The beginning of the end of bitTorrent

[Colusio]

Researchers, from the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control, demonstrated a technique to continuously spy on BitTorrent users. In 103 days they collected 148 million IP addresses and identified 2 billion copies of downloads, many of them copyrighted. They also identified the IP addresses where much of the content originated. They discovered the the vast majority of the material on BitTorrent started with a relatively small number of individuals.

Source

France, not the most liberal country in the world, has adopted very harsh laws on copyright infringements. I expect some US states following suit soon.

[Texas Libra]

Well, I guess it' back to using search engines to find free porn for me.

Seriously, is this linked to using any kind of Torrent file period or only using specific Torrent programs? I neither use BitTorrent itself nor Tor, the program mentioned in the article. Even then, I mainly use it for legal things anyway such as game patches and non-copyrighted stuff like the OC Remix pack that was linked here a couple of years ago.

[Scet]

BitTorrent has always been incredibly insecure. The various tracker sites made piracy very accessible. It was easy to find copyrighted material without having to deal with shady sites.

The only method of security for torrents is obscurity. A lot of countries have laws in place, but nobody to enforce them(police don't care, ISPs would lose part of their profits). So usually only the most popular torrents are actually monitored(by private companies hired by the MPAA/RIAA etc).

[boris]

How exactly does the ability to get to the people who share stuff illegally affect the protocol, making it unusable?

[Mattfrie1]

Time to delete bitTorrent off my computer then... ;)

[MajorRawne]

I wouldn't put it past the French. First they insult our Prime Minister, now they try to stop us breaking the law. Those fiends. Seriously though, if stuff today such as films were of good quality and ever got released on DVD for a reasonable price, piracy would not be what it is today. How many times have we bought a DVD and sat through several obnoxious anti piracy ads, then a load of film trailers we can't skip, just to get to an animated menu which gives the film's best bits away? 28 Days Later and Battle Royale 2 are both pretty bad for this - but those films are actually worth paying for, unlike most of today's mass produced crap.

Rant over!

[Colusio]

boris said:

How exactly does the ability to get to the people who share stuff illegally affect the protocol, making it unusable?

I don't want to be monitored if I share legal stuff and certainly not when I share illegal stuff. And "they collected 148 million IP addresses " is not the same as "searching 40 million houses for illegal stuff " but the amount of people involved is comparable.

@scet: You ever heard of REACT? Founded in 1997 in California
"A partnership of 17 local, state, and federal agencies, with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office designated as the lead agency" (so what but...) High tech companies and industry councils provide specialized training, liaison personnel and internal support for task force investigations." website: http://www.reacttf.org

It takes a while before the world copies the idea (13 years for my country ) but the idea that "smart" organizations like universities, tech companies... work together with the police worries me.

[Quasar]

After ACTA is signed, we'll need "copyright education" camps just to house all the people arrested for alleged, attempted, and inciting of copyright violation. There's certainly no room for them in the conventional prison system, given how it's full of "dangerous" marijuana users.

[CODOR]

Uh oh! Now The Man will know I downloaded the multitracks to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with Bittorrent last week!

Whoops, I mentioned it here, too... YAAAGGHHH!!!

[Aliotroph?]

Texas Libra said:

...and non-copyrighted stuff like the OC Remix pack that was linked here a couple of years ago.

Ugh! Of course they're copyrighted! They just let you have copies. I've always suspected those would be on shaky legal ground if the original artists or companies really cared anyway.

[Viewtiful-Chris]

Great. Let's see them try to arrest 148 million people.

[Technician]

As soon as they shut down blogs and file uploading site (rapidshare), I'm fucked for sharing and downloading music.

[RestlessRodent]

Most of those 148 million IPs may be dynamic.

[Scet]

GhostlyDeath said:

Most of those 148 million IPs may be dynamic.

Doesn't matter, all they have to do is ask your ISP what user had that IP at whatever time it was recorded.

[Super Flip]

Scet said:

Doesn't matter, all they have to do is ask your ISP what user had that IP at whatever time it was recorded.

Isn't that considered a search and seizure? I mean they ARE looking at your history, which if you exclude the ISP itself, is private to the user.

[40oz]

You guys shouldn't be stealing shit anyway.

[Spleen]

40oz said:

You guys shouldn't be stealing shit anyway.

Copyright infringement isn't stealing, it's copyright infringement. It's a civil violation, not a crime. That's not what MAFIAA wants you to believe, though...

I personally think that the thousands of dollars that RIAA hits people with for sharing a handful of songs are completely unreasonable. You get way smaller fines for actually stealing CDs from a store! The judges are corrupt and/or completely clueless.

[MajorRawne]

Technician said:

As soon as they shut down blogs and file uploading site (rapidshare), I'm fucked for sharing and downloading music.

That's one reason I don't register for that kind of site, it just gives them the easiest way ever to find you.

[Aliotroph?]

