China's got piracy down to an interesting business model.

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm in China and recently a Chinese friend was downloading a torrent while I was over at this house. It didn't have many seeders so the speed was "slow" at 200 KB/s using this Chinese-made torrent client software. My friend commented that he didn't want to wait so he started chatting with the customer service of the torrent client. Since I can't read Chinese, I asked him what was going on and he said, "oh, you just have to pay them 25 cents and they will increase the download speed for you."

"Uhhh... of a torrent? How does that work? Isn't the speed limited by the available seeders?"

"I don't know."

Sure enough, a QR code popped up on his screen, he took his cell phone and opened up his WeChat app (which is China's Facebook but is also China's version of Google Wallet and even OKCupid) and scanned the QR code on his monitor via the WeChat app, and the download instantly increased to 5 MB/s in the torrent client.

This got me really confused. I supposed that this "torrent" client company also integrated UseNet into their business model, but surely this shouldn't work for newly-released torrents right?

One night, after a certain show had been released, I saw it pop up on a torrent site with a grand total of zero seeders because it had literally been released 1 minute ago.

I asked my friend if we could do an experiment and see if the download speed trick would still work, despite there being no seeders and the torrent having been 1 minute old.

Sure enough, it did. 25 cents and 5 MB/s later, we had the complete file.

What. The. Hell. Only thing I can think of are:

1. The file gets uploaded to UseNet much earlier than torrent trackers (but in my experience for other files this is not the case).
2. The Chinese people are really close to the source of the release groups.
3. The Chinese ARE the release groups.

 

[TheELF]

What. The. Hell. Only thing I can think of are:

1. The file gets uploaded to UseNet much earlier than torrent trackers (but in my experience for other files this is not the case).
2. The Chinese people are really close to the source of the release groups.
3. The Chinese ARE the release groups.

4.They took control of a time lord. :'( D:

Yes,the most logical option is that the client releases its own files.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

4.They took control of a time lord. :'( D:

Yes,the most logical option is that the client releases its own files.

But the torrent I chose was from some normal release group with an English readme and everything... but damn...

 

[JSt0rm]

So someone is willing to serve the content for .25?

It costs 1.5 million to make 44 minutes of television.

 

[Newbian]

 

[Linflas]

So someone is willing to serve the content for .25?

It costs 1.5 million to make 44 minutes of television.

Which results in 13 million in prime time advertising revenue for that 44 minutes.

 

[DrPizza]

So someone is willing to serve the content for .25?

It costs 1.5 million to make 44 minutes of television.

That must be an average price or something. I'm familiar with one television show that's run nationally on a cable channel; roughly the same length, for about 3 orders of magnitude less money.

 

[poofyhairguy]

But the torrent I chose was from some normal release group with an English readme and everything... but damn...

Yeah but by paying you gain access to their seedbox (aka a server seeding the file and not some teenage kid on his parent's desktop). Basically this is the seedbox model broken into smaller payment options.

At least I assume that is what is happening. Maybe the trick is they get you around the great Firewall, that thing sucks for speed.

 

[Sonikku]

Freakin' China man. I remember CBS running a story about a guy that invented a new tool that he managed to get in stores and even Sears. He was starting to finally make a good living off of it but a year later they stopped ordering them. He went to one of their stores and sure enough Sears was carrying a knock off of his exact tool made in China. China made a knock off and Sears went with them "because it's cheaper". I know businesses have to maximize profit and never leave money on the table, but some of these deals with the devil sure do have a detrimental effect on Americans lives. But, I guess that's Capitalism.

China's blatant lack of regard for intellectual property though and the world's inability to hold them accountable is stiffing innovation.

 

[JSt0rm]

That must be an average price or something. I'm familiar with one television show that's run nationally on a cable channel; roughly the same length, for about 3 orders of magnitude less money.

It's a average. Game of thrones is budgeted at 10 million per show.

 

[Phokus]

Freakin' China man. I remember CBS running a story about a guy that invented a new tool that he managed to get in stores and even Sears. He was starting to finally make a good living off of it but a year later they stopped ordering them. He went to one of their stores and sure enough Sears was carrying a knock off of his exact tool made in China. China made a knock off and Sears went with them "because it's cheaper". I know businesses have to maximize profit and never leave money on the table, but some of these deals with the devil sure do have a detrimental effect on Americans lives. But, I guess that's Capitalism.

China's blatant lack of regard for intellectual property though and the world's inability to hold them accountable is stiffing innovation.

We and other rich countries ignored intellectual property when we were just starting out too. Read "Bad Samaritans: The Secret History of Capitalism" for more.

