r/japan • u/TurbulentTopic39 • 6d ago
BitTorrent porn downloads bring costly surprise for users in Japan
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/bittorrent-porn-downloads-bring-costly-surprise-for-users-in-japan156
6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Icedcoffee_ 6d ago
Or seed boxes loads of them now have streaming capabilities now too….
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u/Penqwin 6d ago
Tell me more, I am new to sailing the seas
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u/Icedcoffee_ 6d ago
Basically it’s a storage / a computer that is hosted in Singapore or other countries. All of your torrent files are held there and then you can do encrypted transfers or just stream. I don’t think I can link the seed box companies here but you can check the seed box sub Reddit or I can dm you.
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u/mindkiller317 6d ago
Whats that sort of service cost? Cheaper than a VPN?
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u/DickRiculous 6d ago
Like starting at 10 bucks a month. You use the seedbox to download and seed your files so you keep strong ratios, then connect to them using SFTP, ideally through your VPN, to download the files. You can set up dockers or Plex and stream directly as well. This creates a layer of obfuscation between you as the downloaded and the seeder since it looks like the seeder is in another country, and your ratios are far better because these systems have insanely fast connections which gets you seed priority.
I will say, it is far more worth it if you’re on private trackers but still has some benefits if not.
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u/redpandaeater 6d ago
Isn't that basically just a VPS in a country with lax copyright laws?
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u/AllisViolet22 6d ago
With a seedbox the files are kept in a different server, not your personal device, in another country. Then you can access the files from your seedbox, with or without a VPN (VPN recommended). So it's an extra layer of security. Even with a VPN, your ISP here in Japan wouldn't be able to see you downloading and seeding torrents -- they would see you streaming content from somewhere like Singapore.
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u/MagicalVagina [東京都] 6d ago
Torbox + stremio , 3 usd/month and you have access to all the movies/series in existence.
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u/NecroCannon 6d ago
They don’t even like piracy like that in Japan, seen comments about it that were negative about pirating anime
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u/Vic_Connor 6d ago
It’s not like “in Japan they don’t like it.”
It’s illegal and carries heavy penalties in MOST of the world.
Eg in the US it’s up to $150.000 for illegally downloading a movie. Per movie.
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u/Alkeindem 5d ago
I wouldn't say in most of the world. Sure, in the US, Western Europe and Japan it is illegal and actively punished. But I assure you it's not heavily pursued in Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and the list could go on. And I don't have proof, but it wouldn't surprise me in most of Asia it's not such a big deal either.
If anyone can add their own grain of salt in the matter pls do since it's an interesting topic
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u/Vic_Connor 5d ago
In principle, all or most of the counties you listed are signatories to the copyright protection laws.
In practice, for crackdowns they target distributors of the stolen content, not yet users.
As a user of stolen files, your risk is mostly with malware and getting your data stolen.
And… be very careful with what you download and watch in Egypt.
My principle is simple — even if it’s unpopular with certain segments of Reddit population.
Don’t steal.
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u/societymike 6d ago edited 6d ago
Or some good private torrent sites with encrypted sharing that block logging ip address.
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u/hobovalentine 6d ago
If they're too cheap to buy whatever digital content they're pirating they certainly aren't shelling out money for a VPN.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar 6d ago edited 6d ago
While there’s always a chance of getting caught downloading content, people after all these years seem oblivious to the fact that by Torrenting they become uploaders of content as well, which is far easier to identify by ISPs and damaging for the IP owners.
I can’t believe people are still doing this and acting surprised when they are caught
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u/L-nk 6d ago
*Selected - Probably the better term than "caught". Some companies pick and chose who to go after. Hence why some may be surprised.
I am surprised this individual was picked from the many others out there who exist. It's usually a wait-it-out-method for the person to amass large quantities of IPs before companies strike so that the "payday" is bigger.
Given that it seems the man was not well versed in doing that, he was probably an easier target to get quickly and attempt to make an example out of because he probably has a lot of accounts/digital paper trail that can easily tie back to him. It wouldn't surprise me if he has a single email address for everything - Speculation on my part though.
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u/domesticatedprimate 5d ago
I mean on top of using a VPN, of course, you should turn off uploading completely when torrenting.
Yeah I know that's 100% against torrent etiquette but sorry guys possible real world legal punishments trump etiquette every single time.
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u/AverageHobnailer 6d ago
And that's why you always turn off uploading in whatever torrent client you're using.
