Torrenting

maeve99

Do you do it? Nearly all my friends and family, even the least computer savvy, torrent songs and movies.

Is it morally wrong in your opinion?

Thargor

I use it for absolutely everything, films tv books music and games. It does seem to be a dying art though (not that it will ever die), a lot of the younger people I speak to at work don't seem to know what it is, they don't seem to engage in any piracy tbh, happier to have 10 different subscription services dipping into their bank accounts every month.

Glaceon

It dropped off for a long time with many people thanks to Netflix and Spotify. But now that there’s so many streaming services out there and because it’s too expensive to take out subscriptions for them all, torrenting is making a comeback.

B.A._Baracus

There's been threads about this before on boards. Some view it as theft as its not like you paid for it. Others view it as victimless as its not like you stole it from a shop. Then there's those who justify it. It's sharing etc. No different than giving someone a blu ray etc.

I hate the latter though. Like come on now, let's call a spade a spade. Connecting to 50 strangers computers to get a file is not the same as lending a blu ray.

Is what it is. Millions do it.

bodhrandude

I use it if Netflix streaming is patchy, which it is sometimes is, its quicker to download a season of a series and view it on the computer, I also still use SLSK (Soulseek) which still great for getting albums and tracks, or rips of festival streams and gigs.

Ubbquittious

I love a bit of torrenting :)

Atlantic Dawn

You wouldn't steal a car, so to speak.

igCorcaigh

I used to use some demonic site for ebooks and stuff, maybe the odd movie. Is it still a thing though?

I prefer to use a paid service like Spotify for music, but prior to those services becoming accessible, I did use Napster back in the day.

And people were jailed for doing that; I think it's a failure of the market to catch up with the digital age, and so wrong to criminalise people for sharing material. I still do watch some films by nefarious means; just haven't come across a fairer alternative, even though I do sub to Netflix.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117911969#Comment_117911969

Cars ain't digital AD.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117912207#Comment_117912207

I'd download a car

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4939441/files

Sonic the Shaghog

It was a big thing with most I knew until Netflix offered a large TV and film catalog for a cheap price and everyone used it religiously for years it's the was the only option.

Now with every studio offering their own service and subscription often when they only have 1 or 2 bits worth watching it's like being back to the heyday of Sky and paying €80/€90 a month depending

I've now noticed a lot of people might have Netflix for sheer boredom watching but for everything else have then gone back illegally streaming or in smaller cases torrenting.

In general I'd say the only ones I know that torrent would be for stuff you can't stream such as games and ebooks. But the whole torrent/illegal streaming stuff is def coming back a lot

B.A._Baracus

I say torrenting is gonna get even more popular and not how it is now. 3d printers are still early days but you can already download files to print a gun!

Can you imagine what they will be like in 30 years? Every home might have one like a TV. Companies like nescafe could sell files to print a coffee machine say. That's all gonna go on torrent sites.

Could be a crazy future.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117912253#Comment_117912253

Yeah, absolutely. It's still very hard to find niche stuff on film. Netflix is mostly bad or mediocre content, bar a small few quality drama series. I find Spotify excellent for 95+% of my music needs, and youtube fills the other gap. I don't miss paying £20 for a piece of plastic to listen to an album. My days of supporting the giant music label industries are well over, so I will torrent guilt free if I choose.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058209503/torrenting

To answer your question though: mostly No; it is not morally wrong.

Having said that, I do believe in supporting artists. And there are ways of doing this outside of feeding the corporate labels. Criminalizing and bullying consumers of freely shared data is morally wrong.

Thargor

Growing up in the middle of nowhere made me too wary of streaming even with my beast connection these days, I just cant relax during a stream (except Youtube), I have to have the files on my HDD so I know its not going to start buffering. Also I love the way massive 1440p files look on my big tv over HDMI from the pc.

StupidLikeAFox

Used to torrent a lot. These days I only torrent if I want to watch something I can't get elsewhere. Typically if a new series is released on amazon or so.e other streaming service i will pay the 7 quid and cancel it after a month, much less hassle

retalivity

I never got music streaming or spotify, I had about 15k mp3s collected for years that I listened to, wasnt much new stuff out there that I wanted to listen to so streaming passed me by. I lost about 10k of those about 2 year back, but just re-torrented everything again. I prefer having the physical file resident on the computer, weirdly.

