UK Courts move towards blocking access to The Pirate Bay

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I'll believe that when the executives of entertainment corporations stop paying themselves massive salaries.

i've posted this before but it bears repeating


"Movie executives see record profits, salaries despite piracy fear-mongering"

"Although a recent National Crime Prevention Council ad campaign tries to make the point that piracy kills jobs, the CRS found that total gross revenues and box office receipts have doubled in the last 15 years. Grosses went from $52.8 billion in 1995 to $104.4 billion in 2009, while box office receipts went from $5.3 billion in 1995 to $10.6 billion in 2010 — yet hiring still went down.

One thing that has gone up, higher than ever, is executive pay. The CRS report noted that News Corporation paid CEO Rupert Murdoch $33,292,753 in 2011; Viacom gave CEO Philippe Dauman made $84,515,308; Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes took home $26,303,071; while Disney CEO Robert A. Lger earned $29,617,964. Sony CEO Howard Stringer was at the bottom of the bunch at $4.3 million, having taken a 14 percent pay cut due to losses."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/1...ear-mongering/



then theres this-

Study: pirates biggest music buyers. Labels: yeah, right


"Those who download illegal copies of music over P2P networks are the biggest consumers of legal music options, according to a new study by the BI Norwegian School of Management. Researchers examined the music downloading habits of more than 1,900 Internet users over the age of 15, and found that illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user.

Unsurprisingly, BI found that those between 15 and 20 are more likely to buy music via paid download than on a physical CD, though most still purchased at least one CD in the last six months. However, when it comes to P2P, it seems that those who wave the pirate flag are the most click-happy on services like the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3. BI said that those who said they download illegal music for "free" bought ten times as much legal music as those who never download music illegally. "The most surprising is that the proportion of paid download is so high," the Google-translated Audun Molde from the Norwegian School of Management told Aftenposten."

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/20...rage-folks.ars



so if you follow it out, pirates contribute more to the massive industry profits than legitimate customers. said massive profits raised by pirates are used to give the CEOs massive bonuses who, instead of hiring new employees, blame pirates for their refusal to hire instead of their own monumental greed.

its a bit convoluted but it should be clear who is at fault for these phantom lost jobs. its not the pirates.

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by plib

I'm no guru on DD-WRT......

That sounds pretty amazing compared to the dearth of options my standard firmware affords me. It is kinda tempting, if only in order to learn a bit more, but the trouble is that I realistically have no use for it. My signal strength is excellent, my bandwidth is excellent, the wireless network doesn't conflict with those of my neighbours, I've yet to see a security threat and most of the features you mention are (I think, quite possibly erroneously) rather surplus to requirements.

Things may change though and I've saved the links so I know where to go if I should ever feel I need more options and features than I have now. Thanks a lot for cluing me in!

Originally Posted by jmaejr

I understand the reasons...it was mostly sarcastic because a lot of the people here are quite high and mighty when it comes to piracy that it surprises me that they would know of TPB...sorta like going to a whorehouse and claiming to only look at the girls.

Sorry, my bad. Sarcasm over the internet and all that...

[plib]

Originally Posted by LuvReadin

I personally find the Emsisoft scanner far superior to Malwarebytes - I have both, but so far, MB has never found anything E didn't, whereas E finds many things MB doesn't.

I hadn't come across the Emsisoft scanner. I'll check it out. Thanks.

[plib]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

I've yet to see a security threat

I wasn't aware of the number of hacking attempts until I started looking at the OTRW logs. If you don't have open ports then you're probably not being hit, but when I opened my telnet and SSL ports the mice were scratching at the door pretty much immediately and constantly. If you do have open ports then make sure you have a good password or, preferably, use an SSL key file. Based on what I've seen and read the standard access ports like SMTP, telnet, FTP, SSL etc. are being scanned constantly, particularly from China.

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Things may change though and I've saved the links so I know where to go if I should ever feel I need more options and features than I have now. Thanks a lot for cluing me in!

