ISPs blocking piracy

[Gordon Bennett]

External Link/Members Only

This seems to be another step towards preventing unpaid access to stuff on the internet. Steadily placing the onus on the ISP to prevent access to sites that facilitate sharing of media or host ripping software.
I'm sure the tech savvy will still find ways of downloading porn, films, music etc or accessing pirate feeds of sport but the average Joe might find it more onerous and be nudged towards paying to watch stuff.

I also noticed that the latest version of Kodi no longer supports many add-ons which is annoying as I'd found a decent sport add-on that streamed 99% of footy in good quality but that add-on no longer works

[LLPunting]

Piracy has been demonised by surprise surprise but it actually exerts downward pressure on pricing on anything that's meant to be mass-market rather than luxury, limited run.
Look at the pricing of live entertainment and sport to see where prices would be if the "creators" didn't have to worry about piracy.

Legitimate/sanctioned "piracy" is own-brand goods in supermarkets and Axxxxxx, although the latter is now being questioned.

Passing the buck to ISPs to police consumption of digital content is literally avoiding the cost of enforcing copyright on their own rights estate because they want to charge say $10 to watch a download when we used to pay $10 for a hardcopy or a cinema ticket.  The corporates are pushing every part of the envelope to get more money for less responsibility and effort whilst screwing the content creators at the same time.

Waiting to see the results of the DCMS investigation into streaming... to see who the "real" baddies are identified to be.

[Rabbit63]

I have a program on my PC called Any Video Convertor that you just paste the YouTube link of the video you want to download into, and you then convert the video to mp3 within the program. Still works today, and I'm with Virgin Media 

[scutty brown]

switch to Zen

[Zuesssy]

UK ISP's don't give monkeys as long as they get their monthly fee, I've been torrenting since I can remember (without a VPN), I once got a letter from AOL telling me I downloaded too much, threw the letter in the bin and continued.

now I am on BT fibre, I reckon I hit a Tb each month on upload and download just through torrenting.

Proxies pop up all the time

worst case I'll use a VPN with youtubeDl in a docker container.

[Zuesssy]

External Link/Members Only

This seems to be another step towards preventing unpaid access to stuff on the internet. Steadily placing the onus on the ISP to prevent access to sites that facilitate sharing of media or host ripping software.
I'm sure the tech savvy will still find ways of downloading porn, films, music etc or accessing pirate feeds of sport but the average Joe might find it more onerous and be nudged towards paying to watch stuff.

I also noticed that the latest version of Kodi no longer supports many add-ons which is annoying as I'd found a decent sport add-on that streamed 99% of footy in good quality but that add-on no longer works

I got tired of kodi buffering, just got a VPN and pay for peacocks sports (us streaming), the stream is pretty good 60fps.

[Payyourwaymate]

Would it not be possible to go through TOR and use a virtual box to access onion sites which stream and still not pay whilst separating environments to prevent being hacked? ISPs will only know you are on TOR but not what you are using it for. Unless you are a national threat to security then that would be a problem as then they (GOV) can analyse traffic from nodes I think to pinpoint individuals activities. Streaming is not a threat so the GOV would not expend resources to do that.

I don't do this but I think that is possible from the little computer knowledge I have learnt. I'm not a tech computer security guy so I might be completely wrong.

[Scotpunter]

The entertainments industry has been doing this sort of thing for as long as the internet has been in the mainstream. Think back to pirate bay etc. If the ISP blocks one method of download, the user will just find another.

[Gordon Bennett]

The entertainments industry has been doing this sort of thing for as long as the internet has been in the mainstream. Think back to pirate bay etc. If the ISP blocks one method of download, the user will just find another.

Yeah but there seems to be a gradual march towards making the "enablers" responsible for what goes on. I call you something unsavoury on Twitter so that's somehow Twitter's fault. I download a pirate copy of a film so that's somehow Virgin Media's fault. It feels like there's growing weight behind that argument now and more and more pressure on, in this instance Twitter and Virgin to thwart that activity. As you say, it's a cat and mouse game that's gone on since the days of "Home Taping is Killing Music" and will go on for years to come no doubt.

