Don’t use file-sharing networks
p2pnet news view | P2P:- p2pnet yesterday ran an item suggesting when it comes to the depredations by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG and their RIAA against the Big 4’s own customers, Sharman Networks’ Kazaa P2P file sharing application is an equal villain in the piece.
Frequent poster Rekrul had an interesting thought.
“The solution is simple,” he said in a Reader’s Write, going on »»»
Don’t use file-sharing networks to download RIAA music, or anything new/popular, as those are the things the anti-piracy oranizations will be watching for. Only use them to download older stuff that is no longer considered current. Use file hosting sites like Rapidshare or Usenet newsgroups to download anything new/popular. Both are, in my opinion, completely safe to download from.
There’s really no way you can be monitored by any outside agency and even if they could tell what you’re downloading, downloading is not “unauthorized distribution”, so they would have no grounds to sue you. Technically, they could probably sue you for the cost of buying said product, but I highly doubt that they’d go to the trouble and expense for a single infringing copy.
Not only that, but file hosting sites simply need a standard web browser and there is a wide variety of stable, reliable software that works with Usenet newsgroups, so there’s no need to worry about having to use malware-infested programs.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
villain in the piece – Kazaa, the RIAA and Jammie Thomas, October 17, 2008
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October 18th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Rekrul/Jon:
KaZaa is simply an earlier instance of the same mentality behind “Media Defender”. In the case of Mediadefender, the tactic is spoofed files and Ddos attacks, while also injecting targeted advertising and other crap into the p2p networks. KazZaa is the other side of that coin: a popular p2p app. which exists to serve as a “sting” operation against the p2p scene.
The solution Rekrul suggests is pretty much foolproof, except that the file-hosting services often remove stuff in response to DMCA bullshit. The only truly “long-term” solution is a three-pronged approach:
1. tighter, more anonymous p2p applications and protocols (similar to what the guys over at Piratebay are working on).
2. p2pers stop apologizing for their actions: a principled refusal to actually abide by unjust/abusive laws (namely the current IP regime) en masse. Yes, a (small) proportion will be targeted/harrassed, but ultimately, if people aren’t willing to stand up to the RIAA/MPAA’s bullshit tactics, then the opposition is right, and p2p advocates ARE just a bunch of whiny leeches out to get stuff “for free”.
3. Massive education campaign on what’s wrong with the current IP regime, so as to get the unjust, burdensome, wasteful, bureaucratic scribblings off the books completely.
I agree with the notion that you should only use p2p networks to download older/more obscure stuff — for the reasons Rekrul mentioned, AND for a deeper one: finding older or more obscure stuff is one of the things p2p is about (as Lessig talked about in his book “Free Culture”) The RIAA’s “flavor of the moment” is bullshit, and has been at least since Milli Vanilli — anybody still taking that kind of thing seriously deserves to pay exorbitant prices for shitty content.
Jon:
Over the next while (I dunno how long) I’ll be submitting some educational stuff, so that the readers here can become more able to articulate exactly what’s wrong with the current IP regime. I’m not a coder-guy (teaching myself C programming etc.), but it would be great it somebody here would work on the anonymous p2p aspect — not just for getting music or video or whatever, but more, as an anti-censorship measure.
October 18th, 2008 at 11:51 am
^^ âIâll be submitting some educational stuffâ
Thanks, Henry, and thanks for the initial post, Rekrul.
Iâll try to use them to compile and run an article, or articles.
Cheers!
October 18th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I definitely agree with the “don’t download the ‘latest and greatest’ crap while it’s still fresh enough to smell.” As for malware-free P2P, the simplest solution right now is probably to use open-source P2P software direct from the source. (often hosted on SourceForge) In the open-source world, reputation is everything, and your reputation will take a nosedive if someone happens to be examining your source code and finds malicious stuff.
