Comment on HBO Max’s Password-Sharing Crackdown Will Start in Earnest in September

• FauxLiving@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A hosted server that exists to run bittorrent (and other things). Usually these are managed by the host so you don’t need to know anything about managing a server. You just get a web interface to install and configure apps and credentials to connect to your FTP server.

  The advantage is the server is usually located in a datacenter with incredibly fast and cheap bandwidth while also being in a country that doesn’t care much about US copyright.

  You can get cheap ones for like $5/mo with tiny storage. These are basically so they can download from Bittorrent and you can copy the files to your PC (using something like SFTP or rsync). This is a better, imo, option than torrenting via a VPN and protects you from your ISP/government determining that yoy use BitTorrent.

  You can pay a bit more for other features too. I have more storage, more upload bandwidth and the ability to run streaming apps (Jellyfin and Plex) which don’t count against my upload bandwidth.

  The better torrent sites are all private and, generally, having a seedbox is a requirement for membership. So it also allows you access to higher quality sites with better seeded torrents.

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  • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s worth it to include a couple extra points on the current ‘meta’ of seed boxes. A lot of these servers that people set up to serve as an inbetween to torrent then watch via jellyfin etc - they are being set up with weak security. Usually read access is left wide open to get all these services working on the same directory where the movies are. They assume there’s a little security through obscurity, but Google WILL manage to index this folder, and now when someone searches for that obscure 90s movie you torrented (with a few fun search arguments like intitle:), they’re now able to access all your downloads.

    Sometimes these seed boxes have bandwidth use limits, where they might charge you if you suddenly use a few dozen TB, which will happen if you’re showing up on Google!

    If they don’t have bandwidth limits, you still might land in hot water with your hosting co because you’re being a little loud with copyright infringement. You’re showing up on Google.

    If you’re not too worried about either of these things, go ahead and be a hero, leave that shit wide open because…

    If hosting a seedbox is way over your head or budget, just know a lot of them are left wide open for you to grab bits and pieces with near zero risk.

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  • SloppyJoe@toast.ooo ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Not the person asking but I was wondering too. Thanks for the explanation.

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• SloppyJoe@toast.ooo ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Thanks for asking. I was wondering too!

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