[POLL] Do you use Bitorrent?

[aiasib]

Here in Sweden a law was passed to deter net users from using Bittorrent to download illegal media by allowing prosecutors to more easily obtain the private information of users from their ISPs. Since, then Sweden's entire internet bandwidth has dropped by one third from 120Gbps to 80Gbps (estimates vary) anyway

So I'm wondering,
1. Do you use Bittorrent?
2. Would you still use it if a similar law passed in your country?
3. Is this a privacy issue? considering your ISP may hand out your address
to anyone who wants to prosecute you for visiting certain sites or
downloading certain content?
4. Is piracy theft?
5. Is piracy depriving artists and production houses of potential revenue?
or would pirates not consume media at all if they couldn't get it for free?

[LeonOfTheDead]

1 of course
2 it's already illegal to download something a keep it for more than 24 hours if you don't have an original copy
3 ...privacy, what's privacy?!
4 yes
5a yes
5b what?

on a personal note, only a minimum part of movies/lyrics deserve the prices they are asking for them (here, 15/20 € for an audio CD, from 10 to 25 € for a DVD). This is not an excuse, but it's one of the reason why piracy has spread out.
I, for one, buy what I like, and don't download if not really interested to check if it's good or not. I would never pay 20 € for a movie I never saw before.

[LTSmash]

I would never pay 20 € for a movie I never saw before.

Blu-Ray's go for $30 for a d-list movie. How anyone can even purchase those at full price is so beyond me.

[f6fhellcat13]

I have heard from a reliable source (the son of an Epitaph Records higher-up) that bands make the vast majority of their money touring, and that record companies take a lotta the cut from albums.
As to the poll, no comment. ;)

[cmcpokey]

I have heard from a reliable source (the son of an Epitaph Records higher-up) that band make the vast majority of their money touring, and that record companies take a lotta the cut from albums.

that is very true, and is one of the reasons so many artists start their own labels these days. with the relative ease of producing CDs compared to vinyl, it isn't very difficult to do.

as far as torrents, i have tried them, but lack the patience to make the stuff work, and deal with a lot of the bugs with them. im getting more into freeware and open source, and we are using a lot of it in my various programming classes.

[Dino Scuderia]

Bands make the bulk of their money these days off of ring tones.

[Roentgen]

NZ now has something similar, except they just have to SUSPECT you downloading illegally, and they'll ban you from internet permanently after 3 strikes.

It Fails.

[kingofthering]

1. Yes for somethings.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. Not always. Someone along the line had to buy it. I for one will go out any buy said item if I do like it, but not everything I like comes out in America.
5. See above.

[LeonOfTheDead]

that is very true, and is one of the reasons so many artists start their own labels these days. with the relative ease of producing CDs compared to vinyl, it isn't very difficult to do.

as far as torrents, i have tried them, but lack the patience to make the stuff work, and deal with a lot of the bugs with them. im getting more into freeware and open source, and we are using a lot of it in my various programming classes.

it's not that difficult.
you find a reliable a secure site (like isohunt for instance), search what you need, click on the file with the best seeds and leeches (fell free to ignore what they are), click for download, and instead of "save as" or whatever you win/mac/linus says, click on "open with bittorent" or similars.

Talking about freewares, trough University I'm getting all recent Microsoft stuff, like Visio or Vista.

[cmcpokey]

Talking about freewares, trough University I'm getting all recent Microsoft stuff, like Visio or Vista.

ditto for me.. although, i dont think they have vista. but all of office, mathtype, and a bunch of other fun stuff. im going to try and get Maple and MatLab as well (math programs), but i'll have to do a bit of digging for those.

[f6fhellcat13]

To any Americans in college (living on campus), what is the situation with torrenting? I have heard, that if the school sees you're using certain websites marked "illegal" they kill your internet and report you. Is this anything close to correct?

[coolieman1220]

1. i do, still do but not as much. since i switched to Verizion Fios fiberoptic, (which is lightning fast) i got an e-mail after downloading a movie saying that i have broken copyright infringement laws. and they could cut my internet servcie which sucks.
2. probably because there prolly is someone who does it more then me to get the blame first
3. yeah seriously, what is privacy
4. nope, capitalism sucks, they still make huge bucks so why can't us little guys get something free.

and yeah i heard something similar in college campuses.

[RacingManiac]

To any Americans in college (living on campus), what is the situation with torrenting? I have heard, that if the school sees you're using certain websites marked "illegal" they kill you internet and report you. Is this anything close to correct?

Back at my school, when I used to live on res, the main source of file sharing is dc++ on school network. There used to be Hundreds of TB of all sorts of stuff from apps to Anime/TV series, movies to mp3s.....How that works under the school admin was beyond me, it sure didn't help my marks though....lol.

Torrenting have issue as they block off most of the ports used by bittorrent...

