[Slush]

America is God dude, where have you been?

[bakaouji]

@Duratrix: Cool

@Cyplevi: Torrents are definitely the way to go - bakabt, animebyt.es and nyaa ftw.

However all file hosts aren't dead yet. Give them a month at least

[Neptunelove24]

Originally Posted by cyplevi

^ i totally agree. I said it before somewhere what do ppl have against torrents?
Most ppl i asked told me that "they aren't safe" i say a pc is as safe as the os and antivirus they use. Having a payed subscription on a file-sharing site, which the USA feds (btw wtf America? do you want to play god on the internet too?) take down defeats the whole free flow of information for free rule.

Because torrents can die out fast. Whereas file hosts do keep sharing alive as they don't require a seeder to be on all the time. While there is also a time limit for these hosts, it's more copable for the above reason. Plus if the original owner has the files, it's a matter of re-uploading.

The unsafe part about torrents is that hired companies like Baytsp can track down your ip address and report it to your isp. And if because of this, your internet connection is suspended, you'd have to look for a new provider. Currently, you obviously can't simply spy on who downloaded what on a filehost.

I like torrents as well, but the seeder issue kind of depletes it's longetivity.

[GenericAsianGuy]

Originally Posted by Duratrix

Well honestly I was already moving a lot of the threads to the graveyard.
I was doing it when they were still mass deleting the links, so I had to check each thread to see if it still had working links or not.
But now I can mass move those threads, because they're all down. lol

This would be a great help in saving people wasted clicks. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Neptunelove24

Because torrents can die out fast. Whereas file hosts do keep sharing alive as they don't require a seeder to be on all the time. While there is also a time limit for these hosts, it's more copable for the above reason. Plus if the original owner has the files, it's a matter of re-uploading.

I agree with this and also the points supporting torrents. One benefit of torrents is the ability for other people to help seed the torrent, and this really depends on the user-base. If AnimeTake creates a private torrent tracker, as well as implement a "credits" system based on upload/download amounts (a ratio) as a way to motivate people to seed at least to 1.0 ratio, this might help out (but this does involve a lot of work, and there may be liability issues).

The speed at which file hosts delete uploads also should be considered; at this point in time, it's unclear as to what file hosts will be doing (shutting down, closing their affiliate programs only, deleting random files, or remaining as-is).

Anyways, I managed to grab 9 shows before the original file hosts went down, and I'll be trying to re-upload them sometime this week as a way to help out the encoders/uploaders. Perhaps a thread can be made in the anime downloads section in order to allow people like me to say what they can re-upload? This would help out encoders/uploaders.

[Genkage]

Originally Posted by cyplevi

Having a payed subscription on a file-sharing site, which the USA feds (btw wtf America? do you want to play god on the internet too?) take down defeats the whole free flow of information for free rule.

First off, I completely agree with you on the free flow of information.

And I completely vote against (and speak out against) anyone here in the USA who runs for officer otherwise.

And personally, getting lumped into with those I actively work against stings. It' the 1% (an over-generalization, but good enough for now) who after years pushed forward the wealth disparity in this country which are trying to secure their wealth even further with this kind of BS.
Furthermore, due to the Supreme Court Citizen United ruling, global corporations (read: not owned wholly or at all by American Citizens) can put all the money they want into our elections. (Sony Entertainment, a Japanese conglomerate, is one of the major players in PIPA and SOPA, and all this squashing of online freedom. And they can easily put millions into our elections to bring out horrible laws like the two mentioned). Basically globalization oligarchies supply the 'weapons', and then the 1% here in the USA pull the 'trigger' (through politicians). Most Americans are against this (or have no idea what is truly going on....the vast majority here are just trying to survive). Please don't blame the entire country. :/ -- just a personal plea there. Since....yeah, all of this is gross bull****. It actually hurts capitalism (read: competition) that they hypocritically claim they are fighting for. They don't want competition, they want mon/du-opolies.

Sorry if i have offended someone but remember everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
And this is mine

Hardly, you made me re-think about torrents as you supported your argument well (and it didn't hurt that you listed them out for easier digestion).

Second, you always couched what you said with that it was your opinion, and not trying to force your view. You let your argument speak for itself by listing its pros that can be analyzed, not just pointed verbosity (which seems to be a staple these days....in American politics anyway).

(note: Neptunelove24 and GenericAsianGuy also added decent points and counterpoints to all of this)

ps
Since my grandmother was Turk, and my grandfather was Greek, and you are from Cyprus:

Yassou.

[Nominis]

Originally Posted by cyplevi

which the USA feds (btw wtf America? do you want to play god on the internet too?) take down defeats the whole free flow of information for free rule.

Sorry if i have offended someone but remember everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
And this is mine

This is where I could say, "I did not vote for the lets censor everything party." However I will not. Ah, wait... I just did...

Lets see, how about a nice article on banks.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Some 11 Swiss banks must hand over thousands of client names and pay billions in fines to avoid tax evasion prosecution in the United States, according to reports.
Swiss newspapers claim the deadline for the US ultimatum passed on Tuesday night. However, banks are keeping tight lipped over claims that they would also have to provide all correspondence with offshore clients over the past 11 years.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has been steadily closing a net around Swiss banks ever since UBS admitted in 2009 to helping wealthy US citizens evade taxes. The Swiss authorities were then compelled to water down banking secrecy laws by handing over the names of nearly 4,500 UBS clients.
*
Since then, the DoJ and the US tax authority – the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – have been building cases against other Swiss banks that are alleged to have either opened secret accounts from scratch or poached UBS clients who wanted to dodge the crackdown.
*
Two tax amnesties have netted thousands of clients, some of whom have provided the IRS with details of how they opened their accounts and a so-called roadmap of which banks allegedly helped them evade taxes.