[Scotpunter]

Yeah but there seems to be a gradual march towards making the "enablers" responsible for what goes on. I call you something unsavoury on Twitter so that's somehow Twitter's fault. I download a pirate copy of a film so that's somehow Virgin Media's fault. It feels like there's growing weight behind that argument now and more and more pressure on, in this instance Twitter and Virgin to thwart that activity. As you say, it's a cat and mouse game that's gone on since the days of "Home Taping is Killing Music" and will go on for years to come no doubt.

I can remember doing copies on VHS of the new film releases back in the day. Same with the blues.

[Xtro]

The entertainments industry has been doing this sort of thing for as long as the internet has been in the mainstream. Think back to pirate bay etc. If the ISP blocks one method of download, the user will just find another.

PB is still about.   

[v54]

switch to Zen

Agree.
I don't recommend torrent as it can use a lot of extra bandwidth.
If a copyright owner detects fragments of protected material sourced on your connection they simply get Zen to notify you.  Zen take the stance that this may have happened inadvertantly.  So long as you take the necessary steps to stop it then no further action is taken. 

[rockstar]

I can remember doing copies on VHS of the new film releases back in the day. Same with the blues.

I used to import uncut laserdiscs and copy them onto VHS. Near perfect quality. I also seem to remember Song of the South was very popular- when I worked out how to record in NTSC for the USA buyers

[LLPunting]

Agree.
I don't recommend torrent as it can use a lot of extra bandwidth.
If a copyright owner detects fragments of protected material sourced on your connection they simply get Zen to notify you.  Zen take the stance that this may have happened inadvertantly.  So long as you take the necessary steps to stop it then no further action is taken.

You can set limits on upload and download rates as well as number of connections and active torrents.  I use those magnet links instead because some while ago there was some commentary about them being "better", no apparent  (i know) issues since using them but if there's reporting to say don't use them then I'll reconsider.
The main thing I'm wary about is that many of the torrent-sites are riddled with intrusion code, I've got add-ons to prevent some and of course have the basic privacy/security settings enabled in browser (FireFox) and the old anti-virus running etc.  Sometimes you will notice your processor or GPU start to spike, so whilst they may not be trying to steal your identity they may be co-opting your processors.  I don't dwell on the site pages after nabbing the links and I kill the browser sessions from task manager.  Also once the file is down I terminate the torrent client.  The PC is on a separate network and internet connection to the rest of the home.

[redveee]

I regularly look at PB for material. I use Opera browser and always have the in-built VPN turned on, I think you can set a location with it.

[daviemac]

PB is still about.   

Virgin don't like you using it, they send you warnings.

[Xtro]

Virgin don't like you using it, they send you warnings.

There is a site that you can go via that will unblock many banned sites.
I wont post it here but PM me if you want it.   

[redveee]

Virgin don't like you using it, they send you warnings.

Not had any warnings from VM when using Opera and the VPN.

[Rondonumbanine9]

 

[daviemac]

Not had any warnings from VM when using Opera and the VPN.

I've had 2, both for PB downloading popular stuff. It might depend on when or how the download sites are monitored by the copyright holders.

[billybob69]

There is a site that you can go via that will unblock many banned sites.
I wont post it here but PM me if you want it.   

As in a site that regularly updates it links for the everchanging PB domains?

[SpaceRaiderDave]

I've had 2, both for PB downloading popular stuff. It might depend on when or how the download sites are monitored by the copyright holders.

I used to get thosew warnings from Virgin Media when I downloaded stuff but since I started using a VPN a couple of years ago never received anything and my downloading has increased. 

[Xtro]

As in a site that regularly updates it links for the everchanging PB domains?

Yes it has done for many years. PM me if you like.