The Internet Archive Starts Seeding Over a Million Torrents 180
An anonymous reader writes with news that The Internet Archive has started seeding about 1,400,000 torrents. In addition to over a million books, the Archive is seeding thousands and thousands of films, music tracks, and live concerts. John Gilmore of the EFF said, "The Archive is helping people to understand that BitTorrent isn't just for ephemeral or dodgy items that disappear from view in a short time. BitTorrent is a great way to get and share large files that are permanently available from libraries like the Internet Archive." Brewster Kahle, founder of the Archive, told TorrentFreak, "I hope this is greeted by the BitTorrent community, as we are loving what they have built and are very glad we can populate the BitTorrent universe with library and archive materials. There is a great opportunity for symbiosis between the Libraries and Archives world and the BitTorrent communities."
Re:SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! (Score:4, Informative)
After searching the internet for a few hours and finding nothing, I turned to my usual set of trackers and had the thing downloaded in 2 hours. It still makes me chuckle to think that someone out there was peeved enough about me downloading their product to actually complain to my ISP about it, even though their product was made of unobtanium *anywhere*.
Exactly. I download a ton of stuff over the internet, mostly older movies, TV series and documentaries in foreign languages, because it's just not available anywhere. It's illegal alright, but the legal risk to me, which is already very low, is made even lower by the fact that (1) the stuff I download isn't exactly prime-time material and (2) there really are no other sources for it, and that's a bloody good excuse I reckon.
I just don't understand why copyright holders don't grok that people prefer clicking twice in the comfort of their living room to visiting a brick-and-mortar store, or scouring the internet in search of a legit copy of the stuff and finding nothing, or finding something and going through the typical online store shopping cart rigmarole, then waiting a week for the stuff to arrive.
Re:SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! (Score:5, Informative)
If we are fortunate we have 80 years on this Earth. Grab a camera and go OUT THERE and write about what you see. Make a differencein your community. Write a book. But please, I beseech you, stop sitting watching pointless crap on TV.
Why do you assume people who watch TV automatically watch pointless crap and waste their lives?
Yes, 95% of TV is crap. But the remaining 5%, which I watch from time to time, makes me discover other parts of the world I'll never go to, explains scientific discoveries to me, teaches me history, tells me what's happening in the world, lets me practice other languages, exposes current issues in society, etc.
The non-idiotic part of the idiot box can entertain you intelligently without taking very much of your time, if only because there isn't much of it in between ads, reality TV shows and the Olympics. Of course, if you don't dig these things, then TV certainly has the capability of making you very dumb indeed.
Re:SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! (Score:4, Informative)
Intellectual property law is designed to protect the creator's right to control the property. It carries no obligation to make the property (or music or movie) available to others. It simply prevents others from doing so for the duration.
Some copyright holders seem to believe that scarcity can be profitable. Thus Disney can bring out Snow White every 30 years and make a killing, whereas if it was always available the price would have deteriorated considerably. And somehow they are able to protect their copyrights forever...
Lots of good content in there... (Score:5, Informative)
... for instance, here are audio recordings of Asimov's Foundation Trilogy:
http://archive.org/details/IsaacAsimov-TheFoundationTrilogy [archive.org]
_This_ is what the civilian Internet was intended for: spreading information and culture.
Hot lists (Score:5, Informative)
I had trouble getting to the hotlist, I was finally able to reach the page and Coral too. Here are the 2 cached pages:
http://bt1.archive.org.nyud.net/hotlist.php [nyud.net]
http://bt2.archive.org.nyud.net/hotlist.php [nyud.net]
Re:Next move (Score:5, Informative)
They're German, and AA mostly stands for "Association of America".
(The G isn't for "German"; obviously if they had that in the name it'd be "D".)
The "bunch of assholes" part is accurate however.
Re:And where does all this content come from? (Score:4, Informative)
Let's assume I pirate everything I can. Let's then count how many ways the media industry makes money off me.
Let's say I go out on a date to the moves. *check*
Perhaps I realise the cinema AV system is better than my home one, so for movies that are quite AV intensive I make sure I see them there *check*
I listen to music on the radio *check*
I still buy books because I prefer the dead tree format *check*
Still go to the theatre
Still go to concerts
Still watch TV (with adverts)
etc
Even if I did pirate rampantly there is still a healthy income stream there, I see no reason why this would kill off the entertainment industry. Remember "Home taping is killing music"
Re:Lots of good content in there... (Score:4, Informative)
Guys, the best thing about archive.org is the FACT that the musicians there specifically authorized the archive to legally provide this music free of charge. This is live recordings. You know, promoting their art by offering live music for free, to interest you enought that you buy their studio releases, see their live shows, and request them on the radio (rarer and rarer, but there are still some stations supporting indie music).