The Medusa Fora

A little treat for the upcoming advent, a torrent of a Channel 4 film featuring Shane and Kirsty - and FONY. This film has not been released on VHS or DVD, so I suppose this (see below) is the only way of getting it. I haven't actually seen it yet, the uploader is still working on uploading it. I have no idea about the quality.

The Box is a private UK-telly only torrent tracker. It is at this point invite only. For those who have no idea about torrents and trackers, do ask questions, I'll try to help as best as I can. For those who have the knowhow and would like an invite, send me a PM. I have a few to spare, but I need to know that you will follow the rules there, as I don't want to jeopardise my own account!


IMDB entry: Ghosts of Oxford Street



There was also an LP made, the tracklist is as follows: (not included in the torrent)

1 Charles Brown - Merry Christmas Baby
2 Malcolm McLaren/Alison Limerick - Theme from The Ghosts of Oxford Street
3 Malcolm McLaren/John Pickard - Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two
4 Tom Jones - Money
5 Tom Jones - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
6 Rebel MC - Rich Ah Getting Richer
7 Happy Mondays - Staying Alive
8 Sinead O'Connor - Silent Night
9 The Pogues/Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
10 The Academy of St Martins in the Field - Dance of the Hours

Wow, brilliant, I have been waiting for this for years!

And yes, sadly I haven't a clue how to work a torrent, or what the rules of the game are. Please help.

Right. I'll do a Torrents for Beginners course, then.

Software: There are different clients, but I recommend uTorrent. Easy and takes care of almost everything on its own. Azureus is apparently another good one.

How does this work?

This is p2p sharing of any content, but mainly large files (mp3s are consideres tiny files) via a central server. This server coordinates what goes on between the different people who download on a particular file.

On your end you download a .torrent file from the server, activate it in your client and sit back and watch as you get tiny bits and pieces of the file from all over the world. After a little while you will also be sending out pieces. This is the point of it all. The file is not available in full from any server, the server only acts as a meeting place.

Trackers (servers)

The most well-known tracker would be the Pirate Bay. This is a public tracker, everyone and their dog can download from (or upload to) it. I think the only thing they forbid and delete is child pornography.

There are also private trackers for more specialised areas of interest (films, music, telly, gardening shows, games, apps, anything you can think of). To get into these you either have to Know People, have a bit of luck, or resort to begging. The requirements for joining different trackers are varying, but for most you have to maintain a good ratio.

Ratio

As you down- and upload on a torrent, the tracker (and your client) will keep track on the ratio between the two. Most private sites will have ratio requirements ranging from 0.5 to 1.0. That is - share back what you have received to at least 50% of what you downloaded, or 100%. Most sites will not care too hard about the ratios of individual files, but your overall ratio will be the important one to maintain.

Legality

Is it legal? In most cases, no. One of the largest, most well-known private music trackers (OiNK) went down a short while ago. Can you be found and prosecuted? Yes, the chance is there. If you live in Canada, you're in luck, it is official policy not to follow individual downloaders, just sites and site-owners.

This is piracy, and whilst downloading a film made for telly, screened once in 1991 (including the original ads), might not be directly harmful to the planet and cute animals everywhere, it IS a breach of copyright laws. It is also a brilliant way of getting hold of that obscure vinyl that your uncle's band put out in 13 copies in the mid-seventies, but that died on you when you moved the last time.


I hope it's ok that I posted this here. It's not like it's information not easily available anyway.

Further questions?

Very many thanks, Maija. I'll wait until tonight, get a large drink, put a technical dictionary and a thesaurus of archaic swear words by my side, and will have a go. I'll report back from the pirates' jail.

I'm running out of invites now, so I'm trying to come up with a different plan. Stay tuned

Maija wrote:I'm running out of invites now, so I'm trying to come up with a different plan. Stay tuned

a different forum that I'm on often tree out boots, so I'd do 5 and those 5 would do 5, and so on. would that work?

I got the permission of the uploader to re-encode it and up it elsewhere as soon as the download has finished.

I'd appreciate an invite to thebox.br for the sole reason to grab a copy of this film.
I have been searching for years to try and find a copy with no luck.

Loaded wrote:I'd appreciate an invite to thebox.br for the sole reason to grab a copy of this film.
I have been searching for years to try and find a copy with no luck.

I got a VHS copy on eBay a few years ago. Can't say I've ever watched it though. My only thought when I read the script was "Malcolm McLaren has a new romantic fantasy..............The Pogues as London street urchins.....that's nice....ho hum...yawn............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

philipchevron wrote:zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Completely out of topic but I couldn´t resist

That´s what a review of a Toto concert in Sweden a few years ago looked like "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Hi folks, I've never seen ghosts of oxford street and just wondered if anyone was aware of whether it's gonna be on this chrimbo and what channel?

Could you re upp it to a free host please

Could this find its way on to a certain FTP please

Look what I found

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsirA_RhMH8

mats wrote:Look what I found

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsirA_RhMH8

Thanks for posting but... I don't get it. IMO-The song just doesn't make sense with the visual. I mean Shane has written a ton of songs about London, maybe Malcolm didn't know what NY stood for?? In any case, I hope Mr. Chevron continues to save his valuable time and not bother to watch this.