Monday, October 19, 2009

Hello to our torrenting friends at the Dominion Post


The DVR may be joining the VCR as a piece in the consumer electronics museum. The internet, in its usual lifestyle-transforming manner, is making capturing and storing content under a single 'roof' (i.e., in a single DVR) seem a bit quaint. Almost every show - especially sporting events - that is aired is being captured on a computer somewhere by selfless, technically savvy end-users who then make the event available as a torrent - often within hours or even minutes of the event's conclusion in real time.

Modern torrent clients are endlessly tweakable (I prefer uTorrent or μTorrent if you want to be pedantic) and provide a host of information about your torrent 'peers' - possibly too much information in this case.

Click on the pic above to bring up a high-res version. Note the highlighted entry...hmmm someone at the Dominion Post must have wanted a copy of the WVU-Marshall game. Couldn't they get a copy from their media library or
their contacts in the television biz? What about the WVU athletic department?

Is there anything in the Dom Post's computer usage policy about peer-to-peer? I imagine there might be. Pretty cheeky for a newspaper that is STILL demanding a paid subscription to view its content. Looks like copyright is a one-way street at the DP.