve the service, track down the artists for donation locations, keep everything running nicely, etc... I don't know, it still seems fairly high but knock a bit off for CC processing (down to ~12% now) and having your one-stop shopping, it's not unreasonable either.

      And indeed, if someone else will put together the same service for 5%, the people that donate at least will probably flock over there (the rest won't care), and the revenue stream for this site will dry up.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    12. Re:So wait... by NovaHorizon · · Score: 1
      The 15% goes away if you're a member. It's just a business based incentive to convince you to pay for the membership.

      The idea would be that at 15%, you'd have to donate ~$334 to pay for that 1 time membership fee. $334 is probably more then most people would donate.

      so, to pay for tracker hosting costs (which is more extremely frequent requests for small amounts of information, opposed to fewer requests of large amounts of information) you can either pay $50 to become a member, or donate over $300 to have essentially paid for membership.

      The choice is yours.

      --
      Defective Logic
    13. Re:So wait... by McGiraf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Currently:
      LegalTorrents - about 70 files
      ThePirateBay - about 1.2 million files

      Ok.

      If you looking for CC music which of these 2 sites will make it easier for you?

    14. Re:So wait... by politicsapocalypse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      LegalTorrents do provide a seed also. We accept donations directly from our site but yeah if they manage to get someone to donate through their site I don't really mind giving them 15%. As I stated in my other post we have our music there.

    15. Re:So wait... by smallfries · · Score: 1

      Is that really the point when you talk about popularity? For the site to become large enough for the exposure they give to artists being worth the 15% rake you have to assume that the "market" for CC music is large enough to make that happen. With about 10 music files they are a long way from reaching that goal.

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    16. Re:So wait... by jlarocco · · Score: 3, Informative

      Seriously, LegalTorrents makes money off of what? Making a logo?

      Where did you get the idea that you get to tell people how much money they can make? If you don't think the service LegalTorrents provides is worth 15% of your donation, shut the fuck up and donate somewhere else. It's that simple.

      --
      Maybe not
    17. Re:So wait... by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      Why don't you just come out and say that you hate capitalism and that nobody should ever make any money at all for providing a value added service? At least you'd be honest.

    18. Re:So wait... by kaizokuace · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I guess promotion is going to cost, though.

      No it's not, just post a few /. articles or something.

      --
      Balderdash!
    19. Re:So wait... by Digital+End · · Score: 1

      /agree good people with a good idea

      --
      Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
    20. Re:So wait... by pudro · · Score: 1

      Why was this modded flamebait?

      If I want something licensed under CC, I'm going to go where the bigger community is unless they have something in place to promote better seeding (and I see nothing like that for regular users here).

      --
      Freedom is assumed. Then they try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.
    21. Re:So wait... by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most credit cards charge the merchant a fee per transaction plus a percentage (2-3% at least). So LegalTorrents should just eat the rest of their costs and run as a charity? I think not.

    22. Re:So wait... by bane2571 · · Score: 1

      I'm honestly curious because I don't know the answer but how much of a cut does iTunes get when an artist wants their song on there?

    23. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      15% is kinda expensive considering they don't do much

      Whatever. I'd like to see random Slashdot dudes build a website that is still up and responds in under a second through a holiday-weekend front-page Slashdotting, attached to a storage system built to scale out to terabytes of hosted data with dedicated BT seeds, integrates several different programming languages and toolsets, supports multi-file uploads over the web with full Unicode support, has a Facebook app, backups, load balancing, memcached, and on top of all that also aims to build a community of real people who support and give their time and energy to help build it because it's such a cool idea.

      Go for it, really. Maybe in your spare time.

      I know some of the people building this... and they are working their assess off

    24. Re:So wait... by Omnedon · · Score: 5, Insightful
      LegalTorrents provides tracker *and* seed hosting. Go over to TPB and count how many torrents they have running with zero seeds. A donation of $10 via LegalTorrents will clear $8.50 to the artist, buying from the RIAA members gives how much to those that actually made the music?

      15% is not a bad 'payment' for a seed that will be there as long as the torrent is available.

    25. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The second one.

    26. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where will they upload it, somewhere they might get money from it or TPB?

