Slashdot Mirror
Senator Proposes to Monitor All P2P Traffic for Illegal Files
mytrip writes "Senator Joe Biden (D-Del) has proposed an ambitious plan, costing on the order of $1 billion, aimed at curtailing illegal activities via P2P networks. His plan involves utilizing new software to monitor peer-to-peer traffic on an ongoing basis. 'At an afternoon Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about child exploitation on the Internet, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said he was under the impression it's "pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation" simply by looking at file names. He urged use of those techniques by investigators to help nab the most egregious offenders."
Fuck them. Fuck them both.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
. . . this dragnet surveillance "for the children" would never be used to enforce copyright. Right, Senator RIAA?
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
I've never seen a better use for the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag in my life.
There is a war going on for your mind.
The guy just likes to hear himself talk. He's had more failed attempts at the presidential nomination than Ralf Nader running for the Presidency.
Wait... so all I have to do to transfer kiddy porn via p2p is change the name of the file?
I understand how these politicians can't get a handle on terrorism, crime, drugs etc.
They think the people that deal in them are as stupid as they themselves are.
What light through yonder window breaks? Tis the clarity of seeing people for what they truely are: idiots.
He wants the filtering done on file names?? Is he serious? That would be one of the easiest filters to get around.
encr, lbhgu, puvyq, nff, shpx, cvff, yvpx, gbegher, encr, crrcrr, qhatrba, fubj, gryy, gbhpu, gvr, ovaq, fgevc, fcnax, fyvpr, oyrrq, qevax, fvfgre, oebgure, 8, 11, wvmm, ovgpu, fhpx, onfu, xvyy
Even though at first glance it might seem filenames aren't that important, it's actually a pretty good heuristic method to gauge what a file might contain.
This is because people are hardwired to organising their stuff. A filename by the name of "rapeMe" is far easier to find when you need id than the same file, but named "rU2:s" don't you think?
Now, since people are also lazy they forget to rename these files before transmiting them.
Sure, the method is not perfect and yes sooner or later filenames will be randomly generated when transmiting by P2P clients themselves, but until then the method provides a good guess as to who needs further inspection.
If encryption is used, you can't do it.
If monitoring is heavy-handed AND encryption isn't illegal, it will be used.
The net effect: Wasted CPU time for encryption/decryption.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Yeah. One party will try to enslave us just slightly faster than the other. It's so nice having a clear choice. (sarcasm intended)
Real issues: economy, environment, crime, international relations
Distraction issues: file sharing, gay marriage, abortion, drugs, bosnian snipers
He's the senator from MBNA and Citibank.
Totally different.
I propose we monitor all government communication for evidence of corruption.
Where he creates a (filter or firewall or program) to stop a 12 year old in finding 'naughty pictures' on the net. Then you hear a boinging sound and Dilbert says "I hope that is not his eyes popping out'. Lets face the facts. Anyone can build something to get by any type of restrictions on the net. Period.
Guns are for wimps... Use a crossbow.. this way you can pin them to their chair when you go postal.
Don't believe me? Google for US federal deficit charts...
Dems always suck on IP issues and censorship. That's been the case for decades. They think of the children waaaay too much.
On the other hand, republicans also suck for censorship (dems hate violence, repubs hate boobies), and they are far more likely to get "decency-style" laws passed, than infringe on individual liberty...If you can't buy booze on a Sunday in your state, somewhere, there is a Republican to thank.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
How the fuck do you expect voting for one of two parties is going to represent the majority of your views? I live in the UK, and I'm fed up of random slashdotters flaming republican this, democrat that, can you please explain what the actual difference is? I've seen more than one person point out that there is none, and I wouldn't find that hard to believe. I think as far as democracy is concerned, people should be able to vote on invidual laws and such (if they consider that law important) rather than vote one party every few years and expect to have things go the way they're wanting them to. Does it really matter whether this guy is Republican or Democrat? I'm sure there are plenty of idiots in both parties..
Apologies for the slightly trollish nature of my post, but it's really pissing me off seeing this inane republican vs democrat stuff, it's like racism or something, except the fairly arbitrary divide being which set of self-important morons you vote for instead of place of birth/skin colour. Admittedly you do have a choice who to vote for, but in the end there are always gonna be problems no matter who you vote for, under the current system at least.
which is totally what she said
I hear the snow is starting to melt in Canada at this time of year. :-)
Canada took a misguided right turn a few years ago and currently has a government in residence (albeit, thankfully, tenuously) that is nothing more than neocon-lite. We're still better off than you, but the current government likes nothing better than to oil the slippery slope and herd the Canadian sheeple in its direction on behalf of its big-business masters. One can keep hoping the people will wake up and smell the frog sweat, but Canadians tend to be too trusting and easy-going and thus ripe for abuse.