 

[Ns1]

That must be an average price or something. I'm familiar with one television show that's run nationally on a cable channel; roughly the same length, for about 3 orders of magnitude less money.

depends entirely on the show...

 

[JSt0rm]

We and other rich countries ignored intellectual property when we were just starting out too. Read "Bad Samaritans: The Secret History of Capitalism" for more.

Most of our peasants still ignore intellectual property. If people can get something for free they will never choose to buy it unless they have a "religious" moment and deem that content worthy of their pittance.

 

[Sonikku]

We and other rich countries ignored intellectual property when we were just starting out too. Read "Bad Samaritans: The Secret History of Capitalism" for more.

China's not just "starting out" though. They've been a country longer than we have.

 

[SMOGZINN]

We and other rich countries ignored intellectual property when we were just starting out too. Read "Bad Samaritans: The Secret History of Capitalism" for more.

The rules of Capitalism is 'do anything you can to get ahead, then once ahead do everything you can to stay there'. We ignored the rules of the ones that were ahead when we were working our way up. And now we are currently ahead, so we come up with a bunch of rules to try to stay there, of course others will just ignore those rules if it helps them get ahead.

 

[Sonikku]

Most of our peasants still ignore intellectual property. If people can get something for free they will never choose to buy it unless they have a "religious" moment and deem that content worthy of their pittance.

My point is in most of the world's powers if someone stole your intellectual property you could take them to court and take them to the cleaners for stealing your ideas. But in China it's not just a couple of gamers pirating software, it's EVERYTHING. You buy a purse, it's probably fake. You buy a dvd, it's probably counterfeit. You might want to be careful about that special branded Wine you're about to pour down your throat too!

The courts and the very government itself take a blind eye to the intellectual theft and counter-fitting, nay, EMBRACE it as a part of what it means to be Chinese. It's ingrained in their very culture and that's a far cry from a few deviants not wanting to pony up the dough for The Witcher 3.

 

[Phokus]

China's not just "starting out" though. They've been a country longer than we have.

I meant growing from poor to rich.

 

[DaWhim]

I am in china. It used to be a pain to get some US show. now the cloud storage is like everywhere.

for this season of GoT. I would go to a site where they share the link for the ep and I add the ep to my cloud space then download it at full speed.

I don't really bother with torrent anymore, at least not tv show.

 

[MongGrel]

China - Land of the Fakes : The Chinese are very good at this sort of thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0bNf-jcVU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q33XXQDJnQw

 

[norseamd]

The rules of Capitalism is 'do anything you can to get ahead, then once ahead do everything you can to stay there'. We ignored the rules of the ones that were ahead when we were working our way up. And now we are currently ahead, so we come up with a bunch of rules to try to stay there, of course others will just ignore those rules if it helps them get ahead.

This.

 

[Darwin333]

So someone is willing to serve the content for .25?

It costs 1.5 million to make 44 minutes of television.

To be fair there are a metric fuckload of Chinese people. Quarters add up..

 

[MongGrel]

To be fair there are a metric fuckload of Chinese people. Quarters add up..

Yeah, seems they are really starting to nail that Comuninsm combined with Capitalism pretty well these days.

Is a bit old now, but yeah.

General Motors is becoming China Motors & Pays for Communist Party Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZkaSjdRo_I

Because Murrica.

Oh wait a minute...

 

[Darwin333]

My point is in most of the world's powers if someone stole your intellectual property you could take them to court and take them to the cleaners for stealing your ideas. But in China it's not just a couple of gamers pirating software, it's EVERYTHING. You buy a purse, it's probably fake. You buy a dvd, it's probably counterfeit. You might want to be careful about that special branded Wine you're about to pour down your throat too!

The courts and the very government itself take a blind eye to the intellectual theft and counter-fitting, nay, EMBRACE it as a part of what it means to be Chinese. It's ingrained in their very culture and that's a far cry from a few deviants not wanting to pony up the dough for The Witcher 3.

Sounds exactly like every Caribbean island I have ever visited and I can literally get to a few of them with nothing but my jetski and calm weather (albeit not a smart idea). Throw in a towable with extra gas and I could theoretically get to a bunch of them rather quickly.

Hell I can buy all that fake shit in just about every major US city.

 

[MongGrel]

Sounds exactly like every Caribbean island I have ever visited and I can literally get to a few of them with nothing but my jetski and calm weather (albeit not a smart idea). Throw in a towable with extra gas and I could theoretically get to a bunch of them rather quickly.

Hell I can buy all that fake shit in just about every major US city.

Sounds like maybe you've never hit the Caymans yet, with hundreds of banks.

Is one island you go to and the locals will look at you like you're lower class a lot of the time.

If you have a Jetski that can do that you might all ready have a bank account there all ready though I guess.