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I'm glad at least one judge out there realizes that file sharing is not something that should be illegal!

Have you read the opinion? It's a very narrow read on a very specific fact pattern, and in no way suggests or establishes that "file sharing is not something that should be illegal." Quite to the contrary, it acknoledges that illegal activity was taking place but that under existing case law, these two companies are not liable under existing legal theories of contributory copyright infringment.

Individual users of the software can and will be targetted as directly infringing; this is already happening, and will only get worse.

Another nice benefit of this tool will be the developement of secure, anonymous P2P networks. Look at all the shit in the news lately about how ISP's are cutting off KaZaa. And, how Ranger Online is tracking down Gnutella users. The RIAA/MPAA Gestapo is out to get us and take us down. New tools like Peekabooty and FreeNet will help to insure that these organizations will never, EVER shut down the free-flow of information on the Net. Peekabooty is a dagger that is aimed right at the heart of corporate America! It says: "You think you can take over the Net? Ha! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on!". This just proves to them that we can always defeat them with technology regardless of how much money they have!

Ranger that someone mentioned here on /. in YRO: MPAA Goes After Its Customers is also doing this.

Take a look at their Government Solutions if you are interested.

IMO the sum total of all information gathering on the internet by private and corporate bodies may exceed that performed by governments.

So, let's get some packet-sniffers up and going and figure out what range of IP's these "attacks" are coming from. If I find anything I will post it here in this thread. Let's shut these guys down and put them out of business for good!

Unless things have changed dramatically, the MPAA is still using software from Ranger Online to perform their searches exclusively. This software isn't all that technically impressive. Anybody with an understanding of protocols and search techniques can make the searches they do in public forums like gnutella and IRC. So then I imagine that they do a simple traceroute to locate the ISP or hosting provider and then a whois for the contact. THis all publicly available and frankly probably requires lots of human intervention. We're not talking banks of computers here, we're talking about a room full of MPAA flunkies doing jack Valenti's bidding.

"Tyler was nabbed by an automated program developed by Ranger Online Inc. The software cruises file-swapping networks like Gnutella to find copyrighted materials, hunts down the IP address of the poster, then discovers which Internet service provider is being used."

I imagine this tracker that they use must identify itself somehow. I've never been heavily in to the whole swapping/p2p thing, but shouldn't it be possible to find a signature of some sort from this thing and tack it on to the front of a swapping program? Honestly asking, I really don't know. Not that I think getting in a pissing match with the MPAA/RIAA is the best solution for the software writers...

Here's the Ranger Online website. This section provides a very lame explanation of how they do the voodoo that they do.

"Tyler was nabbed by an automated program developed by Ranger Online Inc. The software cruises file-swapping networks like Gnutella to find copyrighted materials, hunts down the IP address of the poster, then discovers which Internet service provider is being used."

I imagine this tracker that they use must identify itself somehow. I've never been heavily in to the whole swapping/p2p thing, but shouldn't it be possible to find a signature of some sort from this thing and tack it on to the front of a swapping program? Honestly asking, I really don't know. Not that I think getting in a pissing match with the MPAA/RIAA is the best solution for the software writers...

Here's the Ranger Online website. This section provides a very lame explanation of how they do the voodoo that they do.

Well, not the lawsuits, but the lawsuit threats, which are just as effective. See this link to a Gnucleus Forum post regarding an incident of this taking place over a month ago. Just to clarify how it works (straight from the DMCA rules), the copyright holder hires a company like Ranger which has custom-made software that spiders all the major P2P networks. They will index the copyrighted work to a list of IPs, then generate form letters which are sent to the ISP threatening a lawsuit. The ISP then forwards the letter to the user, who has the opportunity to dispute the claim or comply with the 'request' to remove the copyrighted material from the network. Needless to say, if you want to keep your internet access, you must comply. The latest version of Gnucleus already comes with a list of known spidering site IPs blocked, but this is clearly not a solution. IMO, nothing short of the capabilities of Freenet will succeed against this.

they're not cracking your system and scanning your hard drive. However, if you're running Morpheus or something and sharing an mp3 or a copyrighted work, they'll see it just by doing a search for that title, downloading a little piece of it from you, comparing it to the digital signature, and then busting you.

If you blackhole their traffic, they can't get the "evidence" they'd need to rat you out.

iptables -A INPUT -s 209.95.126.0/24 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -s 204.92.244.208/28 -j DROP

This blocks Ranger Online, an "IP rent-a-cop" outfit mentioned here some time ago. Repeat with the appropriate netblocks for any other similar companies you know about. If they try to access your machine in any way, it'll be as if your machine doesn't even exist. Traceroute won't even show the hosts between them and you. Since search results on Gnutella are returned by peers (who will have access to your system) but files are transferred directly between hosts, the most they can get is a list of filenames. Without being able to download the file, how will they know that "Metallica - Enter Sandman.mp3" isn't really a picture of your dog?

If you're a service that wants to go 'legit' by asking me to help line these people's pockets, so that they can afford more of this and that, you can blow it out your ass.

How is this legal? The action of monitoring people and their 'transgressions' may be done by advertisers and websites all the time, but at the very least they've been required to post a privacy policy, or an opt-out arrangement. Required might be an assumption, maybe they just know better than to cross that line of complete deception and risk legal action.

(This is offtopic, I know. I got to the ranger site from the salon article linked by the 'cute fable')

This one is a little different. Go to Ranger's website. They have a section for government... The implication that this is electronic surveillance without a warrant. Who cares what the stated "reason" is, it is money. Rights? Freedom? Pursuit of happiness? These things are antithetical to legislative based revenue generation. Speed traps on the highway are not for public safety. They are for money. Businesses are now moving more boldly towards integration with governmental processes, or our government is now behaving more like a business. Either way, the result is the same. Businesses are moving to provide fewer real services to individuals, and more for other businesses. Before Dmitry was thrown in jail, there were hundreds of silly/stupid little "inconveniences". Politics makes few direct bold moves, before making thousands of tiny ones. Call it test marketing if you will...

According to CNET:

The MPAA said the crackdown is the result of a month-long investigation by Ranger Online, a company it hired to scour the Web and find cases of copyright infringement.

Dude, you have some more numbers to look up I do believe.

"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --

New versions of Gnutella clients should make it possible to block known audit nazis like Ranger Inc, possibly by a list of known IP-addresses. A community based effort to maintain a web page with offending IP's wouldn't be too hard to maintain.

Has anyone spotted Ranger Inc and know what IP's they're operating under? Anybody got any other information about how the operate?

if further goes on Our intelligent probes assess the behavior patterns of the site and decide whether its actions look suspect. If the assessment is positive then our probes dig deeper into the site and analyze its content. Algorithms are continually modified based on the ever-changing nature of the Internet.

Almost seems like a click-thru terms of use, stating that "I am not involved in assesing the legality or illegality of the contents of this web site" would be enough to give their "case building" pause.

From the Ranger Online press release: "IOS Technology gives Ranger the first online product control, anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting system with offensive capabilities.".
Does this mean that their IOS (confusingly similar to a Cisco Systems product name, no?) software has the capability to break into a target system if they suspect it is violating their client's copyrights? Isn't that illegal (at least in the USA)? I find it disturbing that any reputable company would advertise software with "offensive capabilities" which are probably illegal in the country they call home....