Best sites for downloading bootleg or old films and ebooks

[Rearden Metal]

Asking for a friend who wants to cancel his TV licence.

My understanding is that you can't watch live TV. You can watch catch up TV though. Is that where you have some kind of box that lets you start watching x minutes after the live show has started? Or do you have to wait until the show has finished before you can watch? And can you get a box that lets you do that on all the freesat channels?

[ladymuck]

Catch up is after the programme has finished IIRC

Do I need a TV licence?: 20+ TV licence fee tips - Money Saving Expert

[OwlHoot]

Unlimited Usenet $18 (GBP14 a year) NewsGroupDirect - hotukdeals

Fake news?

Not used usenet for years so no idea if still worthwhile but always preferred it over torrents as there was less blowback from ISPs (strongly worded letters ) and the rest.

These days I am legit , and look for used DVDs/Blu-ray on MusicMagpie and Amazon Marketplace if it's a title I want to keep with a high rewatch factor. Proper ownership, not that 'stream until we don't let you' crap where you need to subscribe to dozens of services to get all the content already on DVD and Blu-ray.

All true, certainly the final para. I've heard that Amazon will remotely delete an ebook off your Kindle at the drop of a hat if there's even a hint of a complaint about it (potential copyright issue, offence caused to some snowflake, you name it) !

I used to download ebooks literally by the ten thousand from alt.binaries.e-books.technical. But a couple of prolific posters, including one called Rockhound were warned off a couple of years ago and sadly I think the group is tumbleweed these days, along with most of the other unmoderated usenet groups.

I always marvelled at where and how Rockhound found all his wonderful supply of ebooks, most bang up to date. I think he must have worked for a publisher or maybe even the Library of Congress.

[Platypus]

ExpressVPN highly recommended. PM if you want some site recommendations ;-)

[NotAllThere]

All true, certainly the final para. I've heard that Amazon will remotely delete an ebook off your Kindle at the drop of a hat if there's even a hint of a complaint about it (potential copyright issue, offence caused to some snowflake, you name it) !

Back up to Calibre, strip off the DRM.

[SimonMac]

I find it very hard to find places, legit or otherwise, where you can download all the old classics.

I've still not seen 12 Angry Men or the Third Man or even Casablanca.

They used to screen a lot of what I term crusty old black and white films late at night on BBC2 and there was always something rather comforting being curled up on the sofa in front of a film that you knew was being beamed from some windswept, desolate hilltop somewhere.

Casablanca is on TV quite regularly; last on a couple of weeks ago AISTR. It's a proper classic. Would recommend.

You're not looking in the right places then.

Sonarr for TV Shows / Radarr for Films, pointed at a Jackett proxy and then to all the indexers you can thing of

[SimonMac]

Yes. I'm aware of that. There are ways around it. *smug* *smug* <- that's 2 smug.

Set the upload speed to a 0 kbs

[NotAllThere]

There's an app called "old films" or something. You might try that.

[Hobosapien]

alt.binaries.e-books.technical.

There's a technical book I fancy reading so fired up my old usenet related VM but no sign of that book or anything related, seems mostly german stuff where I looked, though maybe the tools I'm using are now too out of date to be useful.

Ended up buying the paperback version from Amazon cheaper than the publisher has it on their own website despite promoting 40% off all titles. Seems they want to continue letting Amazon take over the whole world.

Bonus being the publisher provides a free ebook version even if the paperback is bought elsewhere. No drm.

That's all they need to do to beat piracy, provide an easier way of accessing the content at a reasonable price. One day Amazon will be so big they'll buy out Netflix, Sky, and all the competitors and we'll have one place for it all. Make it so Bezos, you can afford it.