[miki123211]

The new architecture of pirate sites, what I call the Hydra architecture, seems pretty interesting to me. There isn't a single site hosting the content, but a group of mirrors freely exchanging data between one another. In case some of them go down, the other ones still remain and new ones can appear, copying data from the remaining mirrors. This is like a hydra that grows two heads every time you chop one off. It's absolutely unkillable, as there's no single group or server to sue.

A more advanced version of this architecture is used by pirate addons for the Kodi media center software. Basically, you have a bunch of completely legal and above board services like Imdb that contain video metadata. They provide the search results, the artworks, the plot descriptions, episode lists for TV shows etc. Impossible to sue and shut down, as they're legal. Then, you have a large number of illegal services that, essentially, map IDs from websites like IMDB to links. Those links lead to websites like Openload, which let you host videos. They're in the gray area, if they comply with DMCA requests and are in a reasonably safe jurisdiction, they're unlikely to be shut down. On the Kodi side, you have a bunch of addons. There are the legitimate ones that access IMDB and give you the IDs, the not that legitimate ones that map IDs to URLs, and the half-legitimate ones that can actually play stuff ron those URLS (not an easy taks, as websites usually try to prevent you from playing something without seeing their ads). Those addons are distributed as libraries, and are used as dependencies by user-friendly frontends. Those frontends usually depend on several addons in each category, so, in case one goes down, all the other ones still remain. It's all so decentralized and ownerless that there's no single point of failure. The best you can do is killing the frontend addon, but it's easy to make a new one, and users are used to switching them every few months.

[MadWombat]

> It's absolutely unkillable

Just like any other distributed system, this is vulnerable to organized take downs and scare tactics. There was a whole bunch of mirrors of Pirate Bay, yet once most of Europe's legal systems adopted the "sharing is theft" mindset, it became pretty much impossible to find one.

[asdff]

But now the main site seems to be bullet proof. There was a time where weekly there would be a new official link. I'm not sure what changed structurally with hosting tbp

[wyxuan]

They just stopped going after it, and focused resources on stopping streaming websites

[sillysaurusx]

I was just in Europe and used piratebay while I was there. The main site didn’t work, but searching “piratebay mirror” found one that did right away.

[haakon]

Here in Norway, ISPs are actually legally obligated to block access to The Pirate Bay. Mirrors work.

[bobongo]

> there's no single point of failure. The best you can do is killing the frontend addon

Single decentralized service, providing access to all content, national and international, free of DRM, for all platforms, for a proper, fair, and non-monopolist price.

That will pull all the users who are willing to pay for content over to the paid service, and those who remained were not willing to pay regardless of what you did anyhow.

[jackcodes]

Usenet

[rollinDyno]

I worry that if this system becames permanent, one in which it is practically impossible to stop piracy, followed by the loss of traditional incentives we might find ourselves in a place where no motivated investor will break even when producing quality and innocuous content.

[jdnenej]

Most of the stuff on scihub was funded by tax dollars

[a1369209993]

"Motivated investors" don't produce quality content anyway; they produce mass-market swill like Twilight or Game of Thrones.

[ausbah]

Most people use sites like these to pirate the "swill" you despite so much.

[ColanR]

In that case, we will just pass around the same old stuff until we get bored enough that we'll actually pay for new stuff.

[rollinDyno]

Some people might decide to pay but the technology will be there to distribute it for free. At this point it would be sort of like a public good with the free rider problem.