UK ISPs told to block 21 pirate sites. Do you download illegally?

Cantona's Collars · 19-11-2013 1:15pm

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I download illegally too, but Netflix has cut down on that quite a bit. If BBC iPlayer was available over here that would cut down further on my illegal downloading.

I have iPlayer & Hulu here.;)

Greenmachine · 19-11-2013 1:28pm

BBS for the win... Maybe not but the word proxy should be in everyones vocabulary.

kingtut · 19-11-2013 1:48pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Isn't Usenet as old school, if not more so?

Ye sorry you are right oops, guess I just mean it's not as 'exposed' as torrents, in so far as I don't see it going anywhere soon.

I'm pretty new to it myself but so far I prefer it much more than torrents although with the amount of websites for torrents they will never eradicate them completely!

kingtut · 19-11-2013 1:50pm

Alun wrote: »

Usenet pre-dates peer to peer networking and torrents by a good few years actually. It's just that it's become 'fashionable' again now that torrenting sites have been targeted.

I wouldn't consider it fashionable but what I do like is that I can use usenet along with other programmes to automate the downloads of my favourite shows

keithclancy · 19-11-2013 1:59pm

Cool ... I never heard of any of these sites .. now I shall have a look ..cheers UK News and Government

AnonoBoy · 19-11-2013 2:03pm

I sometimes download illegally.

Mostly TV shows that aren't screening in Ireland.

Sometimes movies.

Used to download music illegally. I don't any more.

When you can download beer illegally I'll be all over that.

Pushtrak · 19-11-2013 2:12pm

I download TV shows. I prefer being able to watch in my own time without ads. I buy DVD box sets of things that I want to own though.

Nolimits · 19-11-2013 2:16pm

I download TV shows and occasionally movies. I pay for Netflix, and if anything else came along where I had the option to legally pay for what I want to watch (and didn't just have the same stuff Netflix has) I'd be happy to do so, for instance I watched the new episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix as they were airing.

I really hope that companies will stop trying to stop us downloading and instead give us a reasonably cheap way of doing it for free or streaming. I'd prefer to be legal, this morning I downloaded the newest episode of Castle, if I could legally watch it somewhere I would but the option doesn't exist for me.

WoollyRedHat · 19-11-2013 3:17pm

I like to pirate and redistribute this song off this video for the lulz

keithclancy · 19-11-2013 3:19pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=964MLq1db4s

Sleepy · 19-11-2013 3:30pm

I'd say a good 90% of what I watch is downloaded.

I've a 100mb UPC connection so it can literally take less time to download a movie than it would to find a DVD I bought years ago on the bookshelf beside me and I can get it in 1080p instead of DVD quality.

I pay for the top TV package in my UPC subscription so I've already "paid" something for some of what I'm downloading but tbh I can't justify it. I do it because I'm too impatient to wait for things to be available to me on TV and don't want to have to sit through / skip through the ads. If Netflix was as good for content as the torrent sites are I'd pay for a subscription but whilst the illegal option are better and free, I can't see myself signing up.

The moves that governments are making on this front show an astonishing ignorance of technology. "You can't stop the signal".

Morph the Cat · 19-11-2013 3:31pm

donvito99 wrote: »

People on the internet should expect to pay for some things.

/unpopular opinions

I pay for Dropbox.

nelly17 · 19-11-2013 3:36pm

I used to download everything but since the availability of Netfix the only thing I download is TV shows that I cant get on Netflix or On Demand with Sky or 4 OD or BBC player or somehwere. I also use Deezer but I'm thinking of moving over to google music because from time to time I come accross stuff that Deezer does not have.

But as someone pointed out previously I have no problem paying for the content but generally for TV shows, you dont relly have an alternative to downloading if you want to be bang up to date.

Also soundcloud is a great source of music

citytillidie · 19-11-2013 3:39pm

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

So it's to be done by October 30th... was it done or not?

Yes it was done

Shane-KornSpace · 19-11-2013 3:39pm

Private torrent sites FTW! None of this public shiite :-)

gobnaitolunacy · 19-11-2013 3:58pm

Don't expect me to pay for songs by artists that have been dead for decades, to support their slacker decendants.

hardCopy · 19-11-2013 4:28pm

I used to use rapidshare and bittorrent for everything.