You're very welcome. As far as I'm concerned this is what this medium is all about, learning and passing on whatever knowledge you can.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by jmaejr

Because getting it from the original website is not fast enough and TPB is the ONLY other place to get it...?!?

No, I think that all P2P options would be faster than direct download from the original website. But TPB has the advantage of being better known.

[plib]

Originally Posted by Jyster

I used to be computer savy, but now all this made me feel like when Charlie Browns parents are talking to him. Wa wa wa wa wa.

I couldn't come with some of this stuff myself in a thousand years, but most of it is packaged scripts or firmware and all you really have to do is read the instructions carefully, install and make a few option choices. It's a learning curve, but it's not too steep.

Kudos to the guys who do create it in less than a thousand years though!

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by plib

I wasn't aware of the number of hacking attempts until I started looking at the OTRW logs. If you don't have open ports then you're probably not being hit, but when I opened my telnet and SSL ports the mice were scratching at the door pretty much immediately and constantly. If you do have open ports then make sure you have a good password or, preferably, use an SSL key file. Based on what I've seen and read the standard access ports like SMTP, telnet, FTP, SSL etc. are being scanned constantly, particularly from China.

Ports are certainly being scanned; what I should have said was that I've not seen a concerted effort to breach my defences. The password isn't my (non-existent) dog's birthday or my (also non-existent) cat's name, but a very long jumble of letters, numbers and miscellaneous symbols, so I ought to be ok in that department.

[jmaejr]

Originally Posted by plib

Actually I'd say the luddites are the ones who aren't using ad and tracking blocking software.

My personal recipe = Firefox + AdblockPlus + Adblock Plus Element Hider + Adblock Plus Popups + NoScript + Better Privacy + Ghostery + Cookie Monster
+ Customize Google

Can't remember the last time I saw an ad. Add the free Malwarebytes scanner and Comodo Firewall programs plus your choice of anti-virus and you can have a much more enjoyable and secure internet experience for zero dollars and about 10 minutes of your time to install.

Doesn't sound luddite to me.

I also have DD-WRT firmware, plus Optware The Right Way and most of frater's scripts, including the adblocking pixelserv script, on my router but that's a little more investment in time, though not dollars - and it does ensure that doubleclick.net is consigned to the ninth circle irretrievably!

If anyone is reasonably computer literate and does have a compatible router, which includes most Linksys/Cisco home routers, Asus, D-Link and Netgear routers, then I would highly recommend looking at the DD-WRT firmware. However flashing third party firmware to your router does have the possibility of bricking it if you don't follow the instructions EXACTLY, so don't use it if you're not confident of your skills. That said, thousands of people do use it with no problem and with frater's OTRW it can turn your $50 router into something much, much more capable. Anyone interested should definitely read the support forums before installing, users with Broadcom chip based routers should probably start that reading with the Peacock Thread. It's a little bit of work to install, but it's well worth it, particularly if you're running a home network behind it.

Another good little piece of software for those that do frequent torrent sites to download....*cough cough* open source software faster, that prevents certain IPs from accessing your pc is called Peerblock. It even has lists for blocking spyware, bad p2p computers, and ads/data tracking sites.

I have been using a similar combination of plug-ins for FF for years and I have never seen an ad...makes browsing that much more enjoyable.

DD-WRT is great, but unless you know something about computers and flashing firmware I would suggest you read and re-read the instructions 3 or 4 times. It will not work on all routers either.

[Belfaborac]

Thanks for mentioning Peerblock, I wasn't aware of that one. Installed it now, for additional peace of mind, and it consumes hardly any memory or CPU time at all.

[jmaejr]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Thanks for mentioning Peerblock, I wasn't aware of that one. Installed it now, for additional peace of mind, and it consumes hardly any memory or CPU time at all.

Glad to be of help. It won't be too active for just surfing/browsing but when you connect uTorrent or whatever torrent client you are using, peerblock will go nuts...I probably get 50-100 blocks a day just from The Washington State Department of Transportation...don't know why they would be using torrents, unless they were...well...never mind...

[Belfaborac]

There certainly seem to be a huge amount of US military traffic....