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Microsoft Issues Takedown Notices Over COFEE

Posted by Soulskill on from the horses-and-barn-doors dept.

Eugen tips news that Microsoft has sent DMCA takedown notices to several websites to stop them from offering the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) tool for download after it was leaked earlier this month. One of the sites, Cryptome.org, has posted their correspondence with Microsoft over the software. "... Microsoft contacted Network Solutions, which hosts Cryptome, and since John Young, the owner of the website, wasn't too keen on losing his whole website for the sake of a single 15MB file, he removed the download link and sent Network Solutions a notice of compliance."

25 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Can't stop the signal by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere.

    Once something is leaked you can take down all the websites you want, but you won't stop P2P Sharing.

    1. Re:Can't stop the signal by wvmarle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just put it on a server outside of the USA. Then at least you won't have an issue with DMCA notices.

    2. Re:Can't stop the signal by NoYob · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Sweet!

      Unfortunately, the mods didn't get the "Firefly" reference the OP made - Can't stop the signal ... etc..

      Ah, pop culture references.

      --
      It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
  2. Too little, too late? by Telecommando · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suspect that anyone who wanted it has already downloaded a copy by now.

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    Beta sux! Join the Slashcott! http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4760465&cid=46173047
    1. Re:Too little, too late? by Spatial · · Score: 4, Funny

      I didn't. But I do now.

  3. CRYPTOME? by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 3, Interesting

    John fearlessly posts pictures of ECHELON listening posts, Dick Cheney's Secret Bunker, the names of MI5 Moles in the IRA, CIA internal memos and the like.

    But they can't take him down on NetSol - which is chock-full of spooks itself!

    No, that's only Microsoft, and it's DMCA threat.

    So. For how long has Cryptome been a disinformation channel?

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
    1. Re:CRYPTOME? by johnyoung · · Score: 2, Informative

      Like the globe, Cryptome got the COFEE files from Torrent and wanted to see what Microsoft and Netsol would do when the copyfilth snoopfest was offered on a plain-sight website easily targeted. It's been several years since the last takedown notice for Cryptome, none since being hosted on Netsol. There's the result: snarf COFEE.

      No, the material was not returned to MS, nor was it asked for, nor for log files, nor has MS apologized for Windows being so bloated, unstable, insecure and riddled with backