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My View on Piracy and Torrents (re: AU piracy crackdown)

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posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 05:43 AM
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Ever since we got hit with the "Netflix tax" in Australia I've been very tempted to write a thread like this but a report on the MSM news tonight annoyed me so much I had to write it. In this report they claimed that there's no reason to pirate with so many ways to get access to shows and movies, just pay a few dollars they say. We pay for Foxtel, Netflix, as well as Stan which is like an AU version of Netflix. Despite paying for all these services there are still many shows we don't have access to because the licensing rights are only available to companies in the US. It takes months or years for the AU Netflix to get episodes which have been available on the US Netflix for yonks. Because of the recent tax on online businesses like Netflix we also pay more for the AU version of Netflix even though it's a highly watered down version of the US Netflix. The AU government was so butt hurt that people were using US services like Netflix but they didn't get any tax from it, so they decided to make a tax.

The result was obvious... Netflix didn't pay the tax, they offset the cost of the tax onto the consumer by increasing their prices. So at the end of the day the AU consumer gets screwed over yet again. Back to this report... sites like ThePirateBay were already banned by AU ISP's about a year or more ago, but now they want to ban basically every torrent website on the internet. Man that is so progressive... banning a technology which is extremely useful for sharing files because some files shouldn't be shared. Torrent technology is an extremely fast and robust method for sharing files and allowing others to download your files without putting stress on a centralized server. P2P technology is literally the future of the internet and these people are acting like it's a tool of the devil. In this report they're like "there will be no where left to go except extremely dodgy websites which will infect your computer". Could these technologically illiterate fools possibly make their fear mongering any dumber?

This is taking us down a path which leads to a great firewall of China where half the internet becomes blocked from our country and I find it despicable. The media obviously acts like it's such a moral and good thing, wouldn't want those movie stars starving to death would we. The truly sad thing is that our liberal government has done such a poor job that the labour party will most likely be in power after the next election, and they are even more hardcore leftist than the liberal party. We basically have two major leftist parties, it's completely insane and unbearable, the level of cuckism I'm seeing arise in this nation has me highly disturbed. We're supposed be the guys who give zero f'ks in a land full of the worlds most dangerous animals, but that is extremely far from the truth. Everything needs to be politically correct, everyone should be hyper-sensitive, and we must submit to the socialist nanny state. That's what the MSM wants us to do anyway... not going to happen.
edit on 18/8/2017 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 06:00 AM
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Next thing you know VPN's will be banned as well. They are already making moves on encryption like in the UK.

I suspect this is a masquerade. This may well be a way to crack down on privacy enhancing technology under the label of anti-piracy.

Everything is already in place to "deal with piracy" if they really wanted to. For the average user, the "wronged" company, studio or whatever can send a cease and desist letter and the ISP may choose to terminate the service. Of course prosecution may follow but is unlikely.
Metadata is being recorded, it is pretty easy to identify piracy, as long as it is not encrypted.

They have already banned other sites such as putlocker, but that can be evaded with a single click nowadays. There is no way that the government doesn't know this, thusly I presume services which offer privacy will be next.

People are starting to question the crackdown on privacy under the label of anti-terrorism, so they stick a new label on. Same sh!t, different shovel.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 06:16 AM
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a reply to: LilFox

You could be right... they certainly do want to make it harder to communicate privately even though it will never happen, you cannot beat mathematics and if they make an algorithm illegal they've truly gone off the deep end.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 06:31 AM
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a reply to: ChaoticOrder


Despite paying for all these services there are still many shows we don't have access to because the licensing rights are only available to companies in the US.

Its more about censorship, filtering content for propaganda purposes. The 'license' dogma and 'fees' cover operating costs.

Sure, piracy goes on, but not as much as censorship.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 06:32 AM
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originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
Back to this report... sites like ThePirateBay were already banned by AU ISP's about a year or more ago, but now they want to ban basically every torrent website on the internet.

Will they ban Microsoft? Windows 10 uses P2P distribution for their updates.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 06:39 AM
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a reply to: ArMaP

I only started using windows 10 a few months ago and immediately disabled that crap, what a waste of bandwidth. It can be useful though for sharing updates between computers in a local network.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 07:33 AM
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Legal mumbo jumbo is there to confuse people.
Most of it is to make sure everyone gets their cut of the money, which I can understand.
There should be a more streamlined process to ease the licencing.

I argued with several people last month about streaming the mcgregor fight without paying the fee.
I say stealing,
They say streaming,



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 08:11 AM
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They can block what they like, I still have access to the lot. These wrinkly old dinosaurs have no actual clue what they're doing and are either trying to be seen to be doing something for the big end of town, or actually believe that they are doing something.

In the end I get whatever media I want, assuming it is available somewhere on the internet and there's no actual way they can stop me.

These are the people who are giving us the National Broadband Network - a half-assed, shtty, expensive to use fibre optic network that is costing something like 80 billion dollars, for those outside of the country who don't know. They are trying to polish a huge, soggy turd and it's possible they actually believe the turd is solid gold. That's how stupid these fools are. So they can try to stop us pirating but there is just no way they're going to be able to.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 08:24 AM
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a reply to: LilFox

It seems China leads the VPN banathon !

The paranoids will still get you !!




posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 09:04 AM
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Torrents are not a safe method of doing anything, anymore.

They went old school for file transfers, and most of them now use SSL, so no one will ever know..