Now I use spotify for music and netflix for video. I love the fact that I can create a playlist on my lunch break and stream it to my phone when I'm driving home, or watch half an episode of a show at home and finish it on my lunch break the next day.

I'll occasionally download a movie if netflix don't have it and recently downloaded music for my girlfriend's mother's mp3 player.

I still stream live matches but only every couple of months, every time I bookmark a decent streaming site they disappear before I need them again.

The UPC player means I rarely download stuff that has aired here and I just missed it.

I don't play games that much and am happy enough to pay full whack for the one or two that I buy in a year.

I'll probably still download occasionally as there will always be some movie or show that Netflix don't have and I don't think I'd want to subscribe to two different services every month.

Calibos · 19-11-2013 4:41pm

Sleepy wrote: »

I'd say a good 90% of what I watch is downloaded.

I've a 100mb UPC connection so it can literally take less time to download a movie than it would to find a DVD I bought years ago on the bookshelf beside me and I can get it in 1080p instead of DVD quality.

I pay for the top TV package in my UPC subscription so I've already "paid" something for some of what I'm downloading but tbh I can't justify it. I do it because I'm too impatient to wait for things to be available to me on TV and don't want to have to sit through / skip through the ads. If Netflix was as good for content as the torrent sites are I'd pay for a subscription but whilst the illegal option are better and free, I can't see myself signing up.

The moves that governments are making on this front show an astonishing ignorance of technology. "You can't stop the signal".

Ditto on everything.

All the shows we download are shown on one channel or another at some time or another on our Max UPC pack so I feel no guilt about downloading TV shows. I've paid for them, I'm just not viewing them via the method of obtaining them that I pay for if ye get me.

With regard to movies. Sometimes I feel a little more guilt there but I just look at the €15,000 worth of Dvd's on the shelves and say to myself that Hollywood has already gotten enough from me and I'm certainly not paying for the same movie twice in HD. The movies I didn't see in the cinema I wouldn't buy the bluray of anyway so they haven't lost a sale. The movies I would buy the bluray of, I have paid to see in the cinema and thus they've already got enough new money from me.

lordRothery · 19-11-2013 4:56pm

I use newsgroups

IvaBigWun · 19-11-2013 6:31pm

Frank Garrett wrote: »

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

Ssssh

no one gives Wiki credence

Capt'n Midnight · 19-11-2013 10:29pm

peer to peer traffic in a country halves whenever netflix takes off the country restrictions

kupus · 20-11-2013 4:58pm

Thanks for the list now i know where to go and DL. Not a clue before this

IvaBigWun · 20-11-2013 8:03pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

peer to peer traffic in a country halves whenever netflix takes off the country restrictions

I dont think they do that?

Netflix is restricted to the content of the country the user is in. There are, of course, workarounds, but I havent tried them yet and we cant discuss them here

pickarooney · 21-11-2013 5:34pm

I couldn't be bothered attempting to justify it. I download because I want to and I can and it's easy.

IvaBigWun · 21-11-2013 6:49pm

kupus wrote: »

Thanks for the list now i know where to go and DL. Not a clue before this

:pac:

Sulla Felix · 21-11-2013 6:55pm

Mr.S wrote: »

Really? Do you have a source, i'd be interested in reading!

Sandvine did a study on it. Don't remember the exact figures and I doubt they're that high, but Netflix took about two years to hit a x% of total bandwidth and p2p traffic did drop during that time. Correlation =/= causation and all that though.

IvaBigWun · 24-11-2013 9:34pm

Pushtrak wrote: »

I download TV shows. I prefer being able to watch in my own time without ads. I buy DVD box sets of things that I want to own though.

I wonder, in the history of copyright, has anyone ever been prosecuted for downloading a TV show. I highly doubt it

P_1 · 24-11-2013 9:41pm

If I can't watch it on Irish/UK TV when it's on I'll stream it (sports)
If I can't watch it on Irish/UK TV until several weeks after it is shown on US TV I'll download it

meoklmrk91 · 24-11-2013 9:52pm

I stream all the time, download the odd time, have spotify and netflix, never download music anymore because of spotify. But Netflix is lacking even the US version so what isn't there is free game as far as I'm concerned.

fasttalkerchat · 24-11-2013 9:53pm

I was thinking of getting netflix but there will still be things not on there so I would have to download something at some point. If you could pay €10 per month for carte blanche unlimited downloading I would go for it.

