I'm seeing thepiratebay org is discouraged because it has lots of viruses due to lack of moderation. I was wondering how could an mp4 or an mkv etc. could be harmful? Are people talking about executable stuff?
yes, it's mostly things like games or software
though, I have seen more & more reports of people finding malicious disguised LNK files in their downloads and torrents, which will run some arbitrary command if you open that: Windows does not ever show the LNK extension, so a file could be named "<whatever>.mkv.lnk", and you would only know if you checked the "file type" column in Explorer (which would read "Shortcut" instead of something like "Matryoshka file"), or when you see the cmd.exe window flicker open and close.
bonus edit: LNK is the native file extension that Windows uses to link app shortcuts, such as the shortcuts on your desktop.
Aah okay, thanks. Yeah, I'm on Linux already and only ever view files from a client that only shows media files. I've found some more recommended alternatives and will use them going forward. I was just looking to see if I should delete the stuff I had from tpb but doesn't seem necessary.
Link files will show the .lnk extension on Linux and it should be obvious from the icon that it's not a video file. If you have wine installed, then double clicking one will run it and malware can still cause problems when run in wine.
If your torrent client has the option to run a script or command when a download completes, you could have it delete all .lnk files in the download directory. Something like
find /path/to/my/download/directory -type f -iname "*.lnk" -deletewould work.It should also be obvious in your torrent client as it will be listed there with the full file name.
I have literally never downloaded pirated software since OS 9 went away and OS X became a thing. Open up your task manager and look at how many processes there are (Window, Mac or Linux) and ask yourself if you're going to notice the one extra process that is out of place.
As for files with extra extensions, this is why you should always set Explorer/Finder/whatever to show all file extensions the very first thing, regardless of what OS you're running too.
TPB is fine if you're cautious and just download video/audio. I'm in a bunch of private trackers but still use it occasionally since it can have old and obscure stuff occasionally since the site is so old.
Yup. There are some extensions and/or scripts that should help a bit, but you are always your best anti-virus. I only go if I absolutely have to, but occasionally it is the only place to find older shows and things
Only problems I've ever had on TPB were not finding things that I could find on other sites. Then again, I don't use Windows for either downloading or media consumption, I check torrent file lists as I'm downloading to make sure I'm not downloading anything suspect, and I've so far managed to catch wind of things like certain trusted uploaders getting hacked, spoofed, or just plain trying to cash-in, in-time to avoid getting worked over.
Those same users post to most of the other public sites as well, so I'm not getting where TPB is somehow particularly un-trustworthy. IME, other public sites seem to have MANY more torrents for a given search, often by orders of magnitude, so which one is really less moderated?
The REAL encouraged/discouraged is Private vs Public sites and trackers, and I'm not pretending that for all my caveats I haven't been just plain lucky. If you download regularly at all, Private is the way to go.
