this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I've been on 1337x, ABC, torrentquest, eztvx, msearch, and pretty much all of the other sites on the megathread, both for "greatest treasures" (the general purpose section) and the movies & TV section specifically. Yet, the show that my wife and I want to watch is nowhere to be found in any of these. We're confused why, as it's not exactly an unpopular show.

Despite it not seeming to exist in a torrent format anywhere, among many other shows, it is forbidden both here and elsewhere to ask for help on finding a specific title. I was just hoping to learn the reasoning why. Is it just because the forum would be flooded with people asking for titles instead of taking the time to dig through the resources? What are people supposed to do when they do dig through the resources then?

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[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Is the Piracy room on Matrix an acceptable place to ask for that kind of stuff? I mean it is End-to-End Encrypted. Even if it isn't allowed there you could always ask someone else via DM on Matrix, is why I highly recommend people make and link their matrix accounts to their Lemmy profiles. You do have to know who to ask of course but these types of vague posts are great for that.

Note: Can't use Lemmy's built-in DMs you need to use Matrix or some other E2EE service, especially if they're going to share direct links to you. Don't use a corporate one like Facebook messenger or Whatsapp which is advertised as E2EE, those are a scam and they break their own encryption.

[–] easily3667@lemmus.org -1 points 16 hours ago

There's no proof of them actually breaking their own encryption.

Further, if that piracy room on matrix is public, it obviously doesn't matter that the communication on it is private. It's still a public place.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 98 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is it just because the forum would be flooded with people asking for titles

This, and it risks the community getting shut down.

If it's really that hard to find, you could give back to the community by purchasing, ripping, and sharing it.

[–] dumblederp@aussie.zone 26 points 1 day ago

I had to do that for a local show lost to time. The both seasons DVD was $15 on ebay.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Shouldn't the instance where piracy community is hosted be in a country where piracy is legal then?

[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 14 hours ago

then you can get countries blocking it by dns….
there’s other, less censorable forums out there.

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I don't think piracy is legal anywhere.

[–] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 day ago

Yeah. Piracy being legal or Piracy not being sanctioned are two entirely different things. Idk about the former, but the latter is the case in many countries.

E.g. downloading and streaming is legal in Switzerland, while it's illegal in the EU. But it's not sanctioned, so nobody cares.

Uploading/seeding is illegal in both regions, thus torrenting copyrighted material is illegal. But Switzerland doesn't really prosecute torrenting, so nobody cares.

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 5 points 23 hours ago

We could purchase an oil rig and host the site in international waters. It worked for that one guy in the 80's.

[–] klu9@lemmy.ca 1 points 20 hours ago

Or hosted in a way that is itself P2P? Like IPFS or ZeroNet?

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 23 hours ago

You can always try 4chan's /r/ board. It's specifically for requesting shit, usually links to pirated content.

Haven't teied using it in almost a decade though, so can't vouch too well for it.

[–] ElectricAirship@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you use qbittorrent, they have a search function built in so you don't have to manually search every site. I have found many shows that were impossible to find on sites because they have odd names.

[–] SilentObserver@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago

I have literally never thought to try that. 😂 Thanks for sharing this! Next time I’m struggling, I’ll give it a try.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 21 hours ago

Maybe you can say the initials? Or what does it rhyme with? Not sure if I'm being \s

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If I really couldn't find something and I was really that desperate, I'd just try to buy it somewhere. Assuming it's also difficult to buy, I'd be looking at online marketplaces and op shops. If pirates are going to keep hiding behind the "piracy is a service problem" line then at some point they do need to admit that paying for the product is actually the more sensible and straightforward option if they have reached a deadend elsewhere.

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If pirates are going to keep hiding behind the "piracy is a service problem" line then at some point they do need to admit that paying for the product is actually the more sensible and straightforward option if they have reached a deadend elsewhere.

Uh, yeah, that's why "piracy is a service problem" was even a thing in the first place. Music is a great example, because you can get nearly every artist on every streaming service.

This is a widely-known fact often acknowledged by most pirate types.

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

What is a widely-known fact? From the "uH yEaH" you sound like you're trying to argue with me but I'm not really sure what your point is. I never said piracy can't be a service issue, what I said is that people who trot this line out literally every single time to defend their pirating should follow through when piracy becomes more convoluted and time consuming than the legal alternative. Many don't, the line has become a convenient catch-all cop out that people hide behind so they can pretend acquiring everything for free makes them some kind of morally superior consumer activist. I wasn't having a go at OP specifically, but the logical conclusion when you get to their point should be to give up and pay or rent through a library or something.