      I just had the realisation that I am a racist, not only for thinking that Americans generally fall for Bush's 'either-or' rhetoric, but also for assuming you are American as a result.

    27. Re:So wait... by McGiraf · · Score: 1

      Well, I am not, either-or.

    28. Re:So wait... by RobertM1968 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If the site becomes popular enough , it gives exposure to the artists.

      There, that was not so hard to figure out.

      Bingo!

      And folks, it does (potentially) far more than that - it proves that the RIAA is out of their mind when they claim that P2P software is only for illegal sharing. It proves that software, like any other tool, is not necessarily good or bad - how it is used determines that.

      If this site makes it and becomes popular, it is perfect proof that the laws that the **AA are lobbying for are really for getting/keeping control over online media - and not about piracy.

      Of course, the **AA's next step will be trying to pass a law ensuring that royalties and profits for these types of services go to one of their organizations (like SoundExchange) for them to control funds distribution (ie: the **AA keeps the money - just like the recent Internet Radio bullshit that passed).

      But, that's a few more miles down the road - first, this site (and similar sites) must prove that BitTorrent can be and is being used for legal purposes to help prevent the **AA (and others') attempts at laws making P2P software illegal.

      Oddly, someone above posted about the upcoming "accidental" attack on this service by the **AA - and was modded OffTopic... dunno why. I surely wouldnt doubt that such a thing will occur, and I definitely find it on-topic to a discussion about LegalTorrent offering legal BitTorrent downloads - as such a situation would potentially cause two issues directly related (assuming the **AA find open servers)... (1) LegalTorrent would be "offering" illegal torrents, and/or (2) LegalTorrent wouldnt be offering anything once the **AA's server farm pummelled them into nothingness - just like they did to Revision3).

      --
      StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
    29. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When lacking an answer to a common-sense question, the clever "shut the fuck up" technique will always do in a pinch.

      1. Stupid idea = website
      2. Draw slack-jawed morons to website, fleece 'em
      3. Refute valid criticism with STFU technique
      4. ?????
      5. PROFIT!!!!!

    30. Re:So wait... by aussie_a · · Score: 0, Troll

      I refuse to visit torrent sites that mainly deal in illegal goods.

    31. Re:So wait... by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      IMO 15% is an estimate based on them expecting very few people to donate money. The more people that donate, the more they make, the lower they can make their cut. Assuming of course they're not greedy capitalists.

    32. Re:So wait... by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      is this smart? calling it LEGAL torrents does not help, because it implies that any other torrent site it's per se illegal. Yeah we know it's a fact.. but average Joe will say "OMG Terrorists" bad karma to torrent sites as a whole. Why don't call it CCTorrent/ FREETORRENT etc. Bad naming, some enterprises born dead because of bad naming. and yes I know they were around before.. so relaunch with a diff name.

    33. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where will they upload it, somewhere they might get money from it or TPB?

      I just had the realisation that I am a racist, not only for thinking that Americans generally fall for Bush's 'either-or' rhetoric, but also for assuming you are American as a result.

      You can't be racist against Americans. American isn't a race.

    34. Re:So wait... by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 1

      I generally hate racism as people don't have a choice about what colour skin they were born with. I generally don't mind when people discriminate against a mindset as people have a choice about that. There's something seriously wrong with the stereotypical American, but it isn't fair to assume any given American falls under that stereotype.

    35. Re:So wait... by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 1

      ...will make it much harder as you have to filter through all the non-CC content that isn't even labelled as to what licence it is under. The first option does the filtering for you allowing you to easily find CC material.

    36. Re:So wait... by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      With about 10 music files they are a long way from reaching that goal.

      You have to start somewhere.

    37. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it works the same way with /. except that the 15% goes towards cowboyNeal's chocolate bars.

    38. Re:So wait... by Ahnteis · · Score: 1

      Really? TPB has license-type searching now?

    39. Re:So wait... by Ahnteis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I believe the *artist* gets something like 7%? It was a subject of some discussion a year or two back, so you can probably find some good details still.

    40. Re:So wait... by Repossessed · · Score: 1

      "15% is kinda expensive considering they don't do much"

      Interestingly, it's a lot more than many distributors let the artists have.