I’d suggest either giFT or MLDonkey as open-source multi-protocol P2P clients. (Gnutella, FastTrack (Kazaa), OpenFT, Ares, MLDonkey, etc.) As a benefit, both are daemon-based and multi-platform, so you can choose to run the core on your BitTorrent SeedBox and then connect the GUI remotely. (MLDonkey also has a web UI available)
Unlike MLDonkey, giFT doesn’t come with a default UI, so you’ll want to download KCeasy for Windows, Apollon or giFTui for Linux, or Poisoned for MacOS.
As for anonymous P2P, if you want to go to the far end of the spectrum, the Freenet Project implements a truly anonymous (but somewhat sluggish) web-alike.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Correction: The protocol list should say “eDonkey”, not “MLDonkey”.
Also, here’s a little trick for avoiding the kind of crap results where whatever you search for generates a result or three containing an ad and not what you really want. (Especially common on Gnutella) Suppose you’re looking for One Tin Soldier by The Original Caste. Search for something like “Caste Tin Soldier” or “Soldier Tin One”. The real results will appear normally (tested on GTK-Gnutella many times over) but the crap results will appear with names like “soldier tin one 192kbps.mp3″ or “Caste Soldier Tin.mp3″.
Also, if you happen to be using GTK-Gnutella (Linux only), take the time to learn the filter system. Whenever I’m looking for music, I set a filter which excludes any results with non-music extensions. (Why bother ignoring things like “soldier tin one uncensored.wmv” when you can have your client hide them from you?)
October 18th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I think this applies to all types of downloadable content that might be on the
MAFIAA’s radar, and this also includes apps and games.
I use torrents and Usenet for most of my downloading, and every now and then
get something off Gnutella.
For recent movies, music and TV shows, I try to avoid using any form of p2p. Usenet
is so much safer to get recent content, as you don’t have to upload like with torrents.
And by safer, I mean that you’re less likely to receive a legal threat letter (like the ones
Davenport Lyons is sending) or a DMCA notice. You still have to watch out for malware.
An example of this is a Usenet uploader who is wrapping recent movies in passworded
RAR files, and including a RAR keygen (which is the Zlob trojan). On Gnutella, there’s an
IP range being used by cybercriminals (AP-Tracking-Net aka Web/Mail/DB-Servers, 85.88.16.240-
85.88.16.255) to spam the Vundo trojan on any search hit. The files are about 700 kb in size,
and always claim to be better versions of whatever is searched for.
October 18th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
All good stuff, and while youâre thinking of new ways to keep the music flowing, donât give the cartels or their hit organisations more credit than they deserve.
The actual number of people successfully sued in court in North America is Zero. Elsewhere in the world? I donât know. A thousand, perhaps? Meanwhile, literally hundreds of millons of people share with each other every minute of every day. And the numbers are going up, not down.
By dint of a large fortune spent on spin and PR, the labels and studios have managed to use the lamescream media to convince the uninformed that everyone is in danger of being targeted.
But it just isnât so. The chances of any one individual becoming an RIAA or BPI or JRIA or CRIA or ARIA victim are so small as to be virtually non-existent.
Youâre just as likely to win a million dollars on a quiz show.
Meanwhile, keep on rocking.
Cheers!
October 19th, 2008 at 12:42 am
After many, many year, I’m just re-discovering Usenet
October 19th, 2008 at 4:57 am
I’d like to offer a few facts to complement my original post. This won’t be a detailed study, but it should be enough for most net-savvy users to understand what I’m talking about.
Disclaimer: The following is for informational purposes only and should in no way be construed as advocating the downloading of copyrihted material without permission.
Movies on Rapidshare are often easy to find by going to Google, typing in the name of the film and the word Rapidshare. The search results will often contain forum posts with a series of links for Rar files, although many may be dead or point to the wrong film. Specific episodes of TV shows can be found by including SxxExx where “xx” represents the season and episode numbers. For example S02E12 (season 2, episode 12). Sometimes the Rar files are password protected, if so, the password is usually given in the post. When people find stuff this way, they normally click on each link in turn to make sure that they are all online before downloading any of them.
Searching for the words “scene” and “releases” on Google will find blog sites that specialize in posting information about new releases from the scene groups. In the comments for each post, users will often post links to Rapidshare or similar sites. If those links don’t work, the same files can often be found by using the method above, but including the name of the group in the search terms to find that specific release.
