Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Duntemann
"Torrent hoarding"--maybe I'm just old but I've not heard that expression before. Does it mean downloading stuff off BT and then never even looking at it? 30 years ago, in the CP/M era, I knew a guy who would pirate every 8" floppy disk any of his friends had, and then just keep them in a box. I doubt he ever even ran most of it. Same psychology, I'd guess.
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I think the motivating force behind this (or any other kind of "hoarding") can be stated as "it's available now but may not be later--get it before it disappears". I can think of examples that share this motivation that I do regularly, such as making offline copies of web pages and PDF files for long-term reference (half-life of a typical Web link is probably well under 2 years).
I often buy large quantities of consumer goods that are regularly "improved", but where the current version meets certain requirements that the vast majority of such products do not, such as comfortable shoes or the special hats and sumglasses I need to function in normal lighting situations.
Such "hoarding" behavoiur is based on past experience or on expectations (sometimes irrational). So this would imply that many downloaders fully expect the files to be removed or blocked at any time. Probably with good reason.