      --
      Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
    41. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, good point! You know what? I'm gonna create a service where people can donate to their favourite artists, and I keep 100% of the money they donate as a fee.

      And unless you're a fucking hypocrite, I expect you to cheer me on now. (I do not expect you to actually donate anything, of course, but that's another matter.)

    42. Re:So wait... by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, you are not a racist, you are an idiot. You just took a random excuse to make an anti-Bush/anti-American post. The OP was not making an either-or statement, he was making an argument about why Legaltorrents.com might be successful.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    43. Re:So wait... by bane2571 · · Score: 1

      I thought it was something ludicrous like that, makes the 85% from legal torrents seem very generous.

    44. Re:So wait... by warsql · · Score: 1

      I hope they are greedy capitalists. Those types tend to be successful, and I'd like to see this succeed.
      I'm just glad they aren't - use the legal system to enforce my monopolistic revenue stream - greedy capitalists.

      --
      878659 - yep its prime.
    45. Re:So wait... by pudro · · Score: 1

      I'm a big boy and I know what is licensed and not. Not to mention most things legally licensed explicitly say so in their descriptions.

      --
      Freedom is assumed. Then they try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.
    46. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For the site to become large enough

      I don't think that was really his argument.

      If you know what you want (CC music), where are you going to find it, on a site devoted to CC media, or on page 3423 of 12214 after 5000 different copies of N'Sync albums?

      The real question is "how many people want CC music"

    47. Re:So wait... by digitrev · · Score: 1

      Go for it. I'd love to see who the fuck will sign up with you.

      --
      Cynical Idealist
    48. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where did you get the idea that you get to tell people how much money they can make?

      From all of the comments here about how the RIAA/MPAA charges too much?

      Oh, wait...

    49. Re:So wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll surf them again in 2014 or so. Maybe they'll have more than two books available then.

  3. Bad name by Eudial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The name of the tracker indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less legal. It's a content distribution platform. Much like with firearms, it's the people that use it that commit or don't commit crimes. Not the tools they use.

    Other trackers are full of CC and open source contents as well. Just do a search for gentoo, ubuntu, slackware or some such on the pirate bay and you'll see what I mean.

    --
    GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    1. Re:Bad name by McGiraf · · Score: 5, Funny

      "The name of the tracker indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less legal"

      What about the name of the piratebay? does name of the piratebay indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less piraty?

    2. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a locksmith company in my town called "Legal Locksmith". When I first saw that, I thought the same thing. "What? Are they implying the other locksmiths are illegal?"

    3. Re:Bad name by arbiter1 · · Score: 1

      hahahah, so is media sentry gonna ddos the hell outta them to cause they are sharing content they have legal rights to share?

    4. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The name of the tracker indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less legal.

      Only for those of us that are bad at logic.

    5. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      What about the name of the piratebay? does name of the piratebay indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less piraty?

      Yarr

    6. Re:Bad name by Eudial · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "The name of the tracker indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less legal"

      What about the name of the piratebay? does name of the piratebay indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less piraty?

      The Pirate Bay's case is more a matter of not being beaten down by epithets. If they call downloaders pirates, then the downloaders wear the name pirate with pride, and take the power away from the word, draining away negative connotations and whatnot.

      It's the same method as homosexuals have used on 'fag' and black people on 'nigger'.

      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    7. Re:Bad name by HappySmileMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      Which is why this site should never be brought to the attention of the general public

    8. Re:Bad name by McGiraf · · Score: 1

      "It's the same method as homosexuals have used on 'fag' and black people on 'nigger'."

      Yes! You are absolutely right! these two words have TOTALLY lost all their negative connotations!

      *going out to the gay part of the city to great black gays on the street with a loud: HI! NIGGER FAG!

    9. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the same method as homosexuals have used on 'fag' and black people on 'nigger'.

      I think you're a bit off. More like "queer" and "nigga". As far as I know "fag" and "nigger" are still considered offensive.

    10. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Touché.

    11. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As far as I know "fag" and "nigger" are still considered offensive.

      Fag and nigger are only offensive to fags and niggers if spoken by someone who isn't a fag or nigger, respectively.

