[ubuntu] I just discovered Transmission Bit torrent. Am I gonna get Busted? [Archive]

concerto

August 14th, 2009, 02:21 AM

Wow. It's awesome that Ubuntu comes with the BitTorrent client Transmission. So can I start throwing away my scratched CD's that don't work any more and just download them, What are the odds the RIAA or some organization will contact me and make me prove that I already own everything that I am downloading? Am I being Paranoid? It was just a thought.

In the preferences section I see an option under the peers tab that says "ignore unencrypted peers" So am I right in assuming that everything is encrypted and I will be fine?

I am very interested in hearing your comments.:popcorn:
Thank you for your time.

tubbygweilo

August 14th, 2009, 02:32 AM

You may well get busted but that I expect will be more to do with the class of media you download rather than the software you use.

ubuntu27

August 14th, 2009, 03:53 AM

By default, transmission connects to any peers (computers running a bittorrent client) that is both encrypted and not encrypted.
If you check the option "Ignore unencrypted peers", it will only connect to peers that have enabled encryption.

From what I gather, this does not protect your from organizations like RIAA and MPAA.

It is mainly used to prevent your ISP from limiting your bandwidh when using bittorrent.

See List of Bad ISP (http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs)

credobyte

August 14th, 2009, 04:33 AM

Millions of bittorent protocol users all over the world & only a few of them have been warned ( not even sued ).
If you are sooo worried, LVM or TrueCrypt :!:

cdenley

August 14th, 2009, 09:11 AM

Millions of bittorent protocol users all over the world & only a few of them have been warned ( not even sued ).
If you are sooo worried, LVM or TrueCrypt :!:

There have been much more than "a few of them" who were not only warned but sued. I don't think this list includes all the people who paid upfront to avoid a lawsuit, which is probably what most do. Still, I've heard the chance of being pursued by the RIAA is less than winning the lottery. I'm not sure if it's true.
http://info.riaalawsuits.us/documents.htm#table_cases

Rob_H

August 14th, 2009, 09:28 AM

So can I start throwing away my scratched CD's that don't work any more and just download them, What are the odds the RIAA or some organization will contact me and make me prove that I already own everything that I am downloading?

If you own the CDs, why don't you simply rip them? Surely, they're not all scratched.

cdenley

August 14th, 2009, 09:34 AM

If you own the CDs, why don't you simply rip them? Surely, they're not all scratched.

That's true. Also, I think if you own the CD, even if it is scratched, it would be legal to download a copy since you already own the content. However, if you download it with torrents, you would be distributing it as well which would be copyright infringement. I would get a CD scratch remover (most scratched CD's can be repaired), and rip all your favorite songs. Much easier than downloading, and you can choose the quality/format.

Cyked

August 14th, 2009, 09:54 AM

Downloading has nothing to do with it. They really won't care that you already own the disc. "fair use" is still very much up in the air, and really you do NOT own the content (at least this is what the RIAA and MPAA want). You paid a price to buy the disc to play it, not own what is on it.

The problem is is that you are making available content illegally by uploading (seeding).

I'm not going to dig right now, but they just ruled on realnetworks or whatever who make a DVD ripping software. The ruling was is that you CAN make legit backups of your DVDs, but it is illegal for you to own the software that does it (basically).

cdenley

August 14th, 2009, 09:56 AM

The problem is is that you are making available content illegally by uploading (seeding).

Which I clearly stated.

However, if you download it with torrents, you would be distributing it as well which would be copyright infringement.

harry2006

August 14th, 2009, 11:26 AM

downloading illegal/copyrighted stuffs might put you in legal tangle...so beware!!!

Cyked

August 14th, 2009, 11:41 AM

Which I clearly stated.

I think we posted nearly the same time. I did not see your post.

concerto

August 14th, 2009, 03:32 PM

Ok. Well Thanks you for everyone's input. It means allot. I guess I thought since I was running a secure OS that some how it would protect me from all this RIAA and MPAA stuff. From the looks of this discussion I think I am going to take other means such as DarkNets. I am just one of those guys that has really bad luck so better to be safe than sorry. Right?

What do you guys use?

AND thank you for all the responses.

tubbygweilo

August 14th, 2009, 03:48 PM

Feds Support $1.92 Million (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/feds-support-192-million-file-sharing-verdict/) RIAA File Sharing Verdict - YMMV

Cyked

August 14th, 2009, 04:09 PM

concerto

August 14th, 2009, 11:24 PM

There are several tools like PGP that filter IPs of known RIAA/MPAA dirt diggers..

How secure are tools like PGP? Do you guys trust them? I imagine they work with Linux.

So IP filtering is all you have to do to not be discovered? no tracks at all?

I think I will give it a try. thanks. Anything else I should know?

You guys are awesome.

niteshifter

August 15th, 2009, 06:53 AM

How secure are tools like PGP? Do you guys trust them? I imagine they work with Linux.

So IP filtering is all you have to do to not be discovered? no tracks at all?

I think I will give it a try. thanks. Anything else I should know?

Yes. PGP doesn't do IP filtering, they do data security. There is no ironclad, foolproof way to avoid discovery - think about it: Your ISP knows every connection you make. Your ISP will also cheerfully hand over everything they have about you when they are handed a subpoena. The **AA goes to them first, then you.

