Re: [tlug] Bittorrent on Debian: Newbie stuff

[Charles Muller <acmuller@example.com>]

Jake Morrison wrote:

> A friend who is a hardcore BitTorrent user for television
> shows told me recently that he had been having a lot of
> problems recently with fake shows and bogus trackers,
> particularly for the Sopranos.

This is exactly the conclusion that I had been coming to. There are 
some articles on Slashdot and so forth about it. HBO is inundating the 
web with files that (1) are filled with incorrect data, thus slowing 
down/clogging Bittorrent clients, and (2) files that are 95-97% 
complete; so the download stops when you've just about got it finished.

The debate on this practice goes back and forth. Some people say that 
after all, HBO owns the material, so they have a right to obstruct its 
distribution. The opposite point (and one that I agree with) is not 
that people like my self are unwilling to pay--many of us would be 
willing to pay HBO a fair price to be able to download this material. 
And clogging the Internet with garbage data is not exactly ethical, 
either.

Sopranos is currently in season 6, and WOWWOW in Tokyo is showing 
season 4, so how long will we have to wait before we can see season 6 
here. Two more years? HBO ought to take a clue from Apple and others 
that have taken the clue that file-sharing is here to stay, so they 
would be well-served to figure out to take advantage of it, rather 
than clogging the pipes with garbage.


> So for debugging purposes you may want to try with something
> like a nice Linux distribution or NerdTV
>    http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/

This is the sort of thing HBO would do if they were smart.


Thanks for the advice.



Chuck




---------------------------
Charles Muller

Toyo Gakuen University
Faculty of Humanities
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Web Site: Resources for East Asian Language and Thought
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