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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 09:36 [#01386518]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker
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File-Sharing Network Thrives Beneath the Radar
By Adam Pasick
LONDON (Reuters) - A file-sharing program called BitTorrent has become a behemoth, devouring more than a third of the Internet's bandwidth, and Hollywood's copyright cops are taking notice.
For those who know where to look, there's a wealth of content, both legal -- such as hip-hop from the Beastie Boys and video game promos -- and illicit, including a wide range of TV shows, computer games and movies.
Average users are taking advantage of the software's ability to cheaply spread files around the Internet. For example, when comedian Jon Stewart made an incendiary appearance on CNN's political talk show "Crossfire," thousands used BitTorrent to share the much-discussed video segment.
Even as lawsuits from music companies have driven people away from peer-to-peer programs like KaZaa, BitTorrent has thus far avoided the ire of groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America. But as BitTorrent's popularity grows, the service could become a target for copyright lawsuits.
According to British Web analysis firm CacheLogic, BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all the traffic on the Internet -- more than all other peer-to-peer programs combined -- and dwarfs mainstream traffic like Web pages.
"I don't think Hollywood is willing to let it slide, but whether they're able to (stop it) is another matter," Bram Cohen, the programer who created BitTorrent, told Reuters.
John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA, said that his group is well aware of the vast amounts of copyrighted material being traded via BitTorrent.
"It's a very efficient delivery system for large files, and it's being used and abused by a hell of a lot of people," he told Reuters. "We're studying our options, as we do with all new technologies which are abused by people to engage in theft."
FOR GOOD OR EVIL
BitTorrent, which is available for free on http://bittorrent.com, can be used to dist
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 09:37 [#01386519]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker
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distribute legitimate content and to enable copyright infringement on a massive scale. The key is to understand how the software works.
Let's say you want to download a copy of this week's episode of "Desperate Housewives." Rather than downloading the actual digital file that contains the show, instead you would download a small file called a "torrent" onto your computer.
When you open that file on your computer, BitTorrent searches for other users that have downloaded the same "torrent."
BitTorrent's "file-swarming" software breaks the original digital file into fragments, then those fragments are shared between all of the users that have downloaded the "torrent." Then the software stitches together those fragments into a single file that a users can view on their PC.
Sites like Slovenia-based Suprnova (http://www.suprnova.org) offer up thousands of different torrents without storing the shows themselves.
Suprnova is a treasure trove of movies, television shows, and pirated games and software. Funded by advertising, it is run by a teen-age programer who goes only by the name Sloncek, who did not respond to an e-mailed interview request.
Enabling users to share copyrighted material illicitly may put Suprnova and its users on shaky legal ground.
"They're doing something flagrantly illegal, but getting away with it because they're offshore," said Cohen. He is not eager to get into a battle about how his creation is used. "To me, it's all bits," he said.
But Cohen has warned that BitTorrent is ill-suited to illegal activities, a view echoed by John Malcolm of MPAA.
"People who use these systems and think they're anonymous are mistaken," Malcolm said. Asked if he thought sites like Suprnova were illegal, he said: "That's still an issue we're studying, that reasonable minds can disagree on," he said.
GOING LEGIT
Meanwhile, BitTorrent is rapidly emerging as the preferred means of distributing large amounts of legitimate content such as versions of the free com
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 09:39 [#01386520]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker
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computer operating system Linux, and these benign uses may give it some legal protection.
"Almost any software that makes it easy to swap copyrighted files is ripe for a crackdown BitTorrent's turn at bat will definitely happen," said Harvard University associate law professor Jonathan Zittrain. "At least under U.S. law, it's a bit more difficult to find the makers liable as long as the software is capable of being used for innocent uses, which I think (BitTorrent) surely is."
Among the best legitimate sites for movies and music:
-- Legal Torrents (http://www.legaltorrents.com/), which includes a wide selection of electronic music. It also has the Wired Magazine Creative Commons CD, which has songs from artists like the Beastie Boys who agreed to release some of their songs under a more permissive copyright that allows free distribution and remixing.
-- Torrentocracy (http://torrentocracy.com/torrents/) has videos of the U.S. presidential debates and other political materials.
-- File Soup (http://www.filesoup.com) offers open-source software and freeware, music from artists whose labels don't belong to the Recording Industry Association of America trade group, and programs from public television stations like PBS or the BBC.
-- Etree (http://bt.etree.org) is for devotees of "trade-friendly" bands like Phish and the Dead, who encourage fans to share live recordings, usually in the form of large files that have been minimally compressed to maintain sound quality.
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Motha Fucka
from Selvaggina (Brazil) on 2004-11-07 09:43 [#01386525]
Points: 2038 Status: Regular
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I am too lazy to read all this text! o_0
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 09:44 [#01386528]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to Motha Fucka: #01386525
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i would suggest reading it if you use bitTorrent
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Motha Fucka
from Selvaggina (Brazil) on 2004-11-07 09:46 [#01386531]
Points: 2038 Status: Regular | Followup to mrgypsum: #01386528
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I don´t dear but thanks for ALL this information.
