Boot leg TV shows on the internet

[jim in anchorage]

How do they get away with that? Back a month ago when game of thrones [on HBO] was to show the first episode of the season I went to my favorite TV site and found not just that days episode. but the next 3 up to e4. That's just one show. I watch all the currant TV shows on the internet for free. How can they, who ever they are, beat the copy right laws? 

[cordex]

They don't "beat" the laws really. 

Most aggregator sites post links or iframes to content hosted elsewhere.

The hosting sites are ad-supported, pseudo-anonymous media upload sites. People upload episodes to the media hosting sites and the aggregators link to the content.  If the copyright holder complains, it will be taken down from the host, but people upload the same episode to dozens of sites and often replace the content as it gets pulled down. Makes it time consuming and expensive to pursue.

[Calumus]

Also, be aware that sites that actually stream TV shows are usually hotbeds for all kinds of malware. Soccer fans are my favorite. I've got a bunch of clients who, despite being told repeatedly not to, try to watch every blacked out game online. Its especially fun when they decide to check in on their office PCs during their lunch break. I had one busy week back in 2012 that paid for my dog, a tattoo, and a new Colt Commander. All due to soccer residue.    As for the Game of Thrones 4 pack, they often send out the first 4 episodes of a season for reviewers. Someone who got that advanced copy of GoT released it. That's why there's a blurry spot in all those episodes, someone blotted out the serial number.

[jim in anchorage]

Also, be aware that sites that actually stream TV shows are usually hotbeds for all kinds of malware. Soccer fans are my favorite. I've got a bunch of clients who, despite being told repeatedly not to, try to watch every blacked out game online. Its especially fun when they decide to check in on their office PCs during their lunch break. I had one busy week back in 2012 that paid for my dog, a tattoo, and a new Colt Commander. All due to soccer residue.    As for the Game of Thrones 4 pack, they often send out the first 4 episodes of a season for reviewers. Someone who got that advanced copy of GoT released it. That's why there's a blurry spot in all those episodes, someone blotted out the serial number.

I never saw a blurry spot. All good crisp video. And I watch NFL games all the time on the internet never got malware. So I will not be buying you ammo for that commander.

[RevDisk]

Those sites are malware magnets. They do occasionally find and sue folks who download music and movies online. I admit, back in ye olde college days, it was a bit more reliable and less lawsuit inviting. I do laugh when folks tell me they NEVER get malware from pirating. I'm reminded of folks not using protection during one night stands.

I really don't get it, there's generally half a dozen libraries within 30 minutes that rent DVDs. Most of them have games too these days.

[lupinus]

Wife's BIL streams every pirated movie he can find, with varying levels of success. He also bitches constantly about viri on their laptops. Seriously I think I saw the tops of peoples heads in one that he played in the living room while it was still on theaters.

We traded a laptop to them and through some other trading it ended back in our possession about six months later. It had the longest list of viri, malware, and assorted junk I have ever seen, along with a dvd in the drive we'll just assume their three year old wasn't watching. I'm not sure if I spent more time sanitizing the hard drive or the keyboard.

[RevDisk]

Wife's BIL streams every pirated movie he can find, with varying levels of success. He also bitches constantly about viri on their laptops. Seriously I think I saw the tops of peoples heads in one that he played in the living room while it was still on theaters.

We traded a laptop to them and through some other trading it ended back in our possession about six months later. It had the longest list of viri, malware, and assorted junk I have ever seen, along with a dvd in the drive we'll just assume their three year old wasn't watching. I'm not sure if I spent more time sanitizing the hard drive or the keyboard.

 

Sterilizing the laptop should have been an hour long process. Reformat and reinstall OS. Ok, sanitizing the keyboard, quite a bit longer.

[lupinus]

Sterilizing the laptop should have been an hour long process. Reformat and reinstall OS. Ok, sanitizing the keyboard, quite a bit longer.

I'm stubborn and resist the reinstall option as much as possible.

[Ben]

Sterilizing the laptop should have been an hour long process. Reformat and reinstall OS. Ok, sanitizing the keyboard, quite a bit longer.

It'd take me longer than an hour. Somebody hands me a seedy laptop like that, and I'm gonna be paranoid and DBAN it before I do an OS reinstall. Even the one pass redeploy setting in DBAN can take an hour to run, depending on HD size.

[RevDisk]

I'm stubborn and resist the reinstall option as much as possible.

Whatever makes ya happy, just wanted to make sure you knew that likely didn't remove all the viruses.  Ben is correct, DBAN and OS reinstall only way you know you removed the virus.

[Mannlicher]

seems like the solution is to have a dedicated lap top to pirate your illegal downloads, and just wipe it often.

