Unlawful downloads

fini · 6 Aug 2008 at 18:14

AbsenceJam said:
That's not right either, even if you count each complete binary posting which consists of many posts as just one 'post' the text groups are still completely outnumbered. Fetch the group list from Giganews and have a look. This is also before you consider spam which is more prevalent in text groups and the only thing in some.

I'm not saying there's more of one or the other I'm saying there are enough text groups for there to be 'substantial non-infringing uses' - I quoted that because that's the legal test.

*Chris · 6 Aug 2008 at 18:22

torrents are for amatures imo!

Trifid · 6 Aug 2008 at 18:24

*Chris said:
torrents are for amatures imo!

So never been on a good private tracker? The best private trackers > usenet > everything else.

fini · 6 Aug 2008 at 18:31

Not for safety they wont. A single false user in that private tracker of yours and everyone can be sued. With usenet only the server knows your IP and even then it's not logged.

EDIT: Oink was a (semi) private tracker - look at that as an example.

Saul · 6 Aug 2008 at 20:11

fini said:
I'm just finishing off a dissertation largely on this topic so let me summarise why.

Bit-torrent sites: Most comply with DMCA take-downs/whatever is an appropriate take down in whichever country. If you remove sites that list any illegal material then you'd have to take down google - which also lists torrents. Selectively banning certain sites is generally a bad idea from a censorship point of view. If only some ISPs did it then people would just move to other ISPs (as has been seen in Denmark (IIRC without checking my dissertation)).

Usenet: much of the content of usenet is very legally - simplified forums etc. In addition, to access usenet you need to use a usenet provider - almost all of which operate a take-down notice procedure and specifically state that it's a breach of terms and conditions to pirate.

In conclusion it's thus near impossible to shut down usenet, whilst its bad policy to shut-down bittorrent. If you look at the bittorrent sites that have been shutdown in most cases (such as elitetorrents) its actually because the owners were uploading material aswell (and thus got done for that) or they got frightened of the RIAA (like torrentspy).

I strongely disagree with pirating games (I am a game developer myself), lots of time and effort goes into creating software is unimaginable. Films aren't as bad to say they already have millions of dollars anyway.

You forgot suprnova. Don't forget the beautiful suprnova (now replaced by mininova.... urgh).

Solution: Make everything free and open-source

waxapple · 6 Aug 2008 at 20:13

Saul said:
Solution: Make everything free and open-source

The games you develop?

Rainmaker · 6 Aug 2008 at 20:23

waxapple said:
The games you develop?

I'd just followed the email reply notification for Saul's post to say the exact same thing

fini · 6 Aug 2008 at 20:26

Saul said:
I strongely disagree with pirating games (I am a game developer myself), lots of time and effort goes into creating software is unimaginable. Films aren't as bad to say they already have millions of dollars anyway.

The games industry now makes more each year than the film industry so that doesn't quite add up.

monkeysmith · 6 Aug 2008 at 20:43

Wouldn't a game developer want to get more games out there by any means. It's the people raking in the cash that don't want pirated copies. More popular = more credit?

Just a thought. :eek:

Draeger · 6 Aug 2008 at 21:36

Again, where does the likes of Rapidshare fit into all this?.

I know, I'm a noob. :cool:

AbsenceJam · 6 Aug 2008 at 21:43

fini said:
The games industry now makes more each year than the film industry so that doesn't quite add up.

Seriously mate, if you're writing a dissertation you should really learn to do some research. Most recent figures I can find are of $18~ billion revenue for the games industry and $42~ billion for the film industry.

monkeysmith said:
Wouldn't a game developer want to get more games out there by any means. It's the people raking in the cash that don't want pirated copies. More popular = more credit?

Just a thought.

If you were a game developer would you want people getting your hard work for free instead of you getting more money?

fini · 6 Aug 2008 at 22:05

AbsenceJam said:
Seriously mate, if you're writing a dissertation you should really learn to do some research. Most recent figures I can find are of $18~ billion revenue for the games industry and $42~ billion for the film industry.

lol you wouldn't believe how many references I have. I'd love to know where you got those figures from though. The games industry in the US alone made more than $18 billion last year.

AbsenceJam · 6 Aug 2008 at 22:24

fini said:
lol you wouldn't believe how many references I have. I'd love to know where you got those figures from though. The games industry in the US alone made more than $18 billion last year.

Ah the $18 billion just the US? I should read more closely, my apologies for leaping at you.
What is the worldwide figure?
Articles on the $42.6 billion ($24.3 billion from the US):
http://www.google.co.uk/search?&hl=en&q=movie industry $42.6 billion

fini · 6 Aug 2008 at 22:50

Depending on what source you look at between $41 and $58 billion in 2007

Darkwave · 7 Aug 2008 at 12:42

Trifid said:
So never been on a good private tracker? The best private trackers > usenet > everything else.

I've been on good private trackers before and *cough* lol, okay dude.

Jabbs · 7 Aug 2008 at 18:11

I know somone that regulary does around 2tb's a month on vm20 and has since it came out and not a sniff of a letter, he on usenet ssl mind, obviosuly since the stm hours he does a lot less now adays.