England Bans Pirate Bay

[Seth King]

So, I guess Britain passed a new law that will force ISP's to ban the Pirate Bay. We all knew it was coming. I'm kind of glad it hit the UK before the US. I'm sure this will inspire Brits to better develop the darknet so that when it hits the US there will already be an alternative set up, hopefully.

[Distruzio]

What's pirate bay?

[Seth King]

What's pirate bay?

http://thepiratebay.se

[Distruzio]

What's pirate bay?

http://thepiratebay.se

While I appreciate the link, Seth, I still don't know what it is. It looks like a competitor to Google but I doubt a search engine would be banned...

[braindead0]

What's pirate bay?

http://thepiratebay.se

While I appreciate the link, Seth, I still don't know what it is. It looks like a competitor to Google but I doubt a search engine would be banned...

It's a listing site for torrents, pretty much a search engine.  As a lot of people post copyrighted materials in torrents... they decide to 'ban' it.  However pretty much anyone that uses the pirate bay knows how easy it is to work around the 'block'.  It's a political move with very little real effect.

[Distruzio]

What's pirate bay?

http://thepiratebay.se

While I appreciate the link, Seth, I still don't know what it is. It looks like a competitor to Google but I doubt a search engine would be banned...

It's a listing site for torrents, pretty much a search engine.  As a lot of people post copyrighted materials in torrents... they decide to 'ban' it.  However pretty much anyone that uses the pirate bay knows how easy it is to work around the 'block'.  It's a political move with very little real effect.

Ah... and a torrent is something like file sharing? Is it the format the file is shared in?

[Distruzio]

Forgive me for sounding like a twit but I only know how to spend money on the web and enjoy discussion boards. The rest of the net is as wondrous and magical to me as cooking is... which is to say that my culinary expertiseis exhausted at boiling toast.

[Seth King]

Yeah, the Pirate Bay, and other bittorrent indexing sites, is where you go to upload and download all of the music and movies, and other files that you want.

The internet is full of wonderful and empowering goodies out there. We can help make your internet experience much better if you'd like.

Let me start by asking you which operating system you're using, Windows or Mac?

[dpalme]

Honestly, I feel like this is going to be the start of something beautiful. We're going to see more and more better protected sites popping up I think.

[Disengage]

They are going to drive more and more people onto underground networks like TOR... which will, in turn, make these networks more useful.  This will, of course, pull even MORE people into them.

[Distruzio]

Yeah, the Pirate Bay, and other bittorrent indexing sites, is where you go to upload and download all of the music and movies, and other files that you want.

The internet is full of wonderful and empowering goodies out there. We can help make your internet experience much better if you'd like.

Let me start by asking you which operating system you're using, Windows or Mac?

Windows

[Seth King]

Yeah, the Pirate Bay, and other bittorrent indexing sites, is where you go to upload and download all of the music and movies, and other files that you want.

The internet is full of wonderful and empowering goodies out there. We can help make your internet experience much better if you'd like.

Let me start by asking you which operating system you're using, Windows or Mac?

Windows

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

[MoreAgain]

They are going to drive more and more people onto underground networks like TOR... which will, in turn, make these networks more useful.  This will, of course, pull even MORE people into them.

I totally agree. When utilities like Tor and pgp become more common place I hold high hopes that people will discover how oppressive their governments are. The genie is out of the bottle. Oh, and I love your comics btw lots of lulz

[Aegidius]

Yeah, the Pirate Bay, and other bittorrent indexing sites, is where you go to upload and download all of the music and movies, and other files that you want.

The internet is full of wonderful and empowering goodies out there. We can help make your internet experience much better if you'd like.

Let me start by asking you which operating system you're using, Windows or Mac?

Windows

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

    I second this.  I switched to Linux at the beginning of this year because a new macbook would have been far too expensive.  The Linux learning curve isn't nearly what it was in the old days; I was able to do most of the things I had with my old computers almost right away, and much more once I learned my way around.  Now, I've actually stopped using my Mac Pro in favor if my Linux laptop.  The Xfce desktop environment (which is what I'm using now, but only one of the many available) is *vastly* more customizable than anything I've used on Windows or Mac.  I could not be happier with Linux, and it cost me $0.00.  As for distributions, I use Debian now, and I've also used Mint and Ubuntu in the past.  All three are great, but I think Mint and Ubuntu are a bit more accessible to a novice.

    I hadn't even thought about any philosophical reasons to use Linux.

    Oh, Distruzio, if you're concerned about not being able to run Windows applications anymore, feast your eyes on this: http://www.winehq.org/about/

[Distruzio]

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

I'll consider it. The only hesitation I have is that I do not use my computer for anything but surfing the web. I am barely literate at computer anything. When I say this, I mean that I am as literate as an 80 year old. I've never been inclined to peak into the IT realm. So I have no idea what value the perks of changing OS's would bring to me, nor would I know how those perks would work.

A friend of mine swears by Ubuntu and has mentioned it before to me. He, like you, mentions the ethical perspective, which I absolutely agree with. On that matter alone, I seriously consider the switch. Aside from that, I'm lost. I've only ever rarely used MSWord and rarely use MSPaint. I use no other programs beyond an occasional (and I do mean occasional) computer game that loses my interest quite quickly.

I see no reason NOT to switch. I'm just afraid I won't know what to do after the switch. You know? What little knowledge I have of Windows I do posses is far from enough to keep me from feeling awed by a person who can retrieve files when I don't know where they saved to.

And yes, I do see the very ironic metaphor between my caution about Linux and the statist dismissal of anarchism. ;p