UK piracy crackdown
 

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

So:-
Dear Captain Pugwash,
Don't be naughty downloading stuff. However we aren't going to do anything as we like your money too much.and we realise it's the main reason punters want stupidly large download speeds.
Kind regards
Virgin Media
PS. You can ignore this if you want, nudge, nudge, wink, wink ;)

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

So they have to identify potentially encrypted P2P packets that may or may not contain copyrighted information, determine source and destination and then link that information to a particular e-mail address. The task is Herculean. Rest your sphincters my fellow privateers.:angel:

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Kodi users just carry on as normal anyway

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Hope they catch that black beard fella.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Kodi users will likely be the main ones getting these letters, since they're easier to identify

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Or Directly:

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

I know someone who uses Kodi to download content, not just watch it. I suspect that will likely to flag an email from his (not VM) ISP?

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

I would have thought any kind of linear download \ stream from a single known IP source is likely to ring alarm bells.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Probably can but this isn't about what they can and can't detect here, it's about which ones they're trying to enforce and it basically just looks like a re-affirmed stance on the blocking of specific P2P sites that they were ordered to block. Until Kodi and such others come into play they have absolutely no reason to bother with streaming.

Downloading would, they'll likely have trigger sites and as suggested above, matching against a known source. Kodi in that instance would be no different from a torrent client.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Sorry but it wouldn't. Downloading via Kodi would not be seen as any different to streaming.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Well they've singularly failed to block the common torrent sites. I can get to the popular ones in seconds. Don't even need a VPN to do it. There are thousands of proxies out there. ;)

Only thing they've succeeded in killing is torcache but there's substitutes.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Had the judge at the original hearing to block certain torrent sites had any clue about the internet then blocking would never have been passed.

I blame the ISP's for that, they were trying to defend a neutrality position instead of laying the difficutlties and realities out.

The more it's attempted to be enforced the more ways around it will surface.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Except for different circumstances. Downloading/Streaming with public tracker add-ons like TPB is no different from performing the same task with a dedicated torrent client. I did say known sites and trigger sources but neglected to mention what I actually meant, I should've said downloading could in these circumstances rather than answer like that. Whether they can see the client used and want to enforce upon it is beyond me. I've just took their decision as they can't be arsed with single server streaming and downloading and that the usual P2P downloads from usual sources would be targeted on whatever client they're on.

Others are just downloading or streaming on a single server basis - The vast majority of Kodi add-ons of course

So to straighten it out. The usual single server streaming and downloading add-ons are fine. Using public tracker torrent add-ons could be flagged if you assume they'll manage them the same way they would with any torrent client.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Unless I missed something, you can just bin the letter and forget about it ?

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Not a letter. but an email.

And I suppose they will have threats attached.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

I'm not sure. It all just seems to be the bare minimum to comply with what's being forced upon them. Just making them look like they're actually doing something. Without thay original court order they wouldn't be bothering with any of this, they don't care.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

I would agree with that, after all if ISP's try to enforce this too much it will surely lead to a loss of business and they are not going to shoot themselves in the foot are they?

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

No doubt the court order is legally watertight but technologically a colander same as the TPB injuction. So ISPs can comply perfectly with it as far as the lawyers are concerned yet inconvenience no users.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

We're still making headway into new ideas and refined old ones too. Spotify, Netflix etc. I'd rather pay £8.99 a month or £10 a month for access to either than resort to P2P file sharing. It's just all together more convenient for me. It's actually starting to appear in gaming too. EA being at the very front of it. They now cover PC downloads with an extremely tricky DRM system but have rolled out EA Access to every platform. EA Access is a subscription at a cost of £3.99 a month that allows access to some new and old titles published by EA games, there's some very decent titles in there that would set you back £40-£50 a pop for the big ones. The way I see that, they're converting potential pirates and receiving at least some form of compensation for their product.

I mean Spotify is legal, completely free with intermittent ad support, is mobile and so forth, I get that people still want their physical media and have it outright as their own but the idea is still brilliant and surely has made a dent in that P2P gap in music. What doesn't help this is tools like Apple with default iPod's such as the shuffle and earlier Nano's that have no support for apps thus no support for Spotify thus again indirectly leaving three choices, Apple Music, Physical media or illegally via P2P

This is the best way to stop illegal P2P imo, making content as cheap as viably possible and worthwhile, all three of the above are well worth their value. EA have started the ball rolling in the gaming market and if someone like Valve who run Steam were to offer subscriptions for packages of games, you'd start seeing a huge decline in people downloading them from torrent sites.

Basically give people a reason other than threatening letters (in the past) and shoddy emails to stop turning to piracy.

