File sharing attacks in Norway
p2pnet.net News:- In April last year 2pnet was told the entertainment cartels, with the MPAA’s MPA up front, were getting geared up to start anti-p2p attacks in Norway, probably using DC++ as their focal point.
It seems a firm of lawyers, Simonsen Føyen, was chosen to act as the primary entertainment cartel copyright cop.
They targeted a Net enthusiast as their first victim. He was 15 at the time.
Here’s what a p2pnet reader had to say.
I’m really tired of the lawsuits against DC hubs. As a previous Network Owner I know a decent amount about DC and how it works (Unlike most of the people creating the lawsuits).
When you connect to a hub, you have to recognize. Zero files are hosted by that hub. None, zippo, nada zilch.
The users of the hubs do have requirements as to share ’something’ but it’s each users responsibility to know their own local laws and share according to what’s legal in their own respective location. Sure, there are hubs that ‘require’ questionable files but normal hubs really could care less what you have in your share for the most part…the average hub will ensure you don’t share bad-pron, speed limiting programs, virii or fake files but for the average hub that’s really about it.
Yes, many users share questionable files but many people (like myself before I left DC years ago) only share versions of open source software – I used to share 30+gb of linux iso’s… A share is a share… and frankly my line was maxed out from people pulling linux iso’s from me, so it’s hard to say there isn’t a demand for legal content.
Lets be honest about a hub. It’s a central point to connect where chat and the ability to search and share content is possible. So, basically, it’s a glorified IM client with the ability to search files instead of just asking someone to send the files via IM.
The end user is liable for their own actions. Sure, when someone comes into a hub they can search and find whatever each user has chosen to share and then pull whatever they found. The hub isn’t indexing what people have to share. When someone searches for something, the hub contacts each of the users clients looking for said item and each client responds back if they have the file or not at that time. The person sharing is liable for their share and the person pulling is liable for their downloading. The hub isn’t there to induce piracy, it’s there to allow a central spot to talk and share whatever you want with your friends… each user makes their own decision to share an item and frankly it’s impossible to admin every single file shared to ensure it’s legality…
What’s the answer. What’s the fix?
Heck, give the bloody RIAA/MPAA watchdogs a VIP account. They don’t really need any special access like that though to see the IP of any user they don’t like the share of – they never needed to do more than enter a hub and start a download from the offending user..both to verify the file is really the file in question and also if they’re smart enough to see which ip is a new connection in netstat (command prompt, not DC command lol) they’ll know the IP of the offending party.. but if they’d like something they can screen print and have it show better proof they could run something like netlimiter that will show the ip of the connection they’re downloading from and it will show the speed that will clearly identify they’re looking at the right person.
I know – that’s not going to be a popular idea. But what’s worse? The hub owner shouldn’t be sued for what a user shares, period.
If the RIAA/MPAA would work with DC’s developers, instead of randomly suing hubowners we might see advertising in clients or in main chat, now and then. If it made the tx’s legal then the users would likely put it aside and accept it.. but the lawsuits are not going to fix the “problem”.. the genie is out of the bottle, people are going to use p2p.. so the question isn’t about how to sue your customer and retain them as that, a customer.. it’s about modifying the existing p2p clients in a way to allow their current use to continue and ensure the IP owners get compensated….but until that happens, please, just go after the offending users who are truly the ones liable for their own actions – and not the hubowner… its like using a friends car and your friend gets a ticket for speeding even though you were the one driving… there’s a disconnect somewhere on the logic of the RIAA/MPAA but this is as clear as I can make it.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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