# Sick Beard - Internet DVR?



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

Have you seen or tried this?
Is it legal?


----------



## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Look like a torrent client.


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

Usenet


----------



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Nope, would not be legal. Usenet is extremely old school. I'm sure there are still legit discussion groups, but Usenet and IRC are kind of seedy these days, though like bittorrent do have legit uses.

Some perspective, Usenet got started around 1980. More ISPs that offer Usenet access block the alt groups, or at last the binaries. Very few of those are legal.


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> Usenet is extremely old school.


Looks like this group want to new skool it. :lol:


----------



## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Yeah, GigaNews seems to have become the Usenet Server of Last Resort.


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

djlong said:


> Yeah, GigaNews seems to have become the Usenet Server of Last Resort.


So this product is from Giganews? Is that what you mean?


----------



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

No, but Giganews is one of the last premium Usenet providers. You pay between $5 and $25 a month just for access to the newsgroups.


----------



## BodyshotsByDan (May 28, 2011)

There are more news servers out there than just Giganews. I have been a News user since before there were binary news groups. I have been a Giganews premier user for many many years.

News servers are the best way I see to get access to things we in the states usually don't have access to, like Torchwood when it first came out, Many many other BBC shows we don't get here or we get 'remakes' of, like the Office, etc. I don't condone or support using it for pirating software or movies, and I would REALLY like a better (ie more legal  ) way of watching other countrie's shows, like a Real BBC1-whatever feed, Sky (I was REALLY annoyed that the US had to wait a year for Terry Pratchett movies), etc. I would Soooooooooo pay for that, either IP based or sat based.

Years ago it was also the fastest way to get linux isos and floppy images (REAL old days). Now not so much 

I also used to use it a lot for DVR additions for shows that all aired at the same time, or for HD versions of shows I only get SD feeds for (The Local for CW is only SD on dish, and in my old house I couldn't get an OTA feed to save my life). With the advent of Hulu and more broadcasters streaming current shows in HD I don't use it Nearly as much.

There is also the tons of free "Adult" materiel if you are into that. I used to be the Abuse manager for a local ISP, had a call one day from some guy about the news group server. He said (in a thick southern accent) 'So I was on the news server..... and I was.... a .... lookin around and ...... uhhh..... Did you know they have people havin "relations" with "Non-humans" (statement censored for the sensibilities of others reading this) on there!?!?!? Is that stuff legal?!?' I told him no it was not legal in the USA and that we monitored and logged all access to the server incase the authorities asked for info (not true but it was nice to scare him away from that stuff) 

I find News groups MUCH faster, safer, and cleaner than other ways of getting stuff, ie IRC or torrenting. I once torrented 'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' (or whatever it is called), while @ work (at an ISP). I opened it up and it was most certainly NOT Charlie Brown, and there was no pumpkin, but a LOT of pumpin. Never ran into that on the News Groups.


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> No, but Giganews is one of the last premium Usenet providers. You pay between $5 and $25 a month just for access to the newsgroups.


Not "Just for access". You can get access from many sources.
What they do is provide more retention and better speeds.
I pay Forte $2.95/month. I assume they're reselling Giganews access.
It's well worth it.

As the above stated, I can get HD versions of shows from BBC and other sources, and it's way faster and cleaner than the methods used by the masses.


----------



## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

Marlin Guy said:


> As the above stated, I can get HD versions of shows from BBC and other sources, and it's way faster and cleaner than the methods used by the masses.


Is it legal to get these videos in this manner?


----------



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

klang said:


> Is it legal to get these videos in this manner?


No, it's no different than a torrent in that regard.


----------



## TBlazer07 (Feb 5, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> No, it's no different than a torrent in that regard.


Very true, but you get what you want 200x faster and the chances of Sony tagging you are slim to none so IF you are going to do it, may as well do it better, faster and safer. For me it's the only place to get Madmen in HD and was worth it just for the ability to download it in less than 8 minutes vs. torrent which could take a week.


----------



## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

TBlazer07 said:


> Very true, but you get what you want 200x faster and the chances of Sony tagging you are slim to none so IF you are going to do it, may as well do it better, faster and safer. For me it's the only place to get Madmen in HD and was worth it just for the ability to download it in less than 8 minutes vs. torrent which could take a week.


Instead of Sony it will be your ISP coming after you in the future.

You really think stealing is OK?


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

If I already subscribe to a channel that has the program, and I choose to get that program via the Internet instead, I don't see the problem. Now that's an ethical view, not a legal one.
Kind of like how lying to Congress is illegal, but Congress lying to us is just how it is.

As far as ISP's go, unless you're uploading to Usenet, I would think they would be overstepping by monitoring your downloads.


----------



## BodyshotsByDan (May 28, 2011)

Marlin Guy said:


> If I already subscribe to a channel that has the program, and I choose to get that program via the Internet instead, I don't see the problem. Now that's an ethical view, not a legal one.
> Kind of like how lying to Congress is illegal, but Congress lying to us is just how it is.
> 
> As far as ISP's go, unless you're uploading to Usenet, I would think they would be overstepping by monitoring your downloads.


ISPs can't sniff SSL encrypted data streams, which is what many good news providers provide. And I agree with Marlin

And I Agree with Marlin. I hate that I can only get CW in SD, I want to watch Supernatural in HD! So me downloading it is just like me watching it on my DVR. I see no commercials. Now I know tat really isn't true, in that even watching it on a DVR they still get the viewer hit, though MUCH lower viewer count than a 'live watcher', THOSE count well for advertisers. But Hey. It's a moral quagmire. If they gave me a better option that was 'legal' I would do that.

And I agree with the other above comment, ya I could torrent it, but NNTP is SOO much faster. I get 4MB/s (megabytes not bits) from my news server on a normal day, can't get anywhere Near that on Torrent, especially for not as popular shows. Faster/Safer (safer content and safer mode)/Better quality on average.


----------

