I don't know how many of you know about peer to peer torrent sites, but this is a way of getting your hands on virtually limitless resources on all sorts of subjects.

For FA.com I am refering specifically to the martial arts material you get for free. Stuf like MA documentories, video/dvd instrcutionals, the latest UFC/pride fights literally hours within when they took place.

I know there some legal issues but there are ways to down load safely, and certain torrent sites are private by invitation only and there is no need to pay for the down loads, just make sure you keep your down load and upoad ratio within reason.

I bring this up because sometimes there are those who cannot afford instructions in a martial art, and really shouldn't have to pay the outrageous prices for an instrctional video/dvd when you can down load it for free. I for one cannot afford to pay for the latest boxing pay per view or the latest UFC, nor can I afford personal instrcutions with the Gracies or machados, but a few hours of downloading and I can have that knowledge on my pc. Basically it'sall about sharring files.

bit torrent is a great idea...for people who don't know, it's a way to transfer either very large files or entire DVD's & CD's.

the time to transfer is a function of how slow your connection is vs. how slow the host computer sending the file is. It's also a function of how many people are downloading from the same host at the same time.

the way it works is by setting up a designated area on your hard-drive as a host computer. people then basically logon to your available file section and download what they want.

there is a 'pause' feature that allows you to continue downloading at a later time if the traffic gets congested. and it remembers where you left off.

I believe copyright laws apply, so be careful with giving out protected material.

if you have a slow connection, don't even bother....it would take literally days to download a 2-hour DVD. (same amount of time to mail it!)


maybe they've made improvements since I last installed and tried this technology a year ago....but it's probably basically the same.

a glimpse of the future as it relates to this site...as technology progresses, people won't be satisfied with 'clips' on youtube. there will be people putting out downloadable instruction DVD's, movies, documentaries...etc.

...and we'll STILL be saying (and rightly so) the best way to learn is in-person with sweat and bruises.

I was just suggesting it because for instance I am a member of a private site and I can only invite 2 people, but if I invite 2 people from this site, then they can invite 2 people and so forth, that way everyone can get on. Also there are thousands of sites out there of which I don't know about but others on here might. For instance I was able to view a DVD copy of that BBC martial arts documentory you ordered a few months ago. And much, much more.

I don't know if you real but I had suggested that maybe if you upoaded onto a torrent site, but you were nervious about copy right laws. But using peer guardian helps protect downloaders from fbi and other agencies, ofcourse there is no guarantee. Most problems arise from music and not videos.

I wouldn't mind an invite...

Some guys at work told me about Torrent and stuff. My brother-in-law belongs to one of those invite sites and has incredible download speeds. I have in the past month or so visited Torrentspy.com and have download some stuff. Here is a website showing the top 35 Torrent sites.

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/peersharing/a/torrent_search.htm

I've only downloaded a song I needed plus the movie "The Warriors" from the late 70's and then a few other movies such as "V for Vendetta". An excellent DVD rip that took 2.5 hours to download and I was glad I did not go see it or rent it as it was a horrible movie.

Be careful some of those sites are not safe. Because they are public and very popular often they are being monitored.

I doubt anyone would be monitoring martial arts dvd's. More likely they would be looking at games and movies. A friend of mine downloaded battle for middle earth 2 a week ago at torrentspy.com. Use either that site or limewire. If you do go to a torrent site then id reccomend you download a program called bitcomet to do your downloading. Its faster than most other programs. Good luck downloading your (legal of course ) vids

The program I am reffering to is Peer Guardian. It's used along with bittorrent. It helps protect your pc from virus, like a firewall. It also helps keep you safe from copy right authorities while your downloading.

Before downloading anything from a torrent sie, you should first turn on Peer Guardian.

Yes, why pay the outrageous prices for anything when you can just steal it.

Dress it up any way you like, downloading copyrighted pay for material(music, books, movies, training vids) is theft-plain and simple.

If you don't have the money to buy something-get a job and save up for it. Being poor or just lazy is not justification for stealing.

..isnt it? lol - its not like it makes a difference really. I mean if i steal a game off EA then they dont give a rats..its not like stealing an old lady's handbag. And there is the whole moral thing..but of course that only applies if you give a ****

Or you are one.

Frankly, I tire of youtube. It would be nice to have access to a site dedicated to MA downloads. But I'm only interested in the personal recordings that are starting to surface...not the 'commercial' ones that would infringe on copyright laws.

Guess it all depends on how you look at it. I myself never upload anything, I just down load. When you click on a torrent file, it gives the name of the person who upoaded it and calls them the owner. SO techniqualy he is to blame not me, I'm finding a dollar on the floor not robbing the bank to which that dollar came from.

Besides it's a rip off how much these guys charge for an MA tape. Paul Vanuk vid can go for $45 bucks for a 30 minute segment.

Or the recent Paul Hogan dvds Ijust got on pressure points. He charges $50 bucks for videos that barely have 50 minutes of info on it. Not to mention that his first seminar is with a bunch of low ranking audience and he does not wnt to share the real "dangerous" stuff with such ranks. I guess I have to weight for the other 2 downoads to see if he actually gets into anything interesting.

And I don't think pretty boy floyd woud hate on me to much if he knew I was able to get a hold of his pay per view fight against baldomir. I'd think he'd be proud that I found a way, don't hate da playa hate the game is probably what he would say.

The information is out there and the software is to so that you can download it for free. Within Canada there is no legislation that it is illegal to downloand stuff like there is in the US so I'm not that worried too much. Heck, how many people watch UFC Fights on YouTube, or other things of this nature???? These are Pay-Per-Views that somebody watched and uploaded it for all to see. Somebody paid for these and provided it for all to see at no charge ... are you not stealing money from the UFC and other places? If you say no then I wouldn't be worried about Torrent sites then ... you can't have it both ways.

I've rented my fair share of UFC, K1 and Pride fights. I have always purchased albums of artists and actually only have 1 downloaded song that I could have got from anybody from their CD. I make CD's to listen to in my truck off of CD's I purchased. Until something concrete happens and further legislation and patrolling is implemented then I will roll with the punches. I pay and if the odd time I deem to download it then I have to make that decision for myself and it is not up to anybody else to say if I'm right or wrong.

another interesting technology coming down the pike in popularity is video podcasting. I've been playing around with audio & video just to see how it works. neat stuff.

Combined with blogs ...it looks the way people are going, is to be able to create their own home mini-production studios. text, audio, video content feeds that can be 'broadcast' to various devices (internet, ipod, next generation psp, handheld thingys...and eventually TV and satelite radio). crazy stuff...how much communication/entertainment do we need?

skills in using tools to find content you want/need will be a must. get friendly with google...because thats only the beginning - the basics. having unlimited content at your fingertips will mean nothing if you can't find what you are looking for quickly.

And here I was thinking I'm already in information overload. Who was it who said "we're drowning in information and starving for knowledge."

Drawback of video podcasts is this-If you achieve any kind of popularity, due to the size of the files, your server gets slammed and your bandwidth bill goes through the roof.

We do live in a technologically interesting time with newer amazing stuff popping up all the time.

I stumbled across bit torrent and started downloading, I seriously didnt realise it might be illegal - im a bit slow like that..........

anyhow I got shed loads of good stuff until they closed it down, I wouldnt do it again as I know better these days, but im guessing I grabbed about 30 1-2 hour length MA dvds!