IvaBigWun · 24-11-2013 10:15pm

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I was thinking of getting netflix but there will still be things not on there so I would have to download something at some point. If you could pay €10 per month for carte blanche unlimited downloading I would go for it.

It just so happens that carte blanche Netflix would cost around 2 euros more than that. 7 for Netflix and 5 to a website that makes your ISP go to America.

I havent tried it yet and of course we cant give out links here but there's plenty of info online, on YouTube especially

IvaBigWun · 25-11-2013 1:40am

Movie industry in the UK is having a ball as far as blocking of sites allegedly involved in piracy is concerned as courts have asked UK ISPs to enforce a blockade on Project Free TV, YIFY, PrimeWire and others in its latest order.

ISPs in the UK have given up on the idea of standing up against the blockade and copyright right holders have made it their point to expand the blocklist as much as possible. About two weeks back, a court ordered blockade of SolarMovie and TubePlus, which will be enforced sometime next month.

This week the High Court has asked all major ISPs including BT, EE, O2, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to block access to YIFY-Torrents, PrimeWire, Project Free TV, Vodly, and WatchFreeMovies. It seems that Sky has already implemented the blockade on YIFY-Torrents as our sources have revealed that Sky is displaying an “Access Blocked” message while visiting the site.

Getting a torrent or steaming site blocked in the UK is a mere paperwork formality since ISPs have completely stopped defending against these orders. As it stands a total of 33 sites have been blocked in the UK including The Pirate Bay, BitSnoop, ExtraTorrent, Torrentz, 1337x, Fenopy, H33T, KickAssTorrents, among others.

http://www.techienews.co.uk/973203/project-free-tv-yify-primewire-blocked-uk/

Lets hope this never happens over here. At this stage Im using Primewire more than Netflix. Its excellent

srsly78 · 25-11-2013 1:55am

This 3d printing stuff is gonna be great, we will all be able to download cars.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 25-11-2013 2:06am

I use MP3panda (think it's Russian) I registered roughly 4 or 5 years ago and have downloaded roughly 100gb of music from it BUT I paid $120 about 2 years ago and got unlimited downloads for life as part of an offer they had at the time so while it's free for me, you do have to pay for the music. An album is roughly $1.50-$2.00US which is very reasonable.

_Redzer_ · 25-11-2013 2:22am

I buy blu rays and I buy music. The quality of the movies just can't be replicated in a download. It's not even close. Plus I like physical discs.

I don't for music though, I just buy it off iTunes. I love music hugely and I support the artists I enjoy.

Plus I have some mild OCD in that I just can't stick my music album not having artwork!

srsly78 · 25-11-2013 2:23am

_Redzer_ wrote: »

The quality of the movies just can't be replicated in a download. It's not even close.

You're doing it wrong.

_Redzer_ · 25-11-2013 2:32am

srsly78 wrote: »

You're doing it wrong.

Yeah because a 5GB download is the same as a 50GB blu ray. If that was the case blu rays would never been invented as a 7GB DVD would be sufficient.

Downloads can't beat out blu rays when it comes to sound and image quality. That's a fact.

_Whimsical_ · 25-11-2013 2:35am

Thanks OP. Handy to have a list of sites that are good enough to warrant blocking.

srsly78 · 25-11-2013 2:36am

_Redzer_ wrote: »

Yeah because a 5GB download is the same as a 50GB blu ray. If that was the case blu rays would never been invented as a 7GB DVD would be sufficient.

Downloads can't beat out blu rays when it comes to sound and image quality. That's a fact.

You can download blueray quality stuff. All the ones and zeroes are exactly the same as what's on your disc.

_Redzer_ · 25-11-2013 2:41am

srsly78 wrote: »

You can download blueray quality stuff. All the ones and zeroes are exactly the same as what's on your disc.

Nope. High compression degrades the quality a lot

srsly78 · 25-11-2013 2:42am

Which part of "exactly the same as what's on your disc" is unclear? What do you think these 20GB+ downloads are?

Go test it out for yourself, look at the file sizes on the downloads. Yes there is some rubbish online that claims to be BR quality but is just normal hd instead, but this is just badly labelled.

BD25 and BD50 are the magical tags you are looking for...

