U of Wyoming Fingerprinting All P2P Traffic

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U of Wyoming Fingerprinting All P2P Traffic

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday February 20, 2003 @11:04AM from the warning-shots-fired-across-bow dept.

mk2mk2 writes "News.com has an article on how they're preparing to shut down P2P sharing of copyrighted content: 'For months, the digital equivalent of a postal censor has been sorting through virtually all file-swapping traffic on the University of Wyoming's network, quietly noting every trade of an Eminem song or "Friends" episode.'" It's scary until one realizes that most P2P traffic isn't encrypted, like back when everyone still used telnet.

20 of 518 comments (clear)

Eh? by whig · 2003-02-20 11:07 · Score: 3, Funny

Why does the fact that it's unencrypted make it non-scary?

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1. Re:Eh? by petwalrus · 2003-02-20 11:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Sounds not like a case of too few double negatives causing non-clarity to the writer.
2. Re:Eh? by Tackhead · 2003-02-20 11:58 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  > Knowing the search parameters and the returned file name(from the person's search) would probably be enough for troublemaking.
  Didn't someone already do this - put up a website with "My Node's Most Embarassing Gnutella Queries" that their node had received?
  192.168.0.1 - [rDNS] - goat pr0n
  192.168.0.1 - [rDNS] - goatse pr0n
  192.168.0.1 - [rDNS] - n00d g0at
  (Fun project - See BOFH write a fake Gnutella server that, when certain keywords are tripped, returns a sample HTML file that attempts to load an IMG SRC pointing to "www.fbi.gov/[luser's/search/terms].jpg". See BOFH run fake server in background. See BOFH laugh :)
oh my! by Joe+the+Lesser · 2003-02-20 11:09 · Score: 4, Funny

Someone wasting bandwidth on a 'friends' episode is scary indeed!

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Well, heres the new testbed for freenet. by Unknown+Poltroon · 2003-02-20 11:09 · Score: 2, Funny

SO, i guess they have no problem with ME running a sniffer on all traffic on their network? I mean, since they feel its ok for them to do it, its ok for me to do it.

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1. Re:Well, heres the new testbed for freenet. by Kenja · 2003-02-20 11:22 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  So, i guess you have no problem with ME running around in your living room wearing my boxer shorts and nothing else? I mean, since you feel its ok for you to do it, its ok for me to do it.
  
  --
  
  "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
As if it's not bad enough by automag_6 · 2003-02-20 11:13 · Score: 2, Funny

that I'll be punished for stealing songs, if they release details, my freinds will never let me live down my collection of Ricky Martain MP3s!
Re:Scary until? by Mourgos · 2003-02-20 11:15 · Score: 2, Funny

Well how long till everything becomes encrypted.? It's gonna take a few guys going to jail. Can't wait till they encrypt computer monitors. U're gonna have to use special decrypting goggles:P
Re:Quoth by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-20 11:15 · Score: 3, Funny

If it's about bandwith, why don't they throttle the p2p ports like any self-respecting, upright university.

You misspelled "uptight".
Telnet by DJ+FirBee · 2003-02-20 11:17 · Score: 5, Funny

Yeah, I remember telnet.

It's been like .... hours since I have used telnet.

Those were the days.
Forget "Friends" by 0x0d0a · 2003-02-20 11:22 · Score: 2, Funny

For months, the digital equivalent of a postal censor has been sorting through virtually all file-swapping traffic on the University of Wyoming's network, quietly noting every trade of an Eminem song...

I'd been *wondering* when someone was going to finally do something about his lousy music! U of W's spearheading a regular cultural revolution! :-)

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May we never see th
Re:OK, so... by Richard_at_work · 2003-02-20 11:23 · Score: 2, Funny

I prefer ROT26, as its so much faster to encrypt stuff with, and with my spelling, is undecypherable anyways!
Re:So how do they do it? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-20 11:30 · Score: 1, Funny

I'm curious, could such "encryption" also be used on, say, credit card transactions?
Friends by Zapateria · 2003-02-20 11:57 · Score: 2, Funny

People that watch "Friends" know how to use P2P software.

I'm stunned.
Poison the database. by shepd · 2003-02-20 12:24 · Score: 3, Funny

Make a 1 byte file, call it "U of Wyoming - The modern day 1984.zip", get a friend outside the Uni. to host it, and set your machine inside the Uni. to download it once a minute.

Heh... If a few of you do that, the database could be full of useless info in no time!

--
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Re:oh my! (girls) by TummyX · 2003-02-20 12:40 · Score: 5, Funny

I read that as "Girls Gone Wild - Spring Break #19 - The one where the shave the turkey".
Re:We need to respect and uphold copyright laws by discogravy · 2003-02-20 12:43 · Score: 3, Funny

Or we may find ourselves without the ability to enforce the GPL.
what does sharing have to do with the GPL? are the eminem covers that RMS has done for FSF or something?

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FreeBSD for the impatient.
Funny.. by Nemith · 2003-02-20 14:40 · Score: 2, Funny

I though the bandwidth would go down after I moved out of the dorms. Since I kept trying to /. it in my posts (succeded once too).

Like here Or here. Or even here.

Guess my old drinking buddies filled the bandwidth gap I left when I dropped out.
Re:There's always another way... by blair1q · 2003-02-20 15:22 · Score: 3, Funny

If the RIAA could have their way, they'd meter your ears.
Re:There's always another way... by ATMAvatar · 2003-02-20 15:45 · Score: 2, Funny

Don't forget this protocol, too.

--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."