sunbir8 | 0 points
It's very easy and only requires slightly more work than what we've been doing right now on this sub. But, I think it is worth it that the files do not get taken down. So here's the method.
For this method, we need to use the sharing feature of mega instead of creating a link and sharing. This way, there is no way it can taken down as it is not present in the public domain and only shared privately with a particular email in view only mode. Users can then import it to their own libraries and download it if they want.
The only possible problem could've been how to know which emails to share it with. It's very simple: we create lists.
One list can be universal consisting of trusted active users which can be put in the sidebar or whatever. The other can be that each time a person uploads a file, they link a google form with it. Anyone who needs it can fill their email in the form. After 24 hours, the uploader can share it with all the emails with just one ctrl c and ctrl v. This is more work for the uploader, yes. But, files won't be taken down. And once the folder has been shared, people can ask anyone in the thread who received the file to further share it with them. The taking down of files is a huge waste for the uploader who spent so much time and bandwidth uploading files worth terabytes if only a few end up using it.
What do you guys think? I think it's worth a try.
TLDR: share files with email addresses instead of using a link
[-] TheGoodSheep | 18 points
After 24 hours | Megalinks MegaDB After 24 hours, the uploader can share it with all the emails with just one ctrl c and ctrl v.
There goes the idea out of the window. Also not everybody has, and more importantly, not everybody wants a MEGA account and own library. And surely not everybody wants an email attached to them and to downloads (even throwaway-emails).
[-] docholoday | 10 points
And surely not everybody wants an email attached to them
Exactly this. What would happen if someone subpoenaed for the list? You've got a list of 30,000 CONFIRMED downloaders to go after in court. No thanks. I'll pass.
[-] HeWhoMustNotBDpicted | 6 points
You want users to provide their email?
Nice try FBI.
[-] zangetsu4u4 | 0 points
Hhh FBI 🤔 Wait what..?!
[-] starbuck93 | 5 points
I like the idea of hiding the links with some kind of shared method, but as you already know, people don't like change. Unfortunately, sometimes, we just have to reupload things.
I do like your idea. If we could all be "friends" on MEGA, then we could just drop files in a shared folder and bam everyone has it.
As far as trusted users go, I mainly judge a user by their activeness on reddit. Basically, if they're a long-time user. Not some new account.
One other note, out of r/megalinks' 30k readers, how many people are active? /u/vcdupper, /u/indigo6alpha, can we tell what kind of traffic we get daily or weekly or something?
A better strategy would be to cascade the links i.e. megalinks inside a megalink. Case in point, the Game of Thrones S1-6 uploads stayed up this whole time.
Now I've got an even better idea:
We can instead post Bittorrent sync (aka Resilio sync) keys in this subreddit, which contain the txt files of megalinks. This way, people can update their shares over time. Advantages include a) people can add to their collection, so it is possible to upload entire 3TB dumps of movies - slowly over time - and b) take-downs can be easily replaced.
I am not informed enough about bittorent sync to comment on this. Other more knowledgable users should discuss this I guess.
It's a dropbox-like software based on bittorrent. It's like dropbox without the server, and like bittorrent without needing to create a torrent file. When you add a folder to the share, it generates a key. Anyone adding this key to their BTsync will automatically sync everything. There's a subreddit /r/BTsynckeys/ which uses this to share the actual dumps, but the lack of users makes it pretty slow. Nevertheless, sharing just txt files will be more or less instantaneous.
But how do we know which users can be trusted? That's the entire problem with links. If the wrong person gets hold of it, it'll get deleted. That's the reason I suggested the share feature. No link is involved that way.
[-] starbuck93 | 1 points
Wow, that's not a bad idea... It's like a private sharing protocol. All of us with seedboxes could share the keys and anyone with a device could import it and download it hopefully really quickly. But your ISP won't care because it's not on a public tracker.
No that's why we only share the megalinks in text files and post the BTsync keys here. The idea's meant to cascade/obfuscate the links.
[-] starbuck93 | 1 points
Do you think people here would be mad if I posted two mega links, one to the file (which will get taken down) and one to a text file to a BTsync key that will not get taken down? So when the first gets DCMA'd, the second will live on?
Why would they be mad at all lol. Yeah there are people already syncing dumps directly. Problem is they are pretty slow (I have 8 ongoing downloads with 2.9MB/s). Another problem is you might still get DMCA'd by your ISP just like torrents.
