News MPAA gets caught laying torrent traps

Well, not exactly, but if pirating were such a big deal all those companies would be out of business by now... and I too have a moral limit, I don't download movies (takes too long) and not too many songs (100 or so) since buying the CD is great for in the car listening (no mp3 player) and TV shows, well, that's fair game right there imo.

 

I'm still a little lost here:

If they are uploading a torrent that is the actual program but they don't let you download it all (blocked at 90%) then they are performing an illegal act so they surely can't file lawsuits for downloading something that they are uploading? The old fighting fire with fire doesn't work.

And if they send you a jumbled up piece of rubbish that isn't what the file claims to be then your are downloading jumbled up rubbish and therefore you aren't breaking any laws. So - I don't see the point in that either.

So essentially, what is the point?

 

I dont generally download movies at all, and I havnt downloaded any songs for ages. I mainly get TV shows that are not available here, like scrubs, heroes, lost ect. I dont have sky and I am not allowed to bolt a sky dish on my apartment building. I cant get NTL so what else am I gonna do? I pay good money for a **** TV licence with nothing good to watch on so I am going to get my entertainment somehow.

If these shows were on UK TV then I would watch them with adverts no problem.

 

I expect its just as much an effort to disrupt torrenting as it is to actually catch people in a way that allows them to prosecute. If people started to have bad torrents that didn't work all the time, then it'd make the whole thing extremely frustrating - the MPAA probably figure the more time and energy consuming it is to download something illegally using bit-torrent (and putting up 'bad' torrents would make it so), the more likely people are to just give up and use other (legal) methods to obtain their films or music.

 

Meh, the MPAA have been proved that they have no shame in wanting money. If that's all they want I don't want to buy another film again.

I personaly buy lots of DVDs. I probably spend about £60-100 a month (gotta love being 19 with no real expenditure) on DVDs but I'm still a downloader. I still get warnings from my ISP for using to much bandwith (damn Orange not knowing what "unlimited" means). And I will continue to download untill they make available all the content on Pritate Bay or Demonoid. Example...

Even tho that 70's show is currently on season 8 you can currently only buy up to season 4 (that has only become available since christmas).

Murder Most Horrid, a great comedy with Dawn French that has been completely withough sale on DVD or VHS.

Music bootlegs, most of these were available if you were at in the right place at the right time. They have always had questionable legal status and even tho some are on ebay but most you'll never get actual copies of.

If I see a film/TV show/album that I've downloaded I like, I buy it. Most new films are god awful and get deleted after the 1st watching. If DVDs for everything I wanted were sold I would buy them. Also a fair price for a new film ocasionaly would be nice. I'm sure reducing the price of a new DVD by £5 would give them more sales than prosicuting dead people ever will.

Case, point.

 

I'll be honest, I download movies now and then but if I didn't, I just would never see the movie. I'm not that big into them where I'll go out and rent or buy it just because I want to see it. I do own quite a few movies, but those are the ones i feel are classics and love to see. They haven't lost a single sale from me downloading because I would just never watch it, ever. I have no problem not seeing a movie.

 

Well there has to be some legal legitimacy. Paedos get arrested for aranging to meet a kid they met on the internet for sex only to find out it was a cop pretending to be one (was in the news this week ). Now they didn't actually speak to a kid or meet one and have sex - but did everything leading up to it and was still prosecuted.

I understand that torrenting and paedophillia aren't the same - but if the tactics are valid in court for one act.......

 

Yeah, that was one thing i was wandering about. Whether or not a lawsuit can be formed with the obvious intention of downloading illegal material.

 

Doubt it would work since the MPAA isn't a legal authority. You can't sue someone for stealing your car if they steal a cardboard cutout of your car, thinking it was really your car. They shouldn't be able to sue you for stealing movies when you end up stealing nothing at all. Plus, downloading is legal, uploading isn't. This is most likely just to annoy people enough to stop using BT as much.

 

I think this is where it gets a bit tricky. When you hear about pirating music, it's just people getting sued. When you hear about pedophiles, they go to jail.
Difference is one is civil and the other is criminal.

I'm not sure if this is correct because im not a lawyer but i believe downloading content is not a criminal act. It is only when you profit off of the content that it is considered a crime.

 

Depending on what they (MPAA/RIAA/etc) want to achive, they can still charge you in a civil court. Even though it may eventually come to the point that it's thrown out, etc. YOU still have to go through the hassle, hire an attorney, incur expenses, etc.

My wife and I are currently being sued by a local business for speaking out about their practices and holding a legal and peaceful demonstration. Entirely within our constitutional rights (in the US) but they still filed a bogus suit. However in this case it will probably back fire on them. Once they filed the press are now much more interested in the situation. As long as (US) laws allow for SLAPPs (http://www.slapps.org/) and other bogus lawsuits to continue corporations with deep pockets will take advantage of this.

 

So if the act of uploading is illegal, than is there a torrent program that will allow you to deactivate the uploads? I am currently using Bitlord. I can limit the speed of the upload but I cannot turn them off. I know people get pissed off when I don't share, but I don't keep the stuff that I download anyway. I download a movie to watch it. After I've seen it, I can quote almost the entire movie. I have no need to watch it again. So if I could turn uploads off, I would be eliminating the whole "illegal" part and speeding up my download at the same time. Any thoughts?

 

Once you've got the file you've broken the law. You have an illegal copy of a copywrited movie/game/TV show/software. Even if you don't share (that is completely against the point of BitTorrent and will get you banned from private trackers) you have still broken the law by having it on your hard drive even if it's only for a few hours.