One thing that leaps out at me about this ruling is that courts understand the internet a lot better nowadays. A decade or so ago Sony would have probably gotten away with the argument that Cox profited from the users’ piracy; nowadays judges themselves use the internet and are going to go “lolno, they probably would have been Cox customers anyway. It’s not like anyone pays for internet connection solely to pirate. And in most areas people don’t even have a choice of provider, so how is Cox profiting from this?”

    • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      I’ve never been able to find a private tracker to join in like 20 years of this shit. Everything is closed off to registration and you basically have to find some guy in a dingy alley to suck off for the chance they might give you an invite.

      • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        TorrentLeech has open registration several times per year. Keep an eye on Opentrackers.org for any of these. Note that some are open, while others are open application. The latter means you must meet certain criteria to be accepted. Typically this is proof of your stats on other trackers, but sometimes it’s exclusively for refugees from one that failed.

        Keep in mind that you will not ever find open registrations on an established, reputable tracker. They don’t need more users. They only recruit from lesser, more accessible trackers. You will need to start on these to establish yourself. There are plenty of guides on this, with most starting on RED or MAM.

        If you aren’t on any of these, it’s not because they’re too hard to get into- it’s because you don’t want to put in the effort. Which is exactly what private trackers want to avoid.

        Also, smaller doesn’t always mean bad. TorrentDB was a rising star, with regular open invites, right up until its collapse. Even the giants like PTP started from nothing. Getting in early is a perfectly viable strategy, especially if you help grow it.

        • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          If you’re into audiobooks, Myanonymouse is essential but easy to get into. Other than that, I’m the same. 20 years of torrenting and I’ve never needed a private tracker

          It’s mostly just an elitist thing

          • JDubbleu@programming.dev
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            9 months ago

            I’d say it’s more convenience than elitism.

            I’m in BTN and it’s the only indexer I use for my Sonarr instance because it has absolutely everything. I’ve never not been able to find something and almost everything I download will saturate my 1.2 Gbps connection.

            For Radarr I don’t have any private trackers and it takes 35 public trackers to get coverage that is almost as good. The options I’m given are way less organized and download speeds are a gamble. It’s not really an issue because I rarely watch movies, but I definitely understand why private trackers are so sought after. I’ll eventually try to get into some smaller ones which tend to be pretty easy to do.

            • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              About the same, but guaranteed seeders. Half the stuff on ABB will never download, MaM takes seconds

              • Cinner@lemmy.worldB
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                9 months ago

                That’s great, I noticed ABB doesn’t track my ratio anywhere even though they require an account.

      • taaz@biglemmowski.win
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        9 months ago

        Getting into MAM is easy tho and you can branch from there, there are people sharing invites to others.

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      9 months ago

      Private trackers just lessen the surface area. When the companies decide to lobby enough to change the laws you’ll need to hide with private as well.

    • Lemonparty@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Yo! What exactly is different about private trackers? Like how does that help? Im lucky enough to have one but due to the seed ratio rules, I find myself downloading from my usual sites more frequently because I worry about seeding indefinitely.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Private trackers are a false sense of security. If you’re able to get an invite to a private tracker, you really think a multi-billion dollar industry won’t also be able to get one?

      At most, private trackers offer more consistent content and more accurate seed/leech counts. But they absolutely won’t protect you from the lawsuits from media companies. If anything, being on a private tracker increases your chances of getting fucked in court, because enforced seed ratios means every single user is liable. Remember that leeching isn’t a crime, but seeding is. Because distribution is what the media companies care about, and that’s only accomplished through seeding. Just like how cops won’t typically be interested in busting a drug buyer, when they can bust the dealer instead.

      Your nice shiny 12.0 ratio means you’re getting fucked hard when the dildo of consequences finally arrives. And the dildo of consequences rarely arrives with lube.

    • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Folks need to learn how to rip. It’s a little more tedious but you can’t be tracked and the quality is almost always better. Even the most inexperienced can get started after a few hours of research and tinkering.

        • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          You know! Like a bong!

          Sorry couldn’t resist. Ripping is a term from CD/DVD days. You’d “rip” the contents off, i.e. make a digital backup. Now it’s applied to making backups of streams as well. Obviously the contents of these discs and streams are your property or otherwise legally obtained materials and are not being duplicated, sold, or in any way distributed to others if the content does not belong to you.

    • nintendiator
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      9 months ago

      “don’t use public trackers”

      it’s next to impossible to qualify for a private tracker

      let alone if the one you find has the stuff you want

      let alone making their so-called “ratio”

      ¿???

    • nintendiator
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      9 months ago

      “don’t use public trackers”

      it’s next to impossible to qualify for a private tracker

      let alone if the one you find has the stuff you want

      let alone making their so-called “ratio”

      ¿???

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Am I right in thinking though, if everyone used a debrib service, nobody would be seeding the torrents and it would all fall to bits?

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yup. Debrid is a superleecher service. It doesn’t actually seed anything, so it contributes nothing back to the torrents. If everyone used debrid, there would be nothing to torrent as there would be no seeders.

      • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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        9 months ago

        Please don’t follow this advice. These services don’t seed, if they get popular it will kill bittorrent.