Torrenting in Japan

[PithyGriff]

I'm wondering how unwise it is to torrent in Japan. I have some friends in Japan and I plan to live there short-term in about a year, and we're all looking for a good answer to the question. Through searches we've all found the same general concerns, but not much concrete. If anyone has relevant experience, I'd appreciate it.

I know there's a general fear of ISPs being proactive, much moreso than in America. Some people have been arrested. Though a lot of cases are of people using their max bandwidth for prolonged periods, and downloading recent content. Not much different from America; always better off waiting for the retail release of something; much more likely to get a letter in the mail for downloading the latest House than the M*A*S*H finale.

Pointers in the right direction are appreciated. (And apologies if the subject is misplaced/taboo/repeated)

[relic2279]

I don't know because I'm not in Japan, but I can say they generally don't use regular torrent sites like bakabt... They're more inclined to go with actual p2p programs like Share, PerfectDark, Winny (that still around?) etc, which is where if a bust or a sting was going down, law enforcement would be looking there. However if ISP's are proactive, then it might not matter.

[vuzedome]

The usual peers lists i get from public trackers show lots of connections coming from Japan, but the stuff I usually get are pretty obscure or undesirable to begin with anyway.
More importantly, there are people using utorrent(actually most of them, but not all peers) in Japan, but that's about all the info I have.

[PithyGriff]

All around that's the one fact that seems to fly against all the paranoia. On almost anything I torrent there's at least one Japan ip floating in the peer list. Whether they're actually uploading or not... But I know I've gotten plenty from Japan ips before- just from obsessively babysitting my torrents.

The consensus seems to be that uploading will get you in trouble, not downloading.

[iindigo]

I've lived in Japan (Tokyo even) since last August, and in that time have torrented a significant amount of stuff. Nothing that even touches the amount that a lot of guys here download, but still pretty respectable - it's definitely over 300-400GBs.

I haven't been bothered at all. As far as I can tell, law enforcement here really only cares about Gnutella-esque P2P programs like Winny and Share. I've also been told that ISPs generally don't give a shit about how much you download - meaning you can download terabytes of stuff and they won't care - but you can get in trouble if you repeatedly overstep upload limits. I don't know what the general going limit is, but at least for one gigabit FiOS provider I was looking at, you are limited to about 30GB of upload per day.

[PithyGriff]

but at least for one gigabit FiOS provider I was looking at, you are limited to about 30GB of upload per day.

Oh ... noes... how..
          will

    I
                         ever

        manage...

Thanks a bunch :) Some outside Tokyo input would be good too. I've heard Tokyo prefecture often operates... differently. From personal experience I know the upload gestapo doesn't drop by often in Tokyo. (At least not for small-timers)

[namaiki]

you are limited to about 30GB of upload per day.

OT: To think I pay to download up to 60GB per month.. lol Australia isn't that far away from Japan.

[mgz]

you are limited to about 30GB of upload per day.

OT: To think I pay to download up to 60GB per month.. lol Australia isn't that far away from Japan.

difference being that it would take you all month to get that 60gb of upload almost and a portion of the day to hit the 30gb lol

[namaiki]

No, I download 60GB a month and upload about 20GB.

Noooo, Australiaaaaaaa!


edit: well yeah, it would take me 24-7 for a whole month to hit 60GB upload, but I apparently only pay for a download quota, and if I upload more than 1GB a day, I might get a letter from my ISP..

[samfisher1]

who is your isp?

go with TPG XD

130 GIGs for 49.95 frre uploads!!!!!!

[namaiki]

who is your isp?

Optus, but I'll apparently lose my phone number if I swap to a different phone company.. :C

[PithyGriff]

Don't mean to be a dick, but move it to PMs or stay on topic.

[samfisher1]

Don't mean to be a dick, but move it to PMs or stay on topic.

yes your right.



if your worried. go use a proxy (proxies hide your ip by redirecting your trafic though there servers, but im not sure on japans rules on torrenting.)

orrrrr. download like crazy here, use what you wantover there or set up a VPN to a home pc or something and have your home pc download then then upload to your japan pc or something along those lines.


or go to a net cafe or find a unprotected wireless and steal there internets..



if your so worried about uploads. just cap it at the limmit for the day. and continue the next day.

[relic2279]

if your worried. go use a proxy (proxies hide your ip by redirecting your trafic though there servers, but im not sure on japans rules on torrenting.)

I guess you could proxy p2p traffic, but it would inefficient. It's not really done.

What you're looking for is p2p encryption.

[vuzedome]

Or, VPN.

[narcusyetra]

btw instead of p2p there are dvd directly available, i have a friend living there for 4yrs now....says its more safer and risk of being caught is taken by the vendor not the buyer...

[animebaka]

Seedbox.