[jim in anchorage]

seems like the solution is to have a dedicated lap top to pirate your illegal downloads, and just wipe it often.

I honestly never have a problem and have been doing this for years.

[Ben]

I honestly never have a problem and have been doing this for years.

Well, that you know about. Lots of malware can sit in the background and do its thing without drawing attention to itself. You wouldn't know it unless you did a thorough scan with multiple detectors.

[jim in anchorage]

Well, that you know about. Lots of malware can sit in the background and do its thing without drawing attention to itself. You wouldn't know it unless you did a thorough scan with multiple detectors.

What is "it's thing"? I honestly don't know.

[Ben]

What is "it's thing"? I honestly don't know.

The guys who know IT better than me can give you a long list, but some examples are: stealing your contacts for spammers, tracking where you go on the interwebz, setting you up as part of a bot net (a bunch of computers unaware they're being used to forward spam or viruses (among a host of other unsavory things)), to keylogging your passwords. For starters. :)

[Ben]

seems like the solution is to have a dedicated lap top to pirate your illegal downloads, and just wipe it often.

I have been in the habit over the last few years of just keeping a virtual machine open. While I will still go to sites like APS and other known entities on my physical machine, I'll use the VM for web browsing when I'm not sure where links will take me*. If the VM gets infected, it's a quick and easy nuke and reinstall. If I was going to really seedy sites though, I might be inclined to use a separate physical machine on a guest network.

*Which I actually need to be doing more around here, given the recommendations that show up on my Amazon account after clicking on links that some of you jokers post.  

[jim in anchorage]

The guys who know IT better than me can give you a long list, but some examples are: stealing your contacts for spammers, tracking where you go on the interwebz, setting you up as part of a bot net (a bunch of computers unaware they're being used to forward spam or viruses (among a host of other unsavory things)), to keylogging your passwords. For starters. :)

Well they can have my passwords. Last I looked my bank balance was -1.63 dollars. I never ever open anything like "you need this plug in" Don't download anything, just stream.

[RevDisk]

seems like the solution is to have a dedicated lap top to pirate your illegal downloads, and just wipe it often.

Theoretically, I'd use a laptop with a generic USB wifi dongle. Virtualize the OS, snapshot the sterile OS, download to USB device, blow out snapshot when done.

Or use a live disk, which is probably easier for a home user. 

The guys who know IT better than me can give you a long list, but some examples are: stealing your contacts for spammers, tracking where you go on the interwebz, setting you up as part of a bot net (a bunch of computers unaware they're being used to forward spam or viruses (among a host of other unsavory things)), to keylogging your passwords. For starters. :)

Well they can have my passwords. Last I looked my bank balance was -1.63 dollars. I never ever open anything like "you need this plug in" Don't download anything, just stream.

I know this is going to sound judgmental, but you are engaging in illegal and risky activity. Copyright infringement is against the law. It's not really justifiable either when you have libraries. Plus Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, etc. Heck, YouTube has plenty of free content. You could be sued, which would drive your bank balance quite a bit below -1.63. Ignoring what malware can do to you (everything Ben said, plus plenty more like identity theft), you could help infect other machines, or contribute to botnets. Sometimes you don't have to worry about the bullet with your name on it, but rather the one that has "To Whom It May Concern". There is no justification other than "My wants are more important than anything else."

Your life, dude.

[Phyphor]

Sterilizing the laptop should have been an hour long process. Reformat and reinstall OS. Ok, sanitizing the keyboard, quite a bit longer.

Depending on the make and model of laptop, sometimes just outright replacing the keyboard makes more sense... 

[Blakenzy]

But malwarebytes no-worky?? 

[Balog]

Wife's BIL streams every pirated movie he can find, with varying levels of success. He also bitches constantly about viri on their laptops. Seriously I think I saw the tops of peoples heads in one that he played in the living room while it was still on theaters.

We traded a laptop to them and through some other trading it ended back in our possession about six months later. It had the longest list of viri, malware, and assorted junk I have ever seen, along with a dvd in the drive we'll just assume their three year old wasn't watching. I'm not sure if I spent more time sanitizing the hard drive or the keyboard.

 

[Balog]

Also, don't we have some kind of forum rules about not promoting illegal activity? I seem to recall getting smacked just for making rope+lamp post jokes before.

[HeroHog]

The reason it takes ME so long is that I uninstall all the bloat-ware and install all the drivers/apps he needs as well as setting up all his passworded sites as he can't. It takes most of a day or more to download all the Winders updates and config everything on the laptop.

[HeroHog]

But malwarebytes no-worky??  

No, not on some things.

[Calumus]

It takes most of a day or more to download all the Winders updates and config everything on the laptop.

Grab this, then just update it occasionally and throw it on a thumb drive.

http://download.wsusoffline.net/