Using Usenet newsgroups is more complicated, so check out this guide;
http://www.slyck.com/ng.php
Usenet newsgroups can used in conjunction with scene release blogs by using the blogs to learn about the latest releases and then searching the newsgroups for them. TV shows are usually posted under their proper titles, but movies are usually posted under the shortened filename, so searching for the proper name of the movie may not find it.
Also note that both Rapidshare and Usenet have recently come under fire from the various anti-piracy groups. An organization in Germany is trying to legally force Rapidshare into manually checking every uploaded file in an atempt to eliminate copyrighted files. The RIAA sued a Usenet provider a while back claiming that they encouraged copyright infringement in their advertising and the Newzbin indexing and search site says that they’ve received complaints and are expecting to be hit with legal action in the near future.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I forgot, I wanted to additional information to Jeff’s post above;
Most people believe that the Usenet uploader he refers to is actually a “bot” that automatically downloads legimate posts, packs them into a password-protected Rar file, then Rars THAT file and re-posts it to the newsgroups. When unpacked, you end up with one large Rar file, an EXE file usually named RARPassGen.exe and a text file telling you to run the EXE file to get the password to the Rar file. This is a trick and if you run the EXE file, your system will be infected with viruses. If you download one of these files, DON’T PANIC! It can’t harm your system unless you run the EXE file. First, don’t let your virus scanner delete the files. Run your favorite text editor (if you’re using XP, you can use NotePad) and use the File > Open command to load the EXE file into the editor. This is perfectly safe because it will load it as data, it will not run it. Turn on wordwrap and jump to the bottom of the file. Mixed in among the garbage you should see the text “Password = xxxxxxx” where “xxxxxxx” is the password needed to unpack the large Rar file. Just copy it from the editor and paste it in when Rar asks for a password. Once the Rar file is unpacked and you check the files, make sure to delete the EXE file.
October 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
The article i have put in my web page shows a good reason for the AA’s to offer in a very low price their older material in printed media .
October 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I’ve been considering Usenet lately, but see several issues that make me balk. The first is the fact that you have to pay. This means you can be traced should the business you’re using ever come under fire from law enforcement. My ISP bill is already a small fortune which makes paying extra for Usenet rather annoying. Second is file retention and in this regard Bittorrent isn’t much better (seeds and peers vanish over time, sometimes quickly). All it takes is one single part of a RAR file to disappear and then you’re screwed. Plus, different services have different retention times. The third issue is fake files. As far as I know, anyone can post on Usenet and there is no oversight in place to prevent fakes. The fourth is finding stuff. I’ve looked at some of the indexing services out there (like Binsearch) and I have to say it doesn’t look at all easy to always find what you’re looking for. On the upside you do get access to a fast encrypted direct connection that nobody is likely monitoring or throttling and you don’t have to share (upload) with anyone.
I mostly use Bittorrent with public sites these days and it is what I’m most familiar with. The problem with public torrents is that they’re usually quite slow, you’re forced to upload (distribution), it tends to be a target for throttling, and you have to worry about IP logging (I use PeerGuardian to help with that). Despite all that, I’ve also been considering the use of a private torrent site and paying so I don’t have to worry about annoying ratios. Sadly, you still have some of the same problems as with Usenet (except for fakes). I’m uncertain what to do and have been procrastinating for many months now because of it.
For what it’s worth, I pretty much only download TV shows because it is so much easier than setting the PVR timer day after day (I pay through the nose for Shaw cable, even though it’s not really worth it). I can see at a glance what is and isn’t airing on any given day at EZTV for example, which is always accurate and makes it easy to keep track of my favorite show. Being disabled means there isn’t much else to do, so I tend to watch a lot of TV (the computer is never powered off lol). Since I pay for Shaw, I tend to look at downloading as being the same as if I had recorded the show myself and feel I have a right to see it at least once (I delete them after watching). If anyone has some recommendations, I’d be glad to hear them.