[–] exu@feditown.com 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Get on a few private trackers and make a request

[–] bayesianbandit@lemmy.ca 4 points 23 hours ago

That first part is where I’m stuck lol. I am fine with maintaining a good ratio but have limited bandwidth to pass a big exam or get in with the right crowd socially…

[–] a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If it's hard to find, first i try searching via jackett integration into qbittorrent. if unsuccessful, i go over to xrel.to and search for it there (its a pure information site, don't ask for downloads there pls). You can verify if there has ever been a release of the specific title, and if, you can see the exact name of the release. if you can't find it there too, you can be pretty sure that there never was a release, neither p2p nor scene. if it's newer content, you can try to search later; if its older content, go buy it and upload it yourself (safely!) so the next person doesn't have the same issue.

[–] jbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

if you can't find it there too, you can be pretty sure that there never was a release, neither p2p nor scene.

This is not really true. I tried a few searches of more obscure movies and they don't have releases that are available on multiple private trackers.

That being said, if you can't find a release, the best option is it just to buy a DVD or BlueRay version of it.

yeah, i didn't want to get into the private tracker stuff, since i never used one before; i described pretty much the ressources you have as a "commoner". I am aware that there are many specialized sources out there, where a lot more obscure material is available, but most of those take special effort to gain access to.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 22 hours ago

That being said, if you can't find a release, the best option is it just to buy a DVD or BlueRay version of it.

And then rip it and upload so that the next person doesn't have to.

[–] dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

Apparently xrel.to doesn't always have films listed, IMDb does. I couldn't even find Boefje

[–] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 22 points 1 day ago

one of the big benefits of private trackers is that they have request systems and on the good ones requests are getting filled constantly.

[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sorry, you're not going to find The Duck Factory anywhere. Despite being Jim Carrey's first starring roll, it's just a formulaic 80s sitcom with limited production value and typical period writing.

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I prefer archive.org for stuff like that https://archive.org/details/the-duck-factory

Currently watching King of the Hill there. No ads, no accounts or comments, just plain streaming

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 8 points 1 day ago

8 of 13 episodes are out there. Not great quality, but better than nothing.

[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Have you tried.......

you know,

(cough)

maybe just, ah ....

(air quotes) "heavily implying"

the , ah, you know .....

particular.....

(taps side of nose)

ah, torrent

in

(eyebrow waggle)

ahem,

QUESTION?

Eh?

Ehhhhh?

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

...so you're saying if I do cocaine and we sleep together you'll send me link?

[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 1 points 14 hours ago

Well, anything's possible, I say we give it a try and see what happens.

[–] Vampire@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago

Have you tried https://bt4gprx.com/

Also those streaming sites like yesmovies and moviesjoy often have things the public torrent trackers do not.

[–] BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

After I check the usual torrent sites, if I can't find it on Usenet then I try finding random sketchy streaming sites (just by duckduckgoing title + year + stream) because usually you can youtube-dl them with a little fiddling, then my last resort is a DHT indexer like btdig. That's more risk with viruses but if you're paying attention it's not that hard to avoid, but DHT indexes have lots of ancient stuff so be prepared to wait for seeds if you find it.

Sometimes I also find what I'm looking for on like page 7 of duckduckgo results at archive.org

Edit: also check soulseek - it's primarily for music but you can share any file. I share my entire movies collection and get a constant stream of people downloading from me daily so it seems people search for and seem to also share TV and movies so it's worth a check.

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago

also searching for "title_name" "magnet" is productive as well, either on ddg/ecosia/yandex (using torrent keyword instead brings results as well, but also sketch looking websites. also magnet links don't require registration)

Usenet or check your local library.

[–] bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net 15 points 1 day ago

Copyright. If you say "You can find X at Y" US copyright has gotten so out of control even linking is infringement like hosting, even via magnet link. The megathread is pretty old and doesn't even have old things that are still useful like the saved google searches, so your point is apt... Have you tried watchsomuch or OG piratebay? Piratebay has more old shit still with seeds than you might think.

[–] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago

What are you trying to find

[–] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

if you want iptorrents invite message me, it may have what you are looking for.

[–] Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, go on, don't tease us, what are you after?

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 27 points 1 day ago

Rule 3: Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

That's why he's asking why he's not allowed to ask.

[–] hurtn@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

get an easy news membership, their search function to search all UseNet is the best

https://members.easynews.com/1.0/global5/

[–] HeavyRaptor@lemmy.zip 8 points 19 hours ago

150 GB for $30 a month seems like a pretty bad deal..

[–] PolarisFx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 15 hours ago

Wow, that's shit. I've been with Newsgroup.ninja for the past.... decade. I'm grandfathered in on some /r/usenet promotion from a long time ago but they're still pretty cheap and offer the same retention as easynews. Everything is on usenet, it's just a matter of finding the right indexer, nice thing is the good indexers just want money so barring a few sites it's pretty easy to get started.

https://www.newsgroup.ninja/

[–] oldfart@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

/r/dhexchange

[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social -4 points 1 day ago

Sorry man, you'll have to sacrifice your wife to the elder gods to find it, there's nothing else that can be done :(

/j

[–] dan@upvote.au 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Check Usenet, or get a friend with a subscription to a Usenet indexer to search for you.

[–] Tm12@lemmy.ca -5 points 1 day ago