rapidshare going down

Forum for Discussion of Crack Tracker Issues

Moderator: nikos

Post Reply
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15771
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

rapidshare going down

Post by nikos »

laid off most of its staff recently http://gigaom.com/2013/05/17/rapidshare-mass-layoffs/
Tuxman
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1610
Joined: 2009 Aug 19, 07:49

Re: rapidshare going down

Post by Tuxman »

That may be because Uploaded.to and Kim "asshole" DotCom's Mega.co.nz are the currently "leading" hosters.
Tux. ; tuxproject.de
registered xplorer² pro user since Oct 2009, ultimated in Mar 2012
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15771
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: rapidshare going down

Post by nikos »

another one (hotfile) bites the dust
http://torrentfreak.com/hotfile-shuts-d ... it-131204/
Tuxman
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1610
Joined: 2009 Aug 19, 07:49

Re: rapidshare going down

Post by Tuxman »

And it won't be missed-
Tux. ; tuxproject.de
registered xplorer² pro user since Oct 2009, ultimated in Mar 2012
theo_neandonly
Member
Member
Posts: 15
Joined: 2014 Dec 06, 10:09

Re: rapidshare going down

Post by theo_neandonly »

No offense, but I see a flawed theory at work here. The idea is that if someone can't get an album or a piece of software for free, he'll be forced to pay for it, right?

Hate to tell you, but (I can't believe this hasn't occurred to such intelligent people like yourselves!) it doesn't work out that way in the real world. Sure, some pirates, no doubt, do it for kicks; but I think the vast majority do it because they honestly can't afford to buy the thing they want. Case in point, I spent the last 24 hours eating nothing but buttered toast. I get paid today, and boy my stomach and taste buds can't wait! And every penny I get will barely keep me fed until the next paycheck. I have no room in my budget for the latest Nicki Minaj CD. (Not that I listen to crap like that -- just to be clear. I just needed an example.)

I feel that members of a group should look out for each other. We geeks ("hackers" in the original sense of the word) -- or techies, or whatever term you like to use -- are a subculture. We face problems no one else understands; we have only each other to turn to for support. So, if the choice is between a $30 worth of eggs and bread to survive for another week, or paying $30 for the thing that lets you keep on geekin'... well, I think it's pretty cold-hearted to slam someone (or worse, turn the 900-lb. gorilla of our corrupt legal sytem loose on him) for doing the hacker thing and finding a solution to the problem.

The fact is, we live in a world where MOST people live in poverty, of varying degrees. For some people, if they had to pay for luxuries like, let's say, recorded music, they'd never have any to listen to.

Also, I'd suggest reading the essay Against Intellectual Property by Stephen Kinsella. It's very short but extremely thought-provoking. After considering the logic presented in it, I gave up on the idea of intellectual property altogether. And I'm an artist by nature! See the7thsphere.deviantart.com if you doubt that. (Anybody want to buy a portrait?!?)

For the people who can't afford intellectual property, no amount of prohibition is going to get them into the checkout line. No amount of prohibition can get them into the checkout line -- it's impossible to spend what you don't have. You see what I'm sayin'? And litigating against them is even less useful! With lawsuits and/or a criminal charge on their records, they're less employable, hence less able to acquire the money you want them to pay you in the first place! Talk about a vicious circle! :(
Last edited by theo_neandonly on 2014 Dec 12, 11:00, edited 1 time in total.
Whoever thought that putting CAPS LOCK just above the SHIFT key was a good idea should be shot, hung, drawn-and-quartered, and left locked in a car with rolled-up windows in a mall parking lot on a hot day.
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15771
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: rapidshare going down

Post by nikos »

it's the soup kitchen for trolls then :)
I can't argue with you but there are indications that not just the poor and the needy resort to piracy
but many people must agree with you, because if i relied on crack tracker for a living i would be starvin marvin too :)
theo_neandonly
Member
Member
Posts: 15
Joined: 2014 Dec 06, 10:09

Re: rapidshare going down

Post by theo_neandonly »

This is obviously a subject that both you and I have already formed strong opinions on, Nikos, and it makes me sad because I really admire you for xplorer2 and for the massive amount of knowledge you obviously had to acquire in order to make it. It's one of the absolute best things that ever happened to Windoze. and I don't find it at all unreasonable that you want to make a living by your skills. That's the way it should be in life.

But, I remember back around '99 or 2000, when Napster came under fire. The very beginning of the war on piracy. That same year, the recording industry recorded record-breaking profits. Better than they had ever done any year before. Not sales, profits. So I had to ask myself, are they really defending themselves from loss, or just being greedy and upset because they didn't break those records by a wider margin?

I don't know what the situation is today, 14 years later; I haven't kept up on the issue. So-called "smartphones" have changed a lot of things. For instance, I've heard from more than one person I know (I don't own a smartphone and never will, if I can help it) that they can download an app to their phone that automatically cracks the password on any WEP Wi-Fi in range. They never even have to click a button. That blows my mind. Why would anyone release such software into the wild, for these contemptible lazy-brained non-geeks to benefit from? What I remember, back from the Napster shutdown days, was that pirates were a tiny minority; only the people with some technical skill were even aware of the ready-made tools. You and I have no doubt played Tech Support for a lot of people in our lives; we know that the vast, vast majority of people have no patience and no aptitude and no desire to learn anything about a computer. I can say with certainty that the Napster debacle was a witchhunt by the insanely greedy; I just don't believe anyone's profit margin was tanking over music downloads. No freakin' way. And if no harm, then no foul.

Maybe things have changed. Like anyone, I only have X amount of time and energy in a day, and I have to decide what to do with it, which means choosing to not do other things with it. And I've been choosing to use that time and energy for things besides keeping up on the battle over intellectual property rights.

But a lot fo the last three years was spent studying and thinking about law, and rights in general. What is a "right"? Where do rights come from? How do they function in the world? Things like that. For me, being repulsed at the kind of ubiquitous subconscious selfishness that has created the shithole human society we live in, where person A pointlessly wastes a million units of a finite resource (money) to put gold plating on his bathtub fixtures while person B starves in a cardboard box in an alley outside, makes the illogic and unreality of "intellectual property" easy for me to accept. Despite the fact that I'd like to make my living from it, too, and often do. There are no easy answers.

Looked at fromt he big picture, I just don't think media/software piracy warrants the expenditure of resources it gets. We have bigger fish to fry, as a species. That's my take on it. I'm not so immature that I have to hate someone else for deciding differently, though.

But these issues affect me directly, so I speak on them.
Whoever thought that putting CAPS LOCK just above the SHIFT key was a good idea should be shot, hung, drawn-and-quartered, and left locked in a car with rolled-up windows in a mall parking lot on a hot day.
Post Reply