Thread: Just a suggestion...

So i'm fairly new to this site and the whole private tracker scene, and i'v been looking for ways to stay safe while torrenting (beyond the obvious vpn/seedbox) and I figured it might be a good idea to have a section in this forum dealing with how to stay safe while downloading. My original thought was to have a thread with a list of private trackers that people downloaded from and were caught doing so. This way we have some sort of gauge as to what trackers are genuinely safer than others (i'm sure most assume that a lot of the popular private trackers are safe (ie:ipt), but let's face it, i'm a straight up amateur/newb and i'm already in some of the most popular trackers and all it took was a matter of days, anyone can get in to most of these so are they truly safe?).

I don't know, just a thought. I figured that since the anti-piracy movement seems to be getting stronger year after year, it's only a matter of time before more and more of us start getting letters from our isp and possibly even severely fined. My intention is to try and make things as safe as possible for all of us.

I apologize if my idea is too far fetched or not even practical, but it was just something i'v been thinking about since getting heavily involved in this site and a few private trackers.

let me know what you guys think...In a kind manner (:

this sound more like a question then a suggestion.

I believe that a tracker that only has very few member ( <2500) is safe.

Trackers above >10,000 is not so safe.

IPT really not safe very one can get in, a fed can get invite in matters of seconds.

Lol, no. It was never meant to be a question and quiet honestly i'm not even sure my wording implied that it was. Anyhow, as I stated it's just a suggestion. Take it for what it is or don't.

I'm sure a lot of people feel safe using private torrents if

i was thinking the same thing about that above site. i had a machine get blocked from the network, most likly from a new released movie a month back.

One problem I can see with this is that rules and regulations regarding copyright and whatnot are different for every country, city, etc. What might have happened to one user in the US in regards to receiving threatening letters and emails from their ISP will probably not happen in say Canada.

And in all honestly, how many times have you heard of anyone getting a letter from their ISP, or even getting fined in the area you live in?

even though it kills the spirit of torrenting, the safest way to download stuff is to download and not seed. limit your upload to a minimum and when the torrent is done, stop it. most of the problems in the us are related to distributing copyrighted materials, not necessarily downloading them.

Also, you are referring to the us mostly, right?

Well I actually attend a University in the U.S that is known for sending students letters and even fining them, this is because my University is quite large and we've drawn the attention of many companies for torrenting their material over the last decade. From what I read, just last year over a 1000 students received letters for torrenting and and handful were fined an extremely excessive amount... So to answer your question redmamba, yes I do know quite a few people who have been caught torrenting.

I'm not referring to the U.S only, but to all of us in general.

I figured a thread that had some basic information such as the name of a private tracker and how many people admittedly received a letter for torrenting some type of material from that site (as well as what type of material) would seem pretty helpful for all of us. I know it would be a slow building process, but after people start adding their experiences to it then we can truly see which trackers are safest and which aren't.

Also, I don't see how this deals with differences in country laws and what not, this would just be a general thread, we can also include the Country in which the people where caught (that way there is no fear to use a particular tracker if only Americans or Britains or whoever are being targeted)

Well I work for a medium sized ISP (~100k users) in eastern Europe. We receive emails on a daily basis (~200-300) about people downloading different stuff from various trackers (most, if not all, are public trackers like tbp and mininova). We have been instructed to delete said emails and take no actions as the US law does not apply here. I also know that most ISPs around here have the same policy. The only fines in my country were given for selling illegal copies of copyrighted material, not owning or downloading. The police isn't able to get a legal warrant to search a persons home or fine someone based on the stuff he downloads. Companies are regulated more strictly, but for the average user, it's no problem at all.

I wasn't aware that threatening letters were so rampantly given out.

Another thought though, would you really want to advertise the fact that you're continuing to use torrents even after you've received a cease and desist order? Sure, you could say that you are not downloading anything copyrighted, but if you've already got a record, who's going to believe you?