Have you ever heard of mapping real file names to some other text. Example: Beat_the_Wife.jpg is changed to Domestic_Pinata.jpg
The file sharing service uses Slapstick_Family_Birthday.jpg while the consumer of the media renames it locally to Beat_the_Wife.jpg
I am certain the pedophiles already use code words to mean various things not obvious from the words themselves.
So a senator said something stupid about a subject outside of his domain of expertise. Every slashdotter, if elected to the senate, would say stupid things about SOMETHING. This is not a proposal for a law, or Iâ(TM)d be seeing it on my opencongress.org feed. Just kindly wite to the man and inform him that within a week of any such law coming into play, P2P programs would be randomizing the filenames.
One billion dollars! (puts pinky to lower lip) I see the tip of an ice berg, but ok since ... "It's for the children"!
Ah! The rest of the iceberg! Now how will we pay for it?
No matter that it cannot possibly work, it is for the children you see. So naturally if it's not working, we'll simply need to provide a bit more funding in this year's budget, and the next, and the next...
News alert: Billion dollar federal monitoring program defeated by ROT13 file name encryption. Feds calling "ROT13" the worst thing to happen to national security since 9-11.
It's unfortunate that none of this Billion bucks they want to spend catching people who swap illegal porn will actually help any of the children who were abused and in reality, won't stop it from happening to other children. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
Congratulations, if this goes through and someone gets that job, we now have a new record-holder:
The Most Rickrolled Person In The World.
What moron rated this post a troll?
We need more parties. This huge nation is too diverse to fit into A or B, we need like 20 different parties! Unfortunately, there is little incentive to do this because the politicians who can make the change benefit way too much from the status quo.
I wonder if anyone has a viable stratergy for getting more parties into the mix.
I feel a strong affiliation to the beer and cartoon party.
Blar.
What you want would just result in tyranny by the largest plurality.
The Republican party wants to take out a loan that will be paid for by the poor and/or young later (because they can't afford it now) and use it to protect the rich and/or old from the poor and/or young. They don't want to hear naughty words or see any sort of sexual content occur in public at all, both because they think their grandchildren might learn something bad from them and because they seem to offend easily.
Both sides share two common issues. They think the children need protection from everything, and seek to protect their interests from the other side 's interests at the other side's expense.
Incidentally, since libertarians get up a lot here I'll include them. The Libertarian party wants the government to get just enough money to carry out the most basic of functions such as protecting everyone in the country from nothing less than invaders and egregious crimes. They rely on each person's intelligent nature to recognize that it is in their own self-interest to stop trying to get someone else to pay for what that person wants. As evidenced by the two parties that are the the powerhouses of the nation, this is unlikely to ever get anywhere.
Well, the US, and most other "democracies" are representative democracies. Voting on individual laws is a terrible idea. Just look at Athens. Regardless of that though, citizens of the US (in some states) actually do get to vote on individual laws, through "Issues" polls, or on state consitutional amendments. That's how some states get ridiculous "anti-gay marriage" laws passed that a representative body would probably avoid.
The US is not, by law, a 2 party system; it has just developed that way. Democrats and Republicans do not always vote in one big block either. There are "blue dog" Democrats who will occasionally side with Republicans on some things, for example. Middle of the road representatives sometimes team up to challenge their parties. So, in the end, there actually is reasonable representaton.
The problem is that most Americans don't really understand how they are represented. Many don't vote, or only do so when their vote counts the least, the presidential election. The Senators represent smaller areas, and Representatives represent even smaller areas than those, and that's just the FEDERAL government. Most of the stuff that actually affects your life is decided by your State/County/Local/City representatives. Hardly anyone votes for them, or can keep track of them. Which makes those votes the most powerful you can cast.
So, to somehow be on topic, for this issue it doesn't matter at all if they are Republican or Democrat. Pretty much all the federal reps are "it's a series of tubes!" boneheads for technical issues.
Clovis
^ Clovis, look! It's that guy you are!
Right Joe, all P2P traffic is used to propagate kiddie porn and allow those child raping Mooshlum terrorists to convert your virgin daughters to abortion-having car bombers.
I'm really starting to hate this fucking country.
Just watch in a year or two the newspapers will be reading "Senator Joe Biden (D-Del) has been arrested for trafficking illegal files."
Could this be anymore disingenuous? Could this be anymore bullshit?
So is is about violence? Take a look at TV. I don't see him concerned about that.
SO this is about porn? I think not as P2P is one of many ways to obtain porn and has nothing to do with the production of it.
So this is really about lobbyists and big business buying support for an assinine policy that goes against the interests of the people this man is supposed to serve.
Now let's look at the technical side. Doe he even know what he is talking about? Obviously not. MAC addresses and IP addresses can be spoofed; neither of them can definitively ID a person.