Most of those are settled out of court by clueless people. The really nasty ones are deemed guilty by stupid juries. According to the law these people should be guilty anyway, but were I on that jury I'd hang it because the concept of huge statutory damages is offensive in a free society.

Interestingly, downloading music is legal in Canada. Uploading it to a P2P is illegal, but the RCMP doesn't care because they suck too much at tracking it. In return they tax all our blank media. I'm sure that money just goes to whoever has the biggest market share though. Instant screw for indie guys. It might also be weighted in favour of Canadian artists, in which case I can imagine why America gets so mad at us. hehehe

Even more weird, the last three governments or so have proposed a new copyright law that adds the kind of evil anti-circumvention provisions you guys have, but lets us otherwise download anything we want. That one's just weird. They intend to make it illegal to rip that DVD I bought for $10 that won't play in my computer (without VLC anyway), but make it legal for me to hop on the net and grab the movie? WTF

[Scet]

Aliotroph? said:

but the RCMP doesn't care because they suck too much at tracking it.

That's hardly the reason, the RCMP could probably find anyone easily if they wanted to. The reason they don't care is because like I said earlier, there's no one to enforce this. The RCMP would rather pay it's employees to hunt down real criminals, people that hurt others or steal actual property. That's also what the public wants it's tax dollars going towards, not finding kids sharing MP3s.

Aliotroph? said:

In return they tax all our blank media. I'm sure that money just goes to whoever has the biggest market share though. Instant screw for indie guys.

Pretty sure indie guys(and even major artists) get almost all their money from concerts/gigs. A lot of indie bands offer their downloads for free legally because it makes people want to see them live.

The tax is a good idea. The public gets to keep downloading and both the government and media companies make some money(instead of nothing).

[Jodwin]

...so how is this actually news? If you run bit torrent while using Peer Guardian, you'll see a lot of organizations and national institutions being blocked for spying on your connection. And it doesn't really matter what you're downloading and with what trackers.

[Ralphis]

You guys shouldn't be copyright infringing shit anyway.

[Sharessa]

Aliotroph? said:

Interestingly, downloading music is legal in Canada. Uploading it to a P2P is illegal, but the RCMP doesn't care because they suck too much at tracking it.

I'm pretty sure it's the same here in the States. These people are being put on trial for sharing music, not downloading it. Another reason Megaupload is a better choice. :P

[Technician]

We Canadians pay a tax for a group called SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada). They distribute sums of money to artists to compensate music sale losses, along with many other sums of cash. You buy blank CDs, a percent goes to SOCAN. You go to a bar with live or recorded music, a percent goes to SOCAN, etc, etc.

[sgtcrispy]

It's not like there are tons of legal torrent sites out there......

[Spleen]

Scet said:

The tax is a good idea. The public gets to keep downloading and both the government and media companies make some money(instead of nothing).

No it's not. Companies are getting free money JUST FOR people buying blank CDs. It's corporate welfare, they basically get money for doing absolutely nothing!! As less people buy the crap the record companies pump out, they'll keep bumping up the tax at the expense of the general populace, blaming it all on pirates. What if you are just using the CDs to burn Linux distros on, or for backup of your hard drive?

[Maes]

Technician said:

You buy blank CDs, a percent goes to SOCAN. You go to a bar with live or recorded music, a percent goes to SOCAN, etc, etc.

A friend of my father's used to work as a "crow" for a local record label company aka. his job was to walk into bars, clubs etc. pretending to be a customer while writing down what songs they were playing (that was the easy part), and if the interests of his employer were at stake he had to approach the owners and tell them so and so, I work for the record company, we demand that much in royalties because you played songs A, B and C and you're not on our "nice" list.

That was the hard part, as not all owners took kindly to that kind of attitude, and what followed later involved muscles and fists...those of the owner's thugs.

Surely not one of the best jobs to do alone, per-case and without any sheen of public officiality to protect you: he was basically working as an unarmed racket collector and snitch in a clerk's suit for a private company, not the best idea to attempt in those environments where muscles, fists and punches speak first.

I think they moved on to a one-off kind of settlement with newly opened establishments, or to a closer cooperation with the state/police. Then again Greece is one of the few western countries not having a full-fledged economic law enforcement branch, like the Italian "Guardia di Finanza" who are as organized and weaponized as any other police force.

[RestlessRodent]

For some ISPs (in the US, if you look at their agreements) you can download but not upload.

I don't do any of that stuff anyway.

Not a lawyer! And things may have changed.

[deathbringer]

I only used it for downloading child porn anyway, thus i took profits away from the child porn creators and thus reduced thier ability to molest children. Win Win if you ask me.

[Maes]

deathbringer said:

I only used it for downloading child porn anyway, thus i took profits away from the child porn creators and thus reduced thier ability to molest children. Win Win if you ask me.

That's almost as interesting a concept as whether a black man could sue another black man for calling him a "nigger".