[Rockefella]

Back at my school, when I used to live on res, the main source of file sharing is dc++ on school network. There used to be Hundreds of TB of all sorts of stuff from apps to Anime/TV series, movies to mp3s.....How that works under the school admin was beyond me, it sure didn't help my marks though....lol.

Torrenting have issue as they block off most of the ports used by bittorrent...

At Rutgers its the same way when you lived on-campus. A group of people called 'ruxan' ran an on-campus hub accessible only by students using university internet access. Like you said, 100's of tb's of files at transfer speeds of 800 kb/s to 1.2 mb/s. DVD-rips in 5 minutes was awesome.

[zeppelin]

I listen to more music than I know what to do with, and try to watch as many movies as possible too (call me a connoisseur of media arts), so I can't realistically purchase everything I see or listen to. The way I see it is, I like to hear albums and see movies before spending the (often outrageous) prices for them, however I purchase copies of albums and movies that I feel deserve the price. On top of that, I see movies in theatres, and go to a lot of concerts as well (where a larger portion of an artist's revenue is derived). People who exclusively download and never purchase however are leeches, and should at least support artists they truly like to some degree.

[#1 Mustang Fan]

NZ now has something similar, except they just have to SUSPECT you downloading illegally, and they'll ban you from internet permanently after 3 strikes.

It Fails.

Guilt upon accusation. And yes it does fail. They were thinking about making the ISP's keep tabs on you and your downloads then you get a instaban. But that was going to be a bit much so they tossed it in for the above.

Demonoid.com is the best, safest and generally most reliable torrent site. But you need an invitation to join up to get the torrents over a week old. If you want one pm me or something (I think there is a limit to how many any 1 user can give out).

[clutch-monkey]

i have to wonder. all the hoo-haa when the issue of pirating/downloading first started, and yet.... nobody seems all that affected.

[ruim20]

Yes, i use torrenting, for almost everything, games, music, programs, etc.

It's progress, i recorded K7 tapes, VHS, photocopied books, etc.

I guess it's over to thoose who produce to enrich the content and phisical aspect of their work.

product value is over the top, yet i own a considerable amount of original DVDs, books and CDs, wich i buy when i believe the price is suited to their real value, the same goes for games and everything else, an original will never compare to a copy.

I download movies to know if i liked them or not, if the response is positive i will certanly put it on the to buy list, the same for everything else.

Torrenting is for me the best way of evaluating a product without the hassle. Example, GTA4 PC, i downloaded it, tried it and hated it, a badly made port and with horrific minimum system specs, just had to uninstall, if i had bougth it i'd be stuck with it or having to talk my way into returning it, Portugal isn't the kindest of places to do shoping.

[Wouter Melissen]

4. nope, capitalism sucks, they still make huge bucks so why can't us little guys get something free.

So in the future we can see you steal Ferraris off the dealer lot?

[aiasib]

So in the future we can see you steal Ferraris off the dealer lot?

yeah the 'little guy' argument is hard to validate; they'll say if you have the money to buy the PC, DVD PLAYER, etc, then you are in that income bracket that can pay for the media, charity is not business, and business not charity.

on the other hand the stolen ferrari scenario is not akin to piracy because nothing is being taken from the dealership, you are only cloning the car and taking the clone....for free...this is also harder to justify when its a physical item and not just intellectual property.

Consider this new revenue model for music media; since labels make the most money off of discs, and labels are there to tell us who we should listen to, some argue these labels should be done away with. The artist, with the help of P2P technology, (whether they are megastars or just starting up) should put their stuff on sale (for money) online and the P2P word of mouth will make them or break them. No need for a label to rake in billions. Perhaps we will see labels die off like we have seen newspapers dying off.

Most artists need labels to plug their stuff and to get them interviews with shows and magazines, but in the end the artist's music should be that artist's publicist. And if his own music can't help their career, then why should they still be making music?

[LeonOfTheDead]

ditto for me.. although, i dont think they have vista. but all of office, mathtype, and a bunch of other fun stuff. im going to try and get Maple and MatLab as well (math programs), but i'll have to do a bit of digging for those.

MatLab...I hate it :D

I listen to more music than I know what to do with, and try to watch as many movies as possible too (call me a connoisseur of media arts), so I can't realistically purchase everything I see or listen to. The way I see it is, I like to hear albums and see movies before spending the (often outrageous) prices for them, however I purchase copies of albums and movies that I feel deserve the price. On top of that, I see movies in theatres, and go to a lot of concerts as well (where a larger portion of an artist's revenue is derived). People who exclusively download and never purchase however are leeches, and should at least support artists they truly like to some degree.

this.

So in the future we can see you steal Ferraris off the dealer lot?

they usually don't pass trough the main door and have just a couple of liters of gas in the tank, so it's definitely more difficult than downloading...

jk.