I’m mostly downloading fairly recently released stuff, so there’s no shortage of torrents on public trackers.
I also don’t want any payment details associated with anything not explicitly legal, so that’d be a further deterrent from Usenet. Sure, I could use crypto, but even that links me to a wallet that might someday be traced back to me, so I’ll pass.
Right, but whatever I’m doing on there really isn’t.
As a matter of fact my current jurisdiction doesn’t even pursue copyright infringements, but I still don’t want to be linked to anything commonly seen as shady.
This is incorrect. What you’d are doing while purely downloading is legal.
Bit torrent exposes you to liability not because you are downloading but because you’re sharing which courts have decided is distributing/performing, no matter how small the block you upload.
Fair enough, I was under the impression that if you are using SSL, all an ISP or VPN provider could see is that you are connected to whichever backbone provider you were connected to. I.e. The content of what you are downloading is encrypted.
You could be downloading stuff that is not illegal, and I don’t think that is necessarily knowable by anyone except yourself.
I may be way off here, I’m not an IT person, but that was my understanding of SSL.
You pay for traffic. There are some free versions out there, but they limit you to 10-25 GB or something. Might be an option for the 1% you can’t find on public trackers.
You can get free accounts from sites like Eternal September, but you only get access to text groups, which are mostly full of spam anymore. If you don’t download much, it’s best to just get a block account.
Torrents are based on the idea that everyone using them pays for it with their bandwidth and hardware cost. Except for those leechers who don’t share.
I’m paying more for my seedbox than for my usenet subscription. If I used my own hardware I’d pay with stress on my hardware, e.g. the disks aging and failing earlier because of seeding. The power consumption is also not negligeble, altough the server is also used for other purposes.
With private trackers this idea of an equal exchange is more obvious because of ratio requirements.
Edit: I’d say it’s similar to open source in that no single individual has to pay for it, but someone does have to, for it to exist. Most often with their (valuable) time and knowledge. If no one helps out and does their part (through money or time+knowledge), a project won’t survive for long. Same is true for torrents.
Yes, they do!! With torrents, it just takes a single seeder to keep the torrent alive, but Usenet isn’t peer to peer - you’re downloading stuff from a centralized server(s), and they simply cannot keep everything alive forever.
IMO it’s fine though. Usenet provides you with very timely access to all the “newest” stuff, in excellent, very consistent quality.
Usenet here. 4 paid indexers and the Usenet sub. Still cost less in a year than cable or streaming services cost in a month. Get everything I want and look for easily.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Always went for the free option
Usenet can be as free as torrents though
Could you explain futhrer? I though that usenet was behind a paywall
I have made a bot that gathers accounts on the internet. You can pm if you are interested
I use both. It depends on what I need, really.
Just torrents and I seed as much as possible. I knew about Usenet many years ago but, for whatever reasons, never really got into it. One day…
Usenet for 30 years now. Torrent for 15 or so. Usenet primary source.
This comment section may as well be a retirement home
I’m a resident of the retirement home, but this is still funny.
Usenet is fast and very convenient, but very little content in my language, so… Not sure will renew subscriptions when they expire.
I’m mostly downloading fairly recently released stuff, so there’s no shortage of torrents on public trackers.
I also don’t want any payment details associated with anything not explicitly legal, so that’d be a further deterrent from Usenet. Sure, I could use crypto, but even that links me to a wallet that might someday be traced back to me, so I’ll pass.
I have wondered this as well. Seems like it is pretty linked.
Tbf, Usenet and indexers are strictly speaking, legal.
Right, but whatever I’m doing on there really isn’t.
As a matter of fact my current jurisdiction doesn’t even pursue copyright infringements, but I still don’t want to be linked to anything commonly seen as shady.
This is incorrect. What you’d are doing while purely downloading is legal.
Bit torrent exposes you to liability not because you are downloading but because you’re sharing which courts have decided is distributing/performing, no matter how small the block you upload.
This is not an issue with Usenet.
And you say that knowing my jurisdiction and its applicable laws?
Fair enough, I was under the impression that if you are using SSL, all an ISP or VPN provider could see is that you are connected to whichever backbone provider you were connected to. I.e. The content of what you are downloading is encrypted.
You could be downloading stuff that is not illegal, and I don’t think that is necessarily knowable by anyone except yourself.
I may be way off here, I’m not an IT person, but that was my understanding of SSL.
I’d say as a general rule any encryption can be cracked, but usually it is not worth the time and effort to do so.
Wait, you have to pay for using Usenet?
You pay for traffic. There are some free versions out there, but they limit you to 10-25 GB or something. Might be an option for the 1% you can’t find on public trackers.
You can get free accounts from sites like Eternal September, but you only get access to text groups, which are mostly full of spam anymore. If you don’t download much, it’s best to just get a block account.
Yes just like paying for vpn and/or seedbox to safely torrent.
Well since someone has to host the data, someone needs to pay for it :P
It’s funny you put it that way, because torrents are based fundamentally on the idea of freely hosting the data so nobody has to pay to access it.
Torrents are based on the idea that everyone using them pays for it with their bandwidth and hardware cost. Except for those leechers who don’t share.
I’m paying more for my seedbox than for my usenet subscription. If I used my own hardware I’d pay with stress on my hardware, e.g. the disks aging and failing earlier because of seeding. The power consumption is also not negligeble, altough the server is also used for other purposes.
With private trackers this idea of an equal exchange is more obvious because of ratio requirements.
Edit: I’d say it’s similar to open source in that no single individual has to pay for it, but someone does have to, for it to exist. Most often with their (valuable) time and knowledge. If no one helps out and does their part (through money or time+knowledge), a project won’t survive for long. Same is true for torrents.
I pay for one Usenet provider/indexer. I also still use tons of torrent sources.
90% of the time, stuff that I’m monitoring gets downloaded via Usenet for currently airing or rather new shows.
50% of the time when actively looking for stuff from the past 5-10 years I use Usenet, the other half is torrents
90% of stuff older than that, I only find torrents
100% of non-English stiff I get from torrents (I’m subscribed to an English Usenet indexer though, so that tracks).
In short: Why not use both?
Do things on usenet get purged? Would you expect the stuff showing up today to still be accessible in 5-7 years?
Yes, they do!! With torrents, it just takes a single seeder to keep the torrent alive, but Usenet isn’t peer to peer - you’re downloading stuff from a centralized server(s), and they simply cannot keep everything alive forever.
IMO it’s fine though. Usenet provides you with very timely access to all the “newest” stuff, in excellent, very consistent quality.
And for older stuff, there’s torrents.
So do some encoders and web-rippers.
And usually Usenet does lend quite a bit of releases you usually see on private indexers or some publics.
Right, that’s also true.
Even without seeders, you can sometimes be lucky and resurrect old torrents that have been kept in cache by providers such as real debrid
Both. I tend to let the -arr apps decide.
Soulseek, anyone? I only ever do books and music, and Soulseek has everything I need
Usenet here. 4 paid indexers and the Usenet sub. Still cost less in a year than cable or streaming services cost in a month. Get everything I want and look for easily.
20% torrent and 80% stremio with real debrid.
Stremio and RD is just so easy. Torrent for anything I really want to keep forever in very high quality.
100% Usenet here. Maybe I am basic, but it has everything I want and grabbing stuff is very easy.
Once in a great while I cannot find something and then I ask a friend to check his private trackers.
YMMV
I use about 8 paid indexer and have found any release listed on predb that I searched (most media is downloaded instantly after adding to jellyseer.
I was an avid Usenet user, until torrents were invented.
I’ve never needed to go back.