      Of course, soccer moms always take offense to such language, but then pretty much everything offends those cunts.

    12. Re:Bad name by scaryjohn · · Score: 1

      The Pirate Bay's case is more a matter of not being beaten down by epithets. If they call downloaders pirates, then the downloaders wear the name pirate with pride, and take the power away from the word, draining away negative connotations and whatnot.

      I disagree entirely. The intent of their name is obvious, especially after you read their responses to inquiries from U.S. media companies. They want (wanted?) to rub the legal protections (previously?) afforded by Swedish laws in the face of American media interests. Something along the lines of "Yeah. We know what we're doing would be illegal in the United States. But we aren't in the United States. So you can't touch us!"

      It wasn't about reclaiming the word "pirate" from anybody else. It was about doing civil disobedience one better. Not only do they protest our government's poorly-conceived laws by breaking them, they do so outside our government's jurisdiction and broadcast it back for us as a people to rally around.

      Kinda like my French-language blog: Jews for Free Speech Brandishing Swastikas. Or my Arabic blog: Drunk, Naked Women Eating Pork.

      --
      One might ask the same about birds. What ARE birds? We just don't know.
    13. Re:Bad name by log1385 · · Score: 1

      Downloaders can't remove negative connotations from the word "pirate" just by using it. Look at the term "hacker". That term still has negative connotations despite being proudly used by computer geeks (there's another negative term) for years.

      --
      Seek and ye shall find.
    14. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The name of the tracker indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less legal"

      What about the name of the piratebay? does name of the piratebay indirectly spreads the notion that other torrents are inherently less piraty?

      The Pirate Bay's case is more a matter of not being beaten down by epithets. If they call downloaders pirates, then the downloaders wear the name pirate with pride, and take the power away from the word, draining away negative connotations and whatnot.

      It's the same method as homosexuals have used on 'fag' and black people on 'nigger'.

      Hey look! It's that nigger-guy!

    15. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, thankfully fag and nigger are no longer offensive.

    16. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes! You are absolutely right! these two words have TOTALLY lost all their negative connotations!

      *going out to the gay part of the city to great black gays on the street with a loud: HI! NIGGER FAG!

      Won't be a problem if you're black and gay... otherwise, of course, you're just an idiot.

    17. Re:Bad name by oracle128 · · Score: 1

      That's probably because locksmiths, as a recognized profession, inherently already has legal connotations. If their name was "Legal Home Security Bypassers", or "Legal Door Kicker-Downers", you could see the predicament they might be in if the "Legal" were dropped from their name. Torrents and P2P have a negative social stigma attached to them, so naturally if you want to promote the fact that you're providing a legal P2P service, a name like LegalTorrents makes sense. Whether it's a particularly good company name is another story though.

    18. Re:Bad name by syousef · · Score: 1

      The Pirate Bay's case is more a matter of not being beaten down by epithets. If they call downloaders pirates, then the downloaders wear the name pirate with pride, and take the power away from the word, draining away negative connotations and whatnot.

      It's the same method as homosexuals have used on 'fag' and black people on 'nigger'.

      Yep, and it's about as effective too. I'll only let you counter argue if you're willing to prove you're right. You can either walk into the predominantly black club and start calling everyone a 'nigger', or into the gay club and start calling everyone a 'fag'. I'll wait outside (and call the ambulance if it looks like there's anything left of you to save).

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    19. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sure have done a lot of mental gymnastics to justify your illegal downloading, you faggot nigger.

    20. Re:Bad name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the same method as homosexuals have used on 'fag' and black people on 'nigger'.

      I believe the term you are looking for is the GNAA

  4. And the quality is ...... by heffrey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ..... most likely almost universally dismal

    1. Re:And the quality is ...... by MightyYar · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Which is true of both CC and legit stuff, BTW :)

      In all seriousness, does anyone know what percentage of traditionally produced IP is even watchable? I don't even buy cable anymore because the pickings were so slim... and don't even get me started on radio.