"Yo ho! Yo Ho! A Pirate's life for me! Argh!"



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 10:22 AM
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originally posted by: LilFox
Next thing you know VPN's will be banned as well. They are already making moves on encryption like in the UK.

I suspect this is a masquerade. This may well be a way to crack down on privacy enhancing technology under the label of anti-piracy.



Best way to deal with piracy is harness it for a profit.

Just make movies with "embedded advertising" so that whoever watches it, is forced to watch the ads.

They do some of this already, promoting particular "cars" from some manufacturer, or promoting the "dress" from some designer, or even promoting "cigarettes" from some brand.

Done in a tasteful way, without the viewer even realizing it, the business interests can get their marketing out there by paying people to pirate the movies, and feeding them these hidden and subliminal ads.

Then the pirates will go out an buy the cars, the dresses, and the smokes that they "saw" in the movie, that looked "so cool" in the movie scenes.

Simple and effective solution, that works for all.



edit on 18-8-2017 by AMPTAH because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 12:17 PM
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I like it when people try to justify theft.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 02:50 PM
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a reply to: usernameconspiracy


Yup and no one is better at it than governments. They don't like competition either, thus the laws.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 09:11 PM
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a reply to: usernameconspiracy

I'm not sure if you or the media studios/recording labels/huge congolmerates/governments even actually know the definition of theft.

But bless your heart for at least posting something. I'd say have a cookie but no, they're mine.



posted on Aug, 18 2017 @ 10:27 PM
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originally posted by: GusMcDangerthing
a reply to: usernameconspiracy

I'm not sure if you or the media studios/recording labels/huge congolmerates/governments even actually know the definition of theft.


You cannot steal something by making a copy of it.

All you got was a copy. The original is still there where it is supposed to be.

If I look into your garden and see your new lawnmower, and decide I like it, so make my own lawnmower using a 3D printer, making an exact copy of what I see in your yard, that's not stealing your lawnmower.



posted on Aug, 19 2017 @ 01:43 AM
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a reply to: AMPTAH

Exactly. I suppose my attitude that the people who made the original lawn mower sht in golden toilets and eat caviar in private planes when they're not holed up in one of many huge mansions full of coc aine, is irrelevant.









edit on 19-8-2017 by GusMcDangerthing because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 19 2017 @ 02:00 AM
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I agree with you on this, ChaoticOrder. I subscribe to Netflix and Hulu both but there are a lot of shows that are unavailable on those channels. I would have to pay an additional $15 a month to watch Game of Thrones on HBO through Hulu.

I think streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are amazing, but how long until every content provider has their own "channel," each with their own subscription fees? One could end up paying more than they would for cable, especially with the additional monthly cost of high-speed internet added in.

I think of torrents as a service to humanity. They provide a means for people to be entertained for a reasonable price and help to spread culture.

Thanks for the heads-up on what is going on in Australia.
edit on 19amSat, 19 Aug 2017 02:02:54 -0500kbamkAmerica/Chicago by darkbake because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 19 2017 @ 02:18 AM
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I have been using free VPN for a while here in Aus for downloading torrents.

Not sure why the government care so much, if I want to watch a movie I will pay for it, usually once I have seen it at the movies I download it, why should I pay every time to watch it? I don't pay every time I play a PC game or read the same book I bought?

Also, movies use false advertising to get you in, then you can't get your money back if it's garbage.

Steam now gives you the chance to get your money back if a game is pants, with this and steam I havnt used a pirate game in over 5 years.

All pirate downloads I do are kids movies, if I could buy them cheap and forever I would but Foxtel decides buying one only gives you the right to watch it for 7 days and iq3 has limited storage.



posted on Aug, 19 2017 @ 02:33 AM
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a reply to: ChaoticOrder

Hey mate..... can you tell me what to do to disable that please ?


I have a windows 10 toshi latop and a 950 phone running the crap too

edit on 19/8/2017 by scubagravy because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 19 2017 @ 07:25 AM
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originally posted by: AMPTAH
You cannot steal something by making a copy of it.

That's the problem with copyright, most people don't understand the creators' point of view.


All you got was a copy. The original is still there where it is supposed to be.

Yes, the original is still there, but by not paying to use it, the creator doesn't get their part.


If I look into your garden and see your new lawnmower, and decide I like it, so make my own lawnmower using a 3D printer, making an exact copy of what I see in your yard, that's not stealing your lawnmower.

Exactly, you are not stealing his lawnmower but you are using the creator's idea without giving them their return.

See how things would be if everybody did it: someone invents a better lawnmower, sells the patent or makes an agreement with a company to make those lawnmowers; the company sells one lawnmower to your neighbour and the inventor gets, for example, 1 cent for it; you see your neighbour's lawnmower, like it and make a workable copy; another neighbour sees your lawnmower and makes another copy; everybody in your neighbourhood does the same, and things keep on growing until there are 10,000 copies of the original lawnmower; that means that 10,001 persons are enjoying the original inventor's work but only one paid for it, so instead of the inventor getting 10,001 cents for their creativity they get only 1.

The inventor feels that they their work was stolen by the people making copies of their work without giving them the expected return. They were not giving their invention away as open source, they wanted to get money from it, but the copiers made that impossible.

PS: as a programmer, I don't have any problems sharing the code of all the programs I make outside the company where I work, but if I did that with the code I made while working for the company I (and all other people working there) would be without a job. Although piracy is not the ugly monster some people want us to believe, it's not right to the original creators.




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