Torrents and Usenet Downloading with an iPhone

No idea if this is a new feature introduced with a newer version of Dropbox, but it is possible to download nzb and torrent files through the Mobile Safari app.

What you need is the following (for a complete downloading system):

• A Dropbox account (the 2GB version is free!!!!)
• A torrent application with the possibility of using a so-called watch-folder (e.g. Vuze)
• An usenet application with a watch-folder capability (e.g. SabNZBd+)
• An iPhone with the Dropbox app.

First you need to setup Dropbox. This is the easiest part. Just create two folders called 'NZB' and 'Torrent'. These folders will contain the downloaded torrent and nzb files.

After that you need to configure the Vuze and/or NZB download application to use a watch-folder.
I use these apps on my Mac Mini server. So it's operational 24/7.

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Hollywood's Next DRM Failure in the Making

Later this week several Hollywood-related companies will announce a new digital media distribution system that's suppose to ignite digital downloads of movies (and possible other digital content). They call it DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem). The key-feature being 'portability'.

This time a name without 'protection' or 'rights' in its name, but the result is much the same.
In the 'old' days DRM was implemented by protecting the resource with a key, and if you had the proper 'key' on your device the content was playable. Downside was that playback was mainly limited to only one device, or it was OS/player dependent (Windows -> Windows Media Player, or Apple iTunes, OSX -> Itunes).

If you wanted it to play on another device you had a problem, since you lacked the proper key to 'unlock' the digital content. Thankfully Apple has lot's of DRM-free mp3's in it's iTunes store, but not everything (like the movies / TV Shows) is DRM free, or watchable on lots of devices.

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Star Trek 2009 - Most Pirated Movie in 2009

According to the TorrentFreak website, the latest Star Trek movie is the most downloaded movie in 2009.

I must admit that I participated in getting this movie on number 1 on this chart.... BUT, I also saw this movie in the opening weekend in the theater, and I own the movie on a Blu-Ray disc.

Since I don't have the capabilities to rip the movie myself, I downloaded the ripped version. No nag screens and other crap on the downloaded version, so I prefer to watch the ripped/downloaded version over the original Blu-Ray disc (also see this posting) on my Popcorn Hour media player.

So being the most downloaded movie doesn't necessarily mean most pirated (in my opinion).

Sure, there still are lots of people who'll pirate anything they get their hands on, but that doesn't mean that they would even think about going to the cinema or buy the disc. The studios wouldn't make money of them anyway.

But hé, that's just my humble opinion........

Update on Monday, January 4, 2010 at 19:58 by Willem

The EFF has an excellent piece on the most pirated movie. This definitely shows that they're NOT losing money on piracy