this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
151 points (94.7% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

54565 readers
440 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others



Loot, Pillage, & Plunder

📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-Fi Liberapay
Ko-fi Liberapay

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Thanks to whoever posted this on reddit. I hope other clients detect and blocking it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I don't understand what's going on. Can someone ELI5?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Torrents are people sharing files with each other, uploading and downloading. Stremio downloads, but never uploads. And now it doesn't want you to know who's using it, because people kept banning it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Got it. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I though that streamio uploads too. Because a few months ago my internet browsing was slow, after I closed streamio the issue stopped.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I dont think stremio does either technically. Stremio it's typically used as a front end application for debrid services. Mainly real debrid, all debrid and premiumize.

I believe the 2 debrids only download, but i think premiumize seeds, but not 100% sure.

That being said if a file gets added to these services it is not constantly leeching like op said. The real debid servers for example will download a torrent and distrubute the downloaded file throughout their cdn, leaving it in their cache for 30 days. I believe each time it is accessed by a user that 30 day clock is reset.

Stremio typically only shows cached torrents in there app so in order for a user to force a download they would need to go to their debrid provider directly and add the torrent causing it to get added to the cache.

Is it bad for the torrenting network, yes because they don't seed, is stremio using up all of seeders bandwidth, probably not

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What if im not using real debrid in streamio?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not 100% sure but since they are free links they wont come from torrents, at least not in the same way. They are being scraped from streaming websites.

Whetger or not the original uploaded got them from a torrent is unknown but they would have just downloaded it once and uploaded so very different in its effect on torrenting.

Those sites have always coexisted with torrents because they are often of low quality whereas torrents are higher quality

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

In Stremio Im using torrent plugins, not streaming websites.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

But to answer your question, if there is a plugin with a torrent client included then it is most likely set up to download the files sequentially to allow streaming but i would assume it is set to turn upload off (so it leeches) because your tv would probably buffer more if it used additional bandwith

If thats the case (not 100%) then that may be why they are trying to block stremio

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Gotcha, i only use the debrid links so my knowledge on this was how cinemahd used to do it in the past

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

My girlfriend got a legal claim for using stremio when her vpn failed which in Germany is only possible if you actively upload something so I'd say it does that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ok, maybe stremio has a torrent client compiled in or maybe a plugin i dont use has one then.

However, if you turn off upload in your torrent client you can still get caught, uploading isnt want triggers it, connecting to peers with your exposed ip triggers

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but afaik downloading in Germany isn't against the law since it's allowed to download a "backup copy" of things you actually own legally so it's pretty much never enforced. The only way people in Germany get sued is for uploading but then a couple of bytes is already enough in many cases

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I can't speak for germany but where i live downloaders dont ever get sued, they just get complaints from isps and if they get too many they may be shut off or have their speed throttled.

Uploaders get sued because its too costly and time consuming to go after the downloaders

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Not using a debrid service in Germany is crazy

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Torrenting is a technology where a network of ordinary people share a file in tiny pieces all together. There's no central server, you connect to one, ten, or a hundred other computers who each give you part of the file.

Torrenting only works if people are uploading the file as well as downloading it. Giving a file to others is called seeding, and taking a file from others without giving back is called leeching. Most people are peers, who take the same amount they give. Ideally, everyone would be a peer, but since some people are leeches, we also need seeders.

I'm not familiar with this stremio app, but if it does what I think it does, then it takes from the network without giving back and it can now pretend to be a different client to sneak onto the network. If enough stremio users watch a show, it'll become unavailable to other pirates.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not 100%, stremio is a front end for a debrid service and the debrid service will download the torrent and add it to their cache and stremio users will access the downloaded file directly from the debrid services' servers.

Only the initially download may cause a slow down of torrents. Idk exactly how they distribute the file to their cdn. If all the servers in their cdn download the same file at 1 time it may cause a temporary slow down of torrents but i would assume they don't download directly on each server and instead download on some close to the requesting user and then use some kind of file synchronization technique to propogate the file through the network.

Their cache is pretty huge and for most shows they already have tons of links cached and wouldn't need to keep downloading very often.

Stremio isn't the first front end for these services and like all the rest of them it will eventually get shutdown too and this will continue long after stremio.

The real.issuein my opinion isnt bandwidth hogging by debrid services its that if everyone migrates to them that the majority of the network will be leechers. With less seeders the remaining seeders will need more powerful computers to support the torrents and if they cant afford the upgrade them the whole system could collapse

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A lot of the shows I watch aren't popular to torrent. Infinity Train got taken down by Cartoon Network, and now it only exists for pirates. So pirates need to seed it so it can continue to exist in any form. Same for Generator Rex. I wanted to watch The Flying Nun, but it ran out of seeds and can't be watched anymore. If a single leech downloads a show on the brink like Generator Rex, it could end up like The Flying Nun. Gone forever. I'm not worried about these popular new releases like Invincible or Loki, I'm worried about media preservation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not so sure that this would hurt those tho. These services would require their to be at least 1 seeder to be able to stream it, so they arent really taking the seeder away. Most likely the seeder dropped.

If anything this would help the seeder by offloading downloading of the show else where and providing a second place for the file. Typically if you see a low seeded content that you like, it would be courteous to seed it after downloading it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Stremio doesn't seed after you download. It downloads, puts on the screen, and throws away.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes, i get that the best option would be for stremio to seed it but i don't see how it would be feasible considering the low storage capacities of tvs.

The reality is i dont think this will kill torturing because leechers have always existed piracy is about providing things for free to others, can we really expect all the people who can't afford to buy the media to suddenly be able to afford a vpn, seedbox, storage?

Piracy is like tor network, volunteers are the backbone but most users are leechers. The network has been going strong for years with leechers and it wont die now

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Just use real-debrid. It acts as a cache for you for $3/month. Leech off someone you pay to leech off.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Not 100% on the terminology. Peers are everyone connected. Seeders have 100% of the file, and leechers don't. Leechers can be someone who stopped halfway and uploads the half they have, or someone who is still downloading, or someone who actually leeches.