Cancel Cable: practical guide to file-sharing is also a calm manifesto

Statistician and tech-book author Chris Fehily's Cancel Cable: How Internet Pirates Get Free Stuff is a provocative, often funny, and informative book that describes in detail how to use infringing download services to get stuff for free. Fehily's book is not only interesting in that it brings clear technical writing to the subject of getting up an running with BitTorrent and various trackers and search-engines, but also for the insightful notes on how the arms race between copyright enforcers and pirates has created many new tools for evaluating the trustworthiness of the files you find online. Fehily touches on the ethics of downloading, the reasons that people participate in it, and how he decides what he wants to pirate and what he wants to buy. Cancel Cable is a remarkably calm look at the technical, social, economic and cultural issues arising from file-sharing, and it's also a damned practical guide to navigating the strange world of file-sharing technology.

Cancel Cable: How Internet Pirates Get Free Stuff

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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ScottTFrazer

Interesting, because I can’t find it on Usenet or Pirate bay.

Here are some of his other books, though:

http://binsearch.info/?q=Chris+Fehily+&max=100&adv_age=900&server=
millrick

it’s on Google Books, with some pages omitted, of course
ScottTFrazer

Fair’s fair. Where can I download this book?
- Cory Doctorow
  
  > Where can I download this book?
  
  On P2P networks around the world, with the author’s blessing.
  - Anonymous
    
    Isn’t there a chicken-and-egg kind of thing going on here?
- Cowicide
  
  I’ll take it by that comment, you don’t “get it” and maybe never will. I hope you do find the book and read/comprehend what his overall message is. It’s obviously way over your head at the moment.
  - ScottTFrazer
    
    Not over my head at all. I probably use most of the techniques described in the book.
    
    I think it’s pretty funny that Cory’s willing to link to a manual on pirating IP using an affiliate code that not only makes him money on the purchase of that book, but any purchase I make at amazon until I’ve clicked another affiliate link.
    
    Fehily claimed he would upload the book to pirate sites, but it’s not available yet on two of the most popular systems out there. He _could_ give it away for free from his website, much like Cory does with his books, but he’s not doing that. He, in fact, hasn’t released his rights to the book at all, merely stating that he knows it will, in fact, be pirated. Check the preview: Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.
    
    If anyone doesn’t “get it,” I think it’s Fahily himself. If he truly believes in the free distribution of IP he should maybe put his money where his mouth is. CC license that sucker and be done with it.
    - Cowicide
      
      Not over my head at all. I probably use most of the techniques described in the book.
      
      Techniques? lol
      
      Um, it’s now confirmed by your post that you most certainly do not get it. Here’s a HINT:
      
      Fehily touches on the ethics of downloading, the reasons that people participate in it, and how he decides what he wants to pirate and what he wants to buy.
      
      Sheesh… hopefully it’s flying a little lower now and you can see… it.
      - ScottTFrazer
        
        Again, interesting that he’s talked the talk but not put his OWN IP up for the public at large.
        
        He’s fine making a buck on teaching you how to steal other’s stuff, but he’s strangely inactive in allowing you to get his IP for free.
        
        So what am I not understanding, exactly?
- Anonymous
  
  Get this book at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978590767/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=miniformusi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0978590767
  
  also check out: Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don’t Want You to Know at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593271018/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=miniformusi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1593271018
  
  For more Simple, Cost Effective Alternatives to Cable TV go to http://www.Killthecablebill.com
kevinsky

You can cancel cable and NOT be an internet pirate.

I canceled cable in 2001, switched to rabbit ears. Anything I watched with any regularity at that time was available OTA anyway.

Eventually moved up to an HD capable attic antenna. Now I get all those juicy HD stations that broadcast out from the CN Tower for NOTHIN! Totally legal.

With the money we save on cable, we’ll occasionally buy a series we’re interested in on disc or from iTunes, but we don’t feel so strapped for cash, or so committed to watching television, that we have to steal content to fill our day. We don’t watch so many movies that we can’t rent one every now and then for 5 bucks.
- kevinsky
  
  Although it would be very interesting to read about the technical and cultural side of downloading and copyright.
  
  When I canceled cable I was seen as a rebel “but what are you gonna watch??” Lots of content over the antenna!
  