I'd be more worried about illegal streaming hammering Cable and Sat TV packages right now to be honest. But again that's up to the content owners to find ways to encourage people to buy it rather than just sending out emails or letters. Yes the people are in the wrong but the better outlook is, will they ever change? VPN's, Proxy's... Nope.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Yet again you are wrong. There is a world of difference legally.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Then feel free to explain how a third party torrent client addon that uses the same Peers and public tracker system as any other torrent client is any different. It would show in the peers list like anything else would. So forget VPN's? Merely access TPB from Kodi with a P2P addon from now on and download torrents that way? That's still P2P and that's still punishable as per the statement. I pretty clearly stated the difference between what single server streaming and downloading was (Which was what the article was referring too in regards to Kodi) and what P2P addons would be like. You seem to be still describing single server Kodi streaming and downloading.

For an example, here is a case of Kodi user receiving a letter in the US. Not because he was streaming or downloading from your typical addons, but because he was an idiot and got it from a public P2P addon: http://cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-s...to-kodi-users/

Note the lack of client identification as being Kodi, this is because the addon uses it's own built in support, which you can guess from the image what it was. So as far as I'm aware and unless you can provide anything otherwise, using Kodi with P2P addons that use public trackers will still be participating in P2P sharing and can be flagged.

In simple terms: If you use an addon via Kodi that uses P2P sharing for it's media, you can and will show up in public peers lists as active on that torrent under whatever client was integrated into the addon, as per the picture above. So If you use your P2P addon without first seeing what it actually entails (In reality it's uTorrent built in with it) and you go download Fury road as above, you will be shown downloading this and have triggered everything required for these emails. So no, there's no world of difference legally, it's the same thing. Single server streaming addons? Yes they're different legally but P2P isn't, which is why I still assume you're talking about popular single server addons.

What I'm trying to say is random people that go out and buy a Kodi box thinking they're all set and well without actually knowing what they're doing end up using a few P2P addons that sometimes neglect to state they're P2P end up downloading a flagged movie on say uTorrent, unaware they even had it, then blame something else because they assume it wasn't them at all, they've never had uTorrent when one of these emails ends up in their junk box. All because they failed to note the difference between Single server Streaming/Downloading and P2P file sharing.. Or in better terms, never actually bothered to see what they were really installing.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

No one with any sense uses P2P nowadays, unless via VPN or Seedbox

It's just ISP's being seen to do something that they've been forced to do.


Anyway far as Kodi goes, it's still quite legal to stream in the EU, there's been case law and everything :)

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Or better yet, the article above in which Mr Idiot thought he was flash with his box and didn't actually know the addon he was using was basically Bittorrent.

In regards to Kodi Streaming/Downloading from a single server, (All the popular addons) It's up to the law to take down the provider as far as I'm aware rather than target the user.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

I would bet that unless you are in the top few % of downloaders then you will have zero chance of getting a letter.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Not sure it's just that anymore, it can be as simple as a tacked movie or tv show, or a torrent deliberately placed.

I've seen reports of Game of Thrones episodes being watched over etc. You just be the unlucky guy that downloads a watched torrent.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Quoting an 18mth old article about something that happened in the US where the laws are different does not prove your point.

Under EU law streaming/downoading is not illegal. Where P2P breaks the law is the sharing back part, i.e. the uploading part. Kodi does not facilitate this.

Ergo it's not illegal even if streaming/downloading via a torrent tracker.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Emails are a lot cheaper to send out compared with snail mail. So I suspect a lot will get them.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Er Kodi P2P add-ons upload. The only way to access P2P content is via a torrent client such as bittorrent or Acestream. Kodi can't stream torrents without these, both of which upload.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

I can't see how they can trace this for stuff streamed from say putlocker etc

And for torrents, they're going to have to have someone / a system join the swarm in popular torrents surely and then scrape all the IPs and try and resolve them to customers?

Not worried about this to be honest.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Things I get on torrents are usually rare and difficult to get elsewhere, often because they're several decades old, so it's unlikely that a plant would join a swarm that's often only a couple of peers. Not into watching new films, most of which are very poor IMHO, and most of the old series I've already got.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

Yes.

how do you think all those people got caught when the 'speculative invoicing' thing was a going concern. It's also common knowledge the film studios etc do that also, there's been cases in America where kids have been caught that way.

If you're torrenting illegal media without a VPN or Seedbox, you're running quite a risk. I wouldn't do it personally these days it's not 2002 anymore.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

People only got "caught" by speculative invoicing when they wrongly assumed the IP address was sufficient evidence to find them personally liable in a civil court, and paid up to avoid being dragged in front of the beak. It turns out that British courts will not find someone liable for copyright infringement based on an IP address because it only identifies an address, and not the user responsible.

Re: UK piracy crackdown
 

But they sever that connection if told to do so by the courts?