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VPN For Kazaa Users Launched
prostoalex writes "AnonX allows Kazaa users to connect to its own VPN, effectively obfuscating their original IP address that certain association has been using to subpoena the file-sharers. The company is created by a Texas ISP employee, but is registered in Vanuatu, and already has 7,000 users paying $6 a month."
...until the RIAA somehow finds a way to get access to their user records...
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
I just skimmed through their website, but it looks to me like their user's speeds would be limited by their bandwidth, just like any other proxy.
So what happens when 20% of those thousands of users get on Kazaa at once?
It's still nice to see that something's being done to help. Even if it is just another proxy service, that still makes it another proxy service that the RIAA has to expend time and effort to "manage."
I wonder, though, if they can implement some kind of disclaimer or warning (like those you see when logging into some FTP servers) that state that personnel from the RIAA or from record companies are not permitted to use the service. I may be mistaken, but that should provide some legal clout in the event they get h4xx0r3d (so to speak) and their users sued like so many others.
Help protect civil rights from abuse by the TSA - visit TSA News Blog.
http://www.tsanewsblog.com
So, let me get this straight; these users can't or won't pay to purchase music/videos/software/etc., but they will pay some company a monthly fee to protect them as they illegally download said music/videos/software/etc.
I actually hope that this company is a front for the RIAA, nailing those who are too stupid/greedy to figure it out.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
1) why doesn't the RIAA just get an account, see who's swapping, and subpoena usernames?
... I have a sneakin' suspicion that a certain internet service provider is going to be raided in the coming months...
.. I found a lot of cool music and made some friends.. and nobody could track that stuff. I'm feel kinda sorry for the music swappers today.. oh well!
2) from the article: "Wasicek's day job is at an Internet service provider".
3) when I was in college I swapped tapes with all the people in my dorm
You changed your sig from a troll comment? Dude. Turn in your karma points.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
I have been doing this for almost a year using an offshore service called the MetroPipe Tunneler and their SOCKS Proxy.
Just basic SSH Tunneling with an easy to use system that encrypts the traffic from your machine to MetroPipe, and from there you go out on the net via Proxies and others see MetroPipe and not your IP.
What is good about MetroPipe is that they are NOT located in the USA. And they do not keep logs to even give to anyone that even asks.
Let alone all the other Proxies they offer such as POP-FTP etc.
And about speed. Give me a break. Of course there will be a speed slowdown. That is the price to pay for an additional layer of privacy.
Boo Hoo. Additional hops mean slower download speed. Fine by me. The extra privacy and anonymity is well worth it. And with todays DSL speed I get, even with the additional HOP, I still have blazing speed especially if you try and price a raw T1.
I am happy with My 2 Cents. Peace.
Because I don't see anything on the AnonX site that says anything specifically about Kazaa or any other file sharing system. It says it's for security for any online activity.
I think it's a damn shame that the first thing that comes to mind is file sharing, when far worse things like human rights violations are far more worth protecting. Yes, this proxy system is for that too.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Let me get this right. A guy physically residing in the States is earning money from a service whose primary and almost sole intent is to facilitate the commission of a crime. How long before the feds are on his arse? Just because the company is in Vanuatu, doen't mean he can't be done for living off illegal earnings or some-such law designed to put away mobsters and drug barons.
As it gets more and more insecure to use P2P filesharing services, the users should consider switching to a filesharing network which fully respects privacy and completely disables censorship (achieved by encryption)
For details see the Freenet Project homepage.
BTW there is another interesting (though by far not as widely used) filesharing network, called GNUnet.
Digital Rights Management.
The experience of downloading music from Kazaa, even though it can't beat the old Napster, is still miles above the new legal downloading systems, because you can do whatever you want with the music when you get it, unencumbered by artifical limitations.
I want my MP3s.
He'll get shut down as soon as someone starts sharing secret Scientology documents over KaZaA through his service. After all, that's what brought down anon.penet.fi.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
What Neo Matrix Surfer neglected to mention is that he is affiliated with MetroPipe. I believe he is one of the principals.
It's not just for Kazaa. It's a VPN that any and all of your Internet software can use. Use it at work to get around nazis who block listening to Di.fm, use it at school to get around port blocking and throttling....
My interest in it was actually getting unfirewalled, as that cripples Internet performance. But my school blocks the protocols necessary for outbound VPN connections, so I only had it for a month.
It's nice because you don't need their proprietary software. You just download a VPN connection file and voila, there's your tunnel.
Now the feds will have a new argument for _requiring_ key escrow "to protect IP" just wonderful. and the broadband providers will have a new excuse for blocking VPN connections on residential circuits. Which will make it really inconvenient and _expensive_ for those of us who need these tools for productive work. Ahh the tragedy of the commons writ large
I just wish for once people would think about the consequences for the rest of us before rolling out a commercial service.
The place to fight the DMCA is the courts and we do have some judges on our side. Does anyone remember the Cartervision case where Hollywood wanted to ban VCR's the judge in that case found while the VCR's could be used to infringe copyright they had substantial 'non-infringing' uses which is the same tack the judge in the p2p case is taking. Let's not give _big media_ any ammo for their view of the world.
Quit your f*ckin' whining and shut your damn trap.
It's asinine that you jerks constantly take shit out of context while attempting to make it seem either sinister, weak, or both. The service has nothing to do with filesharing, was not designed for filesharing, and provides a reasonable level of privacy that should be every users right.
The poster was simply pointing this out, and if that fact doesn't fit into your worldview, well too bad for you. Just swallow that bile and suffer with the rest of the crybaybies who can't stand that they are wrong, that the industries they toady to are not going to be profitable for much longer, that regulations that attempt to enforce the continuance of corporate control of commubnication and media are unenforcable, and that technological attempts at enforcement will always be bypassed.
The world's achangin' and the only way you can stop it is unthinkable.
(I posted as an AC. See I can do irony too;-)
Found here
I'm sure every peidophile/childmolester/spammer/scam artist is already paying their $7 a month to get in on this.
Just use a fake credit card, and they think they are invisable (until a warrant is issued for the access logs and PayPals records).
Sounds like another kid playing with
In my neck of the woods MediaOne->ATTBI->Comcast blocks IPSec unless you purchase a _business_ account for 2-3X the cost of the basic plan.
I have DSL and Satellite because I refuse to do business with said crew of pirates.
When MediaOne bought our local cable provider they changed the billing so you were billed for 2 months for every month of service this was "in case you did not pay your bill" but they would refund the charges when you terminated your service yeah sure and if you belive that I have a nice tower in paris which is being sold for scrap.
I had them physically remove the drop from the pole to our house and lived without TV until the advent of DirectTV. This was nice because it _cost_ them money! and removed any avenue for them to complain about "cable piracy"
You know, ISP's dont have to log any information about you. There is no law that forces them to log anything that you do. I dont know why they do it, seems to me it would be even funnier and more convenient for them, to just trash all the logs, that would end all these stupid law suits. I am sure that will happen soon however, we live in a corporate world, when the first large isp begins to do this, they will get so many customers they wont know what to do with them.