Apple Helped FBI Identify Alleged Owner of World's Largest Torrent Site

[MagnusVonMagnum]

The world is on fire, and the FBI is chasing torrent users...

Human lives don't matter to the rich. MONEY is their GOD. That is why Apple protects terrorists and goes after copyright infringement.

Torrent sites don't even host copyrighted material or actually copy anything (i.e. how do you break a copyright law without copying anything?). They link you to other torrent users just like Google links you to the torrent sites (but they don't go after Google, of course). But I'm sure those right-wing "protect your Constitutional Rights only and don't legislate from the bench" judges will see you can't break a copyright if you don't copy anything. Oh wait. MONEY is involved. There goes the law rewritten at the bench to suit their interests (as it's easier to go after the host of the site than MILLIONS of users).

The real reason ticket sales are down is because movies SUCK these days and ticket costs are through the roof! It cost me $34 for two tickets in the evening last week without $7 drinks or $10 buckets of popcorn (tip; eat before the movie, not after). It had surcharges for "XD" sound (when did they ever charge more to watch a movie in DTS in the '90s???) and "REAL 3D" (god, no one even wanted to see 3D in the '80s; Jaws 3D flopped). Everything is either a remake (which are almost always worse than the original), a sequel (same problem; rarely as good) or a comic book movie (getting old as that's all that comes out it seems). Then 2-4 months later, you can buy it on BluRay for $10-20 (and $5-8 a couple of years later). I can see why in the early days of BluRay people might settle for some crappy digital download of dubious quality when BluRays were $30+ a movie, but when you can get older movies for $4 on BluRay in many cases, I don't see the attraction. Netflix will stream you thousands of crappy b-movies for $10 a month and those b-movies are probably no worse than "blockbusters" like Independence Day II (yawn).

There's very little "new" out there and having lots of explosions (particularly cheesy CGI ones) is no substitute for a good plot, great dialogue and captivating actors. What did "The Desperate Hours" cost to make in the mid 1950s with Bogart? About $2.4 million. Even in today's money that would be around $22 million, 1/10 of typical Hollywood budgets and I dare say that movie was far more enjoyable than most movies I've seen made in the past decade. That trend is echoed by CEOs who now make 100x what their counterparts did back then even WITH inflation. The rich get richer and the poor get raked over. It's the American way. And now with Windows 10, Microsoft ensures your happiness by reporting everything you do straight to the FBI, CIA and NSA so they can deduct that torrent movie price directly from your pay check. It looks like Apple is getting ready to follow suit.

Torrenting a movie is worse than storing TS/SCI information in a server in a bathroom?

Anything involving MONEY or even the perception of the loss of money is 1000x worse than everything else combined. A certain secretary of state putting top secret information on a server is nothing to worry about, but someone copying a Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 1920s must go to jail!

 

[InfoTime]

So a criminal who makes $20 million a year helping people "steal" other's intellectual property is going to jail? Good.

 

[RDeckard]

...Or the fact that our beloved friend Apple, who cares so much about us and our privacy, who even captures all our spotlight searches with gps coordinate precision of our location irrespectively of our preferences...

You are aware that you can turn off Spotlight suggestions and location services, right? (I'm guessing the answer is yes, but then that wouldn't support your rant.)

 

[SgtPepper12]

Personally, I think fighting against piracy is completely futile and not worth spending any money on. It's basically not avoidable and rather than wasting time busting some guy who is going to replaced by some other guy, people should rather overthink how we think about information and whether it can have intrinsic value. The whole music/movie industry was build on the fact that it was very difficult to distribute large amounts of information. That difficulty is gone and so is the basis of the whole industry. Now you can either enforce rather arbitrary rules to protect that monopoly and de facto limit what our technology may be capable of, or you can just start thinking about how in this age it can still be profitable to be a musician or whatever (The people who want to get paid in the music industry are mostly not musicians or other artists. Removing all that dissipation and overhead from the industry might actually be a very good thing). The truth is: It won't get harder. Internet speeds are increasing, computers become more powerful and more and more sophisticated methods of encryption become available. It won't stop. They will never win, never. It will only get easier and easier for people to pirate stuff. Not too soon the size of even a 4k movie will be nothing, it will be passed around like a joint.