Hopes dashed
In addition, two former Swiss bank employees were arrested this year with at least one turning whistleblower to lighten his sentence.
*
Information gleaned by the SonntagsZeitung and Tages-Anzeiger newspapers points to the US authorities demanding some 6,500 account details and around $3 billion (SFr2.8 billion) in fines from the 11 banks. UBS paid a $780 million fine in 2009.
*
It has been widely reported that the Swiss authorities had hoped to negotiate a catch-all civil settlement that included all Swiss banks. But those hopes appear to have been dashed by the DoJ’s determination to pursue criminal probes into the 11 worst offenders.
*
The prospect of a criminal prosecution has placed banks under far greater pressure as a conviction could spell the end of their activities in the US.

Worried clients
“It appears that the US is pressing for a settlement similar to the UBS deal, which entailed a deferred prosecution agreement that included the payment of funds [fines], the disclosure of information and cooperation in further investigations,” US tax lawyer Scott Michel told swissinfo.ch.
*
Credit Suisse has already complied with the ultimatum – at least in part – by informing an unspecified number of US clients last month that it would hand over their names.
*
The bank, along with the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters, which has been handling Switzerland’s negotiations, declined to comment on the latest reports of a deadline for the 11 financial institutions.
*
But Scott Michel told swissinfo.ch that his office had received “multiple calls” from worried clients who wanted to come clean before the authorities caught up with them.
*
“If the name is provided by the Swiss before the account holder contacts the IRS, the IRS will likely take the position that any disclosure is untimely, leading to a risk of criminal prosecution,” Michel warned.

Little legal redress
Banking clients can expect little protection from the Swiss courts despite the strong tradition of legal banking secrecy in the country.
*
Under the terms of the UBS deal which was ratified by the Swiss parliament in 2010, the US authorities could legitimately demand information from other banks that demonstrate “behavioural patterns” of tax evasion.
*
Some 380 UBS clients appealed to the courts against the handover of their details to the US authorities, but only 100 cases were upheld – some of them only partially.
*
On Tuesday, a Swiss court rejected an appeal by a Credit Suisse client for more time to prepare a legal defense against the handover of his confidential data, according to the Reuters news agency.

Matthew Allen, swissinfo.ch

Offensive to some,

( Click to show/hide )

Thanks again for voting for people with god complexes, and control issues from there parents calling all of the shots while they grew up.

[cyplevi]

i never actually intended to bring politics in the thread and i surely do not believe that the whole of america should be blamed for what is happening.
I would also like to add some facts that make torrents better imo.

Paying for a subscription on a filehost cost around 10$ a month? ( no idea if that price stands or not but i think it's accurate) so 7 months subscription is around 70$. Anime torrents usually are healthy at that point ( unless ofc they belong to Bakabt or other private trackers which prolongs their life to almost 3-4 years). So take those 70 -80$ and buy yourself an external or internal hard disk. (i bought 3x1tb and 1x1.5tb hard drives for 320-350$ total, which comes to about 70-80$ a piece) I currently have more than 400 series (movies and series seasons excluded) archived. I can watch anything whenever i feel like it ( and i also own the dvds of about 150 series all brand new). So i support the industry, and give my money where they should be spent.

As for the ip tracking to be honest where i live ...it doesn't matter if your downloading and archiving stuff unless you make profit off it or you deal with child pornography which is translated to immediate jail time. So it's all good on that factor.

Clearly some of you guys have a problem with your ISPs and i do understand it. My first post was intended to those who's country laws are basically like my country's but still prefer to spend money on memberships when they could do what i do.

Again i do not intent to offend anyone. If i have then i am sorry.

[Genkage]

Originally Posted by cyplevi

i never actually intended to bring politics in the thread

Oops. Sorry about that.
Been though a lot of WTF moments while here in the U.S. (Invade another country because we say they have WMDs, then it turns out they don't, and our leaders just shrug their shoulders. Or the major financial markets cause the Great Recession, get bailed out of it (with profits), and then our leaders turn on our labor unions. Etc). And this is coming from someone on the inside. It's.....frustrating. This SOPA/PIPA (etc) thing is just another part.

But you are right. This is not a politics thread. (sure, politics is part of the problem further back....but probably not the right place for it here).

and i surely do not believe that the whole of america should be blamed for what is happening.

*phew*

Clearly some of you guys have a problem with your ISPs and i do understand it. My first post was intended to those who's country laws are basically like my country's but still prefer to spend money on memberships when they could do what i do.

Hmmm, I do not know what Cyprus's laws are. Then again, I have no idea where to look for such things (without finding complex legislative-to-tech jargon).
You wouldn't happen to have a link, would you?

Again i do not intent to offend anyone. If i have then i am sorry.

???
I personally haven't seen anything offensive (in any way)
Instead I am rethinking if I need to dig up a torrent client.

Besides, it was nice to meet another person who understands the value of external hard drives.

[Hartemer]

As of about a year ago or so i myself started to use Torrents and i am glad i did. As cyplevi has stated, i have been able to find a torrent for everything i have looked for. i used to download basically everything from megaupload as personally for me they were the best as far as how much was allowed to be downloaded within a certain amount of time. As for Torrents, when i first came across it i had a little bit of problem with seeders as the files i looked for never had any but really when it comes down to it it's all about knowing where to look. I actually support torrents greatly now and i know the good and bad side of both Torrents and File sharing sites. I live in the U.S. and what's happening irritates me and hope it blows over soon and am against PIPA and SOPA. Cyplevi, i completely agree with you and i personally was not offended by anything you said. What our Government does and what us, the people, want are two completely different things and i don't think we should be judged due to their actions.