Torrent sites and the CRIA

[Shallow Throat]

I sometimes use Demonoid to download TV shows that I missed.
Well not anymore, they just posted the following as a result of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

"We received a letter from a lawyer representing the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and We need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. If you reside in Canada, that is the reason you are being redirected to this message. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience."

Do you guys know of any techniques that I can use that can bypass my Canadian identification? I'd like to keep using Demonoid but do also use Torrentportal which isn't quite as reliable for the links.
Alternately, I honestly wouldn't mind paying for a 'legit' site that provides the same convenience with good DL rates. On many of the torrent sites they advertize sites that require you to sign up to a porn site to pay for it - pure scam.

 

[5andman]

I saw that message too!
I use mininova and torrentspy ... but with demonoid blocked, not sure how that affects DL in the future.

 

[basketcase]

Strange because the last legal opinion from the Canadian supreme court was that downloading music was ok for personal use as long as you put it onto recordable media (which has a surcharge to the recording industry).

Downloading movies, software, and tv is illegal thought I don't know what the recording industry's involvement is in these areas.

Sorry, I know this doesn't answer your question. I guess you find another site.

 

[thompo69]

Strange because the last legal opinion from the Canadian supreme court was that downloading music was ok for personal use as long as you put it onto recordable media (which has a surcharge to the recording industry).

Downloading movies, software, and tv is illegal thought I don't know what the recording industry's involvement is in these areas.

Sorry, I know this doesn't answer your question. I guess you find another site.

If I recall the decision (from the Federal Court), it was somewhat paradoxical. It was indeed deemed legal to download music for personal use, but it was not legal to upload it. This is somewhat challenging with torrents since you are doing both. And as Demonoid is providing the means for it to be distributed, they may have been concerned about their own liability, which Canadian law has not yet spoken to. I will happily submit to someone whose memory of the decision is better than mine, as it has been 3 years since I read it.

*edited to add: Looks like my memory sucks. The decision I was remembering was appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal. While the appeal was dismissed, I have not read it yet, so I don't know if they elaborated on what was and wasn't illegal activity. For those interested, the Federal Court Decision can be found here:

http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2004/2004fc488/2004fc488.html

And the Federal Court of Appeal decision can be found here:

http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fca/doc/2005/2005fca193/2005fca193.html
*

Having said that, I can pay my lawyer to write you a letter saying anything you're doing is infringing my rights -- whether it's accurate or not. The bottom line is whether or not you're willing to take the gamble and spend the money fighting my interpretation in court if I choose to take action. I guess in this case, Demonoid was not.

 

[2wheeljunkie]

The site is hosted in Russia and from what I understand this is a scare tactic by CRIA.. The laws here certainly wouldn't apply there considering their copyright laws are even more lax than ours.

2WJ

 

[Papi Chulo]

You could always voice your opinion here:

info@cria.ca

 

[orkut]

Torrent sites

Torrent sites:

http://www.slyck.com/bt.php?page=3

 

[tboy]

The site is hosted in Russia and from what I understand this is a scare tactic by CRIA.. The laws here certainly wouldn't apply there considering their copyright laws are even more lax than ours.

2WJ

There has been some discussion on this on various news shows and the old "it isn't illegal there" excuse isn't going to cut it anymore. Interpol and other police agencies are now crossing borders when it comes to international crime.

At the time I heard about this it was directed more at online poker and gambling sites that were accessible to US citizens (online gambling is illegal in the US).

 

[Keebler Elf]

Interpol and other police agencies are now crossing borders when it comes to international crime.

LOL! Not for downloading porn/iTunes they're not!

Here's the deal. Technically, the hosts of these sites may be found to be liable. But by the time they get nailed, ten more have sprung up to take their place.

Programmers will continue to design new programs that skirt the law. Trying to fight it is a battle that's over before it's even begun.

Who uses Napster anymore?

 

[tboy]

Speaking of Napster, I watched the documentary by Metallica "some kind of monster" and there was discussion about the lawsuit against Napster. Lars Ulrich mentioned in the video that he didn't realize the fan backlash would be what it was. They had fans on camera smashing metallica CDs and vowing never to buy another, change the radio station when they came on and stating that they didn't like being threatened when Lars mentioned they had the actual names of people who downloaded their songs.