Having said that, what Apple did is not really a huge deal. The FBI asked for an IP, and they gave to them, that's it. I think they are pretty strictly obliged to do that. They didn't break encryption or passed on personal information. The IP address is basically public and it's kind of embarrassing that the guy in question wasn't a little more careful with that sort of stuff.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Human lives don't matter to the rich. MONEY is their GOD. That is why Apple protects terrorists and goes after copyright infringement.

Torrent sites don't even host copyrighted material or actually copy anything (i.e. how do you break a copyright law without copying anything?). They link you to other torrent users just like Google links you to the torrent sites (but they don't go after Google, of course). But I'm sure those right-wing "protect your Constitutional Rights only and don't legislate from the bench" judges will see you can't break a copyright if you don't copy anything. Oh wait. MONEY is involved. There goes the law rewritten at the bench to suit their interests (as it's easier to go after the host of the site than MILLIONS of users).

The real reason ticket sales are down is because movies SUCK these days and ticket costs are through the roof! It cost me $34 for two tickets in the evening last week without $7 drinks or $10 buckets of popcorn (tip; eat before the movie, not after). It had surcharges for "XD" sound (when did they ever charge more to watch a movie in DTS in the '90s???) and "REAL 3D" (god, no one even wanted to see 3D in the '80s; Jaws 3D flopped). Everything is either a remake (which are almost always worse than the original), a sequel (same problem; rarely as good) or a comic book movie (getting old as that's all that comes out it seems). Then 2-4 months later, you can buy it on BluRay for $10-20 (and $5-8 a couple of years later). I can see why in the early days of BluRay people might settle for some crappy digital download of dubious quality when BluRays were $30+ a movie, but when you can get older movies for $4 on BluRay in many cases, I don't see the attraction. Netflix will stream you thousands of crappy b-movies for $10 a month and those b-movies are probably no worse than "blockbusters" like Independence Day II (yawn).

There's very little "new" out there and having lots of explosions (particularly cheesy CGI ones) is no substitute for a good plot, great dialogue and captivating actors. What did "The Desperate Hours" cost to make in the mid 1950s with Bogart? About $2.4 million. Even in today's money that would be around $22 million, 1/10 of typical Hollywood budgets and I dare say that movie was far more enjoyable than most movies I've seen made in the past decade. That trend is echoed by CEOs who now make 100x what their counterparts did back then even WITH inflation. The rich get richer and the poor get raked over. It's the American way. And now with Windows 10, Microsoft ensures your happiness by reporting everything you do straight to the FBI, CIA and NSA so they can deduct that torrent movie price directly from your pay check. It looks like Apple is getting ready to follow suit.



Anything involving MONEY or even the perception of the loss of money is 1000x worse than everything else combined. A certain secretary of state putting top secret information on a server is nothing to worry about, but someone copying a Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 1920s must go to jail!

What about financial crime? Those that are convicted get some light sentences.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Soo... I understand how the FBI found the IP address of the login to the KAT Facebook account.

I don't understand how they knew that same IP address made an iTunes login/purchase. Did they just hand over the IP address to Apple and ask if they saw it at a particular time and date? Or are they monitoring and logging all traffic in/out of Apple's servers? The article just presents those two facts like there's some logical link between them.

 

[webbuzz]

Soo... I understand how the FBI found the IP address of the login to the KAT Facebook account.

I don't understand how they knew that same IP address made an iTunes login/purchase. Did they just hand over the IP address to Apple and ask if they saw it at a particular time and date? Or are they monitoring and logging all traffic in/out of Apple's servers? The article just presents those two facts like there's some logical link between them.

He wasn't too smart. His iCloud email address was used as a rescue email. Which is how the FBI found it.

 

[kerrikins]

A lot of people on here squawking and not understanding the difference between Apple being asked to basically hand over the key to their encryption for ALL phones vs being asked for information in one case.

 

[webbuzz]

A lot of people on here squawking and not understanding the difference between Apple being asked to basically hand over the key to their encryption for ALL phones vs being asked for information in one case.

Amazing isn't it?

 

[rdlink]

Nothing cynical about it - just Apple being hypocritical about privacy - when it comes to the iPhone, Cowboy Cook digs in his spurs and says he'll take it to the highest court in the land and even past, if need be - everything else ... pfffft.

