How The DMCA Is Enforced

Hank Scorpio writes "Bob Cringley's latest column talks about a company, BayTSP, that performs most of the enforcement of the DMCA on the Internet. This is the company that collects data about who is sharing music or movies online, and this is the company to go after when you get busted! They claim to "go to the same places any user could go, look at the same files anyone else could look at, and we only probe the ports on your computer that you have made public." Interesting."

Comments

Re:How is this not illegal?

[SirSlud]

So it's illegal to probe the HTTP port on computers in Maryland with robots because you didn't get permission from the guy who admins the web site?

Isn't a public port part and parcel with permission to access said port?

This is a private company?

[jweb]

So let me get this straight.... a PRIVATE (non-govmt) company is basically doing the dirty work for the FBI and *AA's?

Shouldn't investigating and collecting evidence for criminal cases (which is what their doing, the DMCA is the law of the land whether we like it or not) be the responsibility of a government law enforcement agency?

Re:Welcome to my firewall!

[faster]

this means you can block 209.204.138.* and eliminate most probing from them

Um, no.

Their web site is hosted by sonic.net. Blocking that only means their web server can't probe your systems.

I'd bet they're using a variety of cable modems and DSL connections with dynamic IPs to do the probing.

We only probe public ports...

[AtariDatacenter]

> ...we only probe the ports on your computer that you have made public...

A number of people have pointed this out. However, if this was a valid legal/ethical statement, then that would be the perfect justification for any electronic crime. A hacker says, "I wasn't doing anything illegal! I was only probing the ports that they made public!"

I like the argument in a way. It says, "Hey, I didn't go beyond my authorization to do this. Their site already had the authorization wide open for me to do this!" On the other hand, it can be used to justify anything.

Re:Where do I start?

[wowbagger]

and when the abductors are caught and you look on their home computers, you inevitably find kiddy porn. So it is a precursor to this bad behavior....

Logic error (as others have pointed out). Allow me to demonstrate:

and when the abductors are caught and you look in their homes, you inevitably find air. So air is a precursor to this bad behavior....

Correlation is not causation.

However, that said I think people who ar turned on by kiddie porn have a problem, and people who DISTRIBUTE kiddie porn are criminals.

But let us not go down the slippery slope of incorrectly reasoning to justify our actions, 'mkay?

I've been thinking about the DMCA and

[SquadBoy]

I can see at least one good thing coming of it. That would be the increased use of strong crypto. And it has the addedd advantage of pissing off guys like this. Since those of you who know what I'm talking about and agree with me already agree with me I'm not going to go on and on. For anyone who does not know what I'm talking about but hates the DMCA I'm simply going to post a few URLs and you can educate yourselves.

http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
http://www.rubb erhose.org/
http://www.gnupg.org/
http://www.goo gle.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe =UTF-8&safe=off&q=crypto&btnG=Google+Searc h
Also research on the SSL enabled IM clients and servers out there could lead to SSL enabled P2P. Good stuff.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me

[Wraithlyn]

I see a lot of arguments on here about how he shouldn't be able to find out what stuff you're sharing by probing your ports.

This is so stupid.

You're illegally sharing files (I'm not here to debate whether it's right or wrong.. merely that it IS illegal), making them available to be downloaded by complete strangers anywhere in the world. And then you complain that it's possible for someone to find out that you're sharing them!? Get a grip people.. what did you expect was going to happen? Whining about "port probing"... what do you think the file sharing software does when it queries your computer? They probably just reverse engineered the query protocols.

There will be some high profile arrests, and it will probably cut down on some of the most flagrant sharers. People will still share files, and if the environment becomes more hostile to them, it will simply drive file sharing underground, to private FTP sites and the like, where it has always been, and always will be.

--
They said FUD was bad, so I started spreading DUF.

Re:Pegging the Hypocracy Meter

[JordoCrouse]

So, we have an entity who is trying to go after the offenders (and primarily just the big ones), and many people here are criticizing it as some kind of evil activity. This seems pretty hypocritical.

This guy is obviously not just in the business of going after people who illegally distribute music or movies. That has nothing to do with the DCMA, its a copyright crime, and if he can make a buck off of it, thats great.

The problem with this guy is that he is going after people like Dmitry Sklyarov and others who are breaking the DCMA, and by doing so he is contributing to the indocrination of that law, which is bad for all. Basically, he's back for more cash - taking advantage of an unjust law while it lasts.

As a result, the content providers' response has been to enact the DMCA, which has been bad all around because it attempts to eliminate fair use and petty violations but does little to stop big time piracy.

The DMCA is *not* about priacy. It is about breaking security. Napster and its friends are not about encryption or security, they are about copyrighted materials. Two very different things. Like I said, if this guy wants to go after copyright pirates, he can do it, with my blessing even. I'm pissed about him going after people that do nothing more than talk about security concepts for any number of reasons: academic knowlege, improvement of security, etc..

Everyone seems to forget that copyright piracy was on the books long ago. The DCMA is the new evil that threatens to put any one of us in jail for describing how to watch our own DVDs on our own laptops.