Comments on: P2p apps ‘induce others to share’

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:22:17 +0000

“* Partial-uninstall features: At least four of the programs analyzed have deployed partial-uninstall features: If users uninstall one of these programs from their computers, the process will leave behind a file that will cause any subsequent installation of any version of the same program to share all folders shared by the ‘uninstalled’ copy of the program. Whenever a computer is used by more than one person, this feature ensures that users cannot know which files and folders these programs will share by default.”
If he’s complaining about this, he might as well complain about every uninstaller. All programs leave their configuration files on the hard drive after they are uninstalled (and that’s only if you’re lucky; many are much sloppier). They reside in a little folder called Application Data on Windows machines. This folder is in the same location in the heirachy of folders as your My Documents and Desktop folders (C:\Documents and Settings in Windows XP and Windows 2000, C:\Users in Windows Vista, C:\Windows\Profiles in Windows ME, 98, and 95 if you turned multiple users on, or C:\Windows if you didn’t). Turn on hidden files, navigate to one of these locations, find your profile folder, them find Application Data, and inside resides the folder that contains the configuration files for all of your programs (they are usually either named after the program itself or its vender). Delete the folder with the name or the vender of the P2P application in question, and the problem is solved.

And yes, I too think that this kind of thing should be done by every uninstaller for every uninstalled program.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:08:00 +0000

This is the same type of vilification that is done with the war on drugs. It is done for the vested interests of law enforcement to receive continuing funds from the money trough that is the federal government. It didn’t work and doesn’t work. The war on drugs was long ago lost. You can find these sort of drugs in any small town in the US.

Here again the same sort of mentality is used to try and coerce the average Joe 6 Pack into believing that p2p file sharing applications are the equivalent of turning you into a criminal just for having put it on your computer. I don’t see anything about malware and spyware being able to heist your computer to do much of the same things without your knowledge. Nor do I see anything serious in movement from the government in an attempt to actually rectify that threat in creditable actions that are meaningful and have any sort of teeth in them.

Even our courts of the land seem almost blind to the idea of your computer being hi-jacked by someone other than the user of the computer. Nothing in all these infringement cases even attempt to acknowledge this problem, preferring it lead to someone they can extort money from rather than acknowledge the reality of the internet. Crap, I see nothing of the file sharing program called Winnie that has so often leaked Japanese security secrets out into the public. Is it that our esteemed US Patent Office believes that Winnie is only used in Japan?

No, this is selective branding of whose pot is black while ignoring realities of problems outside their scope or even addressing real problems. This is nothing short of paying back favors to vested interests to be so narrowly aimed.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:18:15 +0000

is that Jon W. Dudas or Don W. Judas?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:13:23 +0000

Nicely put.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:52:25 +0000

The series of tubes known as “The Intarnets” is far from idiot proof in general. To single out P2P technology and even more absurdly claim that P2P INDUCES stupid people to unwittingly share sensitive information is misleading at best, and at worst a blatant distortion of information designed to discredit P2P.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:43:34 +0000

The idea that the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Jon W. Dudas, who is coincidently the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property) could become a shameless shill for corporate interests and go so far as to invoke the “threat to national security” gambit in a transparent attempt to vilify P2P technology would seem implausible.

However, it is a sad reality.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:19:56 +0000

This is indeed a serious issue. For fun, search Limewire or the like for “resume”. You’ll know some stranger intimately before long.

Not only is this a potential tool for identity thieves, but it could potentially be used by the ??AA to first identify a person using Limewire and then browse that person’s file, trawling for treasure.

Don’t be a dope – only share your shareables.