Security in a Time of Torrents
It is the end of another month.
It is pay day.
It is the weekend.
It cannot get any better than this, can it? We’re guessing you are a huge movie fan, have probably mind-written a few fanciful scripts yourself but that's beside the point. This weekend gets better with some seriously undiluted entertainment. You've earned it. You really have.
But so did Bryan.
Bryan is an overseas college student who is tired of school. All through the Easter holiday, he was breaking his back (and brain) studying for his nursing exams and this weekend, he is tired and really just wants to stay in his room, binge on something worthwhile, and sleep like he's in competition with a sack of potatoes. But Bryan is broke and cannot afford to stream his favorite Tom Hanks film, not until that cheque from Dad comes through. And Dad has been on a camping trip all week. He is a smart guy though, so he opts to torrent download a movie instead, and goes to bed happy!
It's 5a.m and he needs to be up for study time. The laptop is taking unusually long to boot. Five minutes in, a pop-up casually reminds him of a $3,000 payment he has to make to some random account before he can access his student files.
In a hotel room 3 continents away is Amit. He has been paying for this space three days a week, every other month, away from the noise and clamor that is the city. In his hands is a book manuscript that he has been working on for a year. Grateful to have finally completed, he puts it to rest, securely uploads it to his cloud account, and sets about to listen to his freely downloaded music playlist.
But, while singing along to the bridge of his best Daughtry hit single, he realizes he needs to add an important detail to his manuscript and the software he used for that particular format now has an expired license and does not cover that feature anymore. No worries though, he has WiFi. He can get another for free.
And he does. Through torrents.
An hour later, security is called up to Amit's room; something about a 'screaming guest raving about a book he lost'.
If you want something for free, breathe. Everything else has a price tag on it. And if you are not careful enough, or think that you are too clever to be the next Bryan or Amit, think again; you might be wrong.
Now it's the weekend (or a Wednesday, if you're reading this from the moon) and the temptation for free entertainment is rife. But it is in your best interest to go about getting your entertainment or software in a legal manner. People worked really hard on whatever it is you are torrenting and it's only right, if not fair, to stream, read or watch paid content.