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Feb. 13th, 2007 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickIt appears that we may actually be getting some wintery mix precip. Oh, well. In other news, Vanity Fair has an article on The Pirate Bay and the people behind it.
On the off chance that there exist some audience members who are not yet up to speed on Naughty Era Media Literacy, The Pirate Bay (http://www.thepiratebay.org) hosts bittorrent trackers for a variety of entertainment media that you probably shouldn't be downloading if you have half an ounce of moral fiber. You want movies-still-in-theaters? Piratebay. You want series-from-HBO? Piratebay. You want not-on-DVD-yet? Piratebay. You're twelve and you want to see Cum Hungry Sluts In Bondage (volume 3)? (I made that title up.) Piratebay can help. You'd like new games for your PS/2 without paying for them? Piratebay. Music? Yeah. They've got that.
Isn't it illegal to download stuff? Yes. Allowing for the exception of stuff that's free or trial-size, it is illegal to download stuff that you haven't paid for. Downloading, for example, a particularly gorgeous copy of Pan's Labyrinth (which is still in theaters and most certainly isn't available on DVD as per amazon.com this evening), well, that's illegal. It is. It's also like three clicks of the mouse away if you already have a bittorrent client. If you don't have a bittorrent client (they're free), you may have to click as many as ten times, plus do a wee bit more typing. (If that's too much of a strain, you can also participate in illegal media behavior via YouTube, where you don't have to download or install anything. As an example of YouTube illegal media behavior, you can watch capably-subtitled episodes of Death Note (an anime airing in Japan and licensed by a US distributor) on YouTube a day or so after the new episode airs in Japan. It's easy to find. YouTube has a search thingie and everything. But I'm getting sidetracked, here.)
How can they do this illegal thing? They're in Sweden. The laws are different there and The Pirate Bay isn't hosting the files themselves. They're hosting the bittorrent trackers, which is different enough from hosting the files themselves to convince at least some people (Swedish people, mostly. And pasty-faced teenagers in basements all across America, o'course.) that they are deserving of legal protection or at least not-very-enthusiastic-law-enforcement.
It's just interesting to see more-mainstream (not boingboing or slashdot or Wired, even) coverage of this.
On the off chance that there exist some audience members who are not yet up to speed on Naughty Era Media Literacy, The Pirate Bay (http://www.thepiratebay.org) hosts bittorrent trackers for a variety of entertainment media that you probably shouldn't be downloading if you have half an ounce of moral fiber. You want movies-still-in-theaters? Piratebay. You want series-from-HBO? Piratebay. You want not-on-DVD-yet? Piratebay. You're twelve and you want to see Cum Hungry Sluts In Bondage (volume 3)? (I made that title up.) Piratebay can help. You'd like new games for your PS/2 without paying for them? Piratebay. Music? Yeah. They've got that.
Isn't it illegal to download stuff? Yes. Allowing for the exception of stuff that's free or trial-size, it is illegal to download stuff that you haven't paid for. Downloading, for example, a particularly gorgeous copy of Pan's Labyrinth (which is still in theaters and most certainly isn't available on DVD as per amazon.com this evening), well, that's illegal. It is. It's also like three clicks of the mouse away if you already have a bittorrent client. If you don't have a bittorrent client (they're free), you may have to click as many as ten times, plus do a wee bit more typing. (If that's too much of a strain, you can also participate in illegal media behavior via YouTube, where you don't have to download or install anything. As an example of YouTube illegal media behavior, you can watch capably-subtitled episodes of Death Note (an anime airing in Japan and licensed by a US distributor) on YouTube a day or so after the new episode airs in Japan. It's easy to find. YouTube has a search thingie and everything. But I'm getting sidetracked, here.)
How can they do this illegal thing? They're in Sweden. The laws are different there and The Pirate Bay isn't hosting the files themselves. They're hosting the bittorrent trackers, which is different enough from hosting the files themselves to convince at least some people (Swedish people, mostly. And pasty-faced teenagers in basements all across America, o'course.) that they are deserving of legal protection or at least not-very-enthusiastic-law-enforcement.
It's just interesting to see more-mainstream (not boingboing or slashdot or Wired, even) coverage of this.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 05:00 am (UTC)Is it a sign that I'm a terrible, terrible person if I say that the day that Boing Boing collapses under the weight of its own smugness, the world will become a better place?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 11:31 am (UTC)Anyway, I wouldn't worry. If there's something interesting or useful or otherwise worthy of note on boingboing, it will have show up everywhere else first so it's not like you'll miss it. :)