My 2 cents, if you are downloading anything... specially with torrents, i recommend
1, do NOT install the torrent client on your computer. run it off a USB stick/ flash drive

& 2. download only via a VPN. they are cheap and they work

and 3. when downloading Music like all things if you dig it, buy it. directly from the Artist. Most bands have a way to do this now. we (I assume) are all musicians here, and if ever comes a day one of your songs gets any kind of attention you'll appreciate a few extra bits of cash coming your way.

for me i don't mind people downloading my songs... cause give more of a chance people coming to my bands gigs & buying merch! and all that money goes direct to the band

 

Thanks for all answers and PMs so far, my tab bar is filled with links

I know, but spending all your money on music gear and software makes it difficult. I would love to spend money on other producers, but I dont have the money
I had to decide what I wanna spend my money on, Movies & Music, or Music Production. And in my opinion its better to spend it on music software and stuff, first because I dont have to fear any legal consiqences when I release something, second because programmers have no other source of income then the selled licenses.

Thats where the rest of my money goes

Time cahnges, and so does music business. I think gigs, merchandise, name-your-price-releases and youtube-ads are the way to make money with msuic these days. And I will happily support that *yes*

Edit: Perhabs I should mention this, after people asked:
I mainly consume underground music. Music that have often had a digital release only. But I also like pretty random music, from 50s stuff to 90s techno... So I need an overall source for MP3s. I used mrtzcmp3.net before, but they suck now... They good thing was they had nearly everything, from old classics, to overall mainstream stuff, to all the underground shit I like. I rarely didnt found what I was looking for, I think it happend two times.
I dont know if theres a proper replacement for such a huge database, I actually have no idea how the fuck they managed to have such a huge database... But I will have a look at the suggested sites, perhabs I find a good replacement.

 

Why are you so scared by the torrents or a torrent client? I guess you wasn't able to use properly and under controll a torrent client. I was using torrents even ON MY MAIN DAW COMPUTER FOR 2 YEARS and i never faced any problems, no viruses, no nothing. If you master your whole computer, then you're able to avoid easly any kind of problem (except hw problems which sometimes you can't even predict). *yes*

 

Well I am feared of torrents (and also P2P) because in Germany it seems like those users have to face legal consequences more often. By downloading via DDl services you rarely have to fear anything, although it can happen.

Right now we have a quiet amusing case in germany. Any of you guys knwo RedTube? Thousands of germans got a letter from a law firm called U+C, allready well known for interesting headlines, accused they watched a porn movie on RedTube from a swiss porn studio. That porn studio is a client of U+C, so U+C send a "request" (I hope thats the right word for this case...) to a court stating that they want the permission to track down the names for several IP adresses. They justified it by stating RedTube users purposely broke the law by using a illegal download service. Well some of you might know RedTube is neither a download service, since you stream content there, nor is it obvious which content is illegal since the sites owner dont uplaod anything, the users do. And like on YouTube its a lot of amateur stuff, some previous for videos similar to trailers in the real movie world, and of course some illegal content (which is removable upon request if I remember right). Court approved it anyways, so U+C send thousand of letters to RedTube users asking them to pay 250€ to them, because of copyright infringement.
So of course some people startet complaining, and asked their lawyers if they really have to pay. Due the big amount of those letters its also in the press right now. The lawyers of course first said that this is total BS (well, in other words of course), because nobody downloaded anything, and its not obvious what is legal and what not on RedTube.
Then people startet asking from where U+C got the IP adresses, since RedTube obviusly didnt gave them out. U+C then stated they got the IP adresses legal with the help of The Archieve AG, a swiss company that seemed to bought a legal software that can track down IP adresses somehow. Then poeple found out The Archieve AG is a daughter-company of the porn studio that ordered U+C to order The Archieve AG to find out the IP adresses in order to claim money from those people... The only purpose of U+C was to let evrything look legal, at least it seems so to me.
Also people looked at the whole thing a bit closer, realizing two things: There where only two movies mentioned the whole time. Okay thats not a problem, but whats interesting: Nearly nobody, only a few hundreds or maybe thousand I think watched the movies at the beginning. Than after The Archieve AG started their monitoring, suddenly way, way more poeple watched these two movies. A bit suspicious, right? The official statement from the head of The Archieve AG is that it can happen that click-numbers rise with the use of a IP-monitoring-tool. What? Does that even make sense...?

So right now court is "checking" if everything is actually legal. RedTube stopped the whole thing so U+C cant send out more letters. Unfortunatly right now the letters arent proven illegal, so if people pay U+C get the money. Unless everything is proven illegal, than U+C will have fun paying everything back, inclusing lawyer-costs

Also, and here come some very interesting things:
U+C and The Archieve AG seemed to have draft a agreement on how to split the money they would have get... The draft was never signed, but we dont know if theres a newer version. Still, this is higly illegal!
U+C said they sent out the letters BEFORE christmas because people have still money left bevofre christmas, After christmas they spend it all and might not be able to pay U+C. How nice that is...
U+C wanted to make a list of people who consumed illegal porn public last year. Court didnt allow it.
A german court once decided in favour of somebody who somehow had to do with an illegal copy of copyright protected porn, I forgot what he actually did with it (downloaded or uploaded it), because the content of that porn-movie was to primitive to count as art. And since of wasnt german porn and the owners didnt seem to specificly protect that video in germany (whatever that means) they have no right to claim money from that somebody. Thats cool, right? You can share porn-warez, and might even get thought with it.

Oh man thats a big text, watch out for any verbal or grammatical mistakes, also typing accidents...