Lars went on to mention something about maybe it wasn't such a good idea afterall LOL DOH. Definitely a CLM (career limiting maneuver lol)

 

[2wheeljunkie]

Speaking of Napster, I watched the documentary by Metallica "some kind of monster" and there was discussion about the lawsuit against Napster. Lars Ulrich mentioned in the video that he didn't realize the fan backlash would be what it was. They had fans on camera smashing metallica CDs and vowing never to buy another, change the radio station when they came on and stating that they didn't like being threatened when Lars mentioned they had the actual names of people who downloaded their songs.

Lars went on to mention something about maybe it wasn't such a good idea afterall LOL DOH. Definitely a CLM (career limiting maneuver lol)

I was one of those people that quickly decided not to purchase another CD from them and to save my money by getting it online using other methods and not paying for it. I always had the idea of try before you buy and for the most part I have been spending much of my dollars to that. There are bands out there that use the internet to distribute their music freely to encourage buyers to purchase their music. Those are the kinds of bands that have given the finger to the recording companies and I for one will continue to support their music and to support them as long as its not financially driven to the Nth degree.

There has been some discussion on this on various news shows and the old "it isn't illegal there" excuse isn't going to cut it anymore. Interpol and other police agencies are now crossing borders when it comes to international crime.

I think the amount of "RED TAPE" involved in locating and prosecuting a person in a country that has lax laws about copyright would be extremely difficult. Involving Interpol and the other international agencies is just a waste of resources considering the site itself is not hosting the actual content in violation of the copyright. Bittorrent is TRACKABLE, but when you have hundreds or thousands of peers its really difficult to nail down the source of the violation. The only way Demonoid would be prosecuted if they landed in a country that had laws like DMCA.

Take for example the cracker for Adobe PDFs, where you could turn a PDF back into a document and circumvent its encryption (although very weak in my thoughts) to protect the document. He was visiting the states and he got nabbed at a conference for the copyright violation. The Russian government were not too pleased with the detention and I am sure that has caused a further rift among both US and USSR.

With that notion I think the Russian government would not consider the western laws as their own laws to enforce something that is imposed on them.


2WJ

 

[Papi Chulo]

I have downloaded 100's of GB's.. I have not bought a CD in more than 10 years, nor will I EVER buy another

FUCK THE CRIA & SOCAN

 

[basketcase]

... I am sure that has caused a further rift among both US and USSR.
...

This happened in the '80's?


To quote the simpsons

Russian UN representative: Ah. So he is in our waters. The Soviet Union will not tolerate this!

American UN representative: But I thought the Soviet Union broke up ten years ago!

Russian UN representative: That's what we wanted you to think Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha.

 

[2wheeljunkie]

This happened in the '80's?


To quote the simpsons

Nope it happened in 2004, the guy was the president of Elcomsoft. I still use his stuff too bad it cant get around the FileOpen protection.

2WJ

 

[basketcase]

The joke was the soviet union which hasn't been around for a while.

 

[2wheeljunkie]

 

[tboy]

one thing that always comes to mind when we're talking about downloading music.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to hear music, you went to the theatre or hired the musician.

Then along came technology that allowed the musician to play his song once, and get paid for everyone who wanted to listen to it.

Then along came technology that negated that technology that allowed people to download music and listen to it whenever they want.

So basically, we're back to the original idea that if you want to hear a musician play, you go to their concert.

IMO this is no different than buying a car, then whenever you let someone else drive it, you have to pay a royalty to the manufacturer.

 

[hungry]

I sometimes use Demonoid to download TV shows that I missed.
Well not anymore, they just posted the following as a result of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

"We received a letter from a lawyer representing the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and We need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. If you reside in Canada, that is the reason you are being redirected to this message. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience."

Do you guys know of any techniques that I can use that can bypass my Canadian identification? I'd like to keep using Demonoid but do also use Torrentportal which isn't quite as reliable for the links.
Alternately, I honestly wouldn't mind paying for a 'legit' site that provides the same convenience with good DL rates. On many of the torrent sites they advertize sites that require you to sign up to a porn site to pay for it - pure scam.

I got an email from Demonoid yesterday, it is back up and running. Same password and user name already to go.

 

[Mao Tse Tongue]

I have downloaded 100's of GB's.. I have not bought a CD in more than 10 years, nor will I EVER buy another

FUCK THE CRIA & SOCAN

I second that.