Watch the Trackers
 

Just my :2 cents:

If you are finding your content on any torrent sites... before you run off to send the daily DMCAs, load the torrent up, and be sure to grab addresses and information to all trackers included with each torrent.

Sending a DMCA to one site, while 10 others are still tracking the same fileset, doesn't get your content off the share sites.



I officially still blame the tubes, but the torrents take a quick second.

in my opinion, the trackers fuck affiliates just as bad as the tubes. I had #1 placement for a particular program, and was making plenty of sales a day, then one day some fuckstick raped all their content and it was on trackers all over. In no time, I dropped to one sale a week if that many.

Maybe sending a DMCA to the search engine?

Should probably be doing this either way... along with hosts from any sites you find tracking/sharing the torrents... but still need to make sure on each that you are catching them all...

2 Scenarios, You find your content through a google filetype:torrent search, you would...

A. DMCA infringing website, DMCA host, DMCA Google..

B. Open the torrent, Obtain list of embedded trackers, DMCA all infringing websites, DMCA all hosts, DMCA Google...

Option B is a couple minutes extra work, but goes a lot further to actually remove your content from unwanted public access.

I am working with some content providers who did the DMCA reporting for a while but gave it up because they said it was an endless job, and you can never stop the pirates. They also said that those who hunt for porn on the torrent search sites are never gong to pay for it anyway.

Their solution is to just keep making new content, different twist to the content, more girls, more guys and more sex.

So much of the tube traffic comes from torrents.
thats why none of it converts.
Duke

Na you're wrong.. you cant give up the fight.
Duke

It isn't that simple. Look at the torrent demographics - torrents are used disproportionately by younger, more tech savvy surfers who will be able to find the content even if you nuke it from their favorite tracker. These people aren't in the habit of paying for porn, movies, music, or anything else that can be easily downloaded. Except when going by performer name, there is so much substitute content out there, they can steal something else to satisfy them rather than pay for your content.

Tubes are far easier to use than torrents. You search Google, load the page, and click play. Tubes kill sales because the people who would have paid ended up finding it for free, as compared to the torrent users, who specifically seek out illegal downloads knowing they are free. To many paying customers, the hassle of finding and using torrents isn't worth the cost of a membership, let alone a trial.

Besides, tubes host stolen content, which makes for a much easier complaint. Torrents merely link to stolen content, which is legal in many countries.

Unless you've purged your content from every tube with a respectable level of traffic, I don't know why you would go after torrents/rapidshare.

How about tracing IP's of the seeders? I'm sure not all are using a proxy.

What do you hope to accomplish by sending a scary letter to what is probably some broke 19 year old kid? If you have a seven figure war chest, you might be able to cause some fear like the RIAA was able to do. Short of that, the best you can hope for is to get the thief to quit torrenting for a few months.

Even if you start going after the seeders, you won't get them all. The torrent will remain alive.

All of that work probably won't stop any lost sales. It will cost you a lot of time or money to accomplish what amounts to nothing more than making a point based in principle.

If you want practical results, start flooding illegal tubes with DMCA takedown notices, then proceed upstream to their host, then to that host's upstream. If you can make illegal hosting of your content a problem for well visited tubes, it will keep your content from proliferating there.

Tubes are what is killing sales. Torrents/newsgroups/rapidshare/IRC have been around much longer than tubes, and we never saw a huge falloff from them.

Focus on getting content down from where your otherwise paying customers might be getting it for free. Torrents are not the number one priority there. Plus, most torrent sites and seeders generally do it for free or costs only, but the tubes are making big profits from the theft. If you can help the community reduce the profitability of the illegal tubes, then there won't be nearly as many of them.

Yeah, I agree that the tubes are a huge scourge, but myself, personally, have seen a hit from torrent sites. My sites are mainly pornstar and dvd directories which used to do really well. I still have the same SE listings as I did a few years ago, but now my direct competition in the SERPs are torrent sites with the same dvd titles and such.

From what I've seen, people who share on torrents, specifically the ones doing the ripping and seeding, are doing it solely for internet cred and think of themselves as "collectors" doing others a service. Most have no monetary gain from it at all, it probably takes an awful lot of work for some of the bulk that people can release.

I feel that if you made an example of a few of these people it could send a message. Check out http://www.wp-board.com/ to see what a bit of detective work did to shut down a board trading via RapidShare and other such sites. Not only did they get ownership of their domains, but have hit their uploaders with a series of monetary penalties and the ones who haven't settled will be taken to court soon.

I think fighting this is a total uphill battle that is probably just a huge waste of time. Unfortunately it would be like fighting the napster battle all over again. The sponsors need a new route. A new avenue. Something that can't be just stolen. Maybe more live content? Maybe more real interaction with customers?

I don't know the answer here, but maybe someone does. It would be in the industries benefit if we collaborate on alternative ideas rather then just keep going after the pirates.