this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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Was recovering an old virtual machine onto a new box and was shocked to see 9,999, I presume thats an upper limit in the UI. Dune (2021) for those curious

Now wheres my crossbones flag?

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago (1 children)

this must be something I'm too usenet to understand

kidding of course, well done and thank you for your service

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Actually if you would be so kind, what is the rundown of Usenet? I've searched a bit but been busy to really sit down on it, should I consider it being just a side thing (for now)?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Usenet is here to stay, it is similar as if you pay for vip in order to be able to leech without seeding. This makes automated pirating legal in some countries (like mine) since only doing direct downloads from your usenet provider. The usenet provider have servers which exchange bits of data with IDs similar like we do with torrenting. As a user, you now go to a indexer, who gives you a map, with which bits of data you can construct your file. So you then download each bit directly and put everything together and are rewarded with a normal file. Until now I have found every release which is also in predb using the private indexers I have.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I signed up for usenet recently but couldn't really find anything worthwhile. How do you find good stuff?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago

Beside a Usenet provider, you also need to sign up with an "indexer".

To compare a Usenet download with a download on the regular internet:

  • Usenet = your internet provider (which enables you to connect to stuff)
  • Indexer = search engine (helps you find the stuff)

NZBGeek is a good indexer.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thank you very much, until I start getting thin on content from public trackers I think I'll stick to torrents, especially if the bar of entry is lower, I'm in a good situation to seed so I might as well bring that to others

I am curious over the legality, is it in a way that the provider is storing the whole file just obfuscated? My (rather poor) understanding is that torrents work because the file pieces are distributed

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In some countries, like Switzerland for example, it is legal to download, but illegal to upload content that is copyright protected. So if you want pirate legally, you ether only leech public torrents, buy vip leech pass on private tracker or simply turn to usenet.

I think it is that way, so that a consumer getting something from someone (free or paid) can not get in trouble for accepting, since how should the consumer know it is a pirated copy (I think the law was written prior digital age). But the one offering can get in trouble, since that person is more likely to know that it is a pirated copy. There is even an exception, which allows you to share your pirated copy with close friends. You can not even get in trouble if you rent stuff, copy it and give the original back after.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Laws written before the digital age regulating digital age things are the best.

Feels like a good part of the reason for Usenet to begin, I would like to try but I feel some bit obliged to provide for as long as I'm able. Thanks for your rundown, internationally differing laws are confusing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I am 70% sure this is correct, i remember vaguely: The swiss law was written in 2019 iirc. The idea is that there is a high tax on drives/usb sticks/dvds and all such devices. This gets distributed to copyrightholders in some way. And uploading is illegal.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Any Usenet providers and indexers you'd recommend? I tried it a few months ago but couldn't quite wrap my head around how to use it. (I'm technically literate, but Usenet was completely foreign to me until a few months ago.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I fear that it is not allowed here, but there are cats, dogs and slugs which are very good as well as one with a name similar to matrix. Then there are the ones with NZB in the name and some are just drunken.

[–] Outtatime 5 points 10 months ago

Fight club rules. Yeah, I'm old school

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Its pay to pirate.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago

Don't bother. Just sign up for a Debrid service. It's torrents but direct downloads, which means no needing to worry about seeding. It replaces your torrent client entirely.