[-] starbuck93 | 2 points
Hmmm. I'm going to play with this. I like the idea.
[-] douhaveanygreypoupon | 3 points
I looked into using the share option when doing my first uploads - the sticking points were the email/mega account requirement and the general clunkiness of the sharing feature. The majority of users here want to grab their files with as little effort and as much anonymity as possible. you start asking people for their email addresses and telling them you've got to have an account then there's going to be inevitable pushback. again - with anonymity being the key factor - email lists/google docs sets off all kinds of alarm bells
/u/vcdupper /u/indigo6alpha can we get a sticky meta discussion thread put up so that we can have an in-depth discussion and hear ideas from both sides? otherwise we're just going to keep getting meta threads talking about the same issues that fall off the radar after a week.
The problem, as /u/SoylentRox pointed out, is figuring out exactly how the files are getting taken down. There isn't much point to any of these discussions until we do that.
All we have now is some anecdotal evidence, and various people have reported what works or doesn't work for them. Maybe what we need is a thread to put together all the info we know so far and figure out what's really going on.
[-] douhaveanygreypoupon | 2 points
We don't know 100% and we most likely never will. Look at the DMCA Takedown Experiment for Usenet and Bogus DMCA Request Article from TorrentFreak. there are obviously some bots which crawl specific keywords, flag everything and then submit for takedown. with the amount of content posted here I'm sure it's not too much work for 1 or 2 people to do.
I don't know how much obfuscation we can get away with before it starts to become a hindrance or break the rules. I did a little obfuscation with Colony & Narcos and they still got pulled, so title-only changes don't work.
MegaDownloader has the ability to encode urls. I'm going to give that a test run on my next uploads and see how that fares.
[-] [deleted] | 1 points
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[-] douhaveanygreypoupon | 1 points
Believe me - I don't want to force people to have to use third party software. that being said, from what I've seen it's a no-bullshit program that does what it says (ad-free to boot).
The options we have for protecting our links is extremely limited, 2 of them involve MegaDownloader and the 3rd uses Mega's built-in Sharing feature. Hell, at the moment we don't even know if these ideas actually work at all. We can start using encrypted links and shares and they could still be pulled down as quickly as before. but if it has even a chance of working then I'm willing to give it a test run. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work and we stay in our current position, best case it does work and we have a platform to build on
This subs problem is nobody wants to move forward. The users seem to be happy with light obfuscation and remain blissfully unaware that if there was more certainty in the lifetime of uploads then more content would be contributed. If this mindset is so firmly ingrained that nobody is willing to try something different then it might be time to break away and find a sub where security and longevity isn't looked down upon.
The source code for megadownloader is also available from the website. If someone looks through it and finds something suspicious/dangerous, of course I'll take the option of using it off the table.
[-] street0721 | 2 points
your idea is good, but can it be more easier for downloaders?
[-] GuestUserT00K | 2 points
This can work bro. Just for you, if you want access to my shared 20TB, PM your email.
I'm working on a client that can do the email share instantly... i got an idea (java based)
[-] SoylentRox | 2 points
So how are the links getting taken down? Has anyone figured out if it's bots or humans yet?
Bots or human, whatever it is, they're taking down links. Sharing files removes links completely. It's like you're sending someone a pm. The outside world doesn't have access. That's why this method works.
[-] SoylentRox | 2 points
Well if it's humans, they can request the same PM. If it's bots - then surely one of the link obfuscation methods people are using would work. Are methods like "replace the character X with 313" getting taken down as well?
They can request all they want. But they can't report it!
[-] SoylentRox | 2 points
They can't? Why not?
Because there is no link! What will they report?
[-] SoylentRox | 2 points
The username that sent them the file.
It's a private message. I don't think they can report an entire account like that. Another thing is that when you create a link, mega makes you sign an agreement than you won't infringe copyrights or something like that. Sharing doesn't make you do that.
[-] SoylentRox | 3 points
Well, only one way to find out. Try it and see. I just sort of have been raising my eyebrows at there being any takedown of obfuscated links at all. This is hardly the largest community for piracy on the internet, and if it's humans doing the takedowns, it is very labor intensive. If it's bots, someone is reprogramming a bot for each and every flavor of link obfuscation.
Easier solution: Never share a file. Only share folders. Once the folder link gets taken down, make a new folder and stick the file in it. Share the folderagain. No need for re-uping anything. The file's are still valid and the new folder won't have a take down notice on it.
No thanks, a better way would be a google doc like this.
Google Doc is now sign-in to view. If you’re already whitelisted you can access the document here. If you’re not whitelisted yet request membership in this google group to gain access. Once you’re in the group you can view the document here. Whitelisting shouldn’t take more than 24 hours, don’t be afraid to send me an email if you think you’ve been forgotten. Complain about bans here. Requesting access straight from the new document won’t get you access, you have to request membership in the google group.
I imagine there are many sub readers with lots of content they'd like to share, but who are reluctant to do so for any number of reasons. OTOH, there are a few who know how to manage multiple Mega accounts, back up content, etc.
It would be nice to figure out a way to link these two somehow. E.g., to have an acct or mod a user can msg indicating he has content he wishes to share. Sharing user would upload, msg the link to the acct/mod, with descriptions, etc., as if he were posting it himself. The link would be imported into the secondary account, and shared from there.
[-] zangetsu4u4 | 1 points
I don't think anyone would give up their private emails but mega shared folder worth a shot
[-] Aidache | 28 points | Feb 10 2017 11:55:20
Currently 30,187 readers, way too much work for the mods, and too much work for individuals. Links can still be taken down from imports.
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[-] [deleted] | 2 points | Feb 11 2017 14:34:10
[deleted]
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[-] IgnoreMyName | 1 points | Feb 13 2017 02:42:00
This is the website I use to download games. Nothing more to add other than it works, they have a huge selection, and get the latest cracked versions uploaded/available quick. WWE 2K17 is already up on the site.
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[-] sunbir8 | -9 points | Feb 10 2017 11:57:40
No. If those 30k readers want a file, all they need to do is fill their email up in a form. Takes what... 5 seconds for each user? Mods have to do no work at all in this.
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[-] Aidache | 11 points | Feb 10 2017 12:00:04
Then whats the point of doing this, can't the people who are taking down the files just add their name/email to the list?
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[-] sunbir8 | -11 points | Feb 10 2017 12:01:48
They can.. What's the problem with it? There's no link created. What will people report to mega? As long as a link isn't created, as far as mega is concerned, you're sharing something privately and not publicly.
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[-] Aidache | 4 points | Feb 10 2017 12:07:22
So the earliest a person can receive the file is a whole day after release?
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[-] sunbir8 | 0 points | Feb 10 2017 12:10:23
No.... Maybe we can use this just for the larger uploads like entire seasons or larger movie files and the individual episodes posted can be like we've already been doing. Also, on second thoughts, the universal list doesn't need to be of just trusted users. Anyone can have their name in it. Shouldn't be a problem I guess
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[-] Dude036 | 2 points | Feb 10 2017 18:40:19
This just seems like sharing the link. but with more steps. And a lot more work for everyone, especially the uploader.
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[-] sunbir8 | 1 points | Feb 10 2017 18:47:51
There is no link! Uploader just needs to ctrl c ctrl v which they would earlier do to paste the link.
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[-] Dude036 | 1 points | Feb 10 2017 18:51:36
Is there a way to mass include people's Emails? because last I checked sharing requires inputing the email, setting the access level, and friend verification for every email address you add. As someone who uploads fairly frequently, that sounds awful on every level.
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[-] sunbir8 | 1 points | Feb 10 2017 18:53:08
Ya there is a way. Paste all emails at once! Further verification only needs to be done from the receivers account afaik
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[-] Dude036 | 1 points | Feb 10 2017 19:06:48
Looking into this, the new Megacmd client allows for inviting people, but that's still a lot of work. As far as mega's website, I guess it works for that, but that's still a lot of work.
I'd rather have a folder taken down and fix the link to put it up again, rather than sharing because I don't want to be tethered to a link. For instance. I put up Scrubs a few months ago, and it kept getting taken down. I offered adding people to the link, and I'm still getting messages every few days for it. It's not an all at once thing, and it can get really annoying when a few months later, you're having to go back and add someone to the folder. Especially for people like /u/vcdupper who are constantly putting out links quite regularly, I'd go insane having to do all that work.
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