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The Pirate Bay is Trialing High-Quality Video Streaming Links - TorrentFreak
Developments over the past few days indicate that The Pirate Bay may about to fully launch a brand new feature. In addition to traditional magnet links, many titles now feature a subtle 'B' button which allow users to stream movies and TV shows directly in the browser on a new site called BayStream.
The Pirate Bay is well known for its huge database of magnet links which allow users to download most types of content imaginable.
Over the past few days, however, the platform has been adding a brand new feature that will please those who prefer to access movies and TV shows instantly, rather than waiting for them to download.
As the image below shows, in addition to the familiar magnet and trusted uploader icons displayed alongside video and TV show releases, the site also features a small orange ‘B’ graphic.
In some cases (but currently not all), pressing these buttons when they appear next to a video release diverts users to a new platform called BayStream. Here, the chosen content can be streamed directly in the browser using a YouTube-style player interface.
Loading times appear swift when the content is actually available and as the screenshot below shows, the material appears to be sourced, at least in some cases, from torrent releases.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday December 10 2019, @04:42PM (3 children)
Embrace Extend Extinguish
As useful as TPB is, this seems like a way to poke the bear and get swatted.
Streaming should not be linked in any legally binding way to torrent trackers, that is outright stupid.
I can tolerate mining ads and porn ads, but this looks pretty bad.
They are in the seychelles and a totally opaque organization, should they not already be coopted by spies, they would have to be pretty well heeled to have remained independent until now.
If it ain't broken don't fix it, TPB serves at the moment a last resort holder of free copyright material that is not available elsewhere, that is a major community role, that someone should maybe consider planning to fill once the tpb age has run its course.
Here, have a copyright related meme:
https://archive.is/x5dMp [archive.is]
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday December 10 2019, @06:41PM (2 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay#Projects [wikipedia.org]
They have done plenty of things on the side. And TPB has changed management at least once. There are other sites [torrentfreak.com] that can accomplish the same purpose, and will do so if TPB kicks the bucket. Running a magnet link torrent site is not particularly hard.
Streaming sites are "more illegal" than magnet link torrent sites, but it's not clear that TPB even operates BayStream.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 10 2019, @07:05PM (1 child)
Depends on how they implement it.
I can conceive of a browser-based application which is part torrent client (not illegal) and part video player (not illegal). The built-in torrent client receives the same magnet hash that regular users already see, but it aggressively prefers to download early sequential chunks until enough of a buffer is built up, and the video player is smart enough to handle/display this kind of buffering.
Actually I think some torrent clients already do that. So they may just be browserizing existing technologies.
But it needn't rely on anything more than the currently-available magnets.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 10 2019, @07:23PM
Torrent streaming has been a thing for years, e.g. uTorrent + VLC. The streaming we're talking about requires centralized hosting of video content, but removes legal liability from (most, if not all) end users since they are not connecting and uploading to a swarm.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]