      I'll be the first to admit that most of the CC stuff that I've downloaded is pretty shitty, but I've found some songs (and one Star Trek spoof from Europe) that are keepers.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:And the quality is ...... by ozamosi · · Score: 1

      Which is true of both CC and legit stuff, BTW :)

      In all seriousness, does anyone know what percentage of traditionally produced IP is even watchable?

      Not more than 10% at least

    3. Re:And the quality is ...... by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      I could say the same about commercial music as well.

  5. Meaty McMeat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've never looked at that site since i accidentally watched 'The Meaty McMeaty Show'. And I wouldn't call that 'legitimate content' either.

    1. Re:Meaty McMeat by Plaid+Phantom · · Score: 1

      You managed to watch Meaty McMeat?? I was bleaching my eyes just a few minutes in.

      On the flip side, LegalTorrents was how I discovered Revolution Void (the Thread Soul and Increase the Dosage albums) and the 8bitpeoples.

      --
      All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
  6. This is huge news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some stuff already easily available elsewhere has been put up for download!

  7. Our music is on LegalTorrents by politicsapocalypse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We released our album Politics Apocalypse online recently, including on LegalTorrents. It is available free to download. Licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. This licence lets you use this music for commercial products or make remixes or other derivative works, so long as you give credit to the original artists. Politics Apocalypse is political and subversive post-industrial rock with an interesting mix of classical instruments, guitars, electronic beats, and a small dash of aussie hip-hop. You can download the whole 11 track album at no cost at our website. We are also doing a name your own price CD (starting at cost price). http://www.politicsapocalypse.com/

    1. Re:Our music is on LegalTorrents by Broken+Toys · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Normally I dislike people shilling their wares here but it got me to thinking that it might be interesting if there was one thread where that was *all* that people posted. Everyone has a pet project or knows of one that could use some exposure.

      Best of luck to ya.

    2. Re:Our music is on LegalTorrents by politicsapocalypse · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Sorry to sound spam-ish. At least it is on-topic spam :). I can say that in all of my dealings with the guys that run LegalTorrents they have been helpful and friendly. It is a great way to release music and the creative commons license is great. Not the best way to make money (I have been playing around with ways to try to make money while giving away my music) but a great way to be heard.

    3. Re:Our music is on LegalTorrents by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 1

      I would love if someone would do a Ask Slashdot for exactly what you described. It would be a thread for the ages, and may help a lot of people gain some traction.

  8. Awesome by motang · · Score: 1

    This actually a very good idea, and I don't know why no one has done this. I like and will take a look around and see what they have. Currently interested in audio books.

    1. Re:Awesome by cryptodan · · Score: 1

      I totally love this idea as well, and maybe with this I will whip out my bit torrent user agent and start to download stuff. 50 bucks is well worth it in my opinion.

    2. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      LegalTorrents has been around for a while now, it's just that nobody has paid them any attention since they have such a small selection. That can change, though.

      Jamendo also operates on a similar idea, and they have a much bigger selection (seems to be a lot of French stuff, but whatever). Also have choices between direct download/torrent and mp3/ogg.

  9. Also check out The Internet Archive (archive.org) by jbn-o · · Score: 3, Informative

    Another good place to check for legally redistributable works is The Internet Archive, one of the most important sites on the Internet.

    They host a lot of things across a wide spectrum of interests. They are the place hosting the digital archives for organizations that frequently publish new work (such as news programs and audio labels). Big files are okay there as well: You might be interested in a copy of the DVDs for "Big Buck Bunny" (most of the material on the DVDs are licensed CC-BY 3.0), The Story of Stuff (my copy of this came with a signed note that said I should "Feel free to copy and share it freely for any non-commercial use".

    --
    Digital Citizen
  10. legal or not by jacquesm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Depends on your definition of 'legal'. It used to be 'That which does not harm society is legal', lately it has come to mean 'that which special interest groups are unable to buy laws against'.

    --
    MP3 Search Engine
    1. Re:legal or not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Lately" meaning in the last 150 years or so.

      Or have you forgotten the Christians and their myopic laws?

  11. the best idea ever by ILuvRamen · · Score: 1

    You know what'd be really sweet is to start a section on there for stock photos. They could have people just take a picture of whatever and do whatever they want to it in photoshop (or Gimp :P) and throw it up there with no copyright. It's not that hard to go take a picture of an apple with your 3 MP camera and throw it up on the site. Then keyword it and tada, you've got a searchable, open photo library! Way better than paying like $30 per full res image at rip off stock photo libraries.

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
    1. Re:the best idea ever by politicsapocalypse · · Score: 1

      I have found flickr pretty good for finding creative commons licensed images. I am sure other similar site exist. I think bittorrent is better suited for collections of files (or very big files) rather than single images.

    2. Re:the best idea ever by shark72 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Way better than paying like $30 per full res image at rip off stock photo libraries."

      Where are you paying $30? The hi-res images at istockphoto are around $8, and the web-res versions (which I use the most) are under a couple of bucks.

      With stock photography, you typically get what you pay for. Corbis, Getty, et al tend to have the best quality, but they're pricy. istockphoto is really cheap, but you often have to sift through a lot of crap. And the "free stock photo" places tend to be awful.

      That's why I'm not sure if a torrent tracker for free or CC stock photography would be useful. It would be stuff on the level of the free sites -- that is, generally bad.

      istockphoto is empowering a lot of pro and serious amateur photographers. At a buck a download, the royalties can add up really quickly. If I were a pro or serious amateur photographer, if I had the choice of posting to istockphoto or giving it away on a torrent site, I'd go with the former. Yes -- I know that information wants to be free, RMS is god, and every time you pay for copyrighted material a kitten dies, but the bank that holds the note to my house tends to be a little more rigid about making money than many Slashdotters.

      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
    3. Re:the best idea ever by arose · · Score: 1

      http://www.burningwell.org/

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
  12. I've got the tagline for them by orzetto · · Score: 1

    "The Legitimate Businessmen's Social Website."

    --
    Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
  13. Should I go with LegalTorrents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Searching in LegalTorrents for windows returns me 4 items where in the Pirate Bay returns me approx 1000 items.

    1. Re:Should I go with LegalTorrents by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      How many of those are actual legal torrents from either site?

  14. Public domain torrents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    As a big B-movie fan there ought to be a mention of publicdomaintorrents.com.

  15. Used to be a free service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This used to be a free service up until at least August 12, 2007: http://web.archive.org/web/20070812051918rn_1/www.legaltorrents.com/index.htm

    Why would anyone use this when archive.org (and etree) allows you to upload music for free in flac,shn,mp3,and ogg? Nine Inch Nails is up on archive.org:
    http://www.archive.org/details/nineinchnails_ghosts_I_IV
    http://www.archive.org/details/nine_inch_nails_the_slip

    If archive.org can host NIN's music without problems, they can certainly host less popular music. Use and donate to archive.org rather than this "beta" service.

    1. Re:Used to be a free service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One major difference is that LegalTorrents is collecting Sponsorship for the artists/ Content Creators, and giving money colected to them.

      From what I can tell, LegalTorrents can still be used for free - they are making sponsorship and membership voluntary.

  16. That's a horrid name by gambolt · · Score: 1

    It implies that all other torrent sites are illegal.

    1. Re:That's a horrid name by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      It implies that all other torrent sites are illegal.

      Hey, maybe I should start using it to publish some Intelligent Dance Music...

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  17. It has not "just launched" by assassinator42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's been around for a while. The oldest item on the tracker is from March 24, 2004. Ther earliest version on archive.org is from December 12, 2003. I guess this is a "re-launch" though, it's no longer just a flat list of torrents.

  18. Why are Blender animations so ugly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it because the software sucks, or because open source geeks suck at graphics?

  19. LegalTorrents is not new by jonaskoelker · · Score: 1

    I remember downloading things from LegalTorrents a while back (at least one year).

    If you go to http://beta.legaltorrents.com/, you'll see a lot of items listed with a date. I claim that this is the date the item was uploaded.

    It's clearly not the date the item was published; for instance, if you go to http://orange.blender.org/, you'll learn that "Elephants Dream will be shown on the German TV channel 3sat, apparently right about now, 13 August 2006." Note that the elephants dream is tagged with the date of may 11th, 2008.

    Note also that Free Culture is date to 2004.