And I still use winamp to play them.

lintdrummer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058209503/torrenting

Nice try FBI man!

endacl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117911969#Comment_117911969

I would if I could download one.

riclad

If you can afford to pay for music ,use spotify, or youtube, if you have fast broadband a pc or ,laptop you can afford to pay for it. people used to just record songs on cassette in the days before the web existed . pc games are very cheap on steam, steam sales, free games on epic store , i see no point in torrenting a pc game.

most console games are 300gig plus, i don,t think anyone is torrenting ps4,ps5,or xbox 1 games .you cna also buy merch if you want to support your favorite bands .I use an app to download videos from youtube , i know people in rural area,s where all they have is a 4g connection on mobile ,theres no acess to broadband .Unless they get a satellite dish installed .i think its morally wrong to pirate movies if you can afford to pay for netflix.is there anyone really torrenting a 300 gig pc 4k game .theres also the risk of malware,virus, s if you are using torrent websites for game files i,m happy to watch any film in 1080p hd.

I'm using this new program called Napster. 👀

Penn

I have Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime (though I might cancel that one). I still torrent because not everything is available on them (such as HBO stuff), and I'm not paying for another subscription even if the likes of HBO Max does become available here.

Homelander

I dislike when people compare torrenting outright to stealing. Stealing is an act of physically removing something, at a loss, from a premises.

In probably 95% of cases, people torrent stuff because they can, and if they couldn't, they probably wouldn't bother paying for it either. It doesn't translate to lost revenue and in some cases actually has a positive impact, eg Game of Thrones.

A few times I've torrented stuff that wasn't available here and later bought the Blu-Ray just to support the content if it was particularly good. Recently, I bought Danger 5, Death Machine and Processor Uncut on Blu-ray for just that - all still sealed and will likely never be opened.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117912688#Comment_117912688

The future with 3D printing is rather interesting, all sorts in theory is possible once you have the plans available, lots of old school Jap cars I'd love to 'download'.

putthekettleon

I live abroad, there used to be a site dedicated to Irish movies and TV, I used that a bit because it's impossible to find people seeding them on the remaining sites. It's gone now though.

Tom Mann Centuria

If I can't find something I want to watch on one of the myriad of streaming apps I use then I torrent. I do torrent plenty of audiobooks though.

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117911466#Comment_117911466

You forgot rule #1 of SLSK. It isn't as good as it used to be mind you, but still amazing for finding white labels and that.

dasdog

I amassed a decent collection of jazz, soul, reggae and African music through Vuze. Most if not all of the artists and studio engineers are dead and I got my ears opened to a wide variety of art so I'm guilt free. Spotify is the real enemy paying a pittance to modern day performers it makes money off.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117912890#Comment_117912890

So following your logic, phishing scams doing the rounds now with courier links trying to get your bank details would not be stealing if successful?

Or ransomware attacks like on the HSE recently was not a crime?

I've torrented it in the past as stuff got too dear but I knew what I was at.

I gladly pay for my music service now as the artist gets some money (although not as much as they used to) and it's also great at curating new music for me (Using Apple Music).

As for video, Netflix, Disney & Amazon all great value and I pay as I do believe that stuff just won't get made unless you pay and I think what they charge is reasonable for hours of pleasure I get. Costs offset by getting rid of Sky completely, who do rip you off and use freesat and saorview for terrestrial TV that I use less and less nowadays.

accensi0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117912642#Comment_117912642

It really whips the llamas ass.

circadian

+100 on Winamp Classic, nothing has come close in how many years? Nailed it on the first go.

Homelander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117915928#Comment_117915928

I'm not sure how you deduced that. Someone who successfully phishes is actually directly taking money from another person. You missed the point; it wasn't about the technicality of stealing, it was about the actual net result of the act.

In my case, I said I torrent stuff that I would never otherwise pay for. The last thing I torrented was the utterly dreadful Escape Room 2. If torrenting didn't exist, I would never pay for it, in any format, and would be quite happy never watching it.

Therefore the injured party, whilst technically a victim of "crime" has not suffered any loss whatsoever.

Other people do take money from studio pockets, by torrenting in lieu of paying, be it digital, cinema, physical, whatever. I never suggested otherwise.

But in most cases people torrent stuff because they can, but will still prefer to watch most things either via sub, cinema, TV, whatever.

In my case I go to the cinema very regularly, I do have valid subs, and I also buy physical blu-rays of a lot of movies I had to intially torrent to be able to see, because I do believe in supporting things.

95% of what I torrent is stuff that I would never have paid for in the first place, that I'd happily go without if the option wasn't there. The other 5% is typically stuff that simply isn't legally available via any means in Ireland.

EG I previously mentioned Posessor Uncut. I had to torrent that because it was only available on Amazon Prime via VPN.....in a censored version. So I torrented the unrated version, and subsequently bought the unrated Blu-Ray. It will never be taken out of the packaging.

lintdrummer

I have a number of subscriptions that I pay for. I was giving Virgin Media nearly €100 per month until I recently moved to an area where they don't have a service. That was for broadband, basic tv package and home phone.

I have a Netflix account. I had Amazon Prime video for a good few years but got rid of it recently because it was no good post Brexit.

I have a Spotify Premium duo account that my wife and I use.

I have a Google Stadia and I pay for the Pro subscription and have bought a couple of games on it.

I had a couple of Now TV packages for a good while.

But with all of that there was regularly something that we'd want to watch that was on a different service. Disney+, Hulu, HBO, Apple TV. There's so many now.

It becomes a pain in the arse to look through the different apps trying to find what you want to watch and remembering which service it's on.

So I do torrent. I set up a media server in the sitting room and I use Plex to stream to my TV. It works great and I can get most of what I want to see.

I also trialed an IPTV subscription for live TV which was great. I may go back to that now that I am no longer with Virgin.

I have no qualms about it. I'm paying for services that provide money to each of the industries that I end up torrenting material from. They all get some of my money anyway.

Potential-Monke

I still torrent the odd thing, but I get most my entertainment from Netflix, Prime, Crunchyroll and Spotify. If I can't get it on any of them, I'm likely to torrent. But I notice there's definitely a helluva lot more people doing illegal streams. I don't know how, even the best quality illegal stream is not good enough for me. Torrenting gives you the best possible picture (but it may take a few downloads to confirm the good one, but thankfully there are still plenty of trusted uploaders). I'm probably going to cancel Prime as I haven't even opened it in months, but it's cheap at a fiver I think. And Crunchyroll may be merged into PS+ soon so will be one less sub (albeit the PS+ will probably increase in price).

But I find torrenting is only good for relatively recent stuff, or extremely popular older stuff. I've been trying to find the best legal way to watch all 4 seasons of Spartacus again, but it's just not available over here, and I've been unable to find a decent stream or torrent. The complete series on Bluray is only about €20 now, so that's now an option too.

Mr. CooL ICE

Haven't torrented in years. Back at the start, I got burned downloading inaccurate or terrible quality versions of shows and didn't bother after a while. I know it matured a bit, but I just hard drive shared with friends who torrented. And once Netflix got a decent library, I started using that.

I sub to Netflix and Disney+ and they get regular usage. Have temporarily subbed to Now and Prime to watch one show and then unsub because there's not enough time in the day to watch absolutely everything.

jim o doom

Paying however much for Disney and then on their streaming service they release a "premium film" for an additional 30 quid? that's a torrenting.

jester77

I have Netflix, Prime, Disney, Sky and DAZN for content, and I still avail of alternative services as content is not available anywhere, or in Primes case, they don't offer original language, or in Skys case, they have 720p with only stereo sound and the alternative services have better quality.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918347#Comment_117918347

Don't get the complaint about Disney on this one. The premium film is for new releases put on the platform instead of being released in cinema as they were closed due to Covid.

Cost was €21.99 not €30 and if a family of 4 for example wanted to go to cinema to see it then they would have spent considerably more so it was not a bad deal.

chrissb8

I only have Netflix and torrent everything else. Have been torrenting for well over a decade now and long may it continue. The movie/TV industry has adapted and streaming is more popular than ever. Asking people about torrenting most wouldn't know too much about it and stick to the streaming. Previous noise about downloading killing the industry has gone pretty quiet.

