
Telegram is the hot new source for pirated content - darkkknight
https://theoutline.com/post/4143/telegram-is-the-hot-new-source-for-illegal-downloads?zd=1&zi=rkiwzdpr
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HenryBemis
> Law-abiding citizens: Please do NOT download. Thank you.

I am not for piracy, but yes, let's all keep using SMS which has been
compromised (and not fixed) for the last 30 years, and let's not use anything
that gives us any security/privacy.

All because some 0.001% of all users are stupid.

Thanks but no thanks Mr theoutline.com

> “Telegram is also very popular here,” a Russia-based channel owner

I remember reading/watching in the news how Rusisa wants to outlaw Telegram,
not because of piracy, but because the gov cannot spy on its people...

Who does this article really work for?

~~~
ska80
> I remember reading/watching in the news how Rusisa wants to outlaw Telegram,
> not because of piracy, but because the gov cannot spy on its people...

It is actually happing now. Telegram can be blocked even today:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=h...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rbc.ru%2Ftextonlines%2F13%2F04%2F2018%2F5acf76109a794775685fa03d%3Ffrom%3Dmain)

~~~
chupasaurus
One minute after your comment a court made a decision to block Telegram in
Russia.

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rostigerpudel
Am I the only one who senses a huge bias in this article? Arab writing, citing
Russians, telling "law-abiding" citizens not to download. Everything seems to
be designed to scare away the "good American people".

Also...yes, you can transfer files over IMs. Yes, having good encryption
protects everyone. Duh, where is the news? Maybe that's part of why the
article feels extremely sensationalist to me.

EDIT: > "It's actually a challenge to use Telegram and not run into these
sketchy groups."

Well, it's a challenge to use ANY messaging and not run into sketchy stuff.
Just take a look at your Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whatever
timeline...

~~~
topmonk
> Also...yes, you can transfer files over IMs. Yes, having good encryption
> protects everyone. Duh, where is the news? Maybe that's part of why the
> article feels extremely sensationalist to me.

According to the article, you can upload as many files as you wish, each up to
1.5G in size to be hosted and shared publicly by telegram and you can do so
anonymously. No other IM system allows for this.

~~~
rostigerpudel
Thank you for pointing that out. I was not aware that the content is actually
stored on Telegram's servers. The first example picture looked like typical
link-sharing in some IM channel and I kind of overlooked the download buttons.

Still, that does not change my critique of the article's style.

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aijoe
Visiting this article prompted my virus scanner to protect me from a bitcoin
miner trojan.

[http://www.sunbeltsecurity.com/ThreatDisplay.aspx?name=Appli...](http://www.sunbeltsecurity.com/ThreatDisplay.aspx?name=Application.BitCoinMiner.ZF&tid=5226158&cs=48575A50A6638D4FD65136FCB1BCCC16)

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sidkhanooja
First time I have ever seen this actually being discussed online.

Twenty or so of my friends of friends use Telegram. _None_ of them use it for
mundane things such as chatting. You name the content, you have a channel for
it, ergo you have direct download links for it.

But how is this any worse than downloading illegal content through torrents
(TPB et al.)?

EDIT: Should have worded this more correctly. I am not a participant in
pirating stuff through Telegram, my friends are; I use it for Android stuff
(Substratum, custom ROM support, etc.).

~~~
lloeki
> Twenty or so of my friends of friends use Telegram. None of them use it for
> mundane things such as chatting.

Alternate anecdata: twenty or so of my friends use Telegram. All of them use
it for mundane things† such as chatting, none for piracy. It hasn't even
crossed the mind.

† We use it as an alternative to Facebook/Facebook groups/Instagram/Messenger.

~~~
thecatspaw
The only thing I've done on telegram remotely related to piracy was moving a
(admitedly torrented) video from one machine to another.

Use it daily for communication

~~~
Akujin
I didn't consider using it for piracy cause I didn't even know Telegram had
groups. Heh. Talk about drawing attention.

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meerita
When you don't offer all the content to an affordable price and availability,
you get others doing that for you.

~~~
romanovcode
How about "when you don't offer content". For example, netflix outside of U.S.
is ridiculously low on content.

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emilfihlman
Is this article satire?

>Law-abiding citizens: Please do NOT download. Thank you.

Is this in jest or not?

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bligh____
Why is this vewed as an issue ? Copyright law is clearly law created by and
for the corporations. Because real would concepts, such as stealing, do not
really apply to the digital word. If you think of , say a movie as bread and
say Netflix and a baker, then pirating a movie will be the same as buying a
bread from the baker, make infinite copies of it and distribute them freely,
it is not the same as stealing bread.