Does he even understand general technology concepts? Obviously not, because if he did he would realize that the second one technological avenue is closed, the tech community will create a new one. Innovation cannot be stopped by repressive minded politicos who are in the pocket of consortiums.
This is an important issue - one that could be used to basically take away the privacy you have on your computer and internet connection. When this government uses things like this they will take advantage of them to the hilt.
tags: democratswantpolicestatetoo or getridofrepublicanstosaveusfrom1984
Obviously just getting rid of Bush is not going to save us. Both democrats and republicans want big intrusive governments. The only difference seems to be that the republicans are in favor of borrowing and inflation to feed their spending addiction while the democrats are quite content to use old fashioned taxes more (in addition to the other methods). Both parties want to be spending a lot more of our money with each passing year. Both parties are funded more than adequately by Big Business. Do the democrats still talk about class warfare while at the same time proposing raising taxes on the poorest segment of the population with regressive tax schemes? I don't see the point to listening to anything they have to say. It is all lies and they will do whatever they please once elected. Idealists, however naive, are not elected anymore. Only pragmatists whose only beliefs are in serving themselves and saying whatever they think will get them elected.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
What annoys me about this article is the glorification of the system that they have created. P2P networks use open protocols which are exceedingly well documented. Almost every bittorrent client that I've ever seen has a specific window with which to view the peers you are connected to. Literally, someone could copy and paste code from an OSS project, couple it with a dictionary of keywords, and then end up with this system. It's infuriating that someone could be taking so much credit for it. Finally, and most egregiously, they fail to point out that this entire system is ineffective in monitoring people with even the least bit of intelligence (you would imagine if you were transferring one of the only types of illegal content on the internet, that you would use an encrypted session), further indicating that this system is probably just a totally behind the scenes funded starting point for the enforcement of copyright through active federal monitoring of open P2P systems.
Intrusion is good, extrusion is bad, inclusion is ....
... it is all for their grand, bland, and fleeting glory.
... are just things to play with in a clueless life that has no sense of reality. ... (so they think) or CEO/CFO plutocrats and law breaking holy dogmatist.
... decline for the last 40+ years. Politicians accept corporatists and plutocrats funds and play the almost have some (wealth) folks against the have nothing (need help) folks ... always to the benefit of the PTB members. Fewer more wealth individuals every year and corporate/government and religion (catholic/mormon child molesting) accountability is close to nonexistent for US.
... get use to it ... more to come ... just before ... more to cum in your ears.
... than what has been happening to US for decades.
Government Intrusion into personal life is good for plutocrats and dogmatist.
Government extrusion up your ass is a fact of life in totalitarian countries.
Government body inclusion in the public body is a poison to personal freedom.
Public body exclusion from the Government body is totalitarian decapitation.
Government, Corporatist, TeleClerics, Plutocrats want to get in your pants, under your skin, break your bones, suck your marrow, eat your heart, rot you brains, and finally fuck the dead fetid corpses of the public.
Corporatist/oligarchy government is big business with public resources to exploit, squander, and destroy. Like rich kids with toy soldiers
Depression when it hits is bad for US never them. Toy-soldiers, Suzie-homemaker
Intrusive constant warrantless P2P searches and virtual home invasions for US, does not mean politicians, judges
Have you ever noticed how detached Cheney/Bush or Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon look/act when answering questions about our dead and wounded Warriors? To fools such as they and other PTB members we are just toy-Soldiers for play and fun. Look at the education system, health care, economic, telecommunications
Anyway,
This (P2P intrusion) is not any more obscene, troll
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
This is so obviously RIAA. The anti porn aspect of it is front and the ultimate goal is to prevent anything copyrighted being shared; to fine the parents of misbehaving children - no matter how much profit the entertainment industry makes.
Did you bother to read TFA? File sharing? DRM circumvention? hollywood/music industry??
The only thing that the FA mentions is child pornography, molestation, rape, abuse, etc. Not once do they speak about any of the illegal things you've mentioned.
I'll admit that I've a fear of a legitimate child-porn-tracking system being used to combat other activities, esp. for people in no way involved in such horrific fetishes, but that isn't the point of the system (as stated) that Biden wants.
Whenever law enforcement at any level says of a tactic or system or program, "Don't worry -- we're only going to use it to go after [insert category of criminals here]," always assume an unspoken "NOT" between "we're" and "only." Hello??? Patriot Act, anyone? Warrantless wiretaps? National Security Letters?
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
When he was fucking with pro-life protesters, how many of you didn't care because you weren't pro-life?
When he was fucking with gun owners, how many of you didn't care because you didn't own guns?
Now that he's fucking with P2P, we have to do something about it?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano