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Filesonic Removes Ability To Share Files

Ihmhi writes "In the wake of the Megaupload takedown, Filesonic has elected to take preventative measures against a similar fate. The front page and all files now carry the following message: 'All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.' Whether or not this will actually deter the U.S. government from taking action remains to be seen."

412 comments

  1. Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Filesonic becomes useless.

    1. Re:Correction for the title. by luther349 · · Score: 0

      lol so filesonic kills themselves.

    2. Re:Correction for the title. by Kenja · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More or less. Just canceled my account. Whole point was to be able to send people files too large for email.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    3. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      >Filesonic becomes useless.

      Internet within US jurisdiction becomes a little more useless.

      FTFY

      You know that piracy isn't bothered by what the US does to it's own Internet businesses, right?

    4. Re:Correction for the title. by Moru74 · · Score: 5, Informative

      This hunting file-sharers is meaningless, they will just switch over to encryption and other distributed forms of transfer like i2p2.de for example. Encrypted anonymizer written in Java so it runs on all platforms.

      The side-effect is that real criminals will also benefit from this development and use the same means to communicate. Great, the pirate hunt will make it impossible to catch real terrorists. Is this really worth it?

    5. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is pushing us in the direction we should be going... A free net. If only we had $243 million (about what megaupload made) funding i2p, Tor, and similar projects.

    6. Re:Correction for the title. by zwei2stein · · Score: 0, Troll

      Solution: Make personal encryption and anonymization illegal (or allow it to exist provided that goverment gets all the keys). If you have nothing to hide and whatnot (+ terrorists) ... Plus anonymizers help evil pedos, if you run anon node, you are accessory to child abuse.

      That was not so hard.

      What next - steganography? Right, it is oh-so-easy to hide 4GB image of dvd movie... ...

      Yay for filesharing doing its share of helping to drive war on privacy.

      --
      -- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
    7. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is always impossible to catch *real* terrorists. A *real* terrorist looks at the system architecture *before* he plans his attack, and then taylors the attack for the *weak spots*. No matter how much the previous weak spots are reinforced, the next attack will be some other weak spot.

    8. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This hunting file-sharers is meaningless, they will just switch over to encryption and other distributed forms of transfer like i2p2.de for example. Encrypted anonymizer written in Java so it runs on all platforms.

      The side-effect is that real criminals will also benefit from this development and use the same means to communicate. Great, the pirate hunt will make it impossible to catch real terrorists. Is this really worth it?

      Not sure I understand the argument. You are saying that real criminals and terrorists will adopt currently available encrypted anonymizers only if filesharers do first? I would assume they are far ahead on this.

      I am on the side of net freedom, but we need to be careful with our arguments in that battle (including not picking a criminal entity like Megaupload and Kim Schmitz as our poster case)

    9. Re:Correction for the title. by Xest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's worse than that, attacks on file sharing actually outright aid criminals in other ways too.

      If people can't download films and music on the internet anymore, they aren't going to go to their local HMV or whatever and pay £14 for a CD, then some will just get copies from their friends, but others will just go down the local market and pay £3 to a dodgy dealer like people used to before the internet. This genuinely, directly puts money into the hands of organised crime- some of which is tied back to terrorism (both Taliban/al Qaeda sympathisers, and the Tamil Tigers got a lot of funding doing this sort of thing in the UK and other Western countries), rather than the bunk claims that file sharing somehow profits organised crime.

    10. Re:Correction for the title. by Ihmhi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I wanted to also point out that uploaded.to pretty much completely blocked the United States. Just my luck, I find out a half-hour after I submit the story.

      The reaction of non-Americans (on Reddit, at least) seems to be "Ha, now you have to deal with the same shit we deal with from the BBC, Netflix, etc.".

      Man, wouldn't it be just awesome if loads of websites in other countries blocked us? -.-

    11. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The side-effect is that real criminals will also benefit from this development and use the same means to communicate. Great, the pirate hunt will make it impossible to catch real terrorists. Is this really worth it?

      So all this action by the RIAA/MPAA is actually putting America at greater risk of The Terrorists(TM)?

    12. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what good will it do them? They are still guilty or innocent, it is just that the alleged crime is now in the past not the present.

    13. Re:Correction for the title. by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 1

      including not picking a criminal entity like Megaupload and Kim Schmitz [wikipedia.org] as our poster case

      Even if he was/is a criminal, that doesn't mean that they can do whatever they want to him. I don't see where defending him is any less 'legitimate' than anything else. Or are 'they' just looking for a quick, irrelevant detail to discredit their opponents in the eyes of those that I would call ignorant?

      --
      Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
    14. Re:Correction for the title. by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Remind me again why they needed SOPA to shut down websites. I forgot...

      --
      No sig today...
    15. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Coming soon: This!

    16. Re:Correction for the title. by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1, Insightful

      That's not actually true. Terrorists, like most other large groups (and we all know which large group produces terrorists), are on average morons.

      The reasons weak spots get hit is not the intelligence of terrorists, but rather the number of attempts. And most obvious weak spots, like say the US electricity grid, have proven near 100% impervious for a decade now.

      Once what you say becomes true, and you can generally expect any weak spot to be exploited then the tactical situation changes. It will change in the same manner as it is changing already. If weak spots get constantly attacked, we can't go after individual terrorists any more, but we must make sure they're caught before the attempts. There is no choice here. And yes that means arresting or isolating people whose only crime is suspicion of having certain ideas.

    17. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe is the best solution, remove USA from Internet.

    18. Re:Correction for the title. by buglista · · Score: 2

      and we all know which large group produces terrorists

      People? cf. LTTE, IRA, UDF, November 17, McVeigh, etc. etc.

    19. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man, wouldn't it be just awesome if loads of websites in other countries blocked us? -.-

      Sounds like a brilliant idea!

    20. Re:Correction for the title. by Goaway · · Score: 0, Troll

      Pretty sure you could do that without an account. So what were you doing with one?

    21. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you're saying is, piracy funds terrorism. Because pirates are stupid, don't really have a legitimate cause, just want shit for free or as close to it as possible, regardless of the consequences.
      That sounds like a great reason to stop piracy don't you think?

    22. Re:Correction for the title. by Xest · · Score: 3, Informative

      "So what you're saying is, piracy funds terrorism."

      Physical piracy yes.

      "That sounds like a great reason to stop piracy don't you think?"

      It's a great reason to stop physical piracy yes, but as you can't beat it with law enforcement and legislation as decades of failed attempt to do so have shown, then the only solution to date that's decreased physical piracy of content is digital piracy, then legislating against digital piracy actually works counter to stopping funding for terrorism from physical piracy.

      Yes, I know you're too caught up in your own simplistic world view to get this, because you demonstrated in your post that you completely and utterly missed the point, which is also why you posted AC because you didn't want people linking your lack of ability to talk rationally about such a topic with your comments elsewhere where you may or may not have a clue what you're on about, but I figured it's worth clarifying anyway in case anyone else needed it explaining.

      Still, have fun calling pirates stupid whilst simultaneously demonstrating a complete inability to follow what is frankly a quite simple argument to understand- any pirates reading this will at least be quite amused by the irony of that I imagine, so no doubt they'll thank you for that at least.

    23. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah so you were one of those guys who sent customers a link to a file, which required them to click through three or four pages of ads and then wait for 60 seconds for a download to commence. All the time being bombarded with "Why wait? Sign-up now" messages.

      Not professional and not fun for the customer.

      Just put the file on your OWN DAMN HTTP SERVER. Or pay $10 a month for a VPS and use that.

    24. Re:Correction for the title. by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      He said he used it to send files to people, not "customers". People do have personal uses for services outside of business.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    25. Re:Correction for the title. by dkleinsc · · Score: 2

      And most obvious weak spots, like say the US electricity grid, have proven near 100% impervious for a decade now.

      There's no point in terrorizing the US electricity grid, when the power companies seem perfectly capable of wrecking it on their own.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    26. Re:Correction for the title. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      It screws legitimate artists too. For most bands the biggest problem is getting heard in the first place, because if no-one knows about you then you are not going to sell many CDs or get many people come to your gigs. Cyberlocker websites were ideal for distributing music legally. Sure there is Bittorrent but it needs client software, megaupload.com just needs a browser.

      So the music labels are doing a good job of clawing back ownership of distribution and marketing channels.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    27. Re:Correction for the title. by maple_shaft · · Score: 1

      Why even pay $10/month for a VPS when you can pay $5/month for a shared web hosting environment, then put an .htpasswd file at root context and an .htaccess file at folder levels you wish to password protect? Nobody will be able to download your files without the username and password that you can control, and combine that with an SSL certificate, nobody could snoop on your credentials or password.

    28. Re:Correction for the title. by maple_shaft · · Score: 1

      EDIT: sorry, I meant to say nobody could snoop on your credentials or files.

    29. Re:Correction for the title. by MBGMorden · · Score: 3, Informative

      Paying for piracy does, in the same way that moonshine funded the mob back during prohibition.

      You know what the solution was there though? It wasn't to make alchohol even more regulated - it was to legalize it. Once their funding source is cut off, the mob lost the vast majority of any power it had.

      Leave the internet alone and piracy quickly becomes a no-money-involved activity, and as such can't be used to fund a damned thing.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    30. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" - John Gilmore

    31. Re:Correction for the title. by maple_shaft · · Score: 1

      Isn't it still easy to lease a VPS hosted in a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the US (yet)?

      I am looking at you Russia. Extradition law in the United States

      Set up a self signed SSL certificate and as far as your ISP goes it is just normal encrypted traffic between a russian server and your house. This is how a lot of the spammers seem to do it.

    32. Re:Correction for the title. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2

      Pretty sure you could do that without an account. So what were you doing with one?

      Supporting a business which offers a service you appreciate, and wish to continue using? I did the same thing with Spotify before the Facebook tie-in, and a few other "Free" sites which offered a great service.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    33. Re:Correction for the title. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      (both Taliban/al Qaeda sympathisers, and the Tamil Tigers got a lot of funding doing this sort of thing in the UK and other Western countries)

      Biggest [Citation needed] ever.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    34. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is actually surprisingly brilliant

    35. Re:Correction for the title. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Informative

      What you've done there is mix a straw man fallacy, a loaded question, and a non-sequitur (supporting a piracy service means I don't ever support artists), and rolled it all up into a rhetorical question. 10/10 for delivery, sir! By far this is the most interesting troll I've read in a while.

      The discussion was about sending files to a recipient which were too large to attach to email. Anything to say that is on-topic?

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    36. Re:Correction for the title. by homes32 · · Score: 2

      Why even pay $10/month for a VPS when you can pay $5/month for a shared web hosting environment, then put an .htpasswd file at root context and an .htaccess file at folder levels you wish to password protect? Nobody will be able to download your files without the username and password that you can control, and combine that with an SSL certificate, nobody could snoop on your credentials or password.

      yeah. because everybody knows how to setup that sort of architecture. how many of your friends/relatives/etc. even know what a .htaccess file is much less how to setup directory level permissions on a web server and ftp files to said server? easy enough for tech guys. but we are't the only people in the world that need to share files.

    37. Re:Correction for the title. by Oxford_Comma_Lover · · Score: 1

      Just because there have been decades of failed attempts does not mean a thing is impossible. Greater resources and different strategies may succeed where past attempts have failed.

      --
      -- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
    38. Re:Correction for the title. by jwijnands · · Score: 1

      Sounds better and better. Blame the MPAA for it.

    39. Re:Correction for the title. by cpu6502 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Artists no more deserve a grant of monopoly status than Microsoft or Google deserve a monopoly over OSes or search engines. Monopolies stifle culture, the free market, and customer choice.

      If they want to make a living, let them collect an annual salary like I do for the creative works I produce. Get the money upfront, rather than rely upon Hollywood accounting to claim "it made no profit" to screw you.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    40. Re:Correction for the title. by Kjella · · Score: 2

      And most obvious weak spots, like say the US electricity grid, have proven near 100% impervious for a decade now.

      How is that a huge weak spot? We had a big hurricane here in Norway some weeks back, many people lost power for quite some time. No big deal, and that was with far more massive damage than anything a few terrorists could manage. It's not terror having to use candles and flashlights. Even if the food in your fridge spoils and your cell phone runs out of battery you're not in mortal danger. The risk of quick and brutal death in a bombing works far better than trying to mass inconvenience people. Those who really need backups like hospitals and such have them, the rest of society will go on even if nobody gets anything done a day. Knocking out the power grid during an invasion, that's critical. Just knocking out the power grid? Not so much...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    41. Re:Correction for the title. by cpu6502 · · Score: 2

      >>>You know that piracy isn't bothered by what the US does to it's own Internet businesses, right?

      You know that U.S. juris diction applies to almost the entire world, right? The megaupload persons were all foreigners on foreign land, but still landed in jail.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    42. Re:Correction for the title. by cpu6502 · · Score: 1

      "Yes we could end crime through eternal surveillance of all citizens everywhere. You CAN stop crime through this method.

      "But then you live in a police state where no one is free. Is this the kind of culture we want to set up?" - Congressman Ron Paul

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    43. Re:Correction for the title. by Xest · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ah yes, [Citation needed], AKA, "I'm far too lazy to check the facts, but I'm going to disagree with you regardless, because I prefer to wallow in my own ignorance."

      What are you disputing exactly? Here, have a bunch of links, not that I expect you to read them if you can't even be arsed to use Google to confirm a point:

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3074669.stm

      http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NsJGLW_hX3IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Film+piracy,+organized+crime,+and+terrorism&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P3QdT6CWNsvOsgbIm9xI&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Film%20piracy%2C%20organized%20crime%2C%20and%20terrorism&f=false

      http://cryptome.org/ltte-vigil.htm

      There's plenty more sources out there, it's a pretty well researched area. I'm not sure what exactly you're disputing, because you just posted a meaningless one liner, but terrorist groups of all shapes and sizes have long used counterfeit goods as a source of funding, as has organised crime. If you're not disputing that I can only assume you're disputing that these groups act in the UK, and if it's that you're disputing I can only ask, where have you been for the last few decades? There's been many cases of individuals linked to terrorism being guilty of financing terrorism in the UK- and they're only the ones the police have detected and been able to build enough evidence for a criminal case against. You only have to look at my 3rd link to see the scale of the Tamil operations in the UK to see that they absolutely are operating here.

      Honestly, I'm all for defending digital piracy, but let's please not try and blur it all in together and hide the ugly facts of physical piracy. Read my other post in response to the AC that replied to me - I made it quite clear that I actually see digital piracy as the cure to physical piracy which genuinely does fund terrorism and organised crime.

      If people are going to start lumping physical piracy in with digital piracy and argue that piracy is fine, then the battle is already lost, because those defending piracy really are genuinely being irrational at that point, and the MPAA really can bill them as terrorist sympathisers. That's not right, because digital piracy is a separate issue, with separate knock on effects - the effects of digital diracy are IMO harmless, and potentially even beneficial (increased access to knowledge, no evidence of decreased profits as a result), whilst the effects of physical piracy are quite problematic (funding of organised crime etc.). As I say, the former can actually act as a market that counters the latter, which means digital piracy likely actually decreases funding for terrorism and organised crime because people are no longer buying counterfeit content when they can download it at home. They will though, if that option is taken away.

    44. Re:Correction for the title. by Xest · · Score: 2

      Well of course, if you want to be that pedantic you could just nuke every human off the planet, then there'd be no piracy, but let's be honest, there reaches a point where the cost of solving a problem outweighs the benefits, and that's the problem with fighting piracy - it's too large scale a problem for any solution that involves aggression against pirates to be cost effective.

      For digital piracy you can increase internet monitoring which ups the cost for ISPs and consumers, and makes internet connections more shit, but then your internet economy weakens and any tax increase that would be gained from a stronger music/movie industry would be far outweighed by the corporate tax lost from failure to create a culture where a digital economy can thrive.

      So when I say solving such a problem is impossible, what I actually mean is that yes, with most things it's theoretically possible, but it's not possible in a practical sense. You can take Iraq as an example, America's "surge" could be said to be a new tactic with greater resources, and it kind of worked, but one can hardly say it completely solved the problem - Iraq still has a massive insurgency issue and since the surge in Iraq, things have become a hundred times worse in Afghanistan such that there's a fair argument it simply moved the problem.

    45. Re:Correction for the title. by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      There have been entire new genres and musical movements that only ever got anywhere because of "piracy". There are a number of highly visible and very wealthy "artists" that owe their current net worth to various forms of "piracy".

      Yes. Obscurity is far more harmful to an artist even if the artist in question forgets this fact once they become non-obscure.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    46. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Filesonic becomes useless.

      So in other words, enforcing the role they claimed made them legal has made them, "useless." Glad to know even you admit they solely exist to break the law, fuck over people, all while supporting society's free loaders.

    47. Re:Correction for the title. by Goaway · · Score: 0

      The discussion was about sending files to a recipient which were too large to attach to email.

      And do you honestly think that anyone in here was paying for that, rather than for downloading pirated material?

      Honestly, now.

    48. Re:Correction for the title. by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      What does the BBC have to do with us? Or is this effecting the British too?

    49. Re:Correction for the title. by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      If you don't live in the UK you can't view a lot of the BBC's content, such as pretty much all of their non-news videos.

    50. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certain things by business are terrible.

      Warezed bluesoleil with chinese bt adapters.

      China Tablet manufacturers and resellers with warezed gapps.

      (It is totally different when it is part of a profit making situation and it is unfair to the producers who act legally.)

    51. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Valid arguments, but if physical piracy was legal then organised crime can not benefit from it.

    52. Re:Correction for the title. by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      Most every hosting company I've seen will provide a GUI for this type of thing. There are a few who will probably even answer questions you have about how to set this stuff up.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    53. Re:Correction for the title. by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      So tell me wise one, does crime happen in prison or not. After all those institutions are the most monitored and secured places on earth. So if crime happens in prison, how far will you have to go to ensure no crime occurs outside of prison, let me guess, kill everyone.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    54. Re:Correction for the title. by Krojack · · Score: 1

      So you don't even buy blank DVD's or CD's? Those could be used to pirate music and software as well. Should companies not stop producing them in fear or being shut down for supporting piracy?

    55. Re:Correction for the title. by udoschuermann · · Score: 1

      Nice, that's John Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up" in a slightly different vein! Good book, too, read it!

      --
      --Udo.
    56. Re:Correction for the title. by Goaway · · Score: 1

      I can't even begin to comprehend the kind of confusion that would cause you to ask this, were I to assume it was an honest question.

    57. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yes that means arresting or isolating people whose only crime is suspicion of having certain ideas.

      I'm right with you there!

      Let's start with your crimes of thought, shall we?

    58. Re:Correction for the title. by WCLPeter · · Score: 1

      If only we had $243 million (about what megaupload made)

      And the ironically sad part of this whole mess is that if MegaUpload had taken 20% - 25% of that and remitted it to the campaign funds of the Representatives in both the House and Senate, it probably wouldn't be in the mess its in right now.

      If history has taught us anything, you don't need much money to sway a politician to your side. As long as you pay them gobs of money first, they're more than happy to let you go right on breaking the law. Hell, sometimes, if you give them enough, they'll even give you a tax break while you're doing it!

    59. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their servers where located in the US, and so was their business.

    60. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the communist China, the country removes itself from the Internet. In the capitalist US, the Internet removes the country from itself.

    61. Re:Correction for the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > You know that U.S. juris diction applies to almost the entire world, right?

      Thanks for that good laught.
      You have to be a US citizen to believe such a piece of crap.
      Go try to explain that to anyone in Asia and enjoy their reactions.

    62. Re:Correction for the title. by homes32 · · Score: 1

      Most every hosting company I've seen will provide a GUI for this type of thing. There are a few who will probably even answer questions you have about how to set this stuff up.

      that may be true but almost every host I have seen has their portal geared towards tech savvy users not average joe. assuming the person could manage to sign up for a hosting account, remember their domain/subdomain/hosted domain name and navigate the admin portal to find the file manager I have yet to see one intuitive enough to make setting user/group permissions in the site directory tree to be easy enough for grandma to do it. it all comes down to convenience. if it requires a learning curve its not convenient. if you can do it in a few clicks its not convenient. if you can't easily get to the content once its there it's not convenient. if its non convenient the average person will not use it.

    63. Re:Correction for the title. by aix+tom · · Score: 1

      Well, A German in New Zealand is in jail over this for example.

      The lesson learned from all this: Don't host any servers in the U.S. Never Ever.

    64. Re:Correction for the title. by Fallingwater · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Man, wouldn't it be just awesome if loads of websites in other countries blocked us? -.-

      This is actually fairly likely. File hosters, and plenty of other sites targetable by inane legislations like SOPA/PIPA, are likely at some point to figure out that it costs them less to give up the US market entirely than to fight its legal system and possibly risk forced shutdown. I think Uploaded.to is just one of a long series of sites that'll do that.

      This could go well, though. For starters, seeing the US shut out of increasingly large parts of the internet could serve as a warning for other countries attempting similar stupidity. And then, as more and more of the Internet is precluded to them, perhaps the US will start seeing the error in their ways and come back to sanity.

      And in the meantime, those of us who live in more civilized countries won't have to endure rules that a government entirely owned by megacorps forces upon those that aren't.

    65. Re:Correction for the title. by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      I think his confusion was how an online file locker is different than a physical file locker.

      The only difference I can see is that only one person at a time can have access to a physical CD. Of course, that person can copy the contents and pass the CD along to someone else. Have you ever heard of a sneakernet?

      Some countries even put a royalty charge on blank DVDs and CDs because some of them will (will, not just could) be used to pirate media.

    66. Re:Correction for the title. by Krojack · · Score: 1

      My point is this..

      An online file locker offers a product/service where you can upload files to and share. Some people used this for their own works of art or files and some used it to pirate illegal software.

      A company like Memorex offers a product (blank dvd in this example) where you can copy files to. Again, some people used this for their own works of art or files and some used it to pirate illegal software.

      If an online file locker has to start monitoring files being uploaded and stop what they believe is illegal copyrighted files then why wouldn't a blank DVD producing company have to do the same? (Yes I know it would be impossible for them to do)

      My point is, If you buy blank DVD's/CD's you could also be accused of supporting a company that allows software to be pirated.

      I don't feel it's the file lockers responsibility to do the filtering. They offer a service and place in their TOS stating that their service isn't to be used for sharing illegal copyrighted software then RIAA/MPAA should have to go after the users.

    67. Re:Correction for the title. by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      It was hit with essentially random damage. The critical spots (the interlink points, with large amounts of high voltage equipment that is only made to order) don't get damaged, only a few cables do.

      The situation changes when you use explosives to destroy the 2 or 3 transformer stations that link a state to the global grid. Cables would be intact, but it would impossible to link them up until replacement equipment can be delivered or built. For maximum damage, do this to Texas. It won't hurt Texas, like, at all, but it'll cause constant power outages over the entire US for weeks. Pipelines, like the ones linking up Alaska, are another obvious weak point that's almost impossible to strengthen, although the US is much better off than most countries : it has a strategic petroleum reserve that's not tiny (not big either, but ...)

    68. Re:Correction for the title. by buglista · · Score: 1
      "The IRA conducted an armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, over the course of which it was responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,800 people. The dead included around 1,100 members of the British security forces, and about 630 civilians." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army

      IOW, the IRA has killed more British people than any other terrorist organisation in recent history. And wasn't the US government busy pimping out kids in the case you allude to? http://news.change.org/stories/wikileaks-reveals-us-tax-dollars-fund-child-sex-slavery-in-afghanistan

      Yes, there are Muslim terrorists. There are also plenty of other crazy people out there who are out to kill you. There were Maoists in Nepal, and still are in northern Indian states. There's FARC in Colombia, ETA in Spain and Shining Path in Peru. No-one has a monopoly on crazy.

  2. Next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    US government requires written permission for moving files on your desktop.

    1. Re:Next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jokes on you, I have my desktop set to hidden!

    2. Re:Next by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      Joke's on them! I use copy and paste.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  3. Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The sharing scene for the music I listen to mainly transitioned from P2P networks or Bittorrent sites to indexes of Megaupload/Rapidshare/whatever uploads. The advantages cited were the inability to track IPs and more dependability since one didn't have to wait around for seeders. These recent developments might be enough to send people back to Bittorrent, especially as legal challenges have not sufficed to bring down The Pirate Bay, let alone some of the (IMHO more useful) lesser known torrent communities.

    If things go back to Bittorrent, remember that the community depends to a degree on you, so please seed.

    1. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Barbariandude · · Score: 3

      I do believe this sounds about right. I'll seed what I can :)

    2. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Huh?

      When did things ever go away from torrents? Demonoid is still alive. Despite prior threats, TPB is still going strong. And the private tracker community has absolutely exploded over the past few years (though they'll leave your ass in the dust if you drop below a certain sharing ratio).

      So what am I missing? Was there some global Megaupload revolution I wasn't aware of? Because all I've ever seen from lame ass websites like that was "OMG you exceeded your daily quota, give us money to continue! We promise we won't hand over your CC information to the FBI, we swear!"...

      -AC

    3. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      When did things ever go away from torrents?

      Three years ago or more.

      Demonoid is still alive.

      If you're looking for classical music and jazz, as well as .iso files (full DVDs) of films instead of low-quality transcoded files, Demonoid's selection is extremely poor compared to certain websites that link to Rapidshare et al.

    4. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 2

      When did things ever go away from torrents?

      Three years ago or more.

      Now the interesting thing with that timeline is that it was directly influenced by the MPAA/RIAA's lawsuits - services such as MegaUpload effectively masked the identities of copyright infringers, shielding them from such suits. If this does swing back to BitTorrent, those infringers are going to once again become visible. Does this mean we'll see the RIAA/MPAA step up their civil lawsuits once more, since they'll be able to catch more people in the act now?

    5. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What if someone combined TOR with P2P? People who owned the file could not be identified because they'd be obfuscated through like X nodes. People who were generous could mark themselves as portals where people could send data through. Sure it isn't impossible for ISPs to get records across short hops of a few people, but if it got complex and multinational, it might be impossible to track. I think especially if you forced hops across the world so ISP records couldn't be lifted, it'd make it very difficult for RIAA to sue your grandmother for downloading music.

      I personally try and not even consume that which comes from Hollywood, Television or music I can't get off the radio anymore. The Internet just is so great without main stream media that I don't need it. I actually kinda dislike mainstream media because they try and change policy with government to destroy the Internet.

    6. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This sort of comment is part of the problem, not the solution. Breaking the law simply because one isn't going go through the effort to pay for something optional like music is not helpful. It isn't noble. And it is exactly the sort of thing that makes nasty things like SOPA and the like get momentum. And as a result now, websites like Filesonic, which has perfectly legal and legitimate uses are now running into trouble. By all means, help those of us who care about civil liberties fight against draconian laws that would damage the Internet, and by all means join us in our attempts to make copyright laws marginally sane. But don't think that you are doing anything helpful when you make posts like the above.

    7. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Zemran · · Score: 1

      If you look at the settings on Vuze you will find that this is already a normal thing to do.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    8. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

      It's a fairly inevitable back and forth development, as the increasing popularity of BitTorrent gives investigators an incentive to track and drives up the risk, after which streaming sites become more popular, leading to take-down efforts targeted at those, making people go back to BitTorrent again.

      It's a question of risk evaluation. BitTorrent almost always works, but leaves you personally open for legal attacks. Streaming sites can be used with relative anonymity but go down easily.

    9. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by mister_playboy · · Score: 1

      And it is exactly the sort of thing that makes nasty things like SOPA and the like get momentum.

      SOPA gets momentum from those who corporate groups who lobby the government for it. Putting the blame on /. opinions is misdirection at best.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    10. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Pubstar · · Score: 1

      Well it seems as if it would be your problem for using public trackers. I've been on private trackers almost exclusively for 2 years now, and I haven't looked back.

    11. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

      Some P2P networks work through Tor (more or less) but suffer from a very narrow bandwidth bottleneck. BitTorrent inherently can't work properly with Tor. It uses UDP.

    12. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what you have said essentially equates to "Burn the printing press!"

      http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/thereformation_lectures.htm

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

      http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/11/FC74

      http://communication.ucsd.edu/bjones/Books/luther.html

      I am quite sure that Moses's copyright claims had expired before Gutenberg got his gritty hands on his words or the damned Germans transcribed Bach's works...but are pirates really gonna buy the Bible, or Bach, or Gaga?

      Artists should be remunerated...and shared...and historic. Bill Maher whined about Religiousosityatrocity being pirated the other day...dude, 90% of the dipshits that dl'ed never heard of Bill, 90% of those that did...did not watch it...those that dis said "New Rule: Don't talk about your Mother and Sister more than the Playboy whores. Incestuous Jewish faggot."

    13. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by psiclops · · Score: 2

      VPN/Private trackers

      --
      i spent five minutes thinking and all i got was this crappy sig
    14. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by aaron552 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Wrong

      BitTorrent makes many small data requests over different TCP connections to different machines

      --
      I had a sig once. It was lost in the great storm of '09.
    15. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Informative

      "What if someone combined TOR with P2P?"

      Then you get Freenet. It's anonyminity is as good as it gets - it's designed for use by dissidents living under oppressive regimes, so tracing either source or destination is all but impossible even if someone could compromise many nodes. The cost of this is performance: You can download whole TV episodes and movies, but at a fraction of the speed of a less paranoid network.

    16. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not a slashdot opinion - it's the idea that you can take something from someone else who spent some money producing it for sale, and instead get it for free. And then claiming it's somehow your right, or somehow noble to do it.

    17. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

      Why seed when there is usenet? It's far superior to torrents. With most providers your files remain up for over three years and you'll be able to download so fast 24/7 that you'll fill up your whole pipe. No need to worry about people who stop seeding, or worrying about the **AA sending DMCA notices to your ISP since you download and upload files completely anonymously since the usenet providers don't keep logs.

      I'd avoid giganews though as they are the most expensive and not worth the cost.

      I stopped using torrents two months ago and haven't looked back.

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    18. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by SchMoops · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's no less arbitrary that those of us who create content (and I'm one of them) claim it's somehow our right to profit from it.

      Take a look at this blog post by Jonathan Coulton. I can't think of any way I could agree more:
      http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/

    19. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Kalriath · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seeding is becoming incredibly dangerous in countries where the US has too much influence - take a look, for example, at New Zealand's Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2008. A law pretty much written by the US Government (read MPAA and RIAA) which essentially makes it so that once the relevant sections kick in, Warner Music or Disney can get you banned from the internet for six months because they claim to have detected you uploading files over Bittorrent - and the burden of proof is on you, the defendant, not them the accuser. And we both know that the reason the US government pushes laws like this overseas is so that they can weaken the domestic opposition. So while you say "please seed", some people are simply not in a position to.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    20. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beep - wrong.

      Copying isn't taking or stealing something from someone else. They still have their copy and can do what they want with it.

    21. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize you're part of the problem, right? As much as I despise SOPA and all that shit, I don't have much respect for people like you either. I say this as an artist, as a consumer, and as a person in possession of an average grade moral compass.

    22. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by muuh-gnu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > Breaking the law simply because

      For a law to be fair and just, it has to be accepted by a significant share of the population, i.e. it has to be democratically supported. When laws are simply forced from the top down by a few stake holders and then massively enforced against the population like in pre-democratic feudal middle ages, breaking a unjust law you can not democratically change is a fucking rebellion. A law does not automatically gain legitimacy just by being a "law", otherwise nobody would ever rebelled against feudalism. Feudalism also had "laws". Libya also had "laws" and you know how it ended. A law just being called a law means nothing.

      A law gains legitimacy by the process how it is passed. It gains legitimacy by whether it is widely accepted as law. This crazy IP shit is neither. It was decided behind closed doors, by a few greedy sick fucks, and is then applied to millions with the sole intent to extract money from them and everybody knows this. Copyright in its todays form is as undemocratic and illegitimate as a law can get.

      > help those of us who care about civil liberties fight against draconian laws

      Come on, you fucking dont do anything. You dont attempt anything, you never ever accomplished anything. You know that you have no chance in hell to change this, so whats your plan? How are you gonna get big money out of and democracy into copyright legislation? How exactly do you "fight"?

      > join us in our attempts to make copyright laws marginally sane

      All you seemingly do is going around telling people not to break "the law", so basically youre part of the problem. You sound like big content, "dont break it, its the law, breaking it will make things worse for you". How is simply bowing down, obeying and not breaking an exploitive, undemocratic and unjust law going to automatically make the law more sane?

    23. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it interesting that you automatically assume that he was breaking the law. Maybe the music he listens to is legally spread that way? Though him mentioning the "inability to track IPs" might hint at something illegal might be going on.

      Also, in a lot of countries sharing music on Bittorrent isn't breaking the law. I'm sure lots of people will legally seed that mp3 file because of his post!

      Other than that, carry on.

    24. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This sort of comment is part of the problem, not the solution. Breaking the law simply because one isn't going go through the effort to pay for something optional like music is not helpful. It isn't noble.

      When you have a political system as unbelievably corrupt as the one in Washington D.C. right now, which passes laws for the copyright cartel to extend copyright indefinitely, I have to say that I think civil disobedience against copyright law is justified. The average citizen has NO power to do a damn thing about the law, and nowhere near enough money to buy their politicians back (not that that's how it should work).

      It's all very well saying you should reform copyright the legal way, but be realistic: when is that going to happen? Is that ever going to happen? In the meantime, why should people put up with a law that the majority would disagree with if they really knew much about it and which we think is utterly unjustifiable, and a complete perversion of copyright's original intention?

    25. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The problem with private trackers is just that - they're private.

      Sure, they might be able to keep the MAFIAA out, but as it seems they had an insider at MegaUpload (they appear to have every internal mail going back to the start), nothing will prevent the same thing from happening everywhere else. So that protection only works as far as someone isn't corrupted by the MAFIAA.

      The downside is two-fold:

      1) Hard to get access. As you get accounts on more private trackers, it tends to be easier, but it's still not like just doing a general search and clicking on a link.

      2) Lack of general access. The secondary purpose of any means to share files is the political side. Besides providing the data you want, they also need to make a statement through easy access to the data for everybody, thus massively undermining any and all attempts at stopping it. It must be a flood that makes it trivial to find and get whatever you're looking for, no matter what.

      The Pirate Bay does just that. It's public, it's run by idealists, it's loud and in your face about file sharing. It makes sharing easy and access to the shared equally easy. Sure it provokes but that's just the idea! - It's all about saying to the media business that they were too late. Too little and too late. We still can't obtain a lot of the stuff shared legally. I want to watch the new Underworld movie tonight but I can't because it's not out in any form I can buy. They simply won't provide it even at a price. That's not what the world wants and if they won't sell it we have to steal it. We need to repeat this until they get it. We want access to it all - globally and simultaneously. I'm sure a lot of the so-called pirates are honest people at heart, but they're forcing us to become criminals. All these people will be happy to pay for the stuff if they were only able. I would as I want to support the production of stuff that I like. But so far they won't let me. So we need to push even harder and if necessary push them out of business if they continue to refuse common sense and basic business knowledge (supply and demand).

    26. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Galestar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are 2 ways to stop MAFIAA/RIAA:
      1. Everyone stops pirating - they stop bribing politicians because there is no longer a need.
      2. Everyone pirates - they lose all of their revenue and eventually die.

      Personally I prefer the 2nd option.

      --
      AccountKiller
    27. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Breaking the law simply because

      For a law to be fair and just, it has to be accepted by a significant share of the population, i.e. it has to be democratically supported.

      The US is a republic because pure democracy is a chaotic mistake, for the simple fact that The People, by and large, are idiots. As such, these laws are "democratically supported" because those who pass them were democratically elected. If you want different laws, elect different lawmakers or STFU.

      People get the celebrities and politicians they deserve.

    28. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      For a law to be fair and just, it has to be accepted by a significant share of the population

      You're right. But my wife disagreed with you. Now excuse me while I order my Negro slave to beat her.

      Actually I do agree with you partially but it's not that black and white. If every law were taken to a referendum then we'd still be living in the dark ages.

    29. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Laws that only exist because of corruption, to benefit a few rich people who can afford to buy politicians, are not worth respecting. Too many laws these days are the result of outright corruption. Such laws do not deserve to be obeyed.

    30. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...and the majority of us did not vote for the current USA laws, because we don't live in the USA

      MegaUpload - a Hong Kong Based company, shut down by the USA, and the directors arrested in New Zealand ...for infringing on US copyright laws?!

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    31. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      steal it

      Don't steal movies. Harmlessly download (copy) them.

    32. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Morality aside, since everything on the net is copyright by default it IS my right to download and keep anything I can find (obvious exception is pedo-candy). AFAIK downloading (leech style) is not illegal in any western country, it's uploading that's the problem.

      Seems to me that over the last 10yrs or so the MAFIAA have been very successfully in their campaign to convince people (including way too many slashdotters), that downloading is illegal. From a moral POV, I would really like to see the authorities take them to task over what amounts to a seriously fraudulent advertising campaign. A just punishment would be to fine them twice what they spent on the campaign and give it to a court appointed executor to spend on correcting the misinformation....one can dream, right?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    33. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by muuh-gnu · · Score: 5, Informative

      > If every law were taken to a referendum then we'd still be living in the dark ages.

      Switzerland has had direct democracy for the last 150 years and is certainly not in the dark ages, it is working rather well. Thanks for the insult.

      They do not take every law to a referendum, but the key is that they _can_ if they want. They can and they often do veto crazy laws. The ability to legally stop crazy laws without having to resort to fighting, protesting, boycotting, begging politicians, i.e. how "democracy" is obviously understood in the US, is the key.

    34. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Pieroxy · · Score: 2

      It's not a slashdot opinion - it's the idea that you can take something from someone else who spent some money producing it for sale, and instead get it for free. And then claiming it's somehow your right, or somehow noble to do it.

      But you can. You can and you always will be able to. That's the problem with data and the internet - once you get your hands on data, you can share it. And invariably, you will.

      And no, there is NOTHING anyone can do about it. It has ALWAYS been so, it's no news either. Back in the days however you could only transfer cheaply what your memory could contain. No real threat except for headline news which spread faster than the newspaper can be delivered. The internet gave us the means to transmit terabytes quickly.

      That has changed. But information has always been transmitted in a free fashion. To claim otherwise is just to claim that we should live in a regime where transmitting information to your neighbor is a crime. Be it over the internet, on a USB stick, on a written piece of paper.

      This is insane. Copyright has become unenforceable. This is a fact, not a judgment. I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm saying that's the way it is. Progress, evolution, call it what you will. As such, copyright needs a MAJOR rethinking.

    35. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by tjmburns · · Score: 2

      Pretty soon sharing music, even that which you have created yourself, will be illegal because it competes too much with the record industry.

    36. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If every law

      That logical fallacy is called hasty generalization. We are not talking about every law. The conversation will not continue until sound argument has been presented.

    37. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take something from someone?

      There's a profession whose motto is something like "you got, you sell it, you still got it". That profession is prostitution.

      I suppose one difference is that stuff is uploaded rather than downloaded. Although knowledge of the Karma Sutra may give ideas on downloading.

    38. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Ihmhi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      From your link:

      [Tim O'Reilly] points out that he and a lot of other content creators have been happily coexisting with piracy all this time, and I’m certainly one of them. Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan. The big content companies are TERRIBLE at doing both of these things, so it’s no wonder they’re not doing so well in the current environment. And right now everyone’s fighting to control distribution channels, which is why I can’t watch Star Wars on Netflix or iTunes. It’s fine if you want to have that fight, but don’t yell and scream about how you’re losing business to piracy when your stuff isn’t even available in the box I have on top of my TV. A lot of us have figured out how to do this.

      (Emphasis mine.)

      Always knew he was a good guy.

    39. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Xugumad · · Score: 1, Insightful

      > I have to say that I think civil disobedience against copyright law is justified

      Really? You think helping yourself to as much copyright material as you would like sends any message except "I don't like paying for stuff"?

      If you really want to make a stand, don't buy OR pirate content. Watch more Youtube, play more free games, download music that's been genuinely released for free.

      A "protest" that makes things easier for you isn't going to sway anyone.

    40. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The average Swiss voter is rather better educated than the average US voter. I think you'd find the latter rather frightening if you met one.

    41. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Wildclaw · · Score: 2

      The US is a republic because pure democracy is a chaotic mistake, for the simple fact that The People, by and large, are idiots. As such, these laws are "democratically supported" because those who pass them were democratically elected. If you want different laws, elect different lawmakers or STFU.

      One suggestion. If you want to complain about the problems with democracies and bring up the virtues of republics, then I highly recommend that you don't mention the US, as it basically is the poster child of what is wrong with the idea of republics.

    42. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      First rule, dammit!

    43. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      You're right. But my wife disagreed with you. Now excuse me while I order my Negro slave to beat her.

      He said only that acceptance as just was 'necessary,' not that it was 'necessary and sufficient.' That is, this "proclamation from on high" shit has absolutely no moral nor ethical compulsion to obey it.

      He didn't say that "everything that a significant share of the population accepts is fair and just," though it could be argued that it's what said population deserves.

    44. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's wrong with pedo candy? I'd rather pedos watch videos than take it out on little kids. As long as no one's profiting by selling the stuff or creating new content, then let them do whatever.

    45. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Bittorrent requires incoming connections, with good number of peers in each file swarm. Impossible with tor.

      And trackerless mode (DHT and magnet) requires UDP (and incoming connection). Impossible with tor.

      PS If you want distributed anonymous datastore, you'd better look at freenet.

    46. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Copyright laws were 'broken' when Copyright material hoarders gamed the legal system to allow them to keep Copyright material out of the public domain. The rights of Copyright holders were granted to their material for a limited time in exchange for the eventual release of that material into the public domain. There were no Copyright materials which entered the public domain last year, or this year, or any year until 2019. And, maybe nothing after that if the dates keep getting pushed out with future legislative changes.

      Copyright holders 'broke' the law. They didn't technically violate it, they simply 'broke' the social contract. They own the law, but by violating the social contract, they have debased the concept of Copyright.

      I see no reason to respect their 'broken' law until they respect the social contract and begin releasing material into the public domain. Copyright law no longer has any moral standing until the Copyright social contract is legally restored. Until then we will have 'Pirates' copying from 'Hijackers.'

    47. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no sound argument for circumventing democracy. Copyright is making some influential people money, and if we let the population vote on it, they'd very likely value their freedom to freely exchange information more than the availability of Hollywood outputs, so the'd probably legalize filesharing. The only way to keep copyright as it today is, is to not let democracy touch it. It is basically the same reason you're not allowed to vote in North Korea: If you could vote, you would probably deprieve the current stake holders of their state enforced income sources.

    48. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      3. Everyone stops pirating and starts enjoying only truly free content - which there is quite a lot of.

      3 is approximately equal to 1+2 in the ultimate outcome that the media cartels eventually die and thus stop bribing politicians.

      But you know that even if everyone started enjoying only freely licensed or public domain material they'd find a way to make it theirs and profit from it. I think the Men at Work case in Australia was a cornerstone case which will be cited by the cartels when they're trying to prevent our freely(^1) licensed utopia.

      ^1 Free as in speech, not as in beer(^2)!
      ^2 Beer always tastes better when it's free! Atrite media cartel garbage on the other hand tastes exactly as bad whether I pay for it or get it free.

    49. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      Finally, someone that can think

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    50. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by DaveAtWorkAnnoyingly · · Score: 1

      I hope the MAFIAA read this... Specially the last paragraph...

    51. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Going_Digital · · Score: 1

      Simple, copyright the keys and deny permission for any MAFIAA employe to use or share the keys. Then any attempt by them to start a legal case would require them to admit to having infringed the key copyright in order to obtain their information.

    52. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      I brought that up one day but heard that BitTorrent over Tor might not work. Dunno.

    53. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by alexhs · · Score: 4, Informative

      AFAIK downloading (leech style) is not illegal in any western country

      Well, I can't tell for other countries, but the law about that recently (2011-12-20) changed in France (if that's western enough for you).
      For those interested and that can read French, it's article L122-5 of Code de la propriété intellectuelle, modified by law 2011-1898. There is no decree for that law yet.

      Before, the author couldn't oppose "copies or reproductions strictly reserved for private use". Now, the author can't oppose "copies or reproductions made from a lawful source and strictly reserved for private use".

      This happened shortly after (2011-10-04) the Court of Justice of the European Union reaffirmed that the receiver was not infringing in a case about satellite video streaming. (I have not the source from the CJEU, but from a law firm (in French)).

      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    54. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Switzerland has had direct democracy for the last 150 years and is certainly not in the dark ages, it is working rather well. Thanks for the insult.

      Hey, and women can also vote since 1971!

    55. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A referendum is a valid method of democracy, but it can lead to ridiculous outcomes too, like the law against minarets while still allowing church steeples. Democracy has to be balanced with a constitution that prevents tyranny of the majority when it comes to some rights, such as religious freedom. One can argue about whether or not building a particular type of structure really constitutes an expression of religious freedom, but the fact remains that church steeples are apparently okay. That's awfully inconsistent, but apparently what the majority (who voted) want in Switzerland.

    56. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Beep - wrong.

      Copying isn't taking or stealing something from someone else. They still have their copy and can do what they want with it.

      Yes, but the free copy you have acquired, still has a value. The producer loses there an opportunity to sell it to you with the intended price.

    57. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by cptdondo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Some time ago I contacted the RIAA to get permission to play music in public in a specific setting. I got sent off on a 6 week long wild goose chase with no-one able to tell me how to get permission and how much it would cost. The bears repeating: no one at RIAA or any of the labels could tell me how to get permission to play music in my setting.

      What this means is that in spite of all their noise making, the *IAA is not set up to let people do what they want; they still want to control not only the distribution but also the who, when, and where. They just tell you that if you don't have permission, you can't play. But they don't have a mechanism, at any price, to let you play when and where you want.

    58. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1. Everyone stops pirating, they keep trying to expand copyright protection for other reasons. For one, I imagine that they would absolutly love it if they could get rid of the first sale doctrine and close down all those second-hand CD and DVD sales that undercut their own prices. The shift to digital distribution is the perfect chance for that - if you buy a 'licence' rather than a physical product, you have no right to sell it on to someone else. Lobbying for term extensions would also continue, as many influencial copyright holders have very valuable and old works. Micky Mouse is the most famous, but over in Europe music labels were the big lobbiers to protect their ownership of the Beatles and many of the influencial rock-and-roll bands. Then there is the issue of grey market imports - plenty of distributors would like to turn that grey market black

      I'd rather option 2. I'm quite willing to sacrifice the big-budget movie if that is what it takes to defend free speech and access to unrestricted computing technology.

    59. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The DHT uses UDP no use in tor without it.

    60. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BitTorrent my ass!

      BitTorrent *itself* was a step backwards from even eDonkey, as it lacked things like a built-in search functionality, and made sharing really inconvenient, compared to just putting the files in a share folder.
      Which was superseded by Gnutella, adding decentralization and later on encryption
      Which itself was superseded by darknets, adding anonymization and total encryption.
      Years ago.

      Now BitTorrent tries to catch up by adding simpler "torrent creation and upload" functionality (about as cool as "better oil lamps" in a world of LEDs), and silly attempts at decentralization (DHT) and encryption, but still lacks true built-in indexing and search, let alone anonymization or encryption that is more than security theater.

      Oh, and I had a "warez" (remember that word? about as outdated as using "cyber" ^^) upload site and FTP server back in 1998! Why the hell are there still retards doing this in 2012??

    61. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Democracy by definition is "tyranny of the majority".

    62. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For invading our basic human rights, for heinous acts of financial and criminal terrorism, for treasonous corruption of the government, for hate crimes against individuals and humanity at large, the Big Media corporations must all be destroyed. There is no truce. They are one of the enemies who's goals are absolutely exclusive with a free humanity.

      Destroy them. They have been in the process of destroying you since before you were born.

      The people behind them should be incarcerated for life. Their financial assets should be seized and used to service the national debt if not outright destroyed. What happens to these enemies of mankind should strike fear in the pockets of all the rest. An example should be made so that none dare to attempt such enslavement of humanity ever again.

      Our minds should be free. Let them this.

    63. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by metacell · · Score: 3

      Freenet is more than TOR + P2P. Freenet also stores the files in the network (each file is divided into redundant parts and distributed across all the machines running Freenet).

      TOR + P2P is roughly equal to OneSwarm.

    64. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by metacell · · Score: 2

      Breaking the law simply because one isn't going go through the effort to pay for something optional like music is not helpful.

      It is, if you seed.

    65. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Hrshgn · · Score: 2

      Direct democracy does have its downsides too in Switzerland. For example it's much easier to pass restrictive immigration laws simply by fear mongering.
      Other subjects are difficult to comprehend such as financial treaties or international cooperation. That's the reason why Switzerland joined the UN only in 2002.

      Finally, there are some discussions that are always getting very emotional and don't allow for an objective evaluation. I'm thinking of preventive custody for sexual crimes for example. It's very easy to convince people to vote for stronger laws in this area because nobody wants to support rapists.

      That being said, all in all direct democracy is a good thing and gives citizens a feeling of participation that many non-direct democracies are often lacking.

    66. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by metacell · · Score: 1

      Downloading music or film is illegal in Sweden since a few years back, even if you don't upload.

      On the other hand, you're allowed to make a limited number of copies and share them with close friends and family if you have a licensed original.

    67. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by PaladinAlpha · · Score: 1

      What is its value? Why does it have that value, and why is society beholden to respect it?

    68. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although the company DID have US copyrighted content available for download on servers in the US. They did break US law, inside the US.

    69. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how big is Switzerland compared to the USA again?

      Swiss democracy for a country that is over quarter of a billion is not going to work. Christ we barely managed to have a referendum in our 60+ million country.

      While Dark Ages is stretching the point, you wouldn't get anything done.

      Hey Switzerland, come over to the EU and then see how that 'direct democracy' works for ya when your people want something that you're not allowed to do. ;)

    70. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It worked so well that Switzerland was the last country in Europe to allow women to vote. in 1971! The delay was caused by direct democracy, rather than in spite of it.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Switzerland

      Please don't hold up a country that has historically caused deep civil rights issues due to it's democratic process as a beacon of democracy.

    71. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Protection rackets on information are neither moral not helpful to our economy. Disobeying unjust laws is exactly what people who care about rights do.

    72. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by foniksonik · · Score: 1

      How about content that should be in public domain? You say free but I hear "not yet controlled". There are hundreds of thousands of works that should be free but are no longer eligible. How long before a law is passed to grant copy rights over the remainder to some group in the name of preservation or some other perverse excuse. How long before ALL music, film, prose is by default covered by some law regardless of the authors opinion?

      It comes down to the question: "By whose authority are these copy rights being granted and what measure of legitimacy did they apply in determining the length and breadth of those rights?"

      At present the answer is that the media conglomerates are the authority via government collusion and that the length and breadth is what ever suits their needs to control and profit.

      When the answer has returned to one which provides for the betterment of mankind the laws will be just, until then they are nothing but perverse edicts handed down by a corrupted government.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    73. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some time ago I contacted the RIAA to get permission to play music in public in a specific setting. I got sent off on a 6 week long wild goose chase with no-one able to tell me how to get permission and how much it would cost.

      Just out of curiosity, did you telephone them? Sometimes these older organizations don't do well with email...

    74. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      the idea that you can take something from someone else

      If I take your car, you no longer have a car. If I download a picture of your car from your website, then upload that picture to my own website, you still have a picture of your car. That is why copyright infringement is not and has never been a form of theft and why nobody has even been charged with theft because they committed copyright infringement.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    75. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Switzerland, with its wonderful direct democracy did not allow women to vote at all until the the latter half of the 20th century. Every time the law was taken to referendum prior to that, it failed.

      So much for your the infallibility of your example.

    76. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      Yes, but the free copy you have acquired, still has a value. The producer loses there an opportunity to sell it to you with the intended price.

      Which has always been a dubious argument:

      1. If I elect to buy something else, the producer will lose that opportunity as well, yet nobody says that "buying things from competitors is theft."
      2. What reason is there to think that I would have spent the money in the first place, or that I even had the money to spend in the first place?
      3. Copyright law is not about ensuring profits for anyone, it is about improving the public's access to science and art. Profits are incidental to that goal, but there may be (and likely are) other, more effective ways to achieve that goal now that we have computers and global computer networks.
      --
      Palm trees and 8
    77. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Swiss democracy for a country that is over quarter of a billion is not going to work.

      Then break it up in parts small enough for direct democracy to work. Your argument amounts to "you're too big, no democracy for you!"

    78. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by visualight · · Score: 1

      What about everyone stops going to the movies?

      --
      Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
    79. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by HopefulIntern · · Score: 1

      Servers were based in Virginia, USA. So that might have something to do with it.

    80. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Theaetetus · · Score: 3, Informative

      AFAIK downloading (leech style) is not illegal in any western country, it's uploading that's the problem.

      Yeah, you'd be wrong. Copyright infringement includes distribution - e.g. "uploading" as you note. However, it also includes copying - e.g. "downloading". Under US law, downloading material under copyright without permission is illegal.

      That said, you're close... The RIAA/MPAA never go after downloaders because (a) if they also have a legitimate purchased copy, they can make a colorable argument for fair use format shifting; (b) unlike distributors, leechers can legitimately make the argument that damages for their sole download-with-no-upload actually is only 99 cents; and most importantly (c) there's no way to discover a leecher unless you're the seeder... and if the RIAA/MPAA is seeding files to catch downloaders, then any copy obtained from them is actually legitimate! They have permission to distribute, so it's not infringement to receive.

      But don't kid yourself... leeching is still illegal.

      Disclaimer: I am an IP lawyer; I am not your IP lawyer. This post is for (my) amusement purposes only and should not be relied upon for legal advice.

    81. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Hatta · · Score: 1

      As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way; its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is any change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body.
      Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    82. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by dskzero · · Score: 1

      Many private sites used Megaupload because it was, frankly, the best. You have no idea how irritating it was to try to download something out of a hundred rapidshare links. Torrents remained as a niche. Most people simply don't want to deal with seeds or ratios. Usenet, on the other hand...

      --
      Oblivion Awaits
    83. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called sticking to your ideologies. There are a growing number of us who do not in any way respect or honor the completely bogus concept of "IP"

      Information is not property. Imaginary Property is not property. It is virtual information.

      It is mass produced automatically, simply by another person ingesting it.

      The concept of IP, and mentality that has been built around protecting it has turned into a horribly unhealthy and destructive set of laws.

      We don't need to recognize IP, we don't want to recognize IP, and there are more of us every day.

    84. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by SecurityGuy · · Score: 1

      Yep, you are completely wrong on this one. When you download, you make a copy on your computer. That is a violation. It has nothing to do with the MPAA or RIAA. The law says no copy without permission except for fair use, and you're copying without permission in a way that's not covered by fair use. Game over.

    85. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Pi1grim · · Score: 2

      There is i2p too. They have up-and-running BitTorrent trackers and are working on a distributed file-system as well.

    86. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean our copyright laws.

      Kum by ya my Lord.. Kum by ya...

    87. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And when did the "land of the free" end segregation? Less than ten years prior to that. And it is still a country deeply divided on racial lines. The Swiss don't seem to have on ongoing problem with women voting.

    88. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You say "The People, by and large, are idiots." and then "If you want different laws, elect different lawmakers". Do you see a problem here? Well, let me spell it out: You seem to believe that these same idiots, who you don't trust to vote on laws directly, will do better at voting on lawmakers. Sheer brilliance.

    89. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 0

      This sanctimonious misdirection about private property gets a "Insightful" mod?

      This has been demonstrated to be a bullshit, strawman argument. This is just the "zero sum" thinking of cancerous, middle-man industries which produce nothing of value themselves, while claiming "sacred property rights" over the art of others. This is corporate-leech-lawyer logic. And you are guilty of the lowest, pseudo-moral posturing, in rushing to enforce their deception.

      The fact is, "file sharers" are the VERY BEST customers of film and music industries.

      Media Cos.' Best Customers: Those Who Steal Their Content

      File-sharers are content industry's "largest customers"

      The situation we have today is the mis-application of an exploitative economic model, poorly adapting to change, when confrofronted by the essentially non-tangible value of their wares.

      Give enough support like yours, Sony BMI and GE will be able to soon charge us for access to the Gettysburg Address, Shakespere's First Folio and the very music of J.S. Bach.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    90. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Zinho · · Score: 2

      You were asking the wrong organization. ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) licenses playback of music in public places, at least in the U.S.A. The RIAA is more of a marketing/lobbying/lawsuit factory designed to fight for the interests of the publishers, very different goals. I probably shouldn't be surprised that no-one there sent you over to ASCAP, but I still have a naive hope that industry insiders would at least know the other heavy hitters in their own industry...

      --
      "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
    91. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by kruhft · · Score: 2
      I am an indepedent musician and I publish my works on Pirate Bay: http://piratebay.org/user/kruhft

      It's not all about illegal downloading.

    92. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean like torrents or iMule running over I2P? ;) Remember... unlike Tor, I2P actually has no problem with people using P2P software over it. In fact, I just had a 6 GB torrent finish a few hours ago.

    93. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So if an American citizen uploads porn to an Iranian web site, knowing porn is illegal there, Iranian police with the aid of the FBI can go hunt him down for extradition?

    94. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, AC is correct. Copying is not stealing or taking something from somebody else. They still have a copy and are free to do what they want with the copy.

    95. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both ASCAP and BMI allow people to pay a license to play music. There's also SESAC, though I believe they cover mostly European copyright holders. None of these organizations covers all artists, so you generally have to pay them all or track which songs you're playing to ensure that you're in compliance. If you're attempting to license a single song, you're best served contacting the copyright holder directly.

    96. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      Sure. In fact, that sort of legitimate sharing is exactly what is being hurt by people like the person I replied to. The individual isn't picking up nice independent music that is being freely offered. The fact that much of his emphasis is on how some methods are harder to trace the IP addresses makes it pretty clear what sort of thing he's interested in. The use of sharing services so that small time people can legitimately get an audience without having to go through big recording companies is one of the great innovations in art in the last few years. I have little doubt that when groups like the RIAA go after filesharing websites and the like, they are motivated in part due to the threat such websites would pose to them even if they only had freely available material. Downloading copyrighted stuff like what the OP wants just makes those targets more legitimate.

    97. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by kruhft · · Score: 1

      My work is still copyrighted, but I include a README file stating that people are free to redistribute my work for non-commercial purposes; anything else and they can contact me. So it's not just about downloading copyrighted work, it's about downloading copyrighted work that the distributor has not expressly permitted downloading.

    98. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Shagg · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you'd be wrong. Copyright infringement includes distribution - e.g. "uploading" as you note. However, it also includes copying - e.g. "downloading". Under US law, downloading material under copyright without permission is illegal.

      Type a random word into Google. Hold your mouse over the first link that it returns. Point is, you have no clue what content you're about to download and have no idea where it's coming from. Click on the link... did you just commit copyright infringement by downloading the contents of that web page? You certainly didn't get permission from the copyright holder before clicking on the link. In most cases, you have no way of knowing who the copyright holder is before you visit a website, nor do you know if the site is authorized to distribute that content.

      If what you say is true, that downloading material under copyright without permission is illegal, then that means using the internet at all puts you at risk to potentially violate copyright every time you click on something.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    99. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Type a random word into Google. Hold your mouse over the first link that it returns. Point is, you have no clue what content you're about to download and have no idea where it's coming from. Click on the link... did you just commit copyright infringement by downloading the contents of that web page? You certainly didn't get permission from the copyright holder before clicking on the link. In most cases, you have no way of knowing who the copyright holder is before you visit a website, nor do you know if the site is authorized to distribute that content.

      If what you say is true, that downloading material under copyright without permission is illegal, then that means using the internet at all puts you at risk to potentially violate copyright every time you click on something.

      Yes, and? Civil copyright infringement doesn't require intent to infringe a copyright, merely intent to make a copy. But there are two different provisions in title 17 that make your point irrelevant, even though it's technically true: first, statutory damages for "innocent infringement" - where the infringer has a good faith belief that they were not infringing a copyright - are a mere $200... Less than the cost to file a civil complaint. In the hundred years since statutory damages have been available, no one has ever filed an action based on an innocent infringement theory. It's just not worth it.
      Second, under 17 USC 405, if there's no actual notice, an innocent infringer is not liable even for those $200 in damages. Actual notice requires a copyright bug ("(c)") or copyright statement to appear on the work. A URL or the short summary on Google typically doesn't have that, so innocently clicking a URL and inadvertently receiving a copyrighted work would be infringement, but would leave you liable for no damages whatsoever. You'd still be required to delete any saved or cached copies of the page, but that's it.

    100. Re:Thigs swinging back to Bittorrent and P2P? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      Yes, that's an important distinction especially since in many locations outside the US one can't actually release works into the public domain.

  4. Screw Paying Customers by kyrio · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is the new thing. Make a shit ton of money from customers (advertisers, publishers), and after you've hit your goal, close down and never pay anyone or refund any of the advertising money. Etology (of etology.com) did the same thing about 5 months ago - stole advertisers money and essentially stole money that publishers were owed (for displaying their ads). Megaupload cut off their affiliate program and didn't pay anyone out some time ago. Rapidshare.com went through 5 different version of billing and affiliate methods a couple of years ago - in the end, screwing everyone in the same way rapidshare.de did a year or two earlier. The only company that I've dealt with that has actually paid out what they owed, after cutting off their affiliate program, was Wupload.

  5. Obvious by mrbcs · · Score: 1, Interesting
    If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place.

    Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

    I predict, within a week filestube and the like will be utterly useless and this facade (of legal file sharing)will be completely stopped just like Napster was.

    If these sites can be shut down with lawsuits now, why do we need SOPA and PIPA?

    --
    I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
    1. Re:Obvious by Sarten-X · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      Because it was really useful for collaborative projects.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are naive.

      Many of those sites were used by businesses. I have personalyl seen legitimate bussinesses have used this way of communication to exchange really big files that cant be transferred over email, like CAD files for exmaple, or some markting videos or smth.

    3. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      If its too big to fit in email attachment.

    4. Re:Obvious by ScentCone · · Score: 0, Troll

      If these sites can be shut down with lawsuits now, why do we need SOPA and PIPA?

      We don't need SOPA and PIPA as currently written, but we need something. Because not all of these piracy-for-cash operations work out of places where reciprocity (as in New Zealand) is workable.

      But you're right about the facade coming down. The whole it's-just-for-Linux-distros bit of Kabuki Theater was getting really ridiculous.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    5. Re:Obvious by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If these sites can be shut down with lawsuits now, why do we need SOPA and PIPA?

      Because the owners of these sites are only punishable under US law so long as they're doing business here and they are in a country that extradites to the US. The moment someone sets up an operation like this in a US-unfriendly country (and makes absolutely sure not to conduct any business in the US), there will be no way for the US to shut them down by going after the owners.

      Thus SOPA. You can't shut the site down, but if you can prevent them from engaging in transactions with US residents, you've effectively achieved the same thing.

    6. Re:Obvious by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Informative

      Which is exactly why things like DropBox are so useful. But the key is to only support sharing with specific users. And, of course, to not have a business model (like MU) built around pirated material.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    7. Re:Obvious by icebraining · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We don't need SOPA and PIPA as currently written, but we need something.

      Do we?

    8. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      piracy for cash operations only work when the people you're selling the pirated goods to don't know how you got them.

      I admit that some of those places still exist, but even my grandparents know how to use bittorrent now. That argument won't last much longer.

    9. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's becoming increasingly clear that we can't 'stop' piracy more than we already do (which is very little) without violating civil rights.

      It's just not worth it. If it results in more draconian laws, it's just not worth it. What the fuck are we doing? We're talking about some people maybe losing potential sales here! And yet so much effort is being put into this. It's ridiculous. Don't we have better things to do than this?

      But no. Piracy might as well be a national security emergency with how many worthless, draconian laws and bills that they keep trying to pass. Thankfully, not many of them have been successful... yet.

    10. Re:Obvious by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place.

      This is nonsense. "Personal backups" are by no means the only legitimate use of services such as this. As a freelance developer, I've had several clients use services like this to send me files. Is your imagination really so limited that you can't think of a single reason why you might want to share a file you have the rights to with another person?

      File sharing is not intrinsically illegal. File sharing is fundamental to the Internet. Right now, Slashdot is sharing many, many files with people accessing it, including you. Are you a criminal? Copyright infringement is a particular type of file sharing. The two concepts are not synonymous, they are quite distinct.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    11. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm completely lost how this was modded so highly. Legal file sharing isn't a facade. No one is denying that the bulk of file sharing is copyright infringement, but that doesn't take away from legitimate file sharing. I personally have around 700 megabytes of material attached to my mediafire account, and not one bit of it could be considered copyright infringement, and many of the links have seen a lot of use.

      If you think file sharing is going down the tube within a week, you've gone completely mental.

    12. Re:Obvious by rhysweatherley · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And where exactly is it going to end? Files can be "shared" via github, savannah, and sourceforge too. In fact, that's the primary purpose of those sites - legal sharing of files containing open source code. Setting up an account on those sites to share things the user doesn't own is just as easy and could go unnoticed for quite a while before some RIAA/MPAA/etc lawyer decides to nuke an open source hub off the net for the actions of a handful of users. First they came for megaupload ...

    13. Re:Obvious by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place.

      Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      You're making a strawman argument. No where does it say on that site that it's for making backups.

      I assume they're only making the files available to the original uploaders (so that no one can come and later claim that they've lost important files because of them). You know how people are. If gmail were to suddenly shut down tomorrow and allow no one to retrieve anything from their account. 100% of all gmail users would claim that they had lost irreplaceable files and data on it (even if they hadn't).

      ...and this facade (of legal file sharing) will be completely stopped...

      Sure, the facade of illegal file sharing may shut down, but at the cost of the legal file sharing as well. I don't know about you, but for me if everyone of those filesharing sites shuts down, that means I'm relegated to using gmail for sharing files (and that usually means a limit of 5 MB to 25 MB depending on who I'm emailing the attachment to). Either that, or I can use meetup.com site which has a limit of 10 MB (plus I think they manually inspects each upload, even for paid customers, so that means there is a delay there as well before anything actually shows up).

      If these sites can be shut down with lawsuits now, why do we need SOPA and PIPA?

      Like I said, I hope this doesn't shut down all file-sharing web sites, which would make my life difficult, but I think that was the original point of SOPA and PIPA, and that was to eventually shut down without due process any and all user file-sharing web sites that are easy to use (no matter what collateral damage this would create on the legitimate and legal usage that goes on there).

    14. Re:Obvious by luther349 · · Score: 1

      we never needed more laws they just what to be the judge and jury aka going around all your rights and just send you straight to jail. file sharing is filesharing its imposable to control what users upload and they should not be expected to. i hope after the dust settles megaupload wins in court they did comply with dcma takedowns all the time its just a bunch of shit because megaupload was going to start competing with the labels and was going to open a media store and many artest where aruldy going around the media company's and releasing directly on megaupload. never believe media hype when stuff like this happens. rapidshare was took to court for the same reasons and won.

    15. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, let's go everybody a set up shop in Iran, they might end up making some money from hosting this kind of 'activity' >

    16. Re:Obvious by Gaygirlie · · Score: 1

      We don't need SOPA and PIPA as currently written, but we need something.

      Do we, really? It's impossible to stop 100% of all piracy and all the current methods are already too far-reaching in my opinion. Besides, one of the things that drives piracy is the entertainment industry's own fault; like e.g. bringing DVD/BluRay movies out in the US only to deliberately wait 3 months before bringing them out in the rest of the world. They need to bring out better service instead of just trying to limit and restrict people more and more and more. Steam is a perfectly good example of this, they've managed to turn plenty of former pirates to legitimate customers simply by offering superior service.

    17. Re:Obvious by Zemran · · Score: 2

      The best thing about SOPA and PIPA is that now people all over the world are seeing how dangerous it is to rely on the US for important services. We are switching to DNS servers that cannot be regulated by absurd US law suits. The internet is changing to an US and us internet whereby we can see things you cannot. The Great Firewall of the USA is being built and good luck to those in the US that are letting it happen. The idea is just as idiotic as the Chinese version and less workable.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    18. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are also some things you can't legally claim copyright on or maybe you can... but try to bring that to court. Yea- not happening.

    19. Re:Obvious by dissy · · Score: 1

      If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place.
      Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      Well you're in luck, I have a document file here with the full answer to your question, with detailed explanations abound!
      It also contains the secret to life, and a pony.

      Now if only I had a place to upload that file and share the link with you...
      Oh well, as you say no one has or ever would have a need to do such a thing. Guess you'll have to do without.
      It was an adorable pony too!

    20. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SOPA and PIPA--if eventually revised from their tabled versions and then passed--thankfully have a broader scope of enforcing copyright violations and intellectual property violations than the current laws may offer. Plus, they also specifically have clauses relevant to the Internet.

      Think of it as helping to establish a new Internet order, if you will. Shutting down as many of the sites facilitating upload and download of RIAA or MPAA content in violation of copyright laws, bust even those who are responsible for the sites in addition to the users who did the illegal upload and download. Law compliance as the top priority with Internet liberties in compliance with all laws governing the Internet being the next priority.

      Then majority of uploads and downloads will only be user created content specifically authorized to be uploaded and download, with the piracy "scene" driven so far underground that they are no longer relevant anymore.

      SOPA and PIPA are a good start for taking harsh measures against any site allowing upload or download of illegal content and hosting it. How could I not support that--especially reading other posts that favor piracy or even request seeding pirated content?

      Put another way, isn't anyone against SOPA and PIPA essentially de facto saying they are proponents of piracy? If those site owners are so worried about being shut down, why don't they implement faster and more effective measures of finding and removing the illegal content? Why do they even dare act on content removal takedown requests without a court order? Why aren't they already monitoring uploads and download for known "fingerprints" of copyrighted RIAA or MPAA content?

      They can do all that, both by manual and automated means, but apparently they won't make the effort. SOPA and PIPA will thankfully force them to comply faster or get busted.

    21. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry, sharing files with hard size limits is a solved problem. If this happens, we'll just see new tools that adapt the USENET method and make it transparent and super easy.

    22. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alright I'll call bullshit on this one. I'm a freelancer and I exchange information all the time with clients. It's called an FTP site and they've been around forever. They aren't all that expensive and if you are doing it professionally you should have one. It's an industry standard not using open download sites. I've never in my life heard of a freelancer using an open site to exchange files with a client. When people were simply exchanging personal files no one cared. Do you really, honestly think that the record companies and studios care about you sharing personal files? Please. Let's be realistic here. Argue about copyrights, fine, but arguing that you now can't exchange files with clients is laughable.

    23. Re:Obvious by pigpilot · · Score: 2

      Set up in Russia.

      They do not permit extradition of their citizens from the country and have a government and police force that are well integrated with organised crime so will have no problems with sticking it to American corporations.

    24. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You and your "if you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to hide" straw man can both SUCK MY COCK.

      Asshole.

    25. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you dumb, bitch? He never argued that he can't exchange files with clients anymore.

    26. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Can you access your FTP server in a plane? On a boat? On a train?

      No. And that's why Dropbox is so successful. The mere fact that you don't understand it means you've never had the need. Which makes YOU the less legitimate person to talk about it.

    27. Re:Obvious by 1u3hr · · Score: 1

      If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place. Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      I make a 100 MB PDF graphic for an author and send it to him for approval -- too big for email. So I upload it to a site like that and give him the URL.

    28. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 2

      >Can you access your FTP server in a plane? On a boat? On a train?

      When could you not?

      Do you seriously think the entire Internet is port 80?

      --
      BMO

    29. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm a freelancer and I exchange information all the time with clients. It's called an FTP site and they've been around forever. They aren't all that expensive and if you are doing it professionally you should have one.

      The last time I tried to get a client to provide me with a file via FTP, I first had to spend ten minutes explaining what FTP is, then recommend an FTP client, which my contact had to get his IT department to install for him, which took until the next day. Then I had to walk him through the process of using it.

      Using a file sharing web site, on the other hand, is trivially simple, and all of my clients are able to do it without any hassle, it doesn't require software that isn't likely to be installed already, and it just works.

      When people were simply exchanging personal files no one cared. Do you really, honestly think that the record companies and studios care about you sharing personal files? Please. Let's be realistic here. Argue about copyrights, fine, but arguing that you now can't exchange files with clients is laughable.

      No, it isn't. Megaupload and similar sites are a tool, and there is a long-standing tradition that while it's acceptable to ban a tool whose only significant purposes are illegal, if there is a legal and important function for the tool it should not be banned. Allowing simple, easy transfer of large files from one person to another is a legal and important function of these sites, therefore we should not be taking steps to close them. It's as simple as that.

    30. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 0

      Hmmm. I see. Can you tell me the relevance of the port 80 in here? On a typical plane, there is no internet at all. On a typical train, there is no internet at all. Boats may be an exception.

      The point being that sometimes you're offline - yes, it still happens - and you need your docs. If they sit on an FTP server, you're just out of luck.

      Port 80 has nothing to do with it.

    31. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is exactly why things like DropBox are so useful. But the key is to only support sharing with specific users.

      1) I frequently have applications for sharing files with anybody. I regularly post answers to complex questions on message boards, and sometimes have to include files in these that are larger than the message board's attachment size limit (which is often very small). I don't want to share the answers only with the original asker of the question, but also with anyone who finds it later and wants to know.

      2) Sharing with specific users is too complex, and introduces delay. If I just want to send a file to someone I can currently:

      • Go to a sharing site
      • upload file
      • email them the link/post the link in a forum/send it via IM/whatever

      If only sharing with specified users was allowed, I would have to:

      • Tell them which site I use, and ask them to sign up & send me their username
      • Wait for a reply
      • Go to the site
      • Upload the file
      • Set the file's sharing options
      • Send a confirmation that the file has been uploaded

      And, of course, to not have a business model (like MU) built around pirated material.

      AFAICT, MU's business model was built around encouraging people to upload popular content that a lot of people want to download quickly. The fact that the majority of such content is pirated is hardly MU's fault.

    32. Re:Obvious by Xest · · Score: 1

      "If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place."

      Well, how about legal file sharing for one?

      There are still many companies around the globe who have strict limits on e-mail sizes even to this day, and as such there are many millions of people every day looking for ways to send large files back and forth between clients, and other companies they simply do business with.

      MegaUpload was just one site that offered a solution for those millions of people.

      Make no mistake, the MegaUpload closure, and to a lesser degree, this Filesonic change has caused millions in damage through lost files, lost time, and damage to client relationships.

      I hope it was all worth it, when the MPAA and RIAA see a massive increase in revenue as people start flocking back to legitimate methods to get their content.

      Yes, that last paragraph was sarcasm.

    33. Re:Obvious by X.25 · · Score: 1

      Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      Because it was convenient for me to upload my family videos on Megaupload, so my family on the other side of the planet can download them easily?

      Or would you suggest I send them an email with 10GB of attachments?

    34. Re:Obvious by Bogtha · · Score: 1

      I'm a freelancer and I exchange information all the time with clients. It's called an FTP site and they've been around forever.

      I don't care to teach clients how to use FTP, and FTP is not the medium they choose of their own accord to send me.

      They aren't all that expensive and if you are doing it professionally you should have one.

      No professional should be using FTP. It's insecure and has been obsolete for well over a decade. It's a protocol from 1971 FFS. How on earth are you recommending it and calling yourself a professional?

      I've never in my life heard of a freelancer using an open site to exchange files with a client.

      You still haven't. I specifically said that it was the clients using them.

      Do you really, honestly think that the record companies and studios care about you sharing personal files? Please. Let's be realistic here. Argue about copyrights, fine, but arguing that you now can't exchange files with clients is laughable.

      Don't put words in my mouth. My argument was that this kind of service is relevant for more than "personal backups". My argument was not that record companies and studios were trying to stop uses like this. My argument was not that I cannot now exchange files with clients. My argument was not about copyright. Good job knocking down those straw men though.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    35. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "you've effectively achieved the same thing", for US-citizens only.

    36. Re:Obvious by metacell · · Score: 1

      If this type of service was only meant for personal backups and not illegal file sharing, this would have been the standard in the first place.
      Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

      I agree. Obviously, the purpose is to allow people to exercise their fair use rights.

      For example, in my country I'm allowed to make a limited number of copies and share them with close friends and family, and services like Filesoniq allow me to do that easily.

      It also allows me to listen to / view the files anywhere there's a good Internet connection (format shifting).

    37. Re:Obvious by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      The fact that the majority of such content is pirated is hardly MU's fault.

      Sure it is, because they actively cultivated and rewarded exactly that behavior. Read the indictment. Really.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    38. Re:Obvious by metacell · · Score: 1

      MegaUpload signed up artists to put up their songs on the site and get paid for free downloads. I'd say MegaUpload worked pretty hard to get revenue from legal material. Which, I suspect, is the very reason they started to become a threat to Universal.

    39. Re:Obvious by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

      I stopped using DropBox and have been uploading an encrypted backup tarball to my website in a directory that can't be accessed from the internet.

    40. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmm. I see. Can you tell me the relevance of the port 80 in here? On a typical plane, there is no internet at all. On a typical train, there is no internet at all. Boats may be an exception.

      The point being that sometimes you're offline - yes, it still happens - and you need your docs. If they sit on an dropbox site, you're just out of luck.

      Port 80 has nothing to do with it.

      See what i did there?

      There is really no practical difference between a "dropbox site" and an FTP server, in both cases you can download the files you need before you step in that airplane, except maybe the wifi at the airport blocks everything except port 80 so if you are using a FTP you might need to download those files somewhere else.

    41. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is exactly why things like DropBox are so useful. But the key is to only support sharing with specific users. And, of course, to not have a business model (like MU) built around pirated material.

      I have a large file that I created and I would like to share it to everyone on this forum.... I guess you can email me and I will authorize you into my dropbox.... may be a little difficult with all the users that pass through this forum so don't expect me to authorize you very soon.

    42. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      The fact that you have no clue how dropbox works wasn't that clear on your original post, apologies.

      ALL files on my dropbox account are present on ALL computers synchronized on that dropbox. Hence, Offline, I can work with all my files. I don't need to think about the files I'll need.

      When I'm back online, my modified files go and update themselves on my dropbox account, and they get pushed into all my computers.

      You should stop 5 minutes to see how it works. It is actually pretty handy.

    43. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The whole it's-just-for-driving bit of Kabuki Theater by car owners was getting really ridiculous.
      The whole it's-just-for-cooking bit of Kabuki Theater by kitchen knife owners was getting really ridiculous.

    44. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 1

      >ALL files on my dropbox account are present on ALL computers synchronized on that dropbox.

      No, no they are not.

      Syncing does not happen by magic. You must be connected to the internet to sync. If someone puts something in your dropbox and you are not connected to the internet, you're not getting that file.

      You can sync via FTP or via Dropbox.

      The question is if you roll your own or not. Dropbox is a packaged solution. That's the only difference.

      But then you have no clue as to how things really work.

      --
      BMO

    45. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 1

      >On a typical plane, there is no internet at all.

      Amtrak would respectfully disagree.

      >On a typical train, there is no internet at all.

      http://www.pcworld.com/article/169201/highspeed_internet_on_a_plane_where_to_find_it.html

      Open mouth. Insert foot. Echo internationally.

      --
      BMO

    46. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Fine. You are of course aware that both your examples contradict mine, but reinforce my point: There are places, such as trains or planes, where you're going to be offline.

      Sure, for a hefty amount of money, you MAY be able to get Wifi on your plane and/or train. But that's not sure. Even with money.

      My point still stands. I'm not inserting anything!

    47. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Ahhh, ok, I see your point finally. For you Dropbox and FTP are the same, except they are not as you just stated.

      I could set up something syncing my FTP server with all my clients. Or I can use dropbox. But then, you're not comparing Dropbox vs FTP but you're comparing Dropbox vs FTP plus some of other thing you have failed to mention all along.

      I guess I'm wrong stating Dropbox != FTP since obviously you just proved FTP + ? = Dropbox.

      Oh wait. That makes my point.

    48. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 1

      >Sure, for a hefty amount of money, you MAY be able to get Wifi on your plane and/or train.

      It's free on Amtrak.

      And on the MBTA.

      And on buses.

      Shall I go on?

      --
      BMO

    49. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 1

      >FTP plus some of other thing you have failed to mention all along.

      Yeah, that would be like 10 lines of bash script, or on a Windows machine, powershell script. If that.

      But then that's beyond your capabilities, because computers are inscrutable black boxes to you.

      Neal Stephenson mocking refers to computer illiterates as "slines" in his opus "Anthem". There is a separation between the "mathic" world (people who are interested in using technology and knowledge to do interesting things and advance the world) and the "slines" aka "baselines" aka the lowest common denominator of technology consumer that just wants to point at what they want like animals and chat over Facebook.

      Guess which one you are.

      --
      BMO

    50. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about Antigua? It's hard to imagine a situation where the local government would be less friendly with US interests on the subject and they've even got international blessing from the rest of the world to explicitly violate US copyrights.

    51. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      My bad. Wifi+Internet are free all around the world since I can remember on buses, trains, cars, planes, bikes, etc.

      My point really is moot and I'm stupid. It's just that I haven't been in Somalia for a while and I didn't know they upgraded their infrastructure so quickly.

      Apologies.

    52. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 1

      >whiny whine from bob and edna whiner.

      I don't know exactly what your problem is, but you have issues.

      Deal with them.

      --
      BMO

    53. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Please provide a fucking script that would be 10 lines long and do:
      - a 2 way sync btw the server and the client
      - compression
      - encryption of the transert (Good luck with FTP dumbass)
      - works on Linux, MacOS, iPhone, Android, Windows. You're allowed 10 lines per OS, I'm being generous today.

      Or just shut up. Please. I'm glad I'm your foe, really. These things are so childish it really show how dumb you are.

    54. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Right now my issue is a cretin that goes under the nick of "bmo".

      Really, I'm glad you live in a world where you never have the prospect of ever being offline at all until the rest of your life.

      Please stay there.

    55. Re:Obvious by bmo · · Score: 1

      >Please. I'm glad I'm your foe, really. These things are so childish it really show how dumb you are.

      Get fucked. Really.

      --
      BMO

    56. Re:Obvious by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Get fucked. Really.

      --
      BMO

      Duly noted. But what about my script? I'm genuinely interested so that I can ditch dropbox and get everything from my home machine instead. So far, I've been out of luck on that one and apart from writing something in a multiplatform language such as Java, I don't see how to do it. Also, for the iPhone, apart from a native App, there's probably not much that can be done.

    57. Re:Obvious by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      Not even to mention that your snarky statement is ironic considering you got your replies transposed with respect to the quotations to which they applied (planes to trains and vice versa), I'd be interested in knowing how you intend to get internet on a typical plane between 0 and 10,000 feet.

      Without ending up like this guy, I mean.

  6. Sooo... by grub · · Score: 1


    Basically, they're now competing with the free services of Dropbox, iCloud, Box, SpiderOak, et al, and are charging money for it.
    Great business plan.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Sooo... by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, even Dropbox and SpiderOak have "sharing" support on their free offerings (at least, assuming they don't follow this lead themselves).

  7. **AA have won another battle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    now that self censoring is in place

    Oh the shame!

  8. E-mail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why not just e-mail it to yourself then, jeez.

    1. Re:E-mail? by green1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ever emailed yourself a 600+MB file?

    2. Re:E-mail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup, still waiting for it to arrive though.

      Sowknee Bowno

      p.s. its freezin' down here.

  9. Not only that... by bogaboga · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why would anyone ever have to "share" backup files with anyone else.

    Because it was really useful for collaborative projects.

    Because it is my freedom to do what the hell I want with *my* files, including backup files.

    1. Re:Not only that... by jhoegl · · Score: 1

      That argument is so 1990s.

    2. Re:Not only that... by mtm_king · · Score: 1

      That argument is so 1990s.

      And your point is????

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Not only that... by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The concept of liberty is so 1790s.

    4. Re:Not only that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Utopian! That argument is so 1450's!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

      Research: Kunst und Aventur (art and enterprise).

    5. Re:Not only that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless you were black.

  10. Forgot about IRC? by Fysx · · Score: 1

    Bleh, most people don't know about IRC (internet relay chat), many networks (EFnet and Undernet mostly), have mp3 and download xdcc bots, IRC is harder to take down because it comprises of multiple servers and some in other countries.

    1. Re:Forgot about IRC? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      You have to find the server, mb register, find the file, work out what the trigger is, the download might be very slow ....

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:Forgot about IRC? by Rizimar · · Score: 1

      There are also networks and channels lately that have moved from XDCC to just hosting anonymous encrypted FTP connections out of paranoia of people sniffing their traffic. You use triggers like you would to start an XDCC chat session or request a file, but instead, you're given a username and password on an FTP server. The biggest problem with that, though, is that so many of those servers have conflicting settings, so you often have to set up your connection preferences differently depending on who you connect to. Or even switch FTP clients for some of them, which is a bit of a pain in the ass.

    3. Re:Forgot about IRC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have to find the server

      Most IRC clients have a built-in server list. Most servers in those lists seem to have appropriate bots on them, you just need to browse channels until you find one.

      mb register

      ?
      I've never needed to do this.

      find the file

      Most channels where sharing happens have a message sent regularly with details of how to search.

      work out what the trigger is

      Which is explained in detail in the search results

      the download might be very slow ....

      Occasionally, yes. But usually I've found acceptable speeds.

  11. Workaround by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People will create multiple accounts, post their usernames/passwords on the forums.

    Go Filesharing!

    1. Re:Workaround by Brucelet · · Score: 2

      And then some jerkoff will change the password

    2. Re:Workaround by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But there will be some people downloading and resharing it.

    3. Re:Workaround by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what if you need have access to the account email to change it?

  12. Two down... by enoz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Megaupload is being taken for a ride in the Party Van and Filesonic has chosen self obliteration, though there is no shortage of competing services. On first glance Wikipedia lists 70+ of the most popular file hosting services.

    1. Re:Two down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Megaupload is being taken for a ride in the Party Van and Filesonic has become an hero.

      ftfy

    2. Re:Two down... by green1 · · Score: 2

      What is heroic about breaking one of their primary functions?
      Admittedly I haven't used filesonic, however I have shared large files on MegaUpload (and no, they weren't files controlled by any media cartels) with the primary purpose of allowing someone other than myself to download them.
      ISPs don't like you running your own servers without paying 4 times as much for 1/4 of the speed (I used to go that route...) and you can't email someone a 600MB file, so it's really handy to have services like this.

      If they were to "become (a) hero" they would take a stand and block all US IP addresses, ensure their servers, DNS, and staff were outside the USA, and continue business as usual. Enough sites do this and maybe the American public will eventually realize what a mess they've allowed their government to create and do something about it. Until then, no sane business would ever take the risk of doing business over the internet with the USA. The rest of the world awaits, and we don't need the USA

    3. Re:Two down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/an-hero

    4. Re:Two down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "An hero" = Committed Suicide, it's an internet meme.

    5. Re:Two down... by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      I can't see why - "an hero" is perfectly valid English in some dialects (where the "h" is not pronounced at the beginning of the word).

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    6. Re:Two down... by Terrasque · · Score: 1

      I can't see why - "an hero" is perfectly valid English in some dialects (where the "h" is not pronounced at the beginning of the word).

      Explanation

      --
      It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
    7. Re:Two down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *woosh*

    8. Re:Two down... by bughunter · · Score: 1

      I suspect Filesonic's position is temporary while they work out their legal position. It'd be nice if they shared a little more information, but from a strategic point of view, they less they say the more options they keep. But, they do run the risk of pissing off the people who paid them for unlimited downloading privileges.

      Filesonic was one of the better-performing hosts for the US market, presumably because their servers were located in the US, so I'm sure they feel a bit paranoid...

      there is no shortage of competing services

      Agreed. In the meantime, services like Rapidshare and 4Shared are still up. If you look at the list of hosting services, it becomes clear that it will be impossible to stamp them all out. However, only a handful of them are commonly used to share bootleg content... bootleggers tend to congregate on the few that work well for both UL and DL -like hotfile, rapidshare, and filesonic- or ones that give credits for popular uploads -like megaupload.

      Looks like those days are over. US users will be left with only overseas servers that have high latency and crappy download speeds, for both legitimate and illegitimate uses.

      At least I have a few TB of bootleg pr0n stashed away. It should hold me over for a few hours.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
    9. Re:Two down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't see why - "an hero" is perfectly valid English

      No, it's not.

      in some dialects (where the "h" is not pronounced at the beginning of the word)

      In some dialects, people do not use perfectly valid English.

  13. Local DC++ hubs, magnet and torrent trackers by D,Petkow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some curiosity:In Bulgaria and also most other eastern European countries there used to be a funny practice amongst ISP's:Each internet provider used to have a NAS/LAN server, accessible only to subscribers/customers, loaded with warez, pr0n and movies, in a catalog type of way, year by year. This was way back in 1999- 2005. So You basically see what your monthly fee is, now much Mbps you get up/down, and also what kind of "bonus" warez this particular ISP has to offer, lol! I almost canot believe this was the de facto standard for many years! After some time the laws got changed and the ISPs were forced to quit this practice. But then torrents came in place. So what i am thinking is - we have at least a dozen trackers that are registered/hosted in Switzerland, Netherlands and other locations, like offshore islands or that Transnistria in Russia, where our local Bulgarian/EU laws do not apply. The servers/trackers themselves are configured to answer to requests only from Bulgarian peering IP addresses. So basically those servers remain unseen for the rest of the internet, including authorities, unless you use a Bulgarian proxy. My humble guess is that this kind of "localized" trackers will never go away, also i know for a fact that in Russia they have the same private trackers, DC hubs, and other p2p based ways of sharing warez. Just my 2 cents on this subject - i don't really care about the Filesharing hosts like MegaUpload, WUpload, Hotfile, RapidShare and so on, because they want money, because they have their pages bloated with ads and because of the crappy CAPTCHAs. Yeah.

    1. Re:Local DC++ hubs, magnet and torrent trackers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Some curiosity:In Bulgaria and also most other eastern European countries there used to be a funny practice amongst ISP's:Each internet provider used to have a NAS/LAN server, accessible only to subscribers/customers, loaded with warez, pr0n and movies, in a catalog type of way, year by year.

      Same in Romania. We also already enjoyed fiber to the door years ago. Whatever film you wanted to watch some evening, you could download it in just a couple of minutes. It was this experience especially that really made me feel that the US had lost its edge in tech. Before emigrating to Eastern Europe, I was living in a major US metropolitan area but stuck with bad cable or DSL options that throttled the hell out of connections, as well as the fear of P2P lawsuits.

    2. Re:Local DC++ hubs, magnet and torrent trackers by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

      Another approach if you're gonna do that would be a hard drive loop - a community-owned hard drive stuffed with warez. If you get it, you can copy everything off of it, but you have to add warez to it.

      Ship it in a loop. Once it reaches the end of the loop twice (so that everyone can get everything that was added), the drive is traded with another group for their drive o' warez, and the cycle restarts.

    3. Re:Local DC++ hubs, magnet and torrent trackers by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      >This was way back in 1999- 2005

      It started 10 years earlier on academic campuses in Russia. The providers for academic "institutes" (NII) used to have exactly what you have described on their servers. The reason for this was that "far" traffic was severely limited on user end and ISP provided users with ability to access what they needed locally. It was a form of some kind of primitive caching. (Before http protocol, it was mostly ftp).

      I remember a colleague of mine who downloaded a short movie from Swedish website circa 1995 that cost a whole lot of money for the institute and there was a huge scandal. Yet, as usual those blessed days, it did not result in any administrative action. Signing of at the fear of nostalgic offtopic flood.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    4. Re:Local DC++ hubs, magnet and torrent trackers by donutface · · Score: 1

      Some curiosity:In Bulgaria and also most other eastern European countries there used to be a funny practice amongst ISP's:Each internet provider used to have a NAS/LAN server, accessible only to subscribers/customers, loaded with warez, pr0n and movies, in a catalog type of way, year by year. This was way back in 1999- 2005. So You basically see what your monthly fee is, now much Mbps you get up/down, and also what kind of "bonus" warez this particular ISP has to offer, lol! I almost canot believe this was the de facto standard for many years!

      Many American ISPs (even AOL) included Usenet as part of their subscriptions back in the day.

    5. Re:Local DC++ hubs, magnet and torrent trackers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please elaborate how downloading a film to watch on TV is representative of technological advances. Did Romanians invent all the *tech* involved in the download?

  14. In thousands of basements by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Voices echo up suburban stairs - "Mommy I will be a little late with your stories tonight"

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  15. A mixed bag ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of the file sharing websites on the list initially started with a limitation on size of uploads. This meant the file of interest was broken into pieces and encrypted with a password. This "feature" enabled these websites to claim immunity. They got a bit brazen when these file locker models were expanding rapidly all over the world. They decided to "compete" and made uploads with larger file sizes. These larger file sizes did not "require" the use of rar and other "encryption" methods. All files which are on the server can be tagged with a md5 or other checksum. The end result was that these websites are left vulnerable and fall foul of the safe harbor provision. I believe we will see swifter action on take downs and re-uploads will be files with different file-sizes which don't have the same check sums. Welcome to yesterday. The best bet will be a usenet archive web interface "filesharing" empire. All files are uploaded to the usenet archive chosen by the user. Nothing is stored on the servers of the filesharing empire. Download links are links to the files stored on the usenet servers. The links let users download the file and "assemble" them on their computer. Nothing illegal about this. Let them go after usenet then the real fun will begin.

  16. Self-Censorship by bug1 · · Score: 1

    Jacob Appelbaum spoke about self-censorship at his keynote at LCA2012.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMN2360LM_U

    In this case, its a company choosing to censor themselves so the government doesnt have to.

    1. Re:Self-Censorship by sqrt(2) · · Score: 1

      Self-censorship isn't an acceptable alternative to no censorship at all.

      --
      If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
    2. Re:Self-Censorship by neonsignal · · Score: 2

      Which was Jacob's point; where there is surveillance, there will be censorship, even if it is not explicit. He called it "an emergent phenomenon of surveillance". Hence the importance of resistance to surveillance.

  17. A message from America... by sqrt(2) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...to the rest of the world: we don't want your business. We don't want any tech companies to set up here. We're going to make this the most hostile nation to internet and technology start ups by bullying anyone who dares defy our notion of imaginary property.

    --
    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
    1. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah because running a glorified FTP site is what passes for innovation.

    2. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The vast majority of the rest of the world doesn't give a shit about file sharing sites, especially ones that specifically and openly cater to copyright infringement. As far as the business world goes, people care about contracts and money changing hands. 99.9% of people do not care, and never will care about these crusades. This is bound to be an unpopular view on a site like /. but it's simply the truth. I've seen 15 years of this stuff come and go, and nothing has truly changed. American tech companies are actually doing just fine, thank you. I happen to know this firsthand, as I own one that specializes in managed Linux server solutions.

    3. Re:A message from America... by schnell · · Score: 2

      We don't want your business. We don't want any tech companies to set up here.

      I applaud your sentiment since SOPA/PIPA etc. are stupid. But your comment is not reflective of reality. Google is based in the USA. So is Apple. So is Intel. So is Cisco. So is Facebook. So is Microsoft. So is Oracle. So is Red Hat. So is Qualcomm. So is Yahoo!. The list goes on and on.

      There are a lot of good arguments against the current US Intellectual Property/patent policies, but "tech companies won't exist in the US" is not one of them.

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    4. Re:A message from America... by artor3 · · Score: 2

      Internet and technology startups rely on intellectual property rights. If you just invented a new widget, you'd much rather do business in the US (with all its flaws) than in some anarcho-libertarian utopia with no intellectual property rights, because in that "utopia" some big megacorp would just come along, take your idea, and mass produce it at a lower price than you can afford to compete at. Thanks for all your hard work, now get back in the unemployment line.

      The only thing that makes less sense than the RIAA's trillion dollar "losses" is the notion of IP abolition.

    5. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but at Internet scale. It's like calling Slashdot a glorified web page.

      If Those hollywood bitches wanted to shut anyone down, it should be AWS. For letting all S3 frontend startups in the first place. Then you can wonder where all the real innovations went.

    6. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seeing how the laws start to infringe on other companies this will result in either the infringed companies starting to lobby or simply move into other jurisdiction. Being a big multinational company doesn't make it hard to move and plenty do so. Just fyi some companies are starting to move back to EU because of jurisdiction issues.

    7. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Internet and technology startups rely on intellectual property rights. If you just invented a new widget, you'd much rather do business in the US (with all its flaws) than in some anarcho-libertarian utopia with no intellectual property rights, because in that "utopia" some big megacorp would just come along, take your idea, and mass produce it at a lower price than you can afford to compete at. Thanks for all your hard work, now get back in the unemployment line.

      If some big megacorp wants to take your IP here and today you are screwed nevertheless. Their war chest is bigger and they can afford to drag you in courts until you are broke. The only way for small and fast furry animals startups are is to occupy market niches, and that works even better in anarcho-libertarian utopias where you can nibble a bit of big megacorps' IP that shouldn't be patentable anyway because it is obvious or unavoidable. And you can't beat the tax rates.

    8. Re:A message from America... by ElusiveJoe · · Score: 1

      Sounds somewhat like North Korea.

      "Ha! Ha! Stupid foreigners! We do not need you or your filthy businesses! We are a glorious nation! We love our shining leaders! But we have a lot of enemies, yesss, a lot of enemies inside our country, who do not like our leaders or our businesses. We will hunt them down. And then we will share our ideals with you. Do not want the commu... democracy? Too bad, here bomb, fuck you!"

    9. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you just invented a new widget, you'd much rather do business in the US (with all its flaws) than in some anarcho-libertarian utopia with no intellectual property rights, because in that "utopia" some big megacorp would just come along, take your idea, and mass produce it at a lower price than you can afford to compete at.

      Instead, in the US it goes something like this: Your startup company will just be sued out of existence using a dodgy patent held by an existing large company with enough lawyers to run rings around you, then they'll pick up your patents in the bankruptcy sale and sit on them until they can use them to sue someone else.

    10. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Give it time. If the USA goes so far as to essentially pull an online North Korea and cut off all outside internet, you can be damn sure that Google and other big companies are going to bail the hell out and go anywhere else. Let's see... they can make money ONLY from Americans... or they can make money from the entire rest of the planet.

      If it gets bad enough, they'll split. They'd be retarded not to, and deserve to go under in that case.

    11. Re:A message from America... by brainzach · · Score: 1

      Even if you are driven out of business, you can sue for millions in damages from the big corporations. Look at all the patent trolls out there who are successful with questionable patents. If you have a strong patent, then it would be even easier to defend in court and it wouldn't be hard finding a lawyer.

    12. Re:A message from America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To innovative startups really require IP?

      Most startups these days are web services, that provide access to a community or a data stream or some unique modification to your own data. The code itself might be sensitive, but it never leaves the web server. Startups don't need copyright for their business model's to work

      Startups also don't have patents yet and won't until they get much bigger. Patents can only hurt startups by denying them entry into the markets of larger company's.

      So I call shenanigans, startup's don't need intellectual property laws and I'd go as far as saying that IP laws will hurt startup's. It does mean that when those startups get huge they won't be able to prevent the -new- new players into the market, but isn't that a good thing that fosters future innovation anyway? People might not be as likely to start if they don't get crazy super ridiculously rich. But maybe multi-millionaire rich provides the same level of motivation anyway and levels the playing ground for future entrants?

      Media company's rely on IP, true R&D firms maybe, but not startups.

  18. MediaFire by KingAlanI · · Score: 2

    MediaFire doesn't have such a paid affiliate program AFAIK; they seem less guilty of obnoxious behavior in general.

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
    1. Re:MediaFire by mister_playboy · · Score: 1

      MU's affilate programs was very hard to actually garner any payouts from. The minimum payout was $100 for 100000 points IIRC, and the definiton of what downloads counted towards points was quite narrow. One had to be a semi-professional uploader to get money from MU in my opinion... posting on multiple forums, using bots for downloading/posting, etc.

      This is is in contrast to other sites like FileSonic, where the bar for getting payouts was far more moderate and could be reached by a large number of users.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    2. Re:MediaFire by kyrio · · Score: 1

      Due to MediaFire's system of unlimited simultaneous downloads, they are becoming the choice place to host your files. If you go to reddit's r/jailbaitarchive (I only know about them because someone linked to my site in one of their posts), you'll see how the child molesters prefer using MediaFire. Sharing music albums and other "illegal" files with MediaFire has also been common practice due to the lack of delays and high download limits.

      "illegal" files being the crap the USA pumps out and tries to sue people over.

    3. Re:MediaFire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      you'll see how the child molesters

      Who is a child molester? If you meant the people on that website, in order for that to be true, they'd have to actually molest someone.

    4. Re:MediaFire by aaron552 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I wouldn't really consider the contents of r/jailbaitarchive to be "children", either. Adolescents, for the most part. Legally, yes they are "children", biologically, no.

      --
      I had a sig once. It was lost in the great storm of '09.
    5. Re:MediaFire by metacell · · Score: 1

      If you go to reddit's r/jailbaitarchive (I only know about them because someone linked to my site in one of their posts), you'll see how the child molesters prefer using MediaFire.

      You're right. Let's all go to MediaFire and download the pics without paying. That way, there won't be any incentive to produce them, and production will cease. That'll teach those child molesters!

    6. Re:MediaFire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, did that hit a nerve, child molester?

    7. Re:MediaFire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh look, a child molester is trying to justify his actions by saying the 12 year olds "aren't children" and that it's perfectly fine to call them "the hottest girl in my entire collection", as they are called, in the posts to that board, by the moderators.

  19. next up: pastebin, scribd, youtube, tubestack by decora · · Score: 2

    and all the other sites that are just massive abuses of the 'good faith' idea.

    its one thing to be a neutral admin. but lets compare youtube and wikipedia for a moment.

    on wikipedia, if you see copyright violations, you can take them down yourself. or, you can report them to a specialized group on wiki that actually cares about removing copyrighted content that was uploaded without permission of the copyright holder. they also have a system to verify whether or not works have been granted permission, and whether they are in public domain, by a large amount of research done with licensing and legal systems around the world.

    now, lets take youtube. its full of people just uploading music albums and putting a still photo as their 'video'. now, the only person who can ever report that as a copyright vio is the artist themselves. nevermind you could probably listen to their music for free on bandcamp or something. . . youtube is not going to provide a link to bandcamp. youtube just does not give a shit.

    1. Re:next up: pastebin, scribd, youtube, tubestack by war4peace · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Youtube also has checks in place to figure out whether the soundtrack matches a copyrighted one. Of course, it's relatively easy to fool (change tone a bit or alter the soundtrack just a tiny fraction), but unaltered songs get automatically silenced. I know because I tried uploading a World of Tanks Clan Parade video I made which had "Diesel Power" by Prodigy as soundtrack. As soon as the upload finished, I received a notification that the soundtrack was copyrighted and bang, movie with no sound.

      Interestingly, the same algorythm they use made me stop uploading Audiosurf captures; Audiosurf is a game allowing you to "race" a track uniquely generated from a song you choose. After ending up with a few nice captures which were muted, I said screw it and stopped.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    2. Re:next up: pastebin, scribd, youtube, tubestack by kcbnac · · Score: 1

      I wish there was a way to know what audio would be filtered and what wouldn't be. "These artists have said you can use their music in YT videos." Then tosses in the 'buy it on amazon/itunes/whatever' links.

    3. Re:next up: pastebin, scribd, youtube, tubestack by war4peace · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, me too. As it is right now, it's overly simplistic. I wouldn't mind paying royalties for a few songs which are worth it. but you can't.
      Oh well...

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  20. Lan Parties by EEPROMS · · Score: 1

    I have noticed since the crack down more and more people have been taking NAS boxes to LAN parties and sharing files. The reality is I find it easier now to get stuff now than before (download 20 gig per hour on a decent LAN). People will always share stuff especially if they know someone who cant afford it. When I was in college in the 80's we used create our own mix tapes and share them all the time. I did buy music but only stuff I liked and the rest I got was just filler that I deleted after 6 months.

  21. this_sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is going to get worse. Innovation and the internet are dieing fast. Long live sharing.

  22. Github by r6144 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Github's public repositories can of course be used for illegal file sharing, and some infringing material probably exists right now, because it is impractical for the site operator to monitor all uploaded data. However, without such functionality, participating in (or even just forking) an open source project will be much more cumbersome.

    Well, an hour spent writing open-source (or other) software is an hour not consuming MAFIAA's stuff, so maybe this is what they actually want...

    1. Re:Github by Issarlk · · Score: 1

      Don't forget that lots of terropirate tools and softwares are open source. This is a win-win to close Github.

    2. Re:Github by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Github's public repositories can of course be used for illegal file sharing, and some infringing material probably exists right now, because it is impractical for the site operator to monitor all uploaded data.

      Ooops. With even *one* "infringing file" and SOPA/PIPA, they can just shut down the entire site. All that other data that you, a non-infringing user who was using the site for legitimate purposes of sharing your own personal work with others, is gone. That data you put out there for your paying client to access? Sorry, gone, you missed their deadline and lost money. Too bad, so sad, trust them - they're only looking out for *your* best interests.

  23. Boo hoo by mister_playboy · · Score: 2

    FileSonic was one of the hosts most beloved by for-profit autoposters, who spam links everywhere they can to rack up rewards payouts for lots of downloads, all while ignoring forum rules and drowning out people who actually want to share with other community members.

    I'm not sad to see some of the for-profit whores exit the file sharing scene. Good riddance.

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  24. Napster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How come that Napster guy never did any time?

  25. The sites have different purposes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wikipedia editors are essentially co-authors of its articles. The community as a whole feels morally (if not legally) responsible for the content of each article, so anything potentially problematic, whether copyvios, other illegal stuff, or just incorrect or poorly written material will be edited or removed more aggressively. Even though good material are sometimes removed erroneously, this is not a big problem because it is inevitable when there is only one version of the encyclopedia at any given time for the whole world to see.

    On the other hand, youtube/pastebin is more like arXiv, where the site simply hosts the uploaded stuff and does not want to take responsibility for them. Policing the contents too much is not necessary and would defeat their purpose, such as to allow the users to share ideas, even wrong ones that are not acceptable on Wikipedia.

  26. So it begins by atari2600a · · Score: 1

    The great technocratic war is now upon us my brethren! Join with me, & we shall wipe the imperialist scourge from these lands at last!

  27. good old ftp.. by ardiri · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    want to share files? host your own server - thats how we used to do it back in the day.

    i also have projects i work on where i need to share "legal" files (artwork, music et al) for various things - why would i want to upload it to a public service where anyone can access this stuff? with my own ftp server, heck, can even expose it via http with htaccess - my clients can upload/download files as they need.

    it is the pirates (stealing music, videos) who use these public services.. maybe we will see a few more of these sites drop, it is where all of our software that we have written ends up for kiddies to pirate. i say this is a step in the right direction. for p2p file sharing, bittorrent is always the way to go.. but, depends on the community as another poster has said.

    1. Re:good old ftp.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just disingenuous.

      1. We're not "back in the day" anymore. Today the normal ISP contract is "no servers". It's real money to get a server account, so people use these free or low-cost third parties. Plus you don't need to have a PC plugged-in 24/7/365; you can take your laptop with you when you go out.

      2. "a public service where anyone can access this stuff." Are you even trying to make sense? Any of these services host password-protected files as easily as unprotected.

    2. Re:good old ftp.. by ardiri · · Score: 0

      mm.. http://www.westhost.com/ - been using them for 10+ years, i have a dedicated server.. but, their VPS solution gives you email, ftp, http for a modest price.. no reason not to use a service like this. $50 / year, cloud hosting (full VPS).. would be more than enough. quit whining about the loss of free pirate servers.

  28. I predict... by xenobyte · · Score: 1

    Bankruptcy!

    Everybody - myself included - signed up for file sharing not online storage and if they stop providing this service I want my money back! - As do 99% of their other (former) customers so that will put a massive dent in their finances... probably fatally massive.

    --
    "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
  29. If you want your (yes, even Linux) system... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...compromised instantly and used to send out e-mail regarding viagra, sure, use FTP.

    SFTP. Learn it. Love it. Or the Internet will make you curl up into the fetal position.

  30. Another correction for the title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    RIA, MPAA, and related vicious companies have won. They've created fear that they can do whatever they want without any problem WORLDWIDE.

    Does anyone know how to kill them?

    1. Re:Another correction for the title by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      RIA, MPAA, and related vicious companies have won. They've created fear that they can do whatever they want without any problem WORLDWIDE.

      Does anyone know how to kill them?

      Sure. Continue this piracy thing. Stop buying their shit.

      In all fairness, they're doing a pretty good job at that themselves. It is just a matter of time.

    2. Re:Another correction for the title by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      I would think that once that piracy really does start killing studios and distributors, the moral situation will change. Right now an argument for piracy is that nobody gets hurt. Nobody loses their jobs, no companies die.

      Once that changes, I would expect a tidal shift in the average public opinion on piracy. And not in the direction you would want it to.

      I would hope that this is obvious. Piracy is a crime, copyright is something people want to exist, and you'd do well to remember "it's only fun until someone loses an eye". You want piracy ? Pray hollywood does well.

    3. Re:Another correction for the title by Pieroxy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Copyright is a thing of the past. Information is freely shared by everyone. There is nothing that set a movie or a song apart in this regard.

      As far as piracy is concerned, there is nothing anyone can do to stop it, short of shutting the internet down. If people have access to the internet, they will be able to communicate with everyone else that is on the internet. That's the definition of the internet.

      People will also go undetected. That's the definition of encryption. You just set the key size to whatever suit your needs, and nobody will ever be able to decrypt it - unless they have the key.

      Make encryption illegal and you kill e-commerce right there. Still make encryption illegal? Encryption can hide itself very easily: watermarking, hidden volumes, etc.

      Nah. As long as people will be able to communicate, they will be able to pirate. Internet empowers everyone with almost unlimited (as far as songs and movies are concerned) communication. That comes with unlimited piracy. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's what the internet comes with.

    4. Re:Another correction for the title by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Copyright is a thing of the past.

      The sooner we, as a society, recognize this, the sooner the next great leap in human civilization can occur. .

      --
      Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    5. Re:Another correction for the title by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 1

      Does anyone know how to kill them?

      Get some guns
      Encourage some friends to do same
      Get a blowtorch (just in case the SOBs have panic rooms...)
      March on MAFIAA members CEO houses and do what comes naturally.

      The second amendment exists for a reason.

    6. Re:Another correction for the title by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      Given the situation before modern copyright, you might want to hold off on that "great leap". Unless you like bibles and revisionism that is.

    7. Re:Another correction for the title by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      People will also go undetected. That's the definition of encryption.

      No it's not. That's the definition of obfuscation; Making something hidden by way of changing it's appearance into something else. Encryption doesn't protect you from being tracked and identified. It is very easy to identify encrypted data, as it looks like noise; Unencrypted communications look like valid data. All it does is stop someone from (figuratively) listening in on what you're saying. This is how China are able to block Tor at their Great Firewall; Tor data looks like Tor data.

      An analogy: Encryption is standing in the middle of a park, having a conversation with someone else in a language nobody listening in can understand; Observers know it's you and them talking, but not what's said. Obfuscation is writing the information on a handkerchief and giving it to the other party, under the pretence of them blowing their nose; Nobody suspects any information changed hands at all.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    8. Re:Another correction for the title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you really say copyright is a thing of the past then even GPL, LGPL, BSD, Creative Commons, and other open source software licenses are also immediately VOID.

      This means anyone could use someone else's code even for profit, and there is no copyright violation. No complaining, no bad mouthing them on discussion boards, because copyright is a thing of the past.

      This means anyone could use someone else's text contribution or photos, and there is no copyright violation because again copyright is a thing of the past.

      I do not want to live in your suggested anarchist world, where the entire system is just theft after theft after theft due to copyright violations. Why the government hasn't raided Slashdot to find out the identity of its piracy supporting users or supporters of no more copyright users, I don't understand.

    9. Re:Another correction for the title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not one of the "RAWR, I SUE YOU FOR 100 TRILLION DOLLARS FOR DOWNLOADS" freaks but, you could make the same argument about almost any crime. My city sees at least one murder a day, many robberies, embezzlement... Doesn't mean we should take any of those laws off the books.

      I don't think there's going to be any way to "stop" piracy that doesn't involve some serious Constitutional breaches but that's kind of the same song and dance law enforcement has had to deal with forever.

      Besides, there are kinds of information that people should get paid for. Some stuff requires a lot of convoluted research, time and, occasionally, danger. Why should people be expected to donate that kind of effort to a thankless ether? I don't see anything wrong with paying a reasonable price for something that took time, effort and talent.

      Having said that, some of those copyright lobbyist groups really needs to get smacked down before they turn this into a freaking fascist country. It's amazing that the same group that waxes about mercy for murderers and acceptance for people who are different will also push for a totalitarian government. It's so evil until you're the one with the power.

    10. Re:Another correction for the title by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      All your "This means" are true today. Just look around. Only the very highest profiles violations are processed by the justice.

      The only difference is that, today, there is a violation. 99% of them go unpunished and unnoticed. Isn't it time to make the facts and the law adjust a little better?

    11. Re:Another correction for the title by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      I'm not one of the "RAWR, I SUE YOU FOR 100 TRILLION DOLLARS FOR DOWNLOADS" freaks but, you could make the same argument about almost any crime. My city sees at least one murder a day, many robberies, embezzlement... Doesn't mean we should take any of those laws off the books.

      I can see a difference btw murder and copyright infringement. Especially a difference in how the internet affected both.Maybe it's me.

      I don't think there's going to be any way to "stop" piracy that doesn't involve some serious Constitutional breaches but that's kind of the same song and dance law enforcement has had to deal with forever.

      I can't see a way to stop copyright infringement. For me, it's not a problem of laws and constitutions, it's a problem of technology. Encrypted communications, when done properly, cannot be detected. Period. No way to detect what's in the flow of "random" bits. How do you enforce anything if you can't detect anything?

      Besides, there are kinds of information that people should get paid for. Some stuff requires a lot of convoluted research, time and, occasionally, danger. Why should people be expected to donate that kind of effort to a thankless ether? I don't see anything wrong with paying a reasonable price for something that took time, effort and talent.

      Today I could download all of my music for free. Yet, I buy through Amazon MP3 Downloads. Why? It's more convenient, and I feel like I owe the musicians something. I know plenty of people doing the same. There is absolutely ZERO evidence that a thankless ether exists. And I don't feel it's wrong to pay for something. I actually don't think piracy is right, I feel is inevitable. This argument of yours is one of the worst aspect of copyright enforcers. Nothing points to the fact that remuneration of artists will vanish in a split second, and people against copyright (at least the current implementation of them) such as me don't believe it's wrong to pay for something. These are misconceptions at best.

      Having said that, some of those copyright lobbyist groups really needs to get smacked down before they turn this into a freaking fascist country. It's amazing that the same group that waxes about mercy for murderers and acceptance for people who are different will also push for a totalitarian government. It's so evil until you're the one with the power.

      Exactly. The fight PRO piracy à la SOPA/PIPA will just destroy the current regimes. And they won't stop piracy. So it really is pointless.

    12. Re:Another correction for the title by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Dude, if I (properly) encrypt a file that I send you through email, there is no way for anyone to know what was in this file. Hence, the undetectable nature of internet communications.

      People will know I encrypted something. They won't know what was in there. So they won't be able to detect piracy if pirates go 100% encrypted, because they're not the only one to encrypt.

      You can forbid encryption, but it will kill the internet since your passwords and credit card numbers SHOULD be encrypted for the service to have any value. Hence, no encryption means anyone can snoop. And if anyone can snoop, there is no e-commerce, no security.

      Encryption also means undetectable watermarking in images, sounds, movies. Hence, it allows for undetectable communications. If is comes to that, I'm sure pirates will go down that route, although it means a great waste in bandwidth.

    13. Re:Another correction for the title by Shagg · · Score: 1

      I would think that once that piracy really does start killing studios and distributors, the moral situation will change.

      Not if artists and consumers realize that they're both better off without the middle men.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    14. Re:Another correction for the title by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      I can, as an investigating agent (MITM attack in this hypothetical scenario) absolutely detect that you have sent an encrypted file to another person, as I am unable to determine its contents. That is encryption; I cannot determine the contents of the data, and I am concerned that you do not wish me to know the contents.

      If the same data was hidden through steganographic processes within a zip file of holiday snaps, that would be obfuscation; The same data is in a form which makes it appear innocent, and unworthy of attention. I do not know that any sensitive data has been passed.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    15. Re:Another correction for the title by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Right. Thanks. The words seems stuck on my keyboard...

    16. Re:Another correction for the title by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      True and this is called "sneakernet". Now compare the size of sneakernet and p2p networks. Studios, and generally everyone are perfectly happy with letting sneakernet exist.

  31. lost 10$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I bought one month membership Friday evening ...
    Yesterday evening all my downloads had been canceled and I thought it was because I took too much of their bandwidth.
    So I guess I just paid for one month ... for nothing.

  32. Shema Jisrael! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > For a law to be fair and just, it has to be accepted by a significant share of the population, i.e. it has to be democratically supported.

    Tell that to Adonai Elohim and his prophet Moses. They will struck you down by a bolt of lightning if you join the golden calf of Baal-seebab and rise against the tablets of commandments. Mankind is vile and evil and criminal, because Adam and Eve gave in to Satan's incement. The strict, just and fair laws of the Lord must be imposed on the people with an iron fist to save them from Hell, both on Earth (anarcho-criminalism) and the afterlife (eternal damnation for the vile). Divinely installed kings and political leaders have the duty to uphold the strong laws of the Book.

    File upload site and P2P use crackdown prevents people from stealing the exclusively jewish-created media IP and so the gentile people (the goyim) are saved from Hell, because there is nothing more sinful in the eyes of Adonai Elohim then crimes against his chosen people, the israelite nation.

    Luckily the US gov't has always been an ardent supporter of the hebrew race in its struggles against anti-semitism.

  33. Cowering... by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    ...before the US government as the prolonged arm of the "content industry" ( what a hateful word, by the way ! ) is not a solution. Cowering before any government never is. Never.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  34. Refund for paying users? by MrManny · · Score: 2

    I am slightly confused. I actually have a 3 months subscription there as I use it every now and then, and don't really want to work under the restrictions for non-registered users. Now that Filesonic basically removed a good portion of their functionality, does this entitle me to a refund of some kind? Then again, I probably won't lose any sleep over those few Euros I paid.

    1. Re:Refund for paying users? by AzN_DJ · · Score: 2

      Your euros are worth something?

    2. Re:Refund for paying users? by AzN_DJ · · Score: 2

      Your Euros are worth something?

  35. Alternative SOPA by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, we need a Stop Our Politicians Act.

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    1. Re:Alternative SOPA by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

      We need a law to limit term limits in Congress.

    2. Re:Alternative SOPA by phorm · · Score: 1

      I believe that's called a constitution.

      No act works without enforcement and stiff penalties for breaching it. Right now you seem to have neither, as the best case against an unconstitutional law seems to be "oops, that law is no good so we'll remake it and try again"

  36. I'm sorry, you're wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The injuries claimed by the R/MAFIAA that drive these things are NOT the result of theft. They're not being harmed nearly as much by this as they claim, many people share because they prefer not to be burned to the tune of 20-30 dollars when someone puts out a CD with two or three great songs (that they play the shit out of on radio) and about 10 tracks of pure, unlistenable shit. After you've paid 100+ dollars for several CD's and get maybe 20 minutes of music you like, and garbage you wouldn't tie your worst enemy down and make him listen to, you get tired of shelling out the kind of money they demand for nearly nothing.

    (I won't bother to rehash the argument that the sales they allege they're losing are from people who either wouldn't or couldn't buy the music they're listening to (or movies their watching, etc.,) anyway, because there's no real objective way to measure this without an observable parallel universe in which they could and would, but decide to download anyway, just for the thrill or spite... but anyway...)

    Problem is, years of people getting paid to entertain has given someone the thoroughly incorrect notion that they're ENTITLED to be paid for entertaining, whether or not people think they're entertaining enough to pay to entertain. One way to fight back is to boycott the fuckers, and use, (for example) Jamendo.com, which is free, and you can support artists directly, without RIAA parasites getting the majority of the money, or opt not to, perfectly legally, and enjoy, and often even share the music, free and LEGALLY.

    Every time someone buys a CD or a DVD or watches a movie in a theater, he/she is contributing to the war chest which is used to try to reduce people's liberties so that the rich (note, NOT the artists themselves, in most cases) can get obscenely richer.

    Once upon a time, this business model made sense. Recording industry execs performed a valuable service of knowing the tastes of the listening public, and vetting would-be recording stars by whether or not people would like what they proposed to record. This function is now completely unnecessary because with the power of the internet, people can rate these things themselves, and don't need someone else to vet. Case in point, (and no, I'm not affiliated with, or employed by Jamendo) Jamendo.com ranks albums, etc., they make available for free under various types of Creative Commons licenses, by their popularity, so you can actually see what everyone else is listening to WITHOUT, let me stress this, WITHOUT recording "industry" executive parasites' input or interference.

    They are slowly realizing WE DON'T NEED THEM ANYMORE, and that is what they're REALLY scared of. It's not that theft hurts their bottom line, it's that we, the PEOPLE deciding what we like, and not needing their input anymore making their jobs unnecessary and redundant, that makes them want to frighten the people into continuing with the old paradigm, in which they continue to get paid their ridiculous salaries, continue to have musicians suck their dicks and kiss their asses, and be treated generally like their hot shit, when in fact their NOT shit. On the contrary, they're like the human appendix, and music today needs a fucking appendectomy.

    'Nuff sed.

  37. Made it difficult by AzN_DJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the other side of the world, it is appalling how copyright law likes to screw everything over the entire globe.

    Here in Australia, there is only one main source of multimedia online - iTunes. And it has a limited selection compared to the US version, and massive markups. What costs you guys 99c-$1.69 costs us $1.69-$2.19 (AUD and USD are practically at parity)
    Amazon doesn't work outside the US.
    Google Music doesn't work outside the US.
    Zune only started in Australia recently - but there are DRM restrictions.

    Also, with TV episodes, there is a large delay between US availability and AU availability. At least months difference, and it is still overpriced and DRM locked on iTunes. We can't access iTunes US without a credit card. We aren't allowed to pay for it basically. So what is the easier option? Just download it.

    Another common example among friends of mine:
    We all love k-pop. But we can't get Korean music in Australian music stores. We can't buy it online from iTunes. We can't set up an account for iTunes Korea. We can't order the CDs online either. So what is the obvious solution? Download it.

    As long as the Music/TV/Movie industry make it extremely difficult to pay, there will be a large amount of people who pirate around the world because they aren't given the option to pay for it easily. However if paying for music was easier than downloading, there would be more people paying for music.

    1. Re:Made it difficult by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      The average consumer is on 21 century, but the media industry is still on 19 century.

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    2. Re:Made it difficult by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What costs you guys 99c-$1.69 costs us $1.69-$2.19 (AUD and USD are practically at parity)

      Heh that's true for pretty much everything in Australia. Not just iTunes.

  38. Encryption in US is safe by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 4, Informative

    In the US, forcing someone to give up encryption codes is generally considered to run afoul of the self-incrimination principle. So once the police ask someone for their codes, which they can do, they lose the ability to convict that person for what they find. So, given the prevailing legal opinion on the matter, and giving the fact that most congressmen and senators are either lawyers or judges or other parts of the legal system, I doubt this will come to pass. Even if it does, the US has precedent, and the self-incrimination thing is established by precedent and is part of the constitution, so it's unlikely judges would play ball.

    Add to that that it's not necessary. You can "bait" p2p networks. At some point, no matter the encryption or routing tricks, you have to tell someone you don't know about the content you want. It is prohibitively expensive not to use direct routing once you get past a certain file size (so while tor is useful for downloading hacker texts, it's not useful for movie downloads). How do you know you're not asking an MPAA server ? You don't. 2 or 3 states consider that to be entrapment, but most don't, and that'll be enough.

    Of course, most other regions like Europe or China don't consider the self-incrimination thing to be a problem at all. Nor do they consider forcing Americans in their jurisdictions to give up codes even the slightest bit objectionable (you don't have the right to private encryption anywhere in Europe, and let's just shut up about China and the rest).

    1. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Ihmhi · · Score: 4, Informative

      So, given the prevailing legal opinion on the matter, and giving the fact that most congressmen and senators are either lawyers or judges or other parts of the legal system, I doubt this will come to pass.

      You are making the mistake of assuming that because most of congress and the senate is made up of lawyers that they have any problem whatsoever doing something vastly illegal.

      The politicians have broken laws and even the fundamental founding principles of our nation in some fashion nearly every year since this country began. (The earliest I can think of is the suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War.)

    2. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Kjella · · Score: 2

      It is prohibitively expensive not to use direct routing once you get past a certain file size

      But that "certain" file size is a moving target. Okay with my 60 Mbps fiber line I can get 5-6 MB/s over BitTorrent and maybe 1-200 kB/s with indirect routing, but it's still as fast as my 1 Mbps ADSL line was 10 years ago. True you won't be sharing BluRays that way - yet - but at full 24x7 download I'd probably manage to suck 30GB/month down that straw.

      Of course, most other regions like Europe or China don't consider the self-incrimination thing to be a problem at all.

      Don't smear all of Europe for the UKs RIP privacy act, the biggest lapdog of the US is the one that's gone furthest to absolish protections against self-incrimination. In most of Europe you can still tell the police to put a sock in it without any real harm, though you can expect the police to slam you with everything else they can find.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Encryption in US is safe by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Informative

      (The earliest I can think of is the suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War.)

      The earliest prominent example was 1798, with the Sedition Act. Set to expire the day before John Adams left office, it was used by Federalists to punish journalists and even a Congressman who wrote mean things about the Federalist government.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    4. Re:Encryption in US is safe by matthiasvegh · · Score: 0

      Of course, most other regions like Europe or China don't consider the self-incrimination thing to be a problem at all.

      I'm undoing moderation here but: Wrong. Even the eastern country where I live (Hungary) has provisions against self-incrimination. And public/private encryption is also legal. The only thing I can think of that isn't legal is encryption using your digital signature.

    5. Re:Encryption in US is safe by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall that it was rules passwords, encryption keys a safe combinations were akin to the physical keys that you have to give to the police if they require them for their investigation. Effectively they are like a physical barrier that you control, and just like a door you can be required to unlock it.

      People lose keys all the time though so I'm not sure what happens in that event.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only country in Europe which directly has laws that forces you to give up encryption keys is England. Every other european country doesn't, and most European countries can't have their courts make you give it up. Most of Europe runs free encryption I live in Denmark, and here we not only have free encryption, our government actually encourages us to encrypt our communication and data, and they can't force us to give it up.

      And no, in the American legal system, your encrypted content might not be safe. You see, some prosecutors have found loopholes that allows them to circumvent the fifth amendment when it comes to demanding encryption keys, by not demanding the keys/passwords themself, but instead by demanding that the defendant with control over the encrypted content produces/unlocks the encrypted content before the court (without giving up the keys) so it can be examined by the Jury. While it won't apply in every case because of some small (but important) legal details, you might want to take a look at "In re Grand Jury Subpoena to Sebastian Boucher. U.S.D.C., D. Vt. No. 2:06-mj-91 (February 19, 2009)." Sebastian Boucher was in that subpoena forced by court to produce the content of his encrypted drive when his motion to quash the subpoena was denied:
      http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12682191487277653617

      Encryption is more legally safe in Europe (except in England) than it is in the US.

    7. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Ignore the idiocy of actually making encrypted personal traffic illegal for a moment.

      In the US, forcing someone to give up encryption codes is generally considered to run afoul of the self-incrimination principle.

      How does this matter if utilizing encryption on web traffic is made illegal as a criminal offense? The simple act of using encryption is what is illegal and doesn't require you to give up passwords to prove guilt.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    8. Re:Encryption in US is safe by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      But that "certain" file size is a moving target. Okay with my 60 Mbps fiber line I can get 5-6 MB/s over BitTorrent and maybe 1-200 kB/s with indirect routing, but it's still as fast as my 1 Mbps ADSL line was 10 years ago. True you won't be sharing BluRays that way - yet - but at full 24x7 download I'd probably manage to suck 30GB/month down that straw.

      Sadly, no. I know a lot about internet backbone routing and it just isn't designed for doing this. It won't work at scale. It's not that far removed from total collapse with direct routing. Actually this may be a good compromise since only die-hards will continue to pirate if direct routing pirating gets targeted.

      Besides, even in such a model you still need meet-me functionality. A "thepiratebay". Does Tor provide that ? I'm pretty sure that given a static target you can interact with, no location protection is possible.

      And there's the China technique : block tor altogether.

      In most of Europe you can still tell the police to put a sock in it without any real harm, though you can expect the police to slam you with everything else they can find.

      One of the things they'll slap you with is not providing access to encrypted devices.

      Religion is the anthropomorphization of reality, that behind it all there's an invisible man pulling invisible strings.

      Even here I disagree :)

    9. Re:Encryption in US is safe by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      True, but it's the same as that door. If the police forces you to open that door, they can go in and, say, help someone getting murdered inside. They cannot, however, charge you with what they find.

      This is different as compared to a court-ordered search. At which point a locksmith or some coller external means will be used to provide access for the police.

    10. Re:Encryption in US is safe by po8crg · · Score: 1

      This is one of the rare cases where England is correct and Britain isn't - Scotland has different laws on this and encryption is OK there.

      Wales follows England's laws. I have no idea about Northern Ireland.

    11. Re:Encryption in US is safe by nahdude812 · · Score: 1

      If you give up the encryption code, you've waived your right WRT self incrimination. If you don't and they find it another way, then you haven't self-incriminated.

      All it means is that you can't be forced to cough up the encryption code. Except that's proving to not be true; it's considered akin to being asked for the key to a house. The principal is that with enough dedication, law enforcement will find the information. Inevitable discovery: not "will probably," but "will" (even if that "will" may not be before the heat death of the universe). So courts have started to consider (rightly or not) that witholding encryption keys is akin to either contempt or obstruction of justice, and doesn't fall under the 5th amendment (US). Other countries have key disclosure laws, and failure to provide the keys carries its own penalty. You can and will be jailed for refusing.

      In the US and elsewhere, if witholding keys is considered contempt (and all they have to do for this to attach is ask you for them in the presence of a judge), due process does not attach; jail for contempt it is often said that you hold the keys for your release (usually figuratively, but for encryption, literally). So you don't get a trial, you get put in jail for as long as you refuse to hand over the keys. There is no upper limit since it's considered that you're there only for as long as you choose to be. You could spend the rest of your life in jail unless you hand over the keys.

      If you wish to protect yourself, you need plausible deniability. TrueCrypt offers this; it'd be great if there was a network protocol equivalent.

    12. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Besides, even in such a model you still need meet-me functionality. A "thepiratebay". Does Tor provide that ? I'm pretty sure that given a static target you can interact with, no location protection is possible.

      Actually, yes it does and it's called onion sites. They're certainly not trivial to find, though I don't know how hard anyone has tried.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    13. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Oxford_Comma_Lover · · Score: 1

      > In the US, forcing someone to give up encryption codes is generally considered to run afoul of the self-incrimination principle

      Citation needed.

      --
      -- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
    14. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Kjella · · Score: 1

      True, but it's the same as that door. If the police forces you to open that door, they can go in and, say, help someone getting murdered inside. They cannot, however, charge you with what they find.

      You may want to check your local jurisdiction on that. Normally they can charge you for anything in plain view, but they can't search the place.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    15. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please fact-check. Legislation in Europe varies by country. You have strong protections against self incrimination in Germany and no judge or policeman can force you to give up an encryption key. In the UK that right has been abolished.

      Law enforcement sponsored hacking to circumvent encryption (e.g. on Skype) is a different matter. But at least in theory any evidence obtained this way could be challenged on the grounds that it could have been planted.

    16. Re:Encryption in US is safe by pclminion · · Score: 1

      You posted two completely wrong things in one thread. Number one, if the police ask you to incriminate yourself, and you oblige, the case is tainted. Dude, what the fuck are you smoking? Number two, police can't use their two eyes to perceive evidence while legitimately inside your house -- not only are you smoking something, it must be the good shit.

    17. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Shagg · · Score: 1

      How do you know you're not asking an MPAA server ? You don't. 2 or 3 states consider that to be entrapment, but most don't, and that'll be enough.

      Downloading a movie from an MPAA server wouldn't even be copyright infringement.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    18. Re:Encryption in US is safe by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Thanks. It's been a long time since grade school. I forgot about the Sedition Act.

    19. Re:Encryption in US is safe by __aarvde6843 · · Score: 1

      In the US, forcing someone to give up encryption codes is generally considered to run afoul of the self-incrimination principle.

      According to this story [Slashdot], it is not.
      And that "generally considered" that you talk about, is somewhat vague. Either it is considered part of the principle, or not.

    20. Re:Encryption in US is safe by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      If they force you to incriminate yourself ...

  39. Re:Coming soon: This! by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 1

    Is that link safe? What's an Octet Stream that it wants me to download?

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  40. Not just them by Aladrin · · Score: 1

    FileSonic is the most extreme, but other sites have started mass-banning, mass-deletion, and other measures to combat piracy on their systems.

    I think it's too late for them, if there are criminal charges coming... But maybe they think they can get off lighter if they comply before they are asked.

    Or maybe they've already been asked.

    At any rate, there are major changes taking place, and pirates everywhere are shifting their focus. The last time this happened, torrents were born. As an IT professional, it's going to be interesting to see what pops up to fill this gap. Adversity tends to spur innovation.

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  41. Crack-down of FileSharing, a Tragedy in the Making by _0x783czar · · Score: 1

    Piracy is wrong. While I do have my reservations on whether such file copying should be considered wrong, for now (seeing as it is against the law) and for the purposes of this post, we'll take that as a given.

    But the increasing trend of government crack-downs on File Sharing sites is becoming alarming. While it shouldn't be very surprising that sites like MegaUpload get taken down, we have to wonder if the reasoning against them can be used against more "legitimate" sites. After all, not all the traffic on MegaUpload was illegal. And now sites that provide a great deal of honest usability may come under fire.

    Let's take DropBox for example. I and a team of computer programmers that I'm working with have been making great use of DropBox. We set it up so our IDE workspaces upload directly to a DropBox folder where our team members can access all our work and import parts into their own, thus we can stay on the same page in our development process, giving each an opportunity to contribute before comparing implementations and finally fine-tuning a final candidate.

    Yet we have to ask ourselves, will DropBox come under fire in this wave of government crack-down? And if so, what will become of our files which we have entrusted to DropBox? It's not that I am saying that MegaUpload was innocent, but the prevailing reasoning against them could easily be transfered to any number of file-sharing sites and services which have made a great contribution to the power and effectiveness of the web.

    Proponents say that the government must regulate the Internet for the protection of society. Yet can you imagine if that same logic were applied to the "SneakerNet"? I for one do not want the government checking to be sure that everything I am taking over to share with others meets their approval—whether on the Internet or the Sneakernet.

    Protection for companies and their legitimate interests is important. But we cannot sacrifice personal freedom in order to do so.

    --
    ~theCzar
  42. Business opportunity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Millions of former MegaUpload and FileSonic customers are looking for new service providers... That's a massive business opportunity for anyone with balls of steel!

    Just make sure it's *only* about file sharing, nothing else. The US cannot touch anyone doing just that, but if your business model is more complicated - like MegaUpload - it opens up for bullshit charges of money laundering and racketeering.

    Looks like the last of the old great ones are the winner. RapidShare is 'unconcerned' about the MegaUpload case and it's business as usual when it comes to the daily dose of downloadable entertainment from there. They're in Switzerland where the US have extremely few puppets on strings they can pull.

  43. Next up: Fileserve by apt-get+moo · · Score: 1

    FileServe can only be used to download and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally. If this file belongs to you, please login to download it directly from your file manager.

    Who else will follow?

    --
    ...."Have you mooed today?"...
  44. Music/Movies = alcohol? by singingjim1 · · Score: 1

    Movies and music aren't illegal so it's not a good analogy. And alcohol distribution and advertising has actually become WAY more regulated since prohibition ended. You can't rationalize stealing by trying to call it other names or trying to glorify it. It's a product that someone made for a commercial purpose and if you obtain it for free without permission of the maker of that product then you have stolen it. It's just that simple. I don't think that media piracy has hurt the industry as much as it has helped point out the flaws in their business model. But trying to call stealing something else just to rationalize doing it is childish. Own up to the fact that you are stealing someone's product and are a criminal for doing so. Because that's exactly what you are doing and what you are.

    1. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a product that someone made for a commercial purpose and if you obtain it for free without permission of the maker of that product then you have stolen it.

      Personal opinion stated as if it were fact.

      Own up to the fact that you are stealing someone's product and are a criminal for doing so.

      First part of sentence: Opinion stated as fact again, and not an opinion shared by the majority (vs physical theft of goods)
      Second part: False; in most cases copyright violation is a civil matter, not criminal.

      But trying to call stealing something else just to rationalize doing it is childish.
      Personal opinion, again not supported by law or public morals, combined with irrelevant insult.

      It's just that simple.
      Because that's exactly what you are doing and what you are.

      Filler; essentially says, what I said in the previous sentence is really really true.

      Verdict:
      Must try harder.
      Post could be condensed to the single honest sentence:
      "I personally equate all copyright violation with theft (even though neither the law nor public opinion support this view)"

    2. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by singingjim1 · · Score: 1

      And the rationalization for stealing someone else's product continues. Wasn't the original article about a company ceasing and desisting in the aid of file sharing? And why would they do this? Because they don't want to get into legal trouble. Again, I personally have no real issue with any of it, but this persistent denial by people who are stealing music and movies is hilarious and is really what annoys most folks who feel like I do about it. Your concept of public opinion is probably a little different than mine. In my version public opinion frowns on taking what is not yours without permission or paying for it. Again, it's that simple. But those that partake in IP piracy (it's called piracy for a reason) always try to mask that simplicity with obfuscation and euphemisms. Steal a friggin song or movie. I couldn't care less, but stop being babies about it and own up to what it is that you are doing.

    3. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by sesshomaru · · Score: 2

      You are kidding right? I'm the only person I ever met who morally cared about "stealing content." That was way back when I was young and naive. Everyone else I knew were passing around floppies or trying to hook two VCRs together to copy ET: The Extra Terrestrial, or making mix tapes off the radio for their friends.

      Heck, even people I know in the music/other creative businesses do this, nobody thinks its some big sin to copy files. Nobody cares.

      Here's an anecdote: I know a guy with an external hard drive full of pirated media. We got into a discussion about the public domain. I made the argument that things should become public domain after a reasonable time for the benefit of society. He made the argument that as long as someone is making a profit from it it should never become public domain.

      It's this cognitive dissonance that's the problem.

      Perversely, however, this makes me sardonically pleased about the copyright crackdown. How is anything ever going to change when people's personal morality is so out of whack with their public morality? Perhaps a crackdown will shake them out of their lethargy.

      --
      "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
    4. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > And the rationalization for stealing someone else's product continues

      It's not someone else's "product" or "property" and never was. So that's just a highly bogus sort of thing to start out a morally pompous rant with.

      If it's not a new release, then it's likely old enough that it should be legal for anyone to copy and re-publish at will.

      The "thievery" here is not one sided. It's dishonest to pretend that it is.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      An interesting idea is can people really copy a cinema movie. It is laughable to compare a low resolution stream to a movie at a cinema.

      I have a feeling this whole crack down has more to do with being able to successful bullshit about the quality of content up for offer. That bullshit really falls over when you can check out a stream before going to the cinema and decide whether the reality of the quality of the content is worth paying the cost of a cinema ticket.

      From my perspective no stream, no cinema ticket. I am sick of the lies and deceit about the quality of content, if I can't check it out before hand I ain't going. Truth is I have pretty much given up on the cinema experience, it is all coming off as pretty much lame.

      Going to the cinema has become what you do if you have nothing else better to do, pretty much a lame night out. The movies have become pretty much crap and that whole passive entertainment thing is just so yesterday. I have no idea what is on at the cinema any more and I haven't missed it.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    6. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by singingjim1 · · Score: 1

      That is a very extreme take on it. For a simple movie about a subject that doesn't involve $100 million worth of special effects, like indie films that sometimes gain traction with limited cinema release and become profitable solely from word of mouth of theater goers, it's easy to watch it in standard definition on a laptop and enjoy the movie well enough to not bother paying money to see it. There are a helluva lot more of these types of films that need the box office to break even or turn a profit unless they perchance make a few bucks in DVD/Blu ray. I do have a moral compass and I do not download or share files, but I'm not going to presume that people should have the same take on life's small problems. I just feel that folks should call a spade a spade and stop the denial about file sharing being ethically, if not legally suspect.

    7. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's this cognitive dissonance that's the problem.

    8. Re:Music/Movies = alcohol? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      There is nothing extreme about considering going to a theatre to watch a movie as a lame night out, only relegated to bored and absolutely have nothing else better to do. There's plenty of more entertaining interactive experiences on the net. When you go out, your really want to interact with people not sit in some darkened hall getting pissed off when people interact with you.

      So it has to be a really good story really well told, to make up for the general lameness of the activity. Now new kinds of publicly shared interactive computer activities will likely become popular. Maybe pubs with M$ table top http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx, where you interact with other people in a social situation (needs applications for this kind of venue) M$ might need to invest in a series of public venues around the world to drive that idea forward.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  45. FileServe follows by Joshua.Niland · · Score: 1

    Seems that fileserve.com has followed filesonic.com and removed the ability to download shared files! Surely they will loose subscribers en masse now?

  46. Where to get free content by Barbariandude · · Score: 2

    Music: http://www.jamendo.com/

    Films: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Films

    Remember to donate to any artist you really enjoy!

    1. Re:Where to get free content by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

      vodo.net also has some good indie web series and movies. I've been meaning to watch Pioneer One but haven't found the time yet.

  47. This is interesting by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

    Personally, I would have guessed that the EU would be light years ahead in regards to privacy and encryption keys. Thank you for teaching me something today. :D

  48. That's part of the discussion by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

    News commentators have been asking, if the US government already has the power to shut down websites under existing law, why do we need SOPA and PIPA? It's a very good question to be asking, I think.

  49. What about CC / FLOSS video? by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

    This may have been mentioned already, but the text of both SOPA and PIPA say it would be illegal to stream copyrighted material. Creative Commons videos and those licensed under one of the Open Source licenses would fall under this definition. What happens to videos that are copyrighted (or copylefted) where the content creator encourages distribution?

  50. Heads on pikes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now go and tell the rest of the file sharing websites what you just saw.

  51. most disappointing by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 1

    File sharing is, of itself, a legal activity protected by the 1st Amendment. If you own or have rights to use the copyright.

  52. Looks like the clouds are parting by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    Look on the bright side. The FBI just put a big quash on all that "Everything in the future will be in the cloud" hype. I wonder if "Nothing will be in the cloud because everyone is too afraid to store files on their servers that might be pirated, lest the FBI kick down their doors and throw them in prison" will fit as well on a magazine cover.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  53. What was expected? by couchslug · · Score: 1

    While the position that sharing sites exist for purposes other than "piracy", it's also most of their business like it or not.

    Fight against corporate content. Do not want RIAA/MPAA products in the first place. You do not need them.

    If no one put their shit on sharing sites, there would be no grounds to prosecute those sites!

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  54. "Can't"? by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

    We still can't obtain a lot of the stuff shared legally. I want to watch the new Underworld movie tonight but I can't because it's not out in any form I can buy.

    I refuse to watch movies in a theater, too, but I'm not so arrogant as to use that as an excuse for file sharing.

  55. Can't cancel, either. by KD4DCY · · Score: 1

    For the last hour, I've been trying to cancel my FileSonic premium account, which is set to rebill me in a week's time. It is now apparently impossible to do so. Upon filling out the cancellation form with the correct info and clicking "Cancel," all one is presented with is a screen titled "AN ERROR OCCURRED" and the helpful message "application error." One might suspect they've intentionally disabled their cancellation mechanism to stop the mass exodus of users (and therefore money).

    1. Re:Can't cancel, either. by sesshomaru · · Score: 2

      Hmm, does it let you update your billing information?

      Try making the credit card number all 0's or just replacing some of the digits randomly. The charge will fail to go through.

      --
      "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
    2. Re:Can't cancel, either. by KD4DCY · · Score: 1

      There's presently no place in FileSonic's account settings to update your billing info, either. I don't know if there might've been before; I've had the account for over a year but never needed to change anything until now.

    3. Re:Can't cancel, either. by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Chargeback?

    4. Re:Can't cancel, either. by KD4DCY · · Score: 1

      Sure ... I can do that, but doing it once a month until the end of time isn't going to look good. :)

    5. Re:Can't cancel, either. by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Call your CC company and explain the situation to them. They'll help you resolve it. This is essentially outright fraud and something they have to handle.

  56. On the cloud. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1st, Jesuchrist!!!

    In my dream, he signaled me you're God in middle of the chaotic environment, i without understanding what's that he wanted to signal me for i doing it that he wanted to signal me. For me, it's a little unknown by me because how hard is a man to become God in middle of the chaotic environment.

    JCPM: should the living beings to obey the prophecies written by ancient prophets instead of following freely their own lives? why? A law that orders them to follow the prophecies of the future successes is a little unmoral and unethical, not?

  57. Citizens have detected movement of money. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please reboot your government for the changes to take effect.

  58. Will more follow?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder how many other file sharing sites will do the same thing now? I just paid for a subscription on Skyfile wonder if they will do the same thing?

  59. Oh Noes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guess I'll just download my pr0n via Rapidshare. Or Hotfile. Or Wupload. Or Uploaded. Or Letitbit. Or Extabit. Or FileServe. Or Mediafire. Or Depositfiles. Or Netload. Or Crocko. Or Filefactory. Or Badongo. Or 4shared. Or Przeklej.
    Or Dump. Or Uploading. Or Storage. Or Megashares. Or Furk. Or 4FastFile. Or UploadBox. Or GoldFile. Or GigaSize.
    Or Enterupload. Or TurboBit. Or Diglo. Or HitFile. Or Oron. Or Kickload. Or ZippyShare. Or SoundCloud. Or BitShare.
    Or PiggyShare. Or UploadStation. Or FreakShare. Or x7. Or SpeedyShare. Or Fyels. Or FileJungle.

    Install JDownloader. I've only had to watch maybe a handful of those suck-ass ads in the last few years. CAPTCHAS are part of life, I mean, how lazy are you, anyway?

  60. Just share login with everyone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Simply post your login details and BAM! sharing can continue.

  61. What about sneaker-net? by Everything+Else+Was · · Score: 1

    Next they'll be going after Nike!

    --
    My other account has mod points!
  62. Guilty as accused? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All these hosts are doing is incriminating themselves by taking down all their services, Like "Well ok so now we know we might get busted let's destroy the evidence"
    Stupidity at it's best. And the weird part is they are destroying their own business doing so. It doesn't matter if the gov takes down all these sites, People will still pirate as they have done since the twin tape deck, Double VHS hook-ups, Radio etc... And now we have high-speed DVD/CD/Bluray re-writers...Go figure. This is all a waste of time and when the government and record companies realise that this will actually DECREASE their sales, As people do not have money anymore due to THEM, And the multitude of other reasons I could produce, Then the buck's on you, Big boys. The think tank needs more power than this petty attempt.

    1. Re:Guilty as accused? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I'm not an anonymous coward, I just can't be arsed to sign up lol.

  63. i read this submission yesterday.. and since then, by doccus · · Score: 1

    Many more have pulled the plug..Since I only just got sent the summary by /. i would have thought the fact that a dozen other sites have since also called it quits, would have rated a mention.. I was DL'ing a rare world beat LP, of the kind that would have *never* got exposure before these services appeared.. So, of course no, it's not for linux and freeware..and nobody ever really believed it was.. but a line has to be drawn between people sharing (c) rap artists that sell millions, and really aren't hard to get legally, and regiional albums that would *never* get world distribution.. Fact is , THAT was one of the most common uses for this, and the main benefit of all this. it was , actually, the best hope for many of these artists, in order to get exposure. Most real musicians aren't going to make any money from their recordings *anyways*.. not with the glut on the market now.. And that world beat album, that I no longer can download? It happens to be my old drummer's.. who had a gold record in South America. Now I'll never hear it.. as *he* (Charlie, my old drummer, who was playing then with with Lord Rhaburn) certainly doesn't have a copy..

  64. Megaupload is down? by DaVince21 · · Score: 1

    As an European, I feel that my right to visit the site is blocked by the FBI. This has such a weird effect on me.

    --
    I am not devoid of humor.
  65. Ignoring their Ts&Cs... by hicksw · · Score: 1

    You could email your account name, password and file hash to your downloaders.

    That guy Anon (password:arrr) will be restoring his online backups a lot more often. And from a lot of ip addresses. And all his works are in the pubic domain.

    The real blow is financial - no more payments to the uploaders.
    --
    I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.

  66. bogaboga is a shill Re:Not only that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    bogaboga is a shill account that is employed extensively by astroturfers to submit stories and manipulate discussions to a more industry-friendly angle. The bogaboga account is manipulated by the same people who manage other user accounts such as:

    - bonch
    - SharkLaser
    - tysonedwards
    - Overly Criticla Guy
    - DCTech
    - InterestingFella
    etc...

  67. cold hard truth : terror is 99% muslim terror by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 0

    the IRA has killed more British people than any other terrorist organisation in recent history

    Source ? Besides, the majority of IRA victims were soldiers. While I don't approve the killing of soldiers either, it's on a different level to muslim terrorism.

    Here's a simple comparison. An IRA terrorist says before perpetrating an attack against soldiers "may God forgive me". A muslim terrorist screams "allahu ackbar", which translates to "allah will win". Do you seriously have trouble grasping the difference ? For starters, IRA terrorism was considered to be a purely defensive action, while muslim terrorism is considered a purely offensive action (the paedophile prophet didn't believe in defense). While neither is condonable, they are not on the same moral level at all.

    I don't get what your point is about. You neglect to mention which exact claim is false. More than 99% of terror attacks are muslims, more than 99% of terror victims are caused by an attack by muslims, Muslim ideology idolizes the killing innocents, both ways. By sharia, any attack on any muslim is an attack on a soldier, any attack against anyone, including babies, is considered merely an attack against an enemy soldier. (and the proceeds to say that these attacks are "to be avoided, IF subjugation can be achieved without them, other means should be used". It is VERY clear on the target though : complete subjugation of the entire world).

    Anyone who thinks this is surprising shouldn't be. The international human rights treaty is basically a codification of canon law, initiated by the international committee of the red cross, a department of the vatican. Hell, the very concept of an innocent bystander to a conflict cannot be found in any law system before canon law. Surprise ! Human rights, innocents, only going after military targets, ... It doesn't match other religions very well ... None of them.

    But do tell, what exactly do you claim is untrue ? Either of the 99% claims ? The fact that muslim ideology idolizes terrorists ? The fact that muslims revere terrorists, going so far as holding them up as examples for children ? All of these can be trivially substantiated.