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u/Daph [東京都] 6d ago
you literally cannot completely turn off uploading and still be able to download blocks with the way that bittorrent fundamentally works. Peers wouldn't know what next chunk to send if you don't upload the chunks you already have to the swarm. You can turn off seeding when completed but while downloading you are always uploading
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u/TeaAndLifting 6d ago
At the very least, you can still cap it, significantly.
I don’t know if it’s a thing any more due to ultra fast Internet speeds, but I remember in years gone by m, on 50Mbps connections, uploading at max speed would somehow cause throttling on my home connecting, so I’d cap uploads at like 10KB/s to get max DL speeds and I’d be able to download at the max speed for my connection.
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u/Daph [東京都] 6d ago
sure you can cap it but that doesn't make a difference for the discussion about getting dinged for uploading
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u/TeaAndLifting 6d ago
Without a doubt.
Still, companies tend to subpoena people who distribute industrial levels. I know one thing a lot of torrent users who have been gotten in the past, did, was typically not knowing that torrents keep seeding until you stop it yourself, and would leave it on for weeks/months and be mass distributors, without realising.
Of course, there's always a chance for anyone to get dinged, even for a small uploaded amount, but it's significantly less if it's a <1:1 seed ratio vs a >100:1
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u/AverageHobnailer 6d ago
Last time I torrented was 2010s, but at that time there were setting options in the clients to turn off uploading and/or cap the upload speed such that it was effectively off.
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u/ByDrAxX032 6d ago
Streaming media isn't illegal is it? Or at least is way more difficult to be caught than with this ?
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u/ILSATS 6d ago
I think it's also illegal to direct download or stream (if the source is illegal). However, they don't make any money going after you if you only stream, so they don't care.
If you torrent, however, you potentially can distribute the illegal content to thousands of people. That's when they can get a lot of money out of you.
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u/Stackhouse13 [東京都] 6d ago
I think it’s when you upload and share the file not necessarily download for personally use.
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u/AMLRoss 6d ago
Why do people download porn if you can just stream it for free and not deal with the hassle of torrenting?
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u/airblizzard 6d ago
Streaming is lower quality than torrenting. Also buffering. Also websites get taken down all the time
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u/wrongstep 6d ago
Also you get to keep the content and don't have to looking for it again, no ads or popups, no dealing with crappy websites in general. For people that have everything conveniently set up, it's not any more of a hassle than streaming nowadays.
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u/SudoDarkKnight 6d ago
What a waste of the courts time. Helping scummy porn companies, who themselves are often involved in fairly illegal activities far worse than downloading some porn, punish and chase down some random average people doing frankly nothing wrong.
The article itself says they are simply doing this as a simple and easy way to make money
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u/valcatrina 6d ago
There won’t be any court time. Most people would settle with a lawyer firm. Quick bucks. These downloaders most likely didn’t download one title only. It would be dozens of titles. So you do the math, sue and charge you one by one.
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u/ILSATS 6d ago
Porn companies are bad. But stealing content is also bad. If you steal, you should understand the risk and don't act surprised if you get punished for it.
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u/SudoDarkKnight 6d ago
Sorry I really don't see it as bad. Especially not worth fines like that. There should simply be a small cap of what they can try and get from you at best.
I get it if the person is a massive host and seeder who is also making money off it
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u/ILSATS 6d ago edited 6d ago
If you steal from them and then distribute the content to 1000 other, that's a massive loss of revenue for them. If a video is being sold for let's say 1000 yen, and you distribute it to 1000 other people, then it's equivalent to stealing 3000-4000 bottles of zero drinks. You're lucky that you pay a fee and don't even get serious jail time.
You don't see it as bad? That's fine. Sorry, me and the court disagree with you. Don't act surprised if you get punished and then blame the system.
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u/MrLogicalShirt 6d ago
that's a massive loss of revenue for them.
That's under the assumption that people would be paying for that in the first place. I bet 99% of those people wouldn't have downloaded it unless it was free. Fuck 'em.
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u/Zubon102 6d ago
I'm interested if anyone knows any cases where it did proceed to criminal prosecution? There are dozens of theeads about people getting the disclosure requests, and a lot of people telling them to ignore them, but nobody seems to post updates about what happened.
Is an IP address alone enough evidence for a criminal charge in Japan? I would love to see some example cases.
Multiple people can use a single IP, and WiFi can always be used without permission by others. Do they just simply arrest the account holder?