I've been a naughty pirate...
 

so Comcast cut off my internet because I downloaded 1 episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia...no real warning or anything they just booted me

I don't really care, I just switched to Pavlov and it is cheaper anyways, but I have a few questions...

I can't live without Homeland. Is Homeland on Hulu Plus?

Someone tell me about Hulu Plus.

Oh and I've also been downloading Homeland from public locations using free wifi...I realize a lot of people on this site hate pirating and that's understandable but I simply don't have cable right now so shoot me...

what's the risk in downloading from public wifi say at a hotel or at a Panera etc.???

Is it dangerous?

Just get a VPN

what does that mean?

I just wish I could go to their website (Showtime, HBO) and pay for individual episodes on a weekly basis...I'd pay $5 every week to watch Homeland. Same with Dexter. Same with Boardwalk Empire.

I just don't feel like getting cable...and having cable when I don't use it often. So yeah, it may be wasteful but during my TV show time of the year I'll pay $60 a month to watch my three shows...but when they aren't on I'd rather pay $0 a month then have a cable package.

what's the best VPN? And do they not monitor pirating? I never had an issue with torrents when I had UVERSE but ComCast was all over me like white on rice.

You can't get individual Showtime/HBO episodes without having a normal cable subscription. Things like HBO Go won't work if you don't have a cable subscription.

And neither HBO or Showtime are on Hulu. Even with Plus. Hulu Plus isn't worth it in my opinion. You either have to pirate, or get cable. There's no in between with HBO and Showtime.

If you're worried about getting caught for piracy, then look into a Newsgroup account. It's a better use of money if you're paying to get pirated material.

Thanks dude.

What's up with pirating lately anyways? Is it more dangerous now? I've pirated for years (I know, I'm sorry everyone) and I've never had my internet restricted. Comcast didn't call me or anything...I went online and saw they cut me off and listed one episode of Always Sunny as their reasoning.

can you explain a Newsgroup account to me and point me in the right direction?

I can't say I've noticed much of a difference in pirating in general. I do know that groups like the RIAA and MPAA actively monitor torrents looking for users uploading copyrighted stuff. If they find an IP address that has uploaded an entire copy of something, they'll contact the ISP and say "Someone with this IP on this date/time uploaded our copyrighted material." Then the ISP will go after you. ISPs don't want to be the internet police, and they very rarely take action themselves unless the copyright owner contacts them with the information. So it likely wasn't your ISP who was the bad guy, you probably just picked a torrent that some organization was monitoring.

You can pick up on this kind of thing by looking at the number of seeders/leechers, and checking the comments. Tracked torrents normally have thousands of additional seeders than normal, so watch for that.

The way Newsgroups work, in a nutshell, is you pay to be part of a Newsgroup. Newsgroups are nothing but conversation forums at their most basic. But the handy thing is that they can serve any type of files as well. And all Newsgroup data is stored on massive server farms, that have infinite bandwidth and storage space. Transfers are only restricted by your own ISP speeds. You use what's called a "Reader" app, to display and search Newsgroups for what you're looking for. Be it a conversation thread about boobs, or a copy of Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. And unlike torrents, you're not actually uploading the material unless you want to, which is actually what gets you in trouble. And Newsgroups make it much easier to disguise what you're actually downloading. Watchdog organizations can't publicly monitor what you're downloading like they can with torrents.

Additionally, you can use other utilities like Couchpotato and Sickbeard, to do auto downloading and organization of TV series and movies. You would configure Sickbeard with your Newsgroup info, and tell it to download new episodes of Homeland when they become available on the Newsgroup server, along with how you want to get it. Then when a new episode is uploaded to the server, your Sickbeard install will see it, and download the quality you selected, and rename it in the format you picked, and save it to your local drive. You end up with perfectly organized folder structures of your episodes that automatically download when available. And it's all infinitely more secure than torrents.

Hope that makes sense. You can get a trial for lots of different Newsgroups for pretty cheap. I'd suggest checking it out and seeing if it works for you.

Info on different ones: http://www.newsgroupreviews.com/Editors_Choice.html

Start by reading this: Why you should start using a VPN (and how to choose the best one for your needs)

A VPN is a virtual private network. Basically, you install VPN software on your PC, and you start your VPN software before you download anything. It creates a connection that accomplishes two things: (1) All of the data is encrypted, so your ISP can't detect that you just downloaded Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and (2) Your IP address is hidden behind a proxy server, so the companies who go after anyone who has downloaded Always Sunny in Philadelphia (or anything else) will be unable to tell that your IP address was used to download the copyrighted content.

In order for that to work you typically have to subscribe to a VPN service provider. My personal favorite is IP Vanish. It's not free, but if you want to download things using file sharing software like Bittorrents, it's easily worth $10 a month.

http://www.ipvanish.com

There are also free VPN services out there.

http://totalhtpc.com/TheCompleteUsenetGuide.pdf

You're welcome!

Yes, it's more dangerous now. It sounds like Comcast is enforcing this even more zealously than they have to.

Major ISPs to turn into copyright police by July, says RIAA

File-sharers, beware: By July 12, major US Internet service providers (ISPs) will voluntarily begin serving as copyright police for the entertainment industry, according to Cary Sherman, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The so-called “six-strikes” plan is said to be one of the most effective anti-piracy efforts ever established in the US.

The “gradual response” program works like this: ISPs will automatically monitor the Web activity of their customers. If a subscriber is found to be downloading copyrighted content illegally, their ISP will send them an “educational” notice saying such activity has been detected from IP addresses linked to their account. If that customer continues to download content illegally, the ISP will send “confirmation notices” to make sure they received the original notices. If copyright infringing activity continues still, the ISP then reserves the right to throttle Web access speeds, or cut off a subscriber’s Internet access altogether, at least until that user agrees to stop pirating copyrighted material. According to CNet, the ISPs have the option to skip these “mitigation measures,” and none have yet committed to completely cutting Internet access.

“Each ISP has to develop their infrastructure for automating the system,” said Sherman, at a CNet event in New York this week. This is required “for establishing the database so they can keep track of repeat infringers, so they know that this is the first notice or the third notice. Every ISP has to do it differently depending on the architecture of its particular network. Some are nearing completion and others are a little further from completion.”

While the RIAA, MPAA, and even the White House support this measure, many questions still remain. For instance, what about customers that get Internet access from smaller providers? Will those companies be pressured into jumping on the Hollywood bandwagon? Moreover, given the staunch public opposition to governmental efforts to impose restrictions on the Internet, how will people react if they lose their connection altogether? Our prediction: Dark days are ahead.


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