Cancel Cable: How Internet Pirates Get Free Stuff

I'd heard about getting pirated movies off the internet, and wanted to find out what I've been missing, and this book satisfied my curiosity very well. It's a cookbook-type explanation of how to get started with peer-to-peer filesharing. The author assumes zero technical knowledge (he even starts by telling you how to associate file types with applications), though the would-be pirate may find himself sailing into uncharted waters by the time he gets to Chapter 6 and reads such things as "if you[r] router doesn't support automatic port mapping, search for port forwarding in the resources listed in Getting Help..." One of the resources listed is to hire a networking geek, and if you have a 12-year-old in the family, that might be the place to begin.This P2P stuff is more complicated that I had realized, especially if you're doing battle with your ISP (I have one of the "bad" ones), and I haven't had the energy and courage to actually tackle torrents (I'll continue waiting a few weeks and watching movies on Netflix with zero hassle). The plaintive cries for assistance on the vuze.com and utorrent.com forums were enough to convince me that I was probably going to find this more frustrating than fun. But I suspect the book does give a reasonably tech-oriented person enough grounding to get started in this field, especially since it gives lots of links to places to find help. And even without downloading a thing, I felt that I got my money's worth from the book: it was amazing to discover just what's out there, and how this whole business works.

This is a devastating how-to to share information that we could originally share anyway.I was amused that it was difficult to get a publisher. Anyone can share a book or CD without a separate licence, so why not on the net too? Copyright is a broken system, being made worse by vested interests in the USA to extend copyright to benefit corporations who have purchased 'rights' from dead authors. I would like to see copyright revert to only items renewed on a register for the life of the author as we used to have. Then we could release all those abandoned orphan books in libraries with no recorded copyright holder.

Didnt receive.

It's an interesting but very technical. I read it and still have no idea what it said. What I did take away from it, is if you get into this stuff, you open yourself up to hackers, viruses and spammers

I was hoping for a little more then just instructions on using torrents to watch television shows. Things like alternative ways to watch shows or ways to get cable channels a la carte.

I was expecting, hoping-for a discussion of the social impact and implications of 'piracy' in the digital age. Instead, this book is a well constructed mix of "user manual" and "how-to" information that is gleaned from many web pages. In that light, it is well done, and may be useful to the newbie. But as a discussion piece? Or as an in-depth guide to the nuances of avoiding RIAA/MPAA entanglements, or anonymizing your tracks etc, this book is way too light weight.

I originally disapproved of this digital-stealing book, but I was mistaken. Books like this are useful and, at times, necessary. This one is strong on the how-to: it's short, technical, and easy to understand. The author's experience and advice is on every page.If you're an average Joe with low to middle internet skills, this book will prevent headaches, save your computer, and explain the price of gullibility. Accept as fact that internet pirates are technically savvy, and a few of them are malicious and may be a notch brighter and more experienced than you. You're an easy mark without experience. Cancel Cable provides knowledge. Chris Fehily knows his audience. People looking for something for nothing aren't likely to be cautious and skeptical, as they should be. Most of them aren't going to do the research needed to avoid the traps and false starts involved in downloading a DVD or game for free. It's easier to buy the item legally.In sum, this book is a shortcut. It's a well-written quickstart guide similar to any number of computer books that you own or have thumbed through. The topic is a little racier, but the goal is the same: getting your computer to be more useful.If you're not pirate material, but still want to know how pirates operate, then read this book for an explanation of the process and the very elegant technology behind it. I found the chapters that describe how this alien world works to be the most interesting.

There is a lot of disinformation, if not outright malarky from the 'PC security industry' as well as the mainstream media about File Sharing & BitTorrent-- and a lot of 'dancing around the topic' by other authors.But there is none of that in this book. It is both a primer and a quick-start guide to the world of BitTorrent piracy: why it's done, how to do it, and what the pitfalls are.But even if you're not a 'pirate' there is a LOT of excellent information here for 'normal' PC and Mac users.Chapter 4 about Malware is a common sense introduction to threats that alone is worth the price of this book-- the other sections on files & archives are as well.In fact, even without the sections on piracy this would be a good book for parents to understand just what is on their children's machines and why they should be secured.In fact: I absolutely recommend this book for parents. If your child is talking about 'Matroska files,' 'seed ratio,' 'warez' or other such Greek-- and you're wondering what these terms mean-- you need this book. Even if they aren't, their friends are. Trust me on this one.The only downside is that this book is written in an unapologetic, direct and matter of fact tone-- like The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Despite piracy not being my favorite topic, I found it to be a very concise and refreshing read.Make no mistake: Lawyers that deal with intellectual property, system administrators, and your 12-16 year old son/daughter already know what is in this book.Ignorance is no excuse. I highly recommend this book.

This book is excellent. I think it has the right amount of technical detail - and explains it well.The author knows how to properly present the subject matter - with lots of useful tips.This title is better (although - to be fair - it is a more recent publication) than the only other half-decent title "BitTorrent for Dummies".I have read both these books.It's up to the reader whether or not they are concerned about piracy. Regardless, this is an excellent introduction to the BitTorrent world.

This is a fairly old book and is a good bit torrent starter, but a a lot of technical details are just brushed over.

I find it rather disappointing, and even distasteful, that Amazon allow such a "product" on their store. This is merely a guide on pirating copyrighted material, with some pathetic attempts to justify doing so. When I saw the title, I downloaded the Kindle book in case I was wrong about the content, but I was instead proven correct.