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<p>Wow, and this is a harvard law professor? I hope he didn’t actually put it like that in court, and was just playing dumb for the media…but still…</p>
<p>If you want to download music, you “warez” sites that use systems like rapidshare, megaupload, and mediafire to share music.</p>
<p>I think this is way overkill. There are people who download a lot more, and upload it and such, yet it’s the small-scale things that get in huge trouble.</p>
<p>I think the RIAA is insanely stupid, really. They’ve said before that they believe ripping a CD to your computer for any reason is copyright infringement, and insist that you shouldn’t be able to use your music forever after you’ve bought it. (As in, the license should expire and you’d have to re-buy it or some such thing.)</p>
<p>The RIAA and their insane emphasis on “ZOMG YOU NEED TO BUY OUR STUFF IF YOU DON’T YOU ARE BAAAAAAAAAD” is why some artists have even offered their albums free online.</p>
<p>In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), Justice Brennan wrote, “There are, then, four principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is ‘cruel and unusual’.”</p>
<pre><code>* The “essential predicate” is “that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity,” especially torture.
- “A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion.”
- “A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society.”
- “A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary.”
</code></pre>
<p>I think this suit violates the 8th</p>
<p>I think it’s amusing to see sites like the piratebay actally suing the RIAA. Also how often the RIAA site gets hacked. Any smart business owner would know to adapt to the times. The RIAA is definitely run “smartly”. </p>
<p>As for the artists, the labels etc get everything, and if you see how badly all artists are treated by the labels (rounds to 100%) you realize that you aren’t hurting the artists. Stealing is wrong, but so is entrapment? If the MIAA distributes a video, and then sues you for it, it would be illegal (in most cases). If you were a recovering drug addict, and a cop comes up on the street and offers you cocaine, and you take it, that would be entrapment, since the cop initiated the trade… Just a thought…</p>
<p>Question, what if you only download music and never upload anything? Does that make you less susceptible to getting caught?</p>
<p>I think it’s the amount of resources being used that signal to whomever that somebody may be downloading.
Don’t quote me on that, I’m just guessing.</p>
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Probably, but the singular best way to download without getting caught is simply downloading from file storage sites such as Rapidshare, Mediafire, Megaupload, etc.</p>
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<p>I’ve heard this as well; a friend of mine got her internet temporarily shut down because she had some torrents running.</p>
<p>This makes me wonder, though… what about people who like to play online games? Those online games tend to require a large download… will they automatically assume this large download is something illegal and try to sue them or shut off their internet?</p>
<p>Actually, playing an online game requires less bandwidth than you would think.</p>
<p>If you mean downloading the game itself (e.g. off of Steam or whatever) it uses standard HTTP traffic. Torrents run on alternative ports and their packets don’t resemble a traditional HTTP packet at all.</p>
<p>So why does downloading from mediafire or storage sites decrease the possibility of getting caught?</p>
<p>^I am not sure, but I suspect it’s more difficult to track IPs and such on storage sites than on P2P or BT. I believe P2P exposes more information than using RS/Megaupload etc.</p>
<p>Hey Y2K…wasabi from MG here ;)</p>
<p>There are lots of ways to track a torrent. If you check for example the Oblivion torrent on isohunt, you’ll see that many report being caught while downloading it. The RIAA and other similar groups probably spy only on some particular files. They can have bots trying to download the file via torrent themselves, and report all the IP’s which are uploading. Really easy.</p>
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<p>Bingo. Anybody can connect to a torrent and see the IP addresses of all the peers. A direct HTTP/FTP request, including uploading websites like RS and MU, expose no data to anybody except the people hosting the website. RS/MU and all of those websites will remove content that they find out is copyrighted/warez/etc. </p>
<p>However, because there is no search feature and all the content is directly linked, it is very hard to find the illegitimate files, yet alone petition to RS/MU to remove them. The file could be called vacationpics09.rar and contain the complete Discography of The Beatles or something. If it’s password protected, then nobody would ever know that what’s inside is against the TOS.</p>
<p>That’s why one of the best ways to acquire such links are through dedicated forums for such things, many of which are hidden behind an invite-only login system that is inconspicuous to any random person.</p>
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<p>Oh wow, small world eh?</p>
<p>Wait so say I search for a music file under its name in mediafire… as it’s not “hidden” behind anything, won’t it be easily tracked to me?</p>
<p>Does anyone here use PeerGuardian for Torrent downloads? I used to but I am not advanced enough to know how to implement it in the best way.</p>
<p>Again if you check the oblivion torrent comments, you’ll notice that quite a few of the ones caught were using peerguardian. Can you sue peerguardian if you get caught and sued? :D</p>
<p>What if one uses an anonymizer software, a decent one, paid, that is not Web based but installed on the computer so all internet traffic pass through a proxy? Do they work?</p>
<p>Is an proprietary anonimizer package a good solution to surf anonimous?</p>
<p>4.5 million dollars? for 30 songs? wow… i guess the RIAA is really having a hard time in this recession if they’re asking for $4.5 million for 30 song. thats just ridiculous. hmm why do the RIAA remind me of the bosses from the gilded ages in US History?</p>
<p>If you take something without paying for it, you are stealing. Why is this hard to understand?</p>