LVM / Truecyrpt is useless here: By the time protecting your secret stash of downloaded goodies comes into play you've already been handed a summons and are preparing to defend yourself in court - and are spending kilo-bucks to do so. Plus, go ahead, take the "noble" stance and refuse to give the key. The judge will give you lots of time to be noble while you sit in jail on a contempt of court charge.

Really what it comes down to is statistics. There are millions, if not billions of torrents and the **AA's monitoring lackeys can't cover but a tiny fraction of that. So ... if you're feeling lucky, roll the dice. Or not. Your call.

rookcifer

August 15th, 2009, 08:34 AM

Ok. Well Thanks you for everyone's input. It means allot. I guess I thought since I was running a secure OS that some how it would protect me from all this RIAA and MPAA stuff.

You have a misunderstanding of how the Internet works and what computer security entails. Security (at least in the sense of OS security) does nothing to hide your tracks on the Internet, but rather it keeps you secure from those on the outside wanting in. TCP/IP works the same no matter what OS one uses -- that is, you will still have a unique IP address (and IP addresses are how the MAFIAA catches its victims). There is no way around it other than using a proxy or something like Tor. Again, this has nothing to do with the OS.

What do you guys use?

There are two things you can do:

1) Use the blocklists. Transmission has a blocklist built in, you just need to enable it and update it. These blocklists aren't perfect, but I saw an article a while back suggesting that blocklists dramatically decrease ones chances of being "caught."

2) Use private torrent trackers. Usually one has to be invited to these, but the selection (and the speed) is far better than what you can find on the public torrent trackers.

Sidewinder1

August 15th, 2009, 12:02 PM

"2) Use private torrent trackers. Usually one has to be invited to these, but the selection (and the speed) is far better than what you can find on the public torrent trackers."

And who's to say that the above mentioned "**AA lackeys" haven't coerced themselves an invite and are logging IPs.?
BTW, my experience with private trackers (ie: Demonoid for example) is that they're extremely (all else equal: 68 seeds, 97 leaches) slow, compared to TPB.
Just my experience, your mileage may vary...
Side

rookcifer

August 15th, 2009, 12:49 PM

Cyked

August 20th, 2009, 04:29 PM

There are several tools like PGP that filter IPs of known RIAA/MPAA dirt diggers..

I meant peerguardian. Not sure why It came out of my brain to my keyboard as PGP....

bobince

August 21st, 2009, 05:51 PM

PeerGuardian has been completely useless for years. Don't bother with trying to blacklist by IP; the copyright groups now use normal home DSL connections you won't be able to tell apart from a real peer.

You can reduce your chances of being hit by using more private trackers and/or avoiding the big, mainstream popular content. And it depends where you are, but in most places just downloading a rip of a CD you already have, without seeding, is already not legal. What ‘you would think’ would be sensible has nothing to do with what the law actually says, unfortunately.

running_rabbit07

August 21st, 2009, 07:01 PM

You could probably reduce your chances of being busted by not asking about how to break the law on a public forum that stores IP addresses.

tomasrey88

August 23rd, 2009, 01:18 PM

It's better that you don't download songs that you don't own, BUT if you already have the "scratched CD's" then you already own the rights to those songs. I don't know if this is legal as I am no lawyer, but I know that what you're doing is ethical. Just download onto a laptop in a free WIFI hotspot and you'll be fine. You can get free old laptops from freecycle. The beauty of Linux distros is that most distros work great for older computers. Ubuntu works great for PIII and Xubuntu (or Puppy Linux) works great for PII.

Shameless self-plug:
I've helped you. Now, I invite you to take a look at my challenge. I don't know how to reformat a USB Flash with read/write permissions:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1247804

Enjoy,
:guitar:

JoshStrobl

August 24th, 2009, 11:20 AM

Downloading has nothing to do with it. They really won't care that you already own the disc. "fair use" is still very much up in the air, and really you do NOT own the content

The Fair Use act only allows such things to occur if its for an educational purpose. I doubt listening to music is really for "educational" purposes.

blueshiftoverwatch

August 24th, 2009, 02:20 PM

1) Use the blocklists. Transmission has a blocklist built in, you just need to enable it and update it. These blocklists aren't perfect, but I saw an article a while back suggesting that blocklists dramatically decrease ones chances of being "caught."
Keep in mind that if you are able to download an updated blocklist of unsavory peers every day so is any organization(s) that you may be trying to block, which I'm sure they do. Once they realize that some of their IP addresses have been figured out whos to say that they won't just ditch those IP addresses and use new ones? That's not to say that blocklists are completely ineffective, just that they're far from fool proof.

Chronon

August 25th, 2009, 05:14 PM

There have been much more than "a few of them" who were not only warned but sued. I don't think this list includes all the people who paid upfront to avoid a lawsuit, which is probably what most do. Still, I've heard the chance of being pursued by the RIAA is less than winning the lottery. I'm not sure if it's true.
http://info.riaalawsuits.us/documents.htm#table_cases

That's just a list of cases. As far as I know, the vast majority of those were people getting pinched using p2p such as LimeWire, etc. I have not seen much evidence of bit torrent users getting pinched. I'm not saying that I use bit torrent in this way nor that I advocate for others to do this. I'm just saying that from my exposure to news about this it has seemed that most people who got in trouble were using direct peer-to-peer file sharing.