Spoken by someone who not only hasn't clue about the constitutional legal and privacy ramifications involved, but displays an obvious anti-Apple bias, and thereby doesn't care to educate himself on the subject.
[doublepost=1469127533][/doublepost]

Go suck a d*ck apple, I'm starting to really freaking hate you. They don't even make good products anymore

Thieves gonna hate...
[doublepost=1469127784][/doublepost]

Human lives don't matter to the rich. MONEY is their GOD. That is why Apple protects terrorists and goes after copyright infringement.

Torrent sites don't even host copyrighted material or actually copy anything (i.e. how do you break a copyright law without copying anything?). They link you to other torrent users just like Google links you to the torrent sites (but they don't go after Google, of course). But I'm sure those right-wing "protect your Constitutional Rights only and don't legislate from the bench" judges will see you can't break a copyright if you don't copy anything. Oh wait. MONEY is involved. There goes the law rewritten at the bench to suit their interests (as it's easier to go after the host of the site than MILLIONS of users).

The real reason ticket sales are down is because movies SUCK these days and ticket costs are through the roof! It cost me $34 for two tickets in the evening last week without $7 drinks or $10 buckets of popcorn (tip; eat before the movie, not after). It had surcharges for "XD" sound (when did they ever charge more to watch a movie in DTS in the '90s???) and "REAL 3D" (god, no one even wanted to see 3D in the '80s; Jaws 3D flopped). Everything is either a remake (which are almost always worse than the original), a sequel (same problem; rarely as good) or a comic book movie (getting old as that's all that comes out it seems). Then 2-4 months later, you can buy it on BluRay for $10-20 (and $5-8 a couple of years later). I can see why in the early days of BluRay people might settle for some crappy digital download of dubious quality when BluRays were $30+ a movie, but when you can get older movies for $4 on BluRay in many cases, I don't see the attraction. Netflix will stream you thousands of crappy b-movies for $10 a month and those b-movies are probably no worse than "blockbusters" like Independence Day II (yawn).

There's very little "new" out there and having lots of explosions (particularly cheesy CGI ones) is no substitute for a good plot, great dialogue and captivating actors. What did "The Desperate Hours" cost to make in the mid 1950s with Bogart? About $2.4 million. Even in today's money that would be around $22 million, 1/10 of typical Hollywood budgets and I dare say that movie was far more enjoyable than most movies I've seen made in the past decade. That trend is echoed by CEOs who now make 100x what their counterparts did back then even WITH inflation. The rich get richer and the poor get raked over. It's the American way. And now with Windows 10, Microsoft ensures your happiness by reporting everything you do straight to the FBI, CIA and NSA so they can deduct that torrent movie price directly from your pay check. It looks like Apple is getting ready to follow suit.



Anything involving MONEY or even the perception of the loss of money is 1000x worse than everything else combined. A certain secretary of state putting top secret information on a server is nothing to worry about, but someone copying a Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 1920s must go to jail!

A long-winded way of saying and trying to justify, "I want to steal stuff and this is preventing me from doing it. I'm angry. Boo-hoo." All thieves need to die now.

 

[eoblaed]

In This Thread: People that don't understand subpoenas and warrants and the difference between those and handing a blank check to the FBI to open any device they want to anytime they want to.

I'm glad this guy got busted.

 

[needfx]

All thieves need to die now.

you should migrate to a less tolerant country

 

[Glassed Silver]

By that logic we should give up on fighting drug dealers too.

Yeah, actually we should.
Prohibition is a failed project that hurts society big time and only few really profit from this mess.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[H2SO4]

A long-winded way of saying and trying to justify, "I want to steal stuff and this is preventing me from doing it. I'm angry. Boo-hoo." All thieves need to die now.

Does that include tax dodgers?

 

[QquegChristian]

Good riddance.

I am an indie filmmaker. One of the 3 main guys behind a movie called The Battery. The issue with piracy is the ratio. For every person that rents our movie for $4, at least 50 people pirate it. We can accept that piracy is a way of life, but it is hard to accept that 50 to 1 rate. When a group called YIFY created the 20th torrent of our movie, that torrent was downloaded 100,000 times in 24 hours (according to their website). In that same 24 hours, our movie sold 1 single DRM-free copy for $5. 100k downloads and we made maybe $4 (after fees) to split amongst ourselves and investors.

