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seriously. any thoughts on this or direct me to a previous thread.

thanks friends

 

well, it's illegal, isn't it? or at least the downloading and sharing of copyrighted material is. so you obviously run some risk, but how high that risk is, none of us can tell you. you'll have to wait and see if it happens. my advice, if you are worried, is to not use it.

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Here is something to make you even more nervous:

 

The MPAA, RIAA and several anti-piracy organizations are constantly trying to trap people into downloading fake torrents. These torrents are hosted on trackers that are setup to collect IP addresses of all the
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Just make sure your tastes are obscure enough and no one will care. For small bands/labels with bad distribution, having an album on oink is probably a good thing.

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for what it's worth, this is why i don't use oink. I know my fear of getting caught is completely unrealistic relative to the chances of my getting caught, but still, I can't stomach the risk. I definitely fall into the category of someone that would go buy the album when it got released so I am not the guy they should be targeting, but I feel like, with my luck, it'd be me on the front page of the local paper.

 

Also, it seems silly to download something so i can hear it a month before it gets released to the public anyway. Hanging around these parts makes it much harder, tho (neon bible, new modest mouse, ted leo, etc.)

 

Bottom line: I'm a wuss.

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It's not safe, but that hasn't stopped me from using it. It's kind of like crack after a while.

 

That said, I've cut way back in the last couple of months, and at some point I hope to just stop it altogether, except maybe for leaks that I really want to hear.

 

My problem is that I'm usually seeding a couple dozen torrents or more, and they're probably more likely to go after people for their upload volume than their download volume.

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How many members are there? Even if Oink was busted it would take too many resources to get everybody...so I'd think if they did go after people it would be those who have uploaded a lot. Or high profile stuff. So limit your downloads and have a low share ratio.

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all good replies. thanks so much. it is like crack! i have only downloaded a few discs of commercial stuff. i also tell myself that its the 'sharers' or 'uploaders' that are getting busted. anyway, i think torrents are awesome for boots and out of print stuff. too bad we can't get all that centralized. anyway, good conversation here.

c

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The beautiful thing about Oink (for a Pirate, at least) is that everyone must be uploading a good ratio in order to participate: which means (in theory) an MPAA investigator who is simply trying to get on the site to catch people would have to start uploading high quality music in order to do so...which isn't likely. Also, because Oink moderates each torrent so closely - deleting anything that doesn't follow it's rules perfectly - I doubt anyone would be able to get one of those fake trackers up there (mentioned by Analogman earlier in this thread). If someone uploaded one of those fake trackers, it would be reported within 10 minutes and taken down...believe me, I uploaded Wilco's complete 1995 Horde Festival appearance and it was deleted twice: first because I didn't name each of the 50+ tracks with the song title and date, then the second time because it was considered a "multi-album torrent." I mean, Oink has a LOT of weird rules that would make it extremely difficult for the MPAA or RIAA to get on and secretly do much damage. What it would take, I think, is for them to go after the Oink creators and get a court to order that Oink hand over all the member's IP addresses, etc. Can that happen? Absolutely.

 

I used Oink a LOT for about a month, but then started to rethink it's merits. If the viachicago tracker were up, I could most definitely satisfy my 'crack/torrent' addiction there, but alas, any word on that?!

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Well, the thing is - you are not going to find WILCO studio albums on the VC tracker - or dime a dozen, etc.

 

I would not depend on the VC tracker for Wilco shows - look around at the other places - you will find them.

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from what i know & i might be wrong., it's a lot harder to track bittorrent downloading then just straight downloading.

 

What it would take, I think, is for them to go after the Oink creators and get a court to order that Oink hand over all the member's IP addresses, etc. Can that happen? Absolutely.

 

I used Oink a LOT for about a month, but then started to rethink it's merits. If the viachicago tracker were up, I could most definitely satisfy my 'crack/torrent' addiction there, but alas, any word on that?!

If I can see the IP addresses of the people downloading from (or uploading to) me in uTorrent, I imagine the RIAA can do the same, and probably has the $$ and technology to log the IPs of anyone who attempts to connect to their bait torrents. Whether/how they can use such info in court is another matter, but I'm sure if they want to capture your info, they can.

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If I can see the IP addresses of the people downloading from (or uploading to) me in uTorrent, I imagine the RIAA can do the same, and probably has the $$ and technology to log the IPs of anyone who attempts to connect to their bait torrents. Whether/how they can use such info in court is another matter, but I'm sure if they want to capture your info, they can.

Yeah, capturing an IP really isn't difficult at all. Tools like HideIP or whatever can impede it somewhat, but I'm sure it is no problem to get around it for a pro at that sort of thing. I'm sure they have massive logs of data of such things. How they choose who to prosecute is beyond me (I'm guessing they go by the "eenie meenie miney mo" system) because I'm sure there is no shortage of data. The internets are a glorious thing, but Big Brother is all over the place.

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Also the OiNK servers are not hosted in the US or in the UK.... they are in a location like Denmark or the Netherlands (I forget which) where the laws are less stringent.

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if you're in the us stealing beatles records from a torrent hosted in denmark, leeching from a fan in hong kong, where does the crime actually happen? which laws apply?

 

I know the desire to believe that kind of thought, but I hate to break it to you: the crime happens at your fingertips, so in that specific example - U.S. laws apply and the crime is on you.

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