October 19th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
“Iâve been considering Usenet lately, but see several issues that make me balk. The first is the fact that you have to pay. This means you can be traced should the business youâre using ever come under fire from law enforcement.”
True, however unlike BitTorrent and other P2P programs, Usenet is only one-way at a time. You either upload or you download. The two are not connected in any way. If you have something you want to post, you can, but you can also download for years and never upload. Since you’re (presumably) not uploading, you can’t be charged with “unauthorized distribution”. To date, I don’t now of any cases where a person has been sued/charged for downloading only. Also, I could be wrong, but I don’t think most Usenet providers even keep logs of what you download, only how much, for billing purposes.
“My ISP bill is already a small fortune which makes paying extra for Usenet rather annoying.”
One of the cheapest I’ve found is Astraweb. If you take their 3-month deal, it works out to about $13 a month. If you can settle for 1Mbit download speeds, you can get an unlimited account for as low as $10 a month. You can also buy 110GB of download credit for $25.
“Second is file retention and in this regard Bittorrent isnât much better (seeds and peers vanish over time, sometimes quickly). All it takes is one single part of a RAR file to disappear and then youâre screwed. Plus, different services have different retention times.”
Giganews is the current king with about 220 days of retention, but they’re more expensive. Astraweb has about 160 days.
I also know of a way to get an unlimited, but speed-capped account on Giganews. Sign up for a dialup account with a company called LocalNet. As part of the account, you get unlimited Usenet access outsourced to Giganews. You’re allowed 4 connections to the server, each downloading at about 20K/s for a total speed of about 80K/s. Faster than most public torrents. LocalNet doesn’t care if you actually use the dialup account or not, as long you keep paying the bill. 9.95 a month.
“The third issue is fake files. As far as I know, anyone can post on Usenet and there is no oversight in place to prevent fakes.”
Nope, however fakes haven’t been a huge problem. Lately there’s been the “RARPassGen.exe” posts, but as I explained above, they’re real posts, just password protected. You can get the password by viewing (not running!) the contents of the EXE file. The anti-piracy organizations haven’t yet felt the need to pollute the newsgroups.
“The fourth is finding stuff. Iâve looked at some of the indexing services out there (like Binsearch) and I have to say it doesnât look at all easy to always find what youâre looking for.”
There have been a few things I haven’t been able to find, but in general most everything gets posted to the newsgroups. Almost all TV shows do (there was one episode of one UK show that never got posted because one group got confused and released a dupe labelled as new and nobody bothered to post the real one). Most movies get posted as well, although you often have to search for the filenames rather than the proper name. In other words, instead of searching for “Vampire Cheerleaders from Venus”, you might have to search for “vmt-vcfv”. Most of the better scene release sites give the filename in the post.
“Being disabled means there isnât much else to do, so I tend to watch a lot of TV (the computer is never powered off lol). Since I pay for Shaw, I tend to look at downloading as being the same as if I had recorded the show myself and feel I have a right to see it at least once (I delete them after watching). If anyone has some recommendations, Iâd be glad to hear them.”
Shows are posted to the newsgroups so reliably that sometimes I don’t even bother to watch or record them anymore. A few years ago, if I missed an episode of a show, I’d frantically call everyone I knew asking if they had recorded it. Now I just check the newsgroups an hour after the show airs and it’s there. There are a few UK shows that I download as well. Being a science fiction fan, I download Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, and the Sarah Jane Adventures. I also liked the weird sketch comedy show, The Wrong Door (episode 5 is the one that never got posted, although I did get it elsewhere). I just search on Binsearch for the name of the show and the word “xvid” and it turns up the AVI copy of the show. You could search for 720p for the HQ MKV files, but my system won’t play them properly.
October 20th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I have to say that this article and the comments expressed in it amount to a “leeches” manifesto, this is still P2PNet ?
October 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
lol that was nice
Still some “peer” is uploading it one time… and then more peers are downloading it, that’s also peer to peers
The thing is that 80% maybe from ppl want and they are interested in Downloading something don’t ask me why……