I've tried to keep an open mind about all of this. I listened to pirates. They said they refused to support companies like iTunes that overcharge for DRM'd movie files. So we hired lawyers, not to go after pirates, but to negotiate rights with our distributors, to regain the rights we needed to release the movie directly, with no big corporate middlemen, for $5 to own in HD, without any DRM.

And nobody cares! Piracy of our movie went up after the DRM-free release. More people click over to iTunes and pay double to get the locked version of the movie (maybe 4 a week versus 2 sold on our site).

The DRM-free version of the movie will never, ever, come close to paying back the legal expenses of the contract negotiations to make it available.

With our second movie, "Tex Montana Will Survive!" we still tried to work within a system that is broken. We essentially sold the finished movie to the people of the Internet via Kickstarter. When we hit our goal, we released via Creative Commons on YouTube, Vimeo, Prime Streaming, direct download, and torrent. We wanted to be able to feel good about our movie being shared, rather than to feel like a victim.

I uploaded torrents of that movie to many websites, including KickassTorrents. I was BANNED. Banned for uploading material that wasn't pirated.

It was one of the last arguments I've heard about torrents... That it isn't all bad... That it can be used legitimately. Sure, you can create a torrent to give your film away, but you aren't welcome to actually post those torrents on the sites that people use. The sites that make millions of dollars off the backs of people like myself. You may claim to have ideals, but you are also selling 20 million in ads a year. At the very least, your ideals are suspect.

 

[Gizmotoy]

He wasn't too smart. His iCloud email address was used as a rescue email. Which is how the FBI found it.

View attachment 641234 View attachment 641235

Wow. That was not smart.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

That's a common mis-conception that the MPAA and RIAA love to throw around. We've lost BILLIONS because of this. Actually in reality the number is a lot smaller. As a LARGE number of these downloads are being made by people who would never pay for these items in the first place. Take Photoshop for example, how many people do you know who would actually pop down the money for Photoshop if they had to for it? If anything, removing this all together would just increase the usage and development of open source software. As for movies and music, same thing, if it was all removed today, not everyone is going to run out tomorrow and pay for it.

Yes there are movies and TV shows that you wouldn't have bothered to see if you couldn't download them but there are MANY of those same movies and TV shows you would have paid to see if there weren't torrents.

Just think about how many of the blockbuster movies you've downloaded and which you would have paid to watch had you not been able to download them. I'm sure there are plenty.

 

[QquegChristian]

Yes there are movies and TV shows that you wouldn't have bothered to see if you couldn't download them but there are MANY of those same movies and TV shows you would have paid to see if there weren't torrents.

Just think about how many of the blockbuster movies you've downloaded and which you would have paid to watch had you not been able to download them. I'm sure there are plenty.

Yes, this is one of the most bogus excuses there is. The fact is, there is a large portion of people who don't pay for any movies outside of theaters. They have media streaming PCs set up to catalog and beam their torrents to the TV. In a setup like that, it becomes more inconvenient to actually pay for a movie. Even entering a purchasing pin code is one extra step that they don't have to do to steal.

This hurts indies more than anything. They appeal to the exact demographic most likely to torrent and they don't get released in movie theaters to make their money before the piracy party begins.

There is absolutely a large amount of people who just pirate everything and wouldn't have paid anyway. Let's say 75% of piracy falls into this example (that's being VERY generous). As a filmmaker, you know what? You don't get to take my movie just because you didn't want it! There's a lot of things I don't need at WalMart, so I make the decision to not only not buy them, but also not steal them. Take the first 30 minutes of my movie all you want. If you like it, rent it. But once you have the WHOLE movie and you're 30 minutes in... No one is stopping that free party to go rent it.

Sure, maybe they'll rent our NEXT movie if they liked the last one for free... But there is no next movie. Without actual sales figures on paper, you can't get a budget to make another movie. The LAST thing you'd show an investor is how great the piracy of your movie is (and my piracy really was great). You're just showing the investor the your demographic doesn't pay. I could probably get a budget tomorrow for a Christian movie that will go direct to DVD at Wal-Mart, because that demographic pays. An indie horror movie? You're screwed.

I've seen many, many comments on torrents of my movie that say "Thanks! I've been waiting for this one," etc. Let's stop making excuses and admit that piracy is a force because it is free. We could lower film rentals to 25 cents and they still can't compete.

