Like that infamous “ET” torrent in 1982 where it involved a “pirate” sneaking a huge JVC camcorder (with a VHS reel) recording the entire movie in theaters, given this was before DVD’s existed (don’t even ask about pirate bay, those weren’t available yet). The same applies to “torrented” music, one would have a spare tape cassette recording the song played via the radio, that’s how they torrented content back then if they can’t afford an official copy.
Only millennials or Gen X who were kids back then would’ve encountered or witnessed VHS or Cassette “torrents” from either friends or family and often or not, piracy in the pre internet days was rife even before torrent sites were a thing. There are VHS “torrents” of TV shows or series (placing a camcorder which faces the TV screen with a spare reel recording the entire show (ads included), then used to fast forward upon replay.
Wowza. “Torrent” being synonymous with “warez” was not on my 2026 bingo card.
Ddit: maybe just “copy” was the word it was replacing? Unexpected either way IMO.
It’s an interesting equivocation. It was just considered copying. I think nobody but studio execs and jealous exes thought about it.
I dunno, I think this is just an OP thing?
To me, something has to be shared over a computer network using the bittorrent protocol to be ‘torrented’.
You’d never say sharing something with Napster or limewire was ‘torrenting’.
Naw dude, we walked down the street and I copied a few minutes of the movie from each of my friends over the course of a couple months. It took about an hour to find the exact part to start at to make sure there were no hiccups in the recording, but by then we only had a couple minutes to copy what was next before dinner was ready.
Then the next day we’d set it all up at another friend’s house and do it again.
Upvote for the silly joke. 😄
Thank you I was actually so confused lmao I’m like, are they distributing this ET reel in pieces?
i completely agree. its just the wrong term. when op said “et torrent recorded in the theater” i assumed someone digitized an old pirate vhs and put it up on torrent.
but this may just be like the term “vhs player” where the kids these days have no reason to care that it was called a vcr.
also i could be wrong, but i always understood warez the be more a software thing, and not just any media.
Strictly speaking,a VCR is a video cassette recorder. If it doesn’t have recording capability, it’s just a player.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that couldn’t record, though.
I asked this question at an electronics store. I was told “technically that’s a VCP, Video Cassette Player”. I asked if they had any. They said no.
My understanding is that they could all record. It seems like the technology to play is just the inverse of the technology to record. Like how a speaker can be used as a microphone.
Copy that floppy!