 

Well, now i get it bro! The Germany's law seems too harsh for network users...
And honestly... why should've they made such a harsh law for pornographic content? I don't see a truly meaningful reason for that... because... theoretically, you just watch a filmed sex scene to be able to jerk off better but yea'.. the redtube users usually steal copyrighted content and they upload it on their own Redtube channel.

 

U+C made a business out of it, it sucks that thats possible in germany. That porn studio realized they make way more money with porn by letting people watch their shit illegal, and then contact a lawyer to make them pay (more than they would have payd if they had watched it legal).

Downlading is illegal... Streaming isnt necessarily, lawyers fighting over it. And streaming something which isnt obviously illegal is another thing.

YouTube users also steal copyrighted content, but you never heard of people watching these videos and have to face legal consequences...
U+C just use porn because people get faster scared. Think about it, a husband and father perhabs get one of those letters, you think he makes a big commotion and goes to a lawyer, or he keeps low so his wife doesnt find out?
German lawyers can be big assholes! And german law isnt to harsh, its to open, so these bricks can use it for their own benefits.

 

I got it and i understand... but i called the Germany's law harsh only in comparision with Romania (where i recently live) because here the law about network usage is weak Here are some of the biggest hackers worldwide. Some of them got arrested, but guess what? They actually got arrested by the FBI or other authorities, because the Romania's authorities don't mess that much with the network illegalities here. *yes*

 

SAiNT
You're right and that was exactly what Xsze and I were discussing and it would certainly lead to confusion about what is and what isn't allowed.

 

Thats not quite correct. In germany downloading warez is illegal but will not lead to legal consequences as long as you dont share (for example by using torrent or P2P because with this technologies when you download you also upload (share)). There is the so called "right of a private copy". Here noone ever has been punished for just downloading (never heard of any case here within the last 10 years..and I'm following this topic) I never used Torrent a lot but when I do I use to run a program called "peerblock" in the background. I'm downloading Warez, MP3z and other stuff for nearly 20 years now...and never had any problems (knock on wood)..germany is not italy, france or great britan...those people are really fucked up by their legal system. They have blockage via their ISPs..Here in germany nothing is blocked. If you want to you can visit nazi sites, child porn, zoo porn, warez sites .... Of course watching child porn is illegal (but also this is not quite sure defined), but nevertheless there is no blocking of it (german politicians in 2009 wanted to make a blockage of child porn by showing a "Stop" sign when you are about to visit a site that contains child porn..but this never has been put into practice)...like they do in italy or great britan for example. The U+C Redtube thing will definetly become a bumerang for these U+C advocats. The court in Hamburg forbit to send out more dissuasions. Finally, in germany you dont have to be paranoid...if you are not a complete idiot, you dont have to fear anything...and you can download everything.

 

Thats not quiet right lukehh, there have been enough Abmahnungen. But most of the time its scam, it actually happens not that often. But I know somebody personal who got a Abmahnung (and I think 5 who got a fake one, I think 3 of them payed )

I heard there are a few sites blocked by providers... But perhabs thats just a myth. Also I shared this story recently around here where I found a site blocked for my german IP, but was accessable via TOR.
But after all its hard to know if there are blocked sites. I mean first of all you properly just get a "connection failed page" and wont even know, second I dont know any child porn or other sick shit websites. So its hard to tell if they are blocked. All I know is that there are websites with .onion domains with pervert porn.
But honestly, I dont wanna know...

I dont know... Better be carefull. Its not that you have to face harsh consequences as a downloader/consumer, but still... Its to easy for lawyers to send out Abmahnungen like crazy and make a living of it to be careless.

 

No! And once again No!If you simply download something (for example via sharehosters) you will never receive any "Abmahnung"..just because noone (exept the sharehoster itself) is able to know your IP Adress...The only way to find out is when you download via Torrent or other P2P clients. And in this case you not only download but also upload..and this is whats called "you share copyright controlled content" ... and thats the only way you can receive an "Abmahnung" (shit, we should communicate in german) I hope you followed the story of this redtube shit. They arent able to know any IP adress of the visitors of this shit porn clip..they obvisually used some tricks via redirect users via sites they control. And you will never see anyone who only download getting legal consequences, just because noone knows you when you dont upload while you download! And the one you know who received an "Abmahnung" .. I bet because of this redtube shit should not pay..I hope you told him!

 

Na meinetwegen, vorsichtig werd ich trotzdem sein *yes*

 

Megavideo happened.

Most sites start to become membership only. You either have to pay to get in or pay a monthly subscription.
I seen that specially on movie warez sites.

I think people just trying to score fast cash.

 

@lukehh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhqYczZe6fw

Interessant oder? Also der erste Teil, der Rest nicht.

 

Oh man honestly... I think I have to buy a movie tomorrow... FUcking buy it, but it will have to be a fuckinf DVD because I dont have a fucking bluray whatsoever... How the fuck can it be so hard to get a 3 year old movie in HD and english language?

 

The sharehosters just have to cooperate - and done. Until today downloading is quite safe, but that can change quite fast with new laws and international cooperations.

As a long term observer (and user) I have to say that the 'sharing scene' is rather disappointing these days - it's very depressing to see that there is so much good stuff from some time ago which is not shared at all - classic movies, genre breaking independent music - a lot of that stuff you just don't find any more. That's an embarassing fact.

 

What's the name of the movie you want to buy?

 

"The Way Back", great movie. Watching it right now, after a long long search I found an acceptable rip with okay picture quality, in english language. Still, I think I gonna buy the movie tomorrow, its a great movie, and someday I wanna watch it on a really big screen in full HD, because the landscapes are amazing.

Everybody who reads this should give that movie a try.