ttc = The Teaching Company, now named The Great Courses. Very possible they are hard asses similar to what you mention.

Quoted: Which of torrentz.eu cannot do even if they wanted to, as they don't host any content.

Except that they can and they do, search "ttc" and at the bottom notice the "50 results removed in compliance with EUCD / DMCA".

Buying Tip: Magnification of 1000x is required to see bacterial pink-eye

I'm on the mailing list of this well known group and while I have yet to be able to make a meeting of the local chapter I have "almost gone" a few times. Here's a link to their eCorps page that shows upcoming trips. Not sure if it would fit into your timetable but it looks to be right up the alley of the OP. Also they take equipment donations through their local chapters so if you are looking to do a workstation refresh might want to reach out to them: http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/ecorps

Looking through the presentation archives of the NANOG meetings ( http://www.nanog.org/presentations/archive/ ) has some great stuff on undersea cables and also ISP peering, etc.