SF Signal: Bit Torrent Users Beware

Bit Torrent Users Beware

A Wired article details some legal action taken against Bit Torrent site administrators and users.

Acting on detailed information provided by the motion picture industry, federal agents descended on administrators and users of a popular pirate-friendly file-sharing site Wednesday in what the government is calling the first criminal law enforcement action against BitTorrent users.

I believe the trigger for this action was the 'release' of Revenge of the Sith. But maybe not. I've never used Elitetorrents so I don't know what they had available. But I think the success of RotS blows a whole in the MPAA's contention that piracy (arrr!) costs them revenue. Well, I guess RotS could have raked in even more $$$ if it weren't for those evil bittorrentors downloading the movie! Those fiends! Note: I am not saying downloading copyrighted material should be legal (unless the owners say so), but I am saying that the piracy (arrr!) as it stands today, isn't as big a problem as the entertainment industry says.

Luckily for me, I mostly use bittorrent to download anime that isn't released in the states (yes yes, a shady grey pirate (arrr!)), and the occasional episode of Lost that my Explorer didn't record because its a POS. But I digress...

Posted by JP on Thursday May 26, 2005 at 1:23 PM

Apparently using something like PeerGuardian or ProtoWall will block out a lot of IP addresses that snooping Fed types use.

Posted by Secret Squirrel on Friday May 27, 2005 at 8:01 AM