    Submitter is wrong, summary is right; "a while now" is probably four years, as I suspect Lawrence Lessig had a guiding hand in the making of LegalTorrents. Also, no works earlier than 2004 could be found be me.

  20. First post v1.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (with inspiration from: A. Coreward)

    This post is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license version 3.0.

  21. Just launched? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought it had been around for years

    1. Re:Just launched? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It has.

  22. Computer: run program A (sorry, need more money!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    imagine Star Trek replicators and holodecks saying, "please deposit $X for this song or vision" copyrights and patents are bullshit, anyone following them is a part of the problem. Fuck RIAA, MPAA, and anyone holding humanity back with restrictive laws on media, we need to collaborate and get off this planet, we're not helping ourselfs squabbling over scraps.

    (awaiting anti-star trek or "that's just hollywood" reply or otherwise humor or flame to go offtopic)
    (I made spelling and grammar mistakes for the low lifes who have nothing better to do than attack grammar rather than reply on topic)

  23. Classic Rock? by aussie_a · · Score: 1

    So I was wondering if there'd be any decent music on the site. Bands I like:
    * Cat Stevens
    * Bee Gees
    * Queen

    Bands I dislike:
    * My Chemical Romance
    * Metallica
    * AC/DC

  24. Legittorrents.info by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

    ...did it first and for free.

    --
    Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
    1. Re:Legittorrents.info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to be under the mistaken impression that "donation" means "mandatory payment."

  25. Damn it! by Cur8or · · Score: 0

    Now all the good paradoxical domain names are taken. I have dibs on xxx.xxx when ICANN changes the TLD rules, mother bitchers!

    --
    Winkey shortcut mapping for 64bit windows. WinKeyPlus
  26. surely the artist decides by cliffski · · Score: 1

    if the artists think it is a good deal, they will upload their content. if they do not then they wont. Who are you to second guess the motivations of those artists?
    I am in a similar situation. If you buy direct from my site, I get over 90% of sale price, if you buy the same game from yahoo, I likely get under 40%. But this doesn't mean yahoo are evil or I am being fucked over, it means that I have made a rational business decision that piggybacking on yahoos audience is worth the lower royalty rate to me. I willingly signed that deal, just like musicians may willingly use this site.

    The *only* situation where this breaks down and the artists really is fucked over is if a song is being distributed without cost and without their permission. When you do that, you take away the artists freedom to make distribution decisions that he sees as being in his interests.

    --
    DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
  27. Re:Computer: run program A (sorry, need more money by cliffski · · Score: 1

    feel free to leave the planet and go produce your own music and your own software and your own TV and games.
    Just don't expect everyone else who has bills to pay to produce all that stuff while you sit on your ass bitching.

    --
    DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
  28. That's like Booze without alcohol, grass w/o THC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coffee w/o caffiene. Chicks w/o tits (et al). These things are not fun. Torrents w/o zero-day warez and movies and music? You make me laugh though it sickens me.

  29. Right, I'll wait til they do a UNlegaltorrents.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then another one joins the fray. I mean, who needs a "legal" bt tracker? What's the point? And what does it say about other torrents that we don't already know?

  30. What good does this do me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm using Comcast, you insensitive clod!

  31. RSS PLZ K THX by cyclomedia · · Score: 1

    What IMHO would constitute the real **AA killer would be a standard RSS-like format for "channels" - a feed with links to other channels and/or "shows" - videos, photo (albumns), audio, radio and music (albums). All nicely XML and mashupabbly and with linked in png images for AlbumnArt and very very importantly, open and widely adopted. The next logical step - and this is the killer part - is then to have the above easily crawlable from your set top box. Fancy watching some SciFi? open up your SciFi.com CCC (creative commons content) feed via your remote-control and browse for a series or maybe this weeks top-picks / new "releases" (uploads!). Bish bash bosh. Free streaming content to your telly. Free. All that "traditional" media will need to do to join in the above once it kicks off is to host their own Channels of Shows on their own servers - with ad-breaks embedded. Because joe-public will be sat on his sofa chugging beer he'll be too lazy to torrent a "cleaned up" version. So big media gets to rake in the bucks too. Sounds all a bit too simple doesnt it?

    --
    If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.