Comment by autoexec | Hacker News Reader

Comment by autoexec | Hacker News Reader

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> It’s kind of trivial to get a throwaway email address, no? What tracker uses discord? All the big ones use IRC.

Different sites use different means. You can create a throwaway email address, but it's just one more data point.

> Your example is a very public lawsuit by the MPAA against a public tracker?

If the site operator agrees to keep the site up while data is collected there is no court order. Every site operator who gets raided ends up facing some legal consequences but the details of the deals they work out with the industry are not made available for the public

> Give an example?

https://www.cashmanlawfirm.com/list-of-strike-3-holdings-cas...

Outside the US lawsuits continue as well (examples): https://www.mosshacheylaw.com/blog/movie-producers-suing-can...

https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/practice-areas/intellectua...

https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-site-user-who-transferred-1...

> They won’t demand money from you unless you’re making a profit.

Not even remotely true. Please don't assume this. I'm aware that they have made exceptions in cases where people were literally impoverished but fines are typical in settlement offers.

> https://www.cashmanlawfirm.com/list-of-strike-3-holdings-cas...

This is about people downloading torrents from public trackers. These law firms do not care about private trackers, there is more money to be made on public trackers.

What these law firms definitely don’t care about is going after uploaders, that would obviously ruin their business model.

> This is about people downloading torrents from public trackers.

No. all lawsuits are about uploading. The nature of BitTorrent is that typically every file you download is also being uploaded at the same time and it's the uploading (the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works) that gets people in trouble, not the downloading.

As I said, they're very much still suing people for uploading. Public trackers are the low hanging fruit, but when a private tracker gets raided they'll jump at the chance.

> What these law firms definitely don’t care about is going after uploaders, that would obviously ruin their business model.

The RIAA/MPA have zero concerns that they're going to run out of people to sue. It will never happen. Their goal however, believe it or not, really is to try to slow down internet piracy though. Right now, their largest cash cow is at the ISP level, where they intend to force ISPs to permanently disconnect pirates from the internet and never allow them to have another account after nothing more than repeated and unproven claims that an infringement took place. If they wanted pirates to continue so they could drag them into court rooms they wouldn't bother with these "repeat offender" suits which will effectively cut people off from the internet entirely since people have limited options for ISPs.

> Public trackers are the low hanging fruit, but when a private tracker gets raided they'll jump at the chance.

Do you have evidence to support this happening, or are you just speculating?

How many people got in trouble after the What.CD raid?

It’s extremely rare for private trackers to get raided, and not because of excellent OPSEC.

> Do you have evidence to support this happening, or are you just speculating?

Public evidence is hard to track down (especially quickly) since raids on private trackers are so rare and like I said almost all of these issues get solved out of court in non-disclosed settlement offers, but this isn't just speculation either. It's clear from history and what we do know that they're very much interested in user data and willing to file lawsuits:

https://torrentfreak.com/mass-bittorrent-lawsuits-now-target...

https://www.wjunction.com/threads/elitebits-private-bittorre...

> How many people got in trouble after the What.CD raid?

The damage there was limited since according to the admins all site and user data was destroyed.

> Public evidence is hard to track down (especially quickly) since raids on private trackers are so rare

And why is that? It’s because nobody cares about private trackers. It’s not like it’s particularly difficult to find the people behind sites like BTN and PTP, one of the sysops uses their reddit account to discuss the tracker, their US tech job and frequently comments in their local city subreddit.

> The damage there was limited since according to the admins all site and user data was destroyed.

Maybe true, maybe not. The servers were at OVH and seized by French LE. Perhaps they were encrypted, but I rather doubt they had any hardening against DMA tools.

But what about BCG then? That was shut down by uk cops around the same time as What.CD, as far as I know nothing happened to the users.

Also, despite what that torrentfreak claims. Gay-torrents was not a private tracker, but a public (paid) site.

If people had started receiving letters after private trackers getting raided, there’d be a plenty of forum discussions to be found. This just hasn’t ever happened.

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