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To Media Companies, BitTorrent Implies Guilt

Posted by kdawson on from the law-and-disorder dept.

kripkenstein writes "The big media companies immediately assume you are guilty by your mere presence on a BitTorrent swarm, an investigation by a university security worker reveals. Turns out companies like BayTSP (which the media companies employ) will send shutdown notices to ISPs without any evidence of copyright infringment; all they feel they need is an indication that you are reported by the tracker to be in the swarm." From the post: "For my investigation, I wrote a very simple BitTorrent client. My client sent a request to the tracker, and generally acted like a normal Bittorrent client up to sharing files. The client refused to accept downloads of, or upload copyrighted content. It obeyed the law... With just this, completely legal, BitTorrent client, I was able to get notices from BayTSP. To put this in to perspective, if BayTSP were trying to bust me for doing drugs, it'd be like getting arrested because I was hanging out with some dealers, but they never saw me using, buying, or selling any drugs."

7 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. It is more like by qwerty1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hanging out in a Pawn Shop. Cops know there are stolen items in there as well as legitimate items. So, anyone going into the pawn shop has to be only there for stolen items. Therefore you are served a warrant. What a bunch of A$$ Hats.

  2. Don't understand the analogy by letsgolightning · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the spirit of slashdot, could I request that we instead get a car analogy? Preferably one involving hookers... and blackjack. You know what? Forget the analogy.

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    2^4 * 3 * 20929
    1. Re:Don't understand the analogy by slim-t · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's like picking up a hooker to have someone to talk to while playing blackjack, then getting thrown out for counting cards even though you were just trying to make sure they were 52 in the deck, then a cop seeing you starting your own car with a screwdriver and arresting you for soliciting prostitution when he sees who you're with. Not a perfect analogy, but it happened to a friend of mine once.

  3. The important part is the proof! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, that doesn't surprise us any, but it DOES provide proof. Why is that important? If you happen to get sued by them, it undermines their case!

    This could, in theory, be introduced as evidence in a case and might be enough to shoot down their allegations of copyright infringement. I'd say that THAT is pretty important, wouldn't you?

    Here's to hoping that it screws up a few of their copyright infringement lawsuits!

  4. Re:Compare to legitimate drug dealers? by fishdan · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not quite:

    From the article:

    I placed this client on a number of torrent files that I suspected were monitored by BayTSP (For my own protection I don't want to identify the torrents used for this research. I used the fact that NBC is a client of BayTSP to find trackers.
    So it's like going up to an illegal drug dealer (because the torrent is not of a legally shared file) and asking him/her "Can I buy some crack from you." (because the client sent a request to the tracker). Even though no illegal goods changed hands, we're are definitely NOT talking about the companies disconnecting people because thry are downloading FC6 or Ctrl-Alt-Chicken via bittorrent.

    I'm not agreeing with the media companies here, but it's not as draconian as you are making it out to be.

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    Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
  5. Not missing anything by gr8_phk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, you're not missing anything. Notice that this guy had to write a special bit-torrent client in order to avoid actually doing anything wrong during his tests. Anyone connected with normal software would be either a) downloading the file and/or b) providing parts of that file to others. No one connects to a swarm just to "hang out". They are only targeting people connected to swarms that are sharing copyrighted works. I'd say the media companies method is sound, and accurate - if you're going to pretend to engage in illegal activity, you have to expect people to treat you like a criminal.

    1. Re:Not missing anything by Dilaudid · · Score: 5, Funny

      So essentially it's a bit like hanging around with dealers and wearing a sign saying "I buy and sell crack cocaine".