Quote: (10-22-2012 06:38 AM)dragnet Wrote:
Quote: (10-22-2012 03:41 AM)speakeasy Wrote:
I've downloaded shit tons of music off of soulseek. I wonder if they will be closely monitoring that one?
@Athlone, can you break that down a bit? I don't know shit about networking and security.
Great request. Yes, Athlone, if you could do this I'd appreciate it---and probably a lot of other guys on this forum as well.
Alright, I'll work on a short breakdown for secure downloading online. I'll try to list all the tools needed. Keep in mind that there is a lot I don't know myself, and I am still learning with time-what I present below represents the best of my current knowledge. Hopefully it is at least somewhat helpful.
1. The VPN-Long story short, VPNs work to hide your online activity, and can therefore be used to prevent surveillance by ISPs and the like. They're getting
quite popular.
Some information with regard to setting up VPNs is available
here and
here. They'll cost you a bit, but if you're a frequent torrenter it may be worth the price. This is going to be a difficult tool for the media/government to restrict (many VPNs won't give them the IPs of their users and/or don't even track those IPs, thwarting many attempts to prove ongoing piracy much less prosecute individuals for it), so expect it to be an effective weapon for pirates for a long time coming.
2. The Cyberlocker (I called these "Filelockers" above). These are file-hosting services where users can upload content for storage and post download links (usually on forums or blogs-up to you to find those) for other users to grab that content. You pay the filehost a fee to upload the content, and downloaders pay for quicker downloading of the content (free downloading is often supported, but it is much slower). Some uploaders can also make money from filehosting depending on how many downloads they get.
Cyberlockers are a godsend for pirates because, unlike torrents, their usage is difficult (near impossible, actually) to track accurately. You as an individual can't be easily pinned down for filelocker use the way you could for torrenting or other peer-to-peer sharing.
The most effective means used by the anti-piracy folks to control cyberlockers is elimination-that is to say,
taking individual cyberlockers offline.
There is a war being launched against cyberlockers right now and there has been a war against them for some time, but the reality is that they aren't going anywhere. Current attempts to strangle cyberlockers by restricting payment methods will only slow the industry down, not cripple it (new filelockers pop up every day, as do new payment processors-that, and one can always pay directly via credit card for downloading, a method that can't be easily strangled).
This reality requires that one be vigilant about which filehosts are up and down since the landscape changes so rapidly-a major filehost can be running well for a few months and then die very quickly. The filehosts I made heavy use of as recently as 6 months ago are no longer working, but they've been replaced quite capably by new cyberlockers which, I'm sure in a few months, will themselves be succeeded for the most part.
If you keep abreast of these developments (sites like TorrentFreak can help you stay up to date on which cyberlockers are around and which are on their way out), cyberlockers will be your best friend. They'll allow you to go to sites where movies/porn/music files are shared and download at your pleasure for a relatively small fee, without much fear of retribution.
3. Software. Here I want to mention ways to download music and streaming videos with ease and with virtually no chance of retribution.
I get most of my music from youtube. How?
VDownloader.
My process is quite simple. I hear a song and decide I like it. I head over to youtube and find the song in full. I copy the link to the video and open Vdownloader. I then paste the link into the URL box VDownloader gives me (this will often be done automatically for me by the program). Then I set the conversion file to MP3, indicating that I only want the program to download me the audio from the video (read: the song). I click download, save the file to my music folder, and I'm set-I've got whatever song I want on my computer.
This is one of the most effective ways to grab music for me. The music I don't DL in this manner will usually come from cyberlockers (full albums can be found quite easily on sites like mediafire, etc), but this method takes care of 80% or more of my music downloading needs.
The firefox extension
DownloadHelper is also a worthy addition to any pirate's arsenal, and can be found here. It will integrate itself into your browser and allow you to download any streaming video you play.
The most powerful software tool out there for discreet, safe downloading is probably
Internet Download Manager. It essentially allows you to rip anything online, including streaming video
and streaming audio. It isn't free ($24.95, I think), but it is a very worthy investment. It
can also be pirated if you're savvy enough (that's how I got it).
That's a short workup. If I think of anything else, I'll add it here in the thread.
