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kamkazmoto

kamkazmoto

Joined
Sep 14, 2002
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My daughter wants to download songs and movies to her ipod and came upon the site Isohunt that will allow her free access to songs and movies. She has to download DitComet in order to make the thing work and I thought I would ask before I let her download a strange program. There is another site called limewire for music and movies. Anyone here know anything about these sites or can they suggest a better place for songs and movies. If you think that the reply should be private can send me a personal message or email me. My email address is on my profile. Thanks
 
Well, it's illegal... and the program is Bitcomet. Bitcomet is a client for downloading torrents. Technically, with torrents, you aren't getting the song or whatever from the site, but from others sharing and downloading it. Limewire isn't a site, it's also a program, and a network people share files on. You should also know that she may come across adult content using both of these.
 
The fact that it is illegal is enough for me. Thank you for the information and thank you Gollnick for the enlightening thread. Mods please close this thread.
 
If one wishes to indulge in file-sharing, :rolleyes: one should remember that occasionally viruses, trojans, or other malicious software might be included with what appear to be legitimate files.
Scan everything before opening.

In some cases, such as long-out-of-print games, the various FTP networks may be the only way to obtain a copy.
 
kamkazmoto said:
The fact that it is illegal is enough for me.
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Beyond legality there are the higher issues of ethics and morality. The fact that your daughter is involved makes this even more significant. Far to many of today's youth are growing up in a culture of stomach-thinking.

The stomach thinks only about its own wants and "needs," about what fills it up and makes it feel good.

Too many people these days have adopted a lifestyle centered around the stomach-driven mantra of, "If it feels good to me, then I should do it... without any thought or concern about others."

Technology sometimes promotes and accelerates this because it makes things easy and convenient. Pornography is a good example of this. In the "good old days," a person wanting this sort of thing had to go to a seedy establishment in a bad part of town; for most it was not easy, clean, or convenient. Today, one pushes a few buttons on the TV remote or clicks a few links with a mouse, and there it is delivered to your living room TV or PC quickly and cleanly and conveniently. But does new-found convenience make it right? Of course not.

This raises the ever-greater need to teach children to think with their heads and not with their stomachs. Just becasue something immediately gratifies your stomach's desires does not make it right. It's up to the brain to step in and make that distinction. It's up to the brain to say, "that is illegal or unethical, or immoral." That's higher-level thinking and children have to be taught it. Our instant-total-gratification popular culture of consumerism does not teach this. It is up to responsible parents like Mr. kamkazmoto to teach this to them.

In this day and age of technology which can deliver so much instant-total-gratification, responsible parents have to teach children that just because something is possible, just because it is clean and easy, just because other people are doing it, just because it serves their own selfish desires, doesn't make it right.

Our stomach-thinking popular-culture teaches children that in order to be a happy person, a popular person, a good person, you have to wear the right designer cloths. Oh, and you can get knock-off copies that look just like the real thing on this website over here. Our stomach-thinking popular-culture teaches children that in order to be a happy person, a popular person, a good person, you have all the right songs on your MP3 player. Oh, and you can download them all for free from this website over here. Our stomach-thinking popular-culture teaches a corporate CEO that he needs a thousand-dollar shower curtain to be happy and successful. Oh, and you can get that by just doctoring these books a little... never mind what it will do to your employess and your investors because what matters is what's hanging in your bathroom. And our stomach-thinking popular-culture teaches a congressman that he needs a yacht and house full of antique furniture to be happy and successful. Oh, and you can get it by taking these bribes.

In all of these cases, the stomach is given to rule over the brain. The stomach says, "I want those jeans, I want those music files, I want that shower curtain, I want that yacht. And that want justifies any means to get it." and the brain is subjugated to the task of figuring out which links to click on or which books to doctor to get what the stomach desires.

So it is that our stomach-thinking popular-culture makes it more important for parents to teach their children brain-thinking, to teach children to think beyond their own selfish wants and desires and beyond the wants and desires that that stomach-thinking popular-culture imposes on them. Parents must teach children that it is the brain that must rule over the stomach.

Downloading and sharing MP3 files is a good place to start. Parents can start by explaining to children that the fact that you can fill your MP3 player with all the right songs by just clicking on a few links does not make it legal or ethical or morally right to do so. Sometimes, legality and -- more importantly -- ethics and morality demand that we forego what our stomach wants even when it's just a mouse click -- or a briefcase full of cash -- away.
 
Mr. Gollnick has been extremely helpful in educating people in this forum on digital information. I thank him again.
 
As do I. I am afraid that I was blissfully unaware of some of the implications of file sharing until I read KV's thread that Gollnick showed me. It is a long involved issue and My daughter and I had a long talk about it last night. Thank you all.
 
In regards to the software itself, BitComet and other BitTorrent clients are safe programs. BitTorrent stuff is open source, meaning that the community basically keeps the stuff honest. If one person tries to modify the software to do something funny, others can modify it back to being normal.

While it's infamous as a pseudo-file sharing mechanism used for piracy, torrents are becoming more popular as a way for legitimate software and media companies to distribute files without as much strain on their servers (and hence, less money needed on hardware) so it's a good idea to know that torrents are safe if procured from a legitimate distributor.
 
A number of gaming "mod" creators put their files up on Bittorrent. If there are a number of people "seeding" the file, then downloads can be much quicker than with FTP programs like eMule.
In my experience, torrents are more accurate and reliable as well.
 
The BIT is just a fraction of the file. BIT sharing is no different than P2P in the respect that your copying a file or whatever. The legality in court is over if it's now considered intellectual property by P2Ping BITS rather than the whole file.
It's a legal loophole in the wording. BIT sites are already being shut down in droves. PirateBay is a major site that has $$$ backing it up and is one of the last and still largest BIT sites out there.
As for what Simon Yu stated, tampered files can be broken down, built again, and masked just as a virus. It's happening with rootkits exploding in variations as bad as Shredder variants.

Be warned if you venture into any of these "client" programs.
 
There is nothing intrinscally wrong with either bitcomet or isohunt. Bitcomet is a popular program for downloading torrents (distributed downloads where every who downloads participates in uploading the same file for others) and isohunt is a special search engine for looking up torrents.

Of course, people can use such things to share things they shouldn't just as well as to share things they should.

As long as you're supervising the affair, I see no possible reason not to take advantage of what's legally available.
 
Dunhausen said:
There is nothing intrinscally wrong with either bitcomet or isohunt. Bitcomet is a popular program for downloading torrents (distributed downloads where every who downloads participates in uploading the same file for others) and isohunt is a special search engine for looking up torrents.

Of course, people can use such things to share things they shouldn't just as well as to share things they should.

As long as you're supervising the affair, I see no possible reason not to take advantage of what's legally available.
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The programs are only legal until the technology is broken down in court and a decision is made. Typically against them. The fact remains you don't own any music, movies, or whatever. The content or material used to distribute said music, movies, or whatever is technically irrelevant. The companies will drag it out in courts and what you have is masses of people flocking to this or that until the ruling is made. Inevitably they will probably all fold and then what. Your paying for everything, business as usual.
That said, and don't get me wrong, everyone has done some file sharing at one point or another myself included. But it's the internet equivalent of looting a storefront because the glass is broken and people are walking out with stuff. "Hey, well, everyone else is doing it." Safety in numbers appears to be the small guys who downloads here and there, not raising flags. Boasters with ton's of crap to share out over home lines are easy prey to detect. Sound familiar? Etc...
 
The courts can and will shut down companies that work to profit from the proliferation of illegal files--you are quite correct about that.

However, there will be no ruling against bittorrent (which is a protocal, not a program) unless Joe Senator and Joe House Member decide to pass a law specifically outlawing it, anymore then the internet itself is liable to be ruled contraband because of its part in the whole affair.

My entire operating system was downloaded via bittorrent and everything on has been installed from public distributions services--either bittorrent or public ftp servers. All 100% legal and 100% at the desire of those who distributed the content.
 
As I said, a number of companies use bit torrent technology to distribute files legally. Blizzard Software uses a variation of it for patching World of Warcraft. ADV films uses it to distribute promotional videos. Unlike traditional P2P, some companies have found ways to make it profitable for them instead of just whining in courts.
 
There's an old saying that goes, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." And it's true. Similarly, file transferring programs and protocols don't steal; people steal.

There is nothing necessarily evil -- or illegal or ethically or morrally wrong -- about the technology. But there can be and often is legal -- and ethical and moral -- problems with how people choose to use it. And all of this comes from irresponsiblity on the part of the users, irresponsiblity that begins with stomach thinking.

This is why it is as important -- even more important -- for a for a father to teach his child how -- and why -- NOT to download files as to teach how to do it.
 
Simon Yu said:
As I said, a number of companies use bit torrent technology to distribute files legally. Blizzard Software uses a variation of it for patching World of Warcraft. ADV films uses it to distribute promotional videos. Unlike traditional P2P, some companies have found ways to make it profitable for them instead of just whining in courts.
Click to expand...

Understood. My point, similar to Gollnicks, is that the intent for such file transfer protocols needs to be clearly defined. There are tons of ways to transfer files, and 95% of them are legal in their face value. It's the intent and content that makes them susceptible to misuse and/or abuse.

Dunhausen mentioned he was on an OS and apps that are completely downloaded via bit client or whatever. That's fine, but I can pretty safely assume he is not on a Windows or Microsoft platform. If so, then how is it free AND legal? It's free if you're receiving it from someone without charge but that does not make it legal.
 
GFarrell3 said:
I can pretty safely assume he is not on a Windows or Microsoft platform.
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WHAT??? You mean there is an operating system other than Windows? There is software that isn't owned by Microsoft??????
 
Cougar Allen said:
WHAT??? You mean there is an operating system other than Windows? There is software that isn't owned by Microsoft??????
Click to expand...

Yes...it's called Joe's Operating System 85. Not to be confused with Jose's Chupacabra Beta: Mexican Edition which started the whole damn mess.
 
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