Keith Reed
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I will neither confirm nor deny that I have participated in torrenting in the past or present. Though, as a child of the digital age, torrenting is something that has always been in the back of my head.
From my mom drilling “Don’t download anything, we’re going to get viruses” into my head to getting taught about Internet security in my early computer classes, it is known that the almighty virus is the end of a computer’s life. Still, I pushed forward with downloading, against all precautions because of the danger and ease of it.
Kanye West, one of my favorite problematic artists of all time, announced that his newest album, The Life Of Pablo would be released on Feb. 11. There was a promised fashion show and album package, and I could not have grabbed my credit card any faster. This looks like it is a normal occurrence but it definitely is not. I have prided and lauded myself on not paying for any piece of entertainment. This would be the second album that I have actually spent money on, the other being Childish Gambino’s Camp.
Feb. 11 has come and gone; now, it is almost a month later, and I still do not have my album from Kanye. For this reason and others, I am irritated. I was told to use Tidal, which, if you do not know, is an exclusive music streaming service that is attempting to rival Spotify. I refuse.
The next best thing would be to torrent Kanye’s new album. TorrentFreak has reported that it has been downloaded more than half a million times. There are no actual data yet on the official album sales.
It is rumored that Kanye is planning on pursuing legal action against the Pirate Bay, one of the most well known torrent sites. This is not the first time that cases have been brought against individuals (as well as Pirate Bay itself) for illegally torrenting music, movies, and much else.
PC Magazine’s Encyclopedia defines a torrent as a file of metadata that describes the files and the servers that keep track of the users that have parts of the file. One of the most popular torrent clients, BitTorrent, accounted for around 6.3 percent of Internet traffic in 2015, according to Sandvine, a Canadian networking equipment company.
The idea of a torrent makes it difficult to implicate just one person for the crime of piracy. I have received a notice from the DCMA about a copyright violation and the Internet port that downloaded the illegal content was disabled. I was not the person illegally downloading, but it was shocking to have been a recipient of an email like this. It made the issue real instead of a loose threat.
It is almost impossible to name one person in the offense of illegal downloading; there are too many IP addresses in play to finger anyone in particular. The case of Capitol Records Inc v. Thomas-Rasset (2007) was the first file-sharing copyright case in the United States. It resulted in the defendant being found guilty and having to pay $220,000 for the 24 songs that she downloaded. She ended up filing for bankruptcy.
Whether you download one song or an entire catalogue, torrenting is a slippery slope that could possibly land you in court. Torrent and download wisely from now on, because believe it or not, your Internet service providers are watching, and they will tell the government.