Kickass is gone!

I have too much stuff to watch on Netflix and Shomi, so I don't have time for torrents.

 

I don't even use torrents for anime anymore. Crunchyroll has nearly everything I'd want to watch these days.

 

Even Netflix has more anime than I'll ever watch.

I've actually stayed away from anime because it would probably double my "watch list." I'm not sure it's going to last. I have Sword Art Online and Knights of Sidonia on there already.

It really is an embarrassment of riches.

 

BL stuff has come and gone off of Crunchyroll in the past, but it looks like those days are over. Phew.

 

If you're looking for legal anime streams BECAUSE.MOE - anime streaming search engine is highly useful.

Netflix has really beefed up their anime selection. They still don't have the volume of the dedicated anime streaming sites but they do have a few good exclusives (in Canada, anyway).

Baraka_guru, you need to add (or not add I guess) Death Note to your list. Also maybe Attack On Titan and Soul Eater.

 

When I was still using bittorrent the accepted wisdom was that if you wanted to avoid problems a private tracker was best. Getting an invite can be a bit of a trick, though. I'm sure all of my accounts must be defunct by now.

Sooner or later something will pop up to replace kickass torrents. Then it, too, will get to big, and will go away. So the circle of piracy goes.

 

This is still the common solution, per my friend who knows way more about this stuff than I do.

 

eden's solution is my solution for the handful of things I can't get a hold of legally anymore. A binary newsgroup subscription is cheap and automation makes it easy.

I googled around earlier and apparently torrentleech is allowing signups with code KICKTHATASS . I don't know if they're good or bad but it's an option.

 

I use astraweb. They're less than $10 per month if you pay quarterly.

My setup is a bit different because I don't use couch potato/plex so I'll let @lordeden comment on that.

My setup is actually due for replacement since the daemon I use to find and and queue stuff is actually no longer maintained, but it still works and I'm lazy.

 

I do private trackers. Why? Because I find it easier and more trustworthy over time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Downloading copyrighted content is questionably legal (location depending). Uploading copyrighted content is definitely illegal, at least in most parts of the world.

Torrents are just the medium. A torrent isn't itself illegal anymore than a VHS tape is.

 

Streaming torrent content is currently up for debate since it doesn't down,lad and store it is a new grey area.

 

I definitely understand this sentiment. For the record, I pay for content whenever it is practical to do so. But let's play devil's advocate here.

I kind of feel like the TV and film industries need to get their shit together when it comes to digital content. Gabe Newell famously said that piracy is a service problem, and then proceeded to (more or less) solve it in the PC gaming industry. iTunes and streaming services like Spotify have basically killed mp3 piracy for all but the most dedicated of collectors. Kindle and Kobo make books easy to buy and people buy them. What the hell is up with television?

I mean, sure, you've got Netflix, if you don't mind watching your content a year or more after release. There's Hulu, if you're American. The rest of the world can bite it. Even when you pay directly for content sometimes it doesn't get the same release schedule as broadcast television. I've bought seasons on Google Play and had to wait weeks after broadcast for the new episodes to show up. This is content that I am paying directly for. There is no more blatant way available to me to support the content creators. And I still get treated as second rate. What the fuck?

What's needed is some form of online digital distribution that lets people see first-run content either as it airs or shortly after, and lets them do it in a way that is convenient to them. You give someone an app that runs on their computer, phone, tablet, game console and/or smart TV and allows them to watch the shows they want to watch when they want to watch them, and I guarantee piracy goes down enough to not really be a problem anymore. You're not going to win the argument with moral browbeating because people don't see other people behind it. They see HBO or Universal or whatever other faceless corporation, and fuck those guys.

Bottom line is people will pay for more convenience and more access. They will not pay for less convenience and less access. If you cannot make your product more convenient to use legitimately than to steal, you will never beat piracy.