CrazyRabbit · 25-11-2013 2:56am

Good luck to them blocking these 21 sites. And the 30 + replacement sites that would spring up if they were closed. And the replacement for those...and so on.

Even if they made torrents illegal, something else will replace it. And with each new file sharing technology, it becomes harder to stop. E.g...TPB got into legal trouble because it hosted the torrent files. So they responded with magnet links, so nothing is stored on their servers.

The only way to beat the pirates is to offer a service that is cheap, higher quality, more intuitive, more feature rich & offers everything the customer wants. But so long as a movie studios and record labels are around, they will try to stick with the current system because they make vast profits from it and don't want to risk losing their power/control.

IvaBigWun · 25-11-2013 4:06pm

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

The only way to beat the pirates is to offer a service that is cheap, higher quality, more intuitive, more feature rich & offers everything the customer wants. But so long as a movie studios and record labels are around, they will try to stick with the current system because they make vast profits from it and don't want to risk losing their power/control.

How can they really compete with it though?

In the sense that if they were to go as far as a film being legally downloadable 2 weeks after its cinema release they would need the file to be encrypted so as the file couldnt then spread for free.

Such an unhackable encryption cant come cheap

ancapailldorcha · 25-11-2013 4:15pm

Music: I tend to download a lot of albums and, if I like the artist then I go see them live. I've seen all of my favourites live except Metallica who I'm not overly keen on due to their obsession with profits.

Films: If it's on Netflix, I'll watch it there. Otherwise, I tend to go for the download option.

TV Shows: I really wish HBO Go was available over here. Aside from that, Love/Hate is the only thing I've downloaded recently as I can't get RTÉ over here.

Games: I've forgotten the last time I downloaded a game. They're available so cheaply and legally on the likes of Steam and it's ilk. Plus, if it's not great, I can get them dirt cheap on Amazon second hand the the publisher doesn't see a penny.

COYVB · 25-11-2013 4:20pm

_Redzer_ wrote: »

Nope. High compression degrades the quality a lot

There's no compression in a 1:1 rip, which is what he's talking about. You're talking about mkvs, avis or mpgs. He's talking about a complete dump of a disc

Duggy747 · 25-11-2013 4:26pm

XBMC + plugins.

Pretty much eradicates the need for downloading while I buy my games nowadays.

_Redzer_ wrote:

Nope. High compression degrades the quality a lot

You can get perfect rips of Blurays, they're referred to as Untouched and not BRrips of which you seem to be thinking of. People do it all the time for backing up their own copies, they just rip the main video + audio and cut out all the extras to reduce size though they're still massive.

ScumLord · 25-11-2013 4:40pm

_Redzer_ wrote: »

I buy blu rays and I buy music. The quality of the movies just can't be replicated in a download. It's not even close. Plus I like physical discs.

I hate disks, seems pointless having a collection of plastic with pictures on them.

_Redzer_ wrote: »

Yeah because a 5GB download is the same as a 50GB blu ray. If that was the case blu rays would never been invented as a 7GB DVD would be sufficient.

You seem to be very generous with your disk capacities. A DVD is less than 5gb, a blue ray is 25gb unless it's double layered. Once you remove all the anti piracy stuff, ads and stupidly long intros the film is probably using less than 20gb of space.

Modern movies are digital data, you can download an exact copy of a movie (maybe not so easily done legally, but it's very easy to do it illegally), most people just download the compressed version because you're not going to miss the THC dolby 7.1 surround track being reduced to a more basic surround sound.

Downloads can't beat out blu rays when it comes to sound and image quality. That's a fact.

Of course they can, it's just data.

srsly78 · 25-11-2013 4:55pm

No no guys, there is magic pixie dust on the actual Bluray disk itself - this is what gives it superior quality. The movie industry has spent years perfecting this magic. When you pirate the movie the pixie dust falls off, leaving you with worse quality.

batistuta9 · 25-11-2013 5:17pm

srsly78 wrote: »

No no guys, there is magic pixie dust on the actual Bluray disk itself - this is what gives it superior quality. The movie industry has spent years perfecting this magic. When you pirate the movie the pixie dust falls off, leaving you with worse quality.

i wonder how many people would actually notice a difference or think they notice a difference

srsly78 · 25-11-2013 5:34pm

Well not the people that have "hd ready" tvs that's for sure.

UK ISPs told to block 21 pirate sites. Do you download illegally?

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