For music, Spotify has changed it for the better. I don't care for the argument that they're losing revenue. Your audience is worldwide now. As previously when liking an artist one song still wouldn't be enough for most to buy their album, now they can casually check out their album with even a fleeting interest. This has translated into overnight sensations and allowed for people to expand their tastes. Album sales slow down over time, Spotify means there will be indefinite revenue e.g. new people discovering an artist or people just replaying the artist over and over.

Riesen_Meal

Rarely torrent anything at all nowadays, last one I did was a 40GB Justice League 4K rip and I still haven't gotten around to watching it yet....

Most stuff is on IPTV now so I don't really download that much at all anymore...

GLaDOS

For music I try and buy from the artist as much as I can (usually through bandcamp) I might torrent the odd album from a massive band.

TV/Film I have netflix and torrent everything else. Far too many streaming services out there.

Sleepy

Pay for Netflix and get the Prime 30 day trials every now and again (never bother renewing it as I'd usually get through anything I want to watch on that platform in a week or two), use a lot of the Catchup Services for telly and the rest I torrent.

With every content owner now trying to create their own VOD platform, and most of them being awful, there's no way I'd even consider encouraging them by subscribing.

I'm happy enough to pay for content, we'd be regular cinema goers and I had a fairly large DVD collection back in the day but the sheer inconvenience of having to jump between so many different platforms and the abject frustration at having to deal with some of the awful user interfaces (looking at your here Amazon!) has driven millions back onto the torrent sites.

We use the Cinema app and a real-debrid account.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919326#Comment_117919326

Ah yes. torrenting is so much easier for millions of people than Amazon Prime's complicated interface.

Anyhow the point about having multiiple apps/platforms is valid.

I wonder if there'll every be one app that gives access to all on one platform would be very useful.

I've always done it, and I'm one of those pricks who justifies it a bit. Where I live, you can't join most services. YouTube Premium? Xbox Game Pass? Disney+? None of them available.

So I could pay for what's available (a crap Netflix selection) and just lock myself out of modern media consumption. Or I can use Stremio for watching stuff, use my girlfriend's Spotify for music, and buy my games on Steam. All three are incredibly easy so I use them. Everything else is shlte so I don't.

bnt

I haven’t Torrented in years either, partly from a lazy assumption that ISPs would block the traffic. I also don’t like the idea of my IP address being visible to authorities who could trace it through my ISP if they wanted to. From the way it sounds, neither of those concerns are really justified, so I may just dip a toe in again.

mrcheez

I used to do it religiously, but now just prefer buying Humble Bundles (for games / graphic novels) or streaming (for flicks).

Partly down to laziness, and also, in the case of movies, because I may want the thing instantly and don't want to have to wait for the download to complete or try to sort out storage (if I'm running out).

Mainly just laziness though, and I like streaming as I can just switch it on in 3 seconds and if I don't like it at least I didn't need to wait for it to download.

Additionally.. of all the movies I torrented in the past.. perhaps only 5% would be rewatched. The rest just ended up taking up storage space.

I might still download 3D movies to watch on my VR headset. Haven't done it in about a year though.

Sonics2k

I would torrent considerably less if the Irish catalogues on a lot of streaming services didn't lack so many shows or films. In some cases a platform will have season 3/4 of a show but not season 1 and 2.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919916#Comment_117919916

You don't have to download the whole file first. I just clicked on an unwatched episode of Ted Lasso and it started playing 13 seconds later. And it's a torrent.

mrcheez

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920024#Comment_117920024

ya.. I guess it's the laziness thing... I can just tell Alexa to "play XYZ" and it starts playing on my Firestick instantly... vs having to turn on my computer... log onto the torrent site.. search for the file... choose a reliable source ... start downloading... etc etc

Greater barrier to entry vs just sitting back on my couch and shouting out a sentence.

The monthly cost doesn't bother me either, as I pay using my spare phone credit (which is paid for by the company)

Quin_Dub

Where does using a VPN fit into the legal/illegal spectrum in this space?

A lot of torrenting is shows not available in your region yet so people torrent the latest series of whatever so they can watch it.

Some might get around that by using a VPN to "pretend" to be in the US or wherever and now they can watch the show on a catch-up service in said country.

In the two scenarios above , both people are watching the same content that isn't available to them today where they are - Are they both committing an illegal act??

Are they the same or different?