One final note. A pirate that had no intention to pay for your movie, can turn around and cause potential paying customers to avoid the movie. A person that didn't want to watch the movie in the first place is... Unsurprisingly, likely not to enjoy the movie. They then leave bad reviews of the movie on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. If you don't like the trailer, move on with your life... Don't steal the movie because you think you'll hate it, then actually hate it, then tell the world how much you hated it. You were never the audience in the first place. I've seen many bad reviews that said "It's a good thing I torrented this."

I know I'll hate all the Transformers sequels, so I just don't watch them. They have an audience, it just isn't me.

 

[oldwatery]

So a criminal who makes $20 million a year helping people "steal" other's intellectual property is going to jail? Good.

Thank you. I was wondering if there was anyone on this site that had any idea of right and wrong. You torrent lot make me sick. You steal from people and think it's cool. Then you take it out on Apple and the Feds when they do the right thing and arrest the f**k who makes millions off other people's hard work. And as for comparing this to the other issues regarding Apple and privacy, you bend the truth and reality to make yourselves feel better about YOUR illegal activities. Pathetic!

 

[MH01]

Lol. For all the talk of privacy, apple will hand over your personal details in a flash if it suits them. Not suprised.

I actually feel sorry for all the users who actually buy into the whole apple privacy BS, this is no different to google's BS do no evil hypocrisy .

Even Microsoft is more conviencing at the moment

https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/14/microsoft-wins-second-circuit-warrant/
[doublepost=1469136026][/doublepost]

Yes, this is one of the most bogus excuses there is. The fact is, there is a large portion of people who don't pay for any movies outside of theaters. They have media streaming PCs set up to catalog and beam their torrents to the TV. In a setup like that, it becomes more inconvenient to actually pay for a movie. Even entering a purchasing pin code is one extra step that they don't have to do to steal.

This hurts indies more than anything. They appeal to the exact demographic most likely to torrent and they don't get released in movie theaters to make their money before the piracy party begins.

There is absolutely a large amount of people who just pirate everything and wouldn't have paid anyway. Let's say 75% of piracy falls into this example (that's being VERY generous). As a filmmaker, you know what? You don't get to take my movie just because you didn't want it! There's a lot of things I don't need at WalMart, so I make the decision to not only not buy them, but also not steal them. Take the first 30 minutes of my movie all you want. If you like it, rent it. But once you have the WHOLE movie and you're 30 minutes in... No one is stopping that free party to go rent it.

Sure, maybe they'll rent our NEXT movie if they liked the last one for free... But there is no next movie. Without actual sales figures on paper, you can't get a budget to make another movie. The LAST thing you'd show an investor is how great the piracy of your movie is (and my piracy really was great). You're just showing the investor the your demographic doesn't pay. I could probably get a budget tomorrow for a Christian movie that will go direct to DVD at Wal-Mart, because that demographic pays. An indie horror movie? You're screwed.

I've seen many, many comments on torrents of my movie that say "Thanks! I've been waiting for this one," etc. Let's stop making excuses and admit that piracy is a force because it is free. We could lower film rentals to 25 cents and they still can't compete.

One final note. A pirate that had no intention to pay for your movie, can turn around and cause potential paying customers to avoid the movie. A person that didn't want to watch the movie in the first place is... Unsurprisingly, likely not to enjoy the movie. They then leave bad reviews of the movie on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. If you don't like the trailer, move on with your life... Don't steal the movie because you think you'll hate it, then actually hate it, then tell the world how much you hated it. You were never the audience in the first place. I've seen many bad reviews that said "It's a good thing I torrented this."