  Now I’m seen as a different kind of rebel “OH, you must be torrenting content!!” Nope, still with the antenna
- Nadreck
  
  But of course, the CN tower has long been considered to be a Pirate Mast by the US broadcasters. It sucks in their signals from afar and feeds them to the Canadian cable networks; who replace the US commercials with their own along the way. All without paying a cent to the broadcasters.
yosemite

For what it’s worth, still no sign of it as a torrent. I’d like to read the book, but only for free.
- Andrew
  
  Take your pick from any of these torrent trackers.
  http://torrentz.eu/aea374eb239a7f6a494ddd93638391e96ba7ba2d
AGC

Keeping a copy of everything that you watch is important. It is a means of sharing information with people around you. If you have an interesting point to make but can’t find a copy of the .avi file, to share, your point is partially lost. Another reason why piracy beats broadcast media or subscription services.
- didymos
  
  I don’t think that Hollywood would argue with your point. However, they are greedy enough that they want to get paid once when you initially view the material, and again when you reference it later, and again when that person references it, etc.
ROSSINDETROIT

Oh, get off my lawn. I’ve never had cable, and stopped watching broadcast 35 years ago. Life is too short. How committed are you, really, to spending yours in front of the haunted fishtank?
My wife tried to convince me a few years ago that there are shows that are worth watching. I resisted, but she’s right. There’s some great drama and comedy that’s been made for the small screen. We rent or stream those. The cost is so small that we haven’t investigated the freebie options. Picking what you watch, when and how feels at little more like active participation than passive absorption of media.
- Anonymous
  
  Haunted fishtank? How 20th century. We’ve most of us upgraded to haunted ant farms. Much flatter.
za7ch

Demonoid has it. :)
bshock

Odd that you’d need a book for what comes very naturally.

I canceled my Cox cable tv subscription last May. I realized that I wasn’t watching 99.99% of what was broadcast. Why pay for something you don’t use?

But that didn’t mean I stopped paying Cox. I still use Cox cable internet service. I feel as though I just stopped double-paying.
EH

Oh jeez, cue the self-righteous TV-quitters, they’ve been waiting decades for this thread.

The cost is so small that we haven’t investigated the freebie options.

Good to see things are going well for you in Detroit.
- Zoman
  
  “Oh jeez, cue the self-righteous TV-quitters”
  
  Thank you, I quit TV about 7 years ago. I think more people would throw out their televisions if they thought it was a socially acceptable thing to do. Your derision is typical of narrow-minded people who believe because they are in the majority (television users), they are automatically right. Feel free to persecute the “TV-quitters” though. Most of them find it amusing that somebody would actually pay to be brainwashed by corporate media.
- travtastic
  
  I’m your worst nightmare. I’ve actually never paid a cent for cable in my life.
- ROSSINDETROIT
  
  I haven’t waited. I consistently encourage people to reconsider their entertainment options instead of just hooking up to what everyone else watches. I do that because I believe strongly in taking charge of you time. I’m sure you have things that you believe in as well.
- Anonymous
  
  EH – perhaps you are a little slow to comprehend….or maybe just too ignorant to actually read what people have posted. MOST people that quit cable/sat dish do it because a VAST MAJORITY of the content is *crap* that they never watch. (How many shopping channels DO I need???)
  
  So you go OTA with an antenna and pick up major broadcast networks for free – which covers a majority of what most people watch regularly. Couple that with Hulu and other freely available content from all sorts of broacasters (who…GASP!!…monitor your on-line watching habits and put targetted commercials – but *fewer* commercials – into your programming). All in all, it is a much better system.
  
  I watch *what* I when *exactly WHEN* I want to….but you….you be a good sheep. Keep forking out money “just because you can” because you are wealthy enough to burn money for no good reason! We mock you!
  - Anonymous
    
    I fail to see how choosing what brainwashes you and who makes money off you makes your system superior…
- Cowicide
  
  self-righteous TV-quitters
  
  The only thing worse is a self-righteous TV-watcher, hmmm?
Anonymous

Interesting post, I think I will purchase this book.
Anonymous

Should be Called “A guide to torrents”. I also quit paying the high cost of cable but use Netflix,OTA,the public library and lastly usenet for my entertainment needs. Bitorrent has certain security/privacy risks I like to avoid.
polossatik

It seams to be only a “torrents for dummies” book and from the pages in the google book the “touches” in “Fehily touches on the ethics of downloading, the reasons that people participate in it, and how he decides what he wants to pirate and what he wants to buy.”
is indeed appropiate … he touches it very very light.
Anonymous

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nicboshart

What’s with Boing Boing linking to Amazon all the time? I thought you folks cared about internet freedom and open standards?
- Candice
  
  Personally, I would have linked to the author’s website where he’s selling the book as a multi-format direct download bundle…
Anonymous

3 Steps to Cable Freedom: Netflix + Hulu + Video Streamer = Big Savings
Cancel Cable and still watch all your favorite shows, at a fraction of the cost, and on your TV. With cable costs going up and the economy getting worse, canceling cable is the only thing that make sense. But with all the Internet TV scams out there, and all the different products to choose from, whatâ€™s the simplest and most cost effective way to make the transition to Online TV? Keep reading and I will teach you: http://www.killthecablebill.com
Anonymous

i see an opportunity to broadcast locally on the air wave….:))
brianary

+1 Author’s site over Biden’s Amazon