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 09:47 [#01386534]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker
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i would have just linked it, but the news real is behind my firewall and you would be unable to get to it :)
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giginger
from Milky Beans (United Kingdom) on 2004-11-07 09:48 [#01386535]
Points: 26326 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag
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Bit Torrent is awesome. I'm not sure how they're going to crack down on it though.
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 09:52 [#01386538]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to giginger: #01386535
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maybe just using scare tactics
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r40f
from qrters tea party on 2004-11-07 09:59 [#01386541]
Points: 14210 Status: Regular | Followup to mrgypsum: #01386538
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or ip addresses?
thanks for the article
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virginpusher
from County Clare on 2004-11-07 10:01 [#01386543]
Points: 27325 Status: Lurker
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1. Filesoup sold out. That used to be a great place to get things. They really fucked it up.
2. There are programs to protect your identity. This article wont mention that because then this "scare tactic" wont be effective.
3. They got nowhere with their attempts on p2p networks anyways.
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 10:03 [#01386546]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to virginpusher: #01386543
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this is from the associated press, but i got it from the news real at my work, so i would think it pretty sound.
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plaster
from splitska 10 on 2004-11-07 10:13 [#01386559]
Points: 4173 Status: Regular
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tolstoyed=slovenian=sloncek
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 10:36 [#01386588]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to plaster: #01386559
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eh?
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plaster
from splitska 10 on 2004-11-07 10:43 [#01386595]
Points: 4173 Status: Regular | Followup to mrgypsum: #01386588
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it's a hoax
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 10:46 [#01386602]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to plaster: #01386595
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no, i took this off of the news real, they might just be trying to use scare tactics but the content of the article is very real.
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 10:54 [#01386620]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker
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here another article that just came off of it:
U.S. President Bush answers question at first news conference after reelection
President Bush will renew a quest in his second term for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage as essential to a 'hopeful and decent' society, his top political aide said November 7, 2004. Bush holds a news conference at the White House compound in Washington, November Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters
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JAroen
from the pineal gland on 2004-11-07 10:58 [#01386627]
Points: 16065 Status: Regular
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ive read it all, scary shit
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qrter
from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2004-11-07 11:01 [#01386629]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator
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this article tells me next to nothing.
the film industry wants to crack down on illegal downloading. is this a surprise?
until they actually start taking action, there isn't much to do.
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 11:01 [#01386630]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker
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U.S. Moves Toward a New Conservative Era
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's election victory reflected a marked shift to the right which Republicans hope will usher in a generation of conservative rule by the party, analysts said.
The biggest voter turnout since 1968, which defeated Democrat John Kerry and expanded Republican majorities in Congress, is being seen by some as another milestone for the conservative movement that put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980 and gave Republicans control of Congress in 1994.
"Reagan defined the new majority. The Contract with America in the 1994 election won the new majority, and Bush in 2004 has reaffirmed and strengthened the new majority," said Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
With Republicans holding a majority of state governorships and influencing the shape of the federal judiciary, many in the party are hoping for a return to the dominance the party enjoyed from President William McKinley's election in 1896 to the 1930s.
Chief Bush adviser Karl Rove said Republicans could become the governing party for decades. "The country is still close but it has moved in a Republican direction," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
"The Republicans are quite well-placed -- even if they don't win every election -- to shape American domestic politics into the next generation," said New York University professor Tony Judt, a Bush critic.
A striking feature of the Bush victory is the ascendant role of Christian evangelicals in key states including Ohio, where Republicans parlayed opposition to gay marriage and other so-called moral issues into record voter turnout.
"It's unprecedented," said historian Joan Hoff, who fears the United States could be heading for a period of regressive policies similar to the 1920s, a decade marked by Prohibition and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
Others disagree. Kevin Phillips, a former Republican official and political analyst who has be
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 11:03 [#01386631]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to qrter: #01386629
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hence the title of the thread
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qrter
from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2004-11-07 11:03 [#01386632]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator | Followup to mrgypsum: #01386630
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"Chief Bush adviser Karl Rove said Republicans could become the governing party for decades."
ugh.. :(
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qrter
from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2004-11-07 11:04 [#01386633]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator | Followup to mrgypsum: #01386631
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a-HA!! :)
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mrgypsum
on 2004-11-07 11:06 [#01386635]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to qrter: #01386632
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the us is in a sad state of affairs right now :(
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plaster
from splitska 10 on 2004-11-07 12:51 [#01386672]
Points: 4173 Status: Regular
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lol...the colledge where my friend studies got an letter from paramount saying that someone downloaded shitload of movies during a year period and that the will be sued for that.
it passed a year since that and nothing happened...they sill dl movies from torrent apps.
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plaster
from splitska 10 on 2004-11-07 12:54 [#01386673]
Points: 4173 Status: Regular | Followup to mrgypsum: #01386635
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the US doesn't know where to turn first as far as i managed to concieve the situation.
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