I don't see how is this wrong. Broken buisness models, which did not account
for the web and lobbying made copyright what it is today, it's not a law which
I feel morally aligned to.

~~~
HenryBemis
I agree with you, except for the fact that I have a couple of apps in the
Apple Store and I wouldn't like someone copying and distributing freely my
apps, and having 100,000 people enjoying my app while I collect only $1.

That said, we fought to have DRM-free material, not for piracy purposes, but
for ease-of-use. Let's please not lose this Right because of some thieves.

~~~
barking
[OT] And when your app only costs a dollar to begin with, then people feel
justified to pirate it, because it's basically worthless crap anyway or you'd
charge more.

~~~
Void_
So it’s okay to steal chewing gum because it’s cheap and probably crap?

~~~
bligh____
No you don't steel anyting. You go to a guy who has bought the gum, and he
somehow clones it and gives you the clone for free. This is not steeling, it
sound more like a way to end word hunger.

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sschueller
Isn't this an issue with any chat app that permits groups and bots?

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ersh
Wow I did not know about that. I will go and check it out.

I don't quite understand how Telegram can host the content. If it is just
distributing the links, it does not count.

~~~
carlacheers
Telegram lets you upload content directly on the platform -- as long as the
file size is under 1.5GB. Once you have uploaded the stuff, you can share it
with others, who only need to tap on the download button to directly get the
file on their device from Telegram's servers.

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mrtksn
Doesn't it also mean that Telegram is a database of copyright infringing users
associated with a phone number and all their actions cryptographically
signed(can't claim you did not shared/viewed something)?

You can argue if the copyright laws are good or bad but infringing these laws
un-anonymously seems needlessly risky to me.

~~~
whywhywhywhy
Never understood the logic of a privacy focused app asking for a phone number
at all, let alone requiring one.

Really not a fan of how the phone app store market has normalised this.

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animeseinfeld
Here's a
[video]([https://twitter.com/refsrc/status/984643353768685568](https://twitter.com/refsrc/status/984643353768685568))
-- by the reporter who wrote the story -- which shows the widespread of the
issue.

~~~
bligh____
"issue"

~~~
Asooka
Piracy is a real issue. It disrupts the money flow towards media distributors
and artists, and thus weakens the economy.

~~~
Sacho
Er, how does it weaken the economy? The money that the corporations don't get
doesn't actually vanish in a puff of smoke, it's still in posession of
economic actors, who either purchase something else or invest it in a
bank/stock.

What it does is reduce the profit of those corporations, which _may_ make
their business unsustainable and lead to _this_ market shrinking, which _may_
cause economic _instability_ while people reorganize their effort towards
another market. Those are all hypotheticals though, because the industries
affected by piracy are all growing fairly rapidly.

Does competition weaken the economy? There's plenty of examples(e.g. computer
hardware) where competition has eroded profit and changed the market dynamics,
especially for new entrants. Do clearance sales weaken the economy? Free
samples? Does generic medicine hurt the economy? There's so many cases of
corporations not realizing the profits they might have wanted, but I don't see
how they _weaken the economy_.

~~~
Asooka
Well my friends who pirate just hoard the money they would otherwise be
spending. If you're at the point where spending on entertainment would come
out of money, that you would otherwise spend on something more worthwhile, you
shouldn't be watching movies and listening to music in the first place! You
should be working and bettering your economic position!

Not everyone can afford to have fun and that's ok. Some people's place in life
is to be workers.

~~~
milesvp
Lol. Do they keep their hoarded money under a matress? If it's in a bank
account it's being actively used. It actually doesn't matter whether the money
is in your friend's bank account or some corporate bank account, the money is
still being lent out, and used to grow capital. It's fundamental to how
fractional banking works.

As for people affording to have fun, my experience is that the working class
aren't using entertainment to have fun, so much as they're using it to dull
the pain and tedium of a fairly shitty existence.

I tend to agree that one should tend to work to improve one's life, but never
forget that actively finding content to watch is work. And having access to a
large library of digital media is something no amount of money could afford
100 years ago. And lets not forget how cheap super computers are that even
homeless people tend to have one in their pocket. So, yeah econonic position
matters, I guess.

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lunactic
But why would you even download files through something like Telegram?

This looks like the perfect distribution network for any kind of viruses etc.,
so wouldn't you just be better off going through TPB or other torrent
services?

~~~
scotty79
Article mentions that web is just too complex and ridden with ads. Telegram is
simpler. One click download.

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adamnemecek
Any Channel recs? Is there anything that’s hard to get through the standard
means?

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bbbbbbbbbbbb
why usrname dar kkk night ???

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tqkxzugoaupvwqr
Telegram condones piracy to boost their growth. Simple as that.

~~~
jlebrech
you wrote freedom wrong