I know I'll hate all the Transformers sequels, so I just don't watch them. They have an audience, it just isn't me.

you make it sound that it's a privilege to go watch a movie. If you really must know what kills it for the general joe, it's your rights management . If the entertainerment industry was not so damn driven by making money, people should not be being pushed to download shows or movies that are not show in thier country. I'd say get your house in order and actually listen to why the majority download, it's not cause it's free, it's about timely access. In a connected world , you expect a viewer to wait days or a week to watch the newest episode of game of thrones, when the net and social media go crazy after the US premier.....I've worked in the industry for 10 years, and our OS partners would screen at us why we could not send them content , and that people were getting it off pirate sites.....bloody rights mangement and network exclusivity , sorry but serves the, right that people take it in thier own hands and get the content they want

 

[shaunymac]

There is absolutely a large amount of people who just pirate everything and wouldn't have paid anyway. Let's say 75% of piracy falls into this example (that's being VERY generous). As a filmmaker, you know what? You don't get to take my movie just because you didn't want it! There's a lot of things I don't need at WalMart, so I make the decision to not only not buy them, but also not steal them. Take the first 30 minutes of my movie all you want. If you like it, rent it. But once you have the WHOLE movie and you're 30 minutes in... No one is stopping that free party to go rent it.

I know I'll hate all the Transformers sequels, so I just don't watch them. They have an audience, it just isn't me.

I agree with everything you said. As someone who works with cameras as well, I have always wondered when this issue will be tackled. I feel like Netflix and such is "kind of" attacking it by them releasing their own material. To me, this is great because people willingly pay and it is good content.

Now, I understand the above does little to nothing for an indie but it is something? As great as the internet and digital has been, it is a huge learning curve for the industry and everything that is connected to it.

The person that gave the Photoshop example. I agree, most people have pirated copies of it. Heck, I did when I was younger. How could I get experience with the program when it was priced that way? I justified it that way. Illegal, yes. Nowadays, I still own my Legal CS6 master collection and don't plan on jumping to the per month thing anytime soon.

I like how Apple came out with competitive pricing with Final Cut, etc. I love having that and it is always updated. The price! Amazing! I feel like my Capture One software is always a version behind. haha.

Oh, the other thing that irks me about all this...because everything is perceived as "cheap" or "free", the value and quality of the product is directly related to it ex. movies, software, etc. Oh well, I'm not going to dwell on this. I'm just a grain of sand in the ocean.

 

[CarlJ]

I am an indie filmmaker. One of the 3 main guys behind a movie called The Battery. The issue with piracy is the ratio. For every person that rents our movie for $4, at least 50 people pirate it. We can accept that piracy is a way of life, but it is hard to accept that 50 to 1 rate. When a group called YIFY created the 20th torrent of our movie, that torrent was downloaded 100,000 times in 24 hours (according to their website). In that same 24 hours, our movie sold 1 single DRM-free copy for $5. 100k downloads and we made maybe $4 (after fees) to split amongst ourselves and investors.

Your comment really ought to be on the front page, as the comment from this thread, instead of all the entitled whiners.

 

[RedOrchestra]

... instead of all the entitled whiners.

I blow through $100 - $150 / month in the iTunes store - I've never downloaded a single piece of crap from torrents ... this whole discussiion is about how Apple purports to handle privacy and how it actually handles privacy ... time for you to dismount your wooden rocking horse.

 

[CarlJ]

sorry but serves them right that people take it in thier own hands and get the content they want

Do you also condone rape? Your argument works equally well for that, right down to blaming the victim.
[doublepost=1469138298][/doublepost]

this whole discussiion is about how Apple purports to handle privacy and how it actually handles privacy ...

This "whole discussion" has gone in a lot of different directions, per usual. Apple has made it quite clear - and always have - that they work with law enforcement, when presented with subpoenas. This is not only nice of them, it is obeying the law. And it is entirely separate from the privacy of customers personal data. The FBI wanted Apple to build them a special tool that would allow the government to violate people's privacy at will, and Apple said no. The government swore up and down that it was just only "for this one especially deserving [cherry-picked] case, honest," while at the same time prosecutors all over the country were eagerly lining up to use such a tool. Apple is doing the right thing in both cases. But a lot of folks here can't look beyond, "oh, terrorists, I don't like those... oh, torrents, I do like those," to see what the real issues are.

 

[alexgowers]

It seems ironic a PURCHASE on iTunes helped catch someone involved in piracy.

...and yet still not one criminal banker is in jail! Sure torrents are mainly used to pirate commercial materials but pretty much anyone with the cash to spend will actually buy the stuff they can afford those with little expendable cash will probably not. Sure apple helped and thats not a bad thing but those truly committing huge fraud crimes are totally ignored by FBI etc.

IMHO torrents help spread content and make franchises much bigger than they could be, they're akin to radio or mtv. It's free promo. They're not some magical lost revenue it's just different.