Hello. I have now recently set up an i2p torrenting system connected to jellyfin. The upside is that I pay zero to vpns and i2p actually has a pretty awesome selection of movies and tv shows (postman ftw). For real, i feel like i2p is where it’s at right now in the torrenting world, as it completely bypasses the need to trust vpns. And torrenting over i2p doesn’t hurt the network like torrenting over tor. The downside is that download speeds per torrent is way lower, but i just wait a couple of days for torrents to finish.

Now, I seed and I give back to the community, but I feel like i need to do more and apply my skillset. I believe in piracy as an idea. Democratizing access to information is a noble pursuit, and seeders are the backbone to piracy and the idea of free access to information. But i want to do more. I want to learn how to crack drm, how to be at the source of information. As companies put in more complicated drm and enforce draconian copyright laws, i fear it might not be enough to just be a seeder. To win this ongoing war, we need more crackers.

I am but a humble foot soldier, looking for recruitment and training. I have a mathematics background and some flexible coding knowledge, but nothing deep. I like playing wargames like in overthewire and know the basics of gdb and a patchy knowledge of binary exploitation.

  • toxictenement@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    52·
    1 year ago

    Start with doing simple disc rips, like cd’s(Exact Audio Copy), dvds(MakeMKV, DVD decryptor, eac3to), blurays(MakeMKV, eac3to).

    Figure out how to encode and compress video so that it still looks good, you can still find some old scene rule nfo’s to have a better idea on what settings to use to encode. I use a gui called qvs to do encodes, theres also another one called staxrip, you can also learn how to just use command line arguments and just use x264 or x265 from the command line.

    If you’re not just wanting to just make remuxes with makeMKV, you’re probably going to want to use mkvtoolnix to put everything back together as a video file.

    You can use SubtitleEdit to convert PGS or VOB subs into the plaintext format SubRip(SRT) which has more compatibility with media servers like jellyfin.

    Consider trying to find some obscure titles which may only have dead torrents, no torrents, or only low quality ones (old ~700mb VCD rips) to track down a physical copy to make a new torrent from.

    Pick out some dead torrents to camp indefinitely. A seeder may one day return. Also, if you’re on a private tracker, a lot of the time you can download the same torrent that also exists as a dead public torrent, and bring the public one back to life. This can be a bit tricky sometimes.

    If you have a beefy computer, you could consider making encodes in the new AV1 codec, which is really good at preserving quality but is rather intensive to encode in.

    If you join a private tracker, a lot of the time their forums will have some educational resources on making rips yourself.

    Actually cracking new drms requires skill, and the skills you need are called reverse engineering. You’re going to have to learn the ins and outs of assembly language, specifically decompiled binary represented as assembly language. Theres a site which has simple tutorial programs called crackme’s for dipping your toes into this sort of thing. Theres not going to be any public tutorials on how to crack xyz drm because if those existed, the drm would just be patched. Speaking of that, if you’re doing software cracks you’ll need to learn how to obfuscate your crack to keep the origin company from figuring out how you did it, or else it will just get patched before you do your next one. That doesn’t really apply to audiovisual drm since that is all about extracting a stream, and is a bit more straightforward.

    I may update this post if anything else comes to mind, good luck to you!

    Edit 1: Make your own ascii art NFO’s with PabloDraw

    • drunkensailor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Very good comment. That said, for this part

      Figure out how to encode and compress video so that it still looks good, you can still find some old scene rule nfo’s to have a better idea on what settings to use to encode. I use a gui called qvs to do encodes, theres also another one called staxrip, you can also learn how to just use command line arguments and just use x264 or x265 from the command line.

      I’m wondering if anyone might have any ffmpeg one-liners that are pretty decent for converting larger mkv’s from makemkv or similar down to a more reasonable size for archiving. Basically looking to get something similar to the old ION10 / ION265 encodes from RARBG if that helps (720p or 1080p w 8- to 10-bit depth using x264 or x265).

      Even better if someone’s got a link to a github or similar page with a few different tried and tested presets to study.

      • toxictenement@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I may be wrong, and I’ll have to check later tonight to be sure, but I think rarbg may have had a custom encoder for x265, which includes the ion265 rips. You can check it yourself though by checking the mediainfo, which a lot of the time will reveal what commands (x264/x265 commands, not ffmpeg) were used for the encode, along with the encoder name/version. There several programs that will let you check mediainfo, but the easiest to link is this one, just open your video file with it and display as text.

    • ninchuka@lemmy.oneEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ve just found file flow which let’s you automate the conversion of video formats to different ones and encoders, not just video files as well

  • atlasraven31@lemm.eeEnglish
    25·
    1 year ago

    Build your own ISP from scratch. Advertise as pirates. Fire cannonballs at Comcast HQ.

  • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.mlEnglish
    193·
    1 year ago

    Yar har fiddle dee dee

    Being a pirate is alright with me

    Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free

    You are a pirate, laddy.

  • JoeKrogan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    Start adding torrents to the i2p ecosystem. Things that are missing. Sharing is Caring 🏴‍☠️

  • Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    I can’t seem to figure out i2p. I’ve tried installing the Linux pack but it didn’t seem able to connect to the distro source the way the instructions showed.

    • aldalire@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Personally i use the i2pd router. There’s i2pd, which is implemented in c/c++, and the regular i2p router which is implemented in java.

      There might be some settings you have to fiddle with to get it to run (i set upnp on so my router isn’t firewalled, which helps connect to more peers). I recommend this Mental Outlaw video

      https://invidious.tiekoetter.com/watch?v=F6ze6S1aDJs

      • aldalire@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Next, to torrent you have to install i2psnark (there are some other options, such as qbittorrent and biglybt and stuff, but I haven’t figured those out yet). Here’s are binaries:

        https://i2pd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/filesharing/

        I2psnark requires i2cp, so just enable that in i2pd.conf. Then, ssh forward that on your pc if you installed it on another pc dedicated to running i2p. Running i2p for a long time helps with discovery; the longer you run it the more sites you’ll be able to visit and the faster they’ll load imo.

    • Corroded@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Did you let it run for a bit and configure your browser? Mental Outlaw has a good setup video.

      If it’s an issue with being unable to install i2p in the first place that’s a separate matter

  • drunkensailor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    and know the basics of gdb

    oi, how ye learn that? i use linux but don’t know gdb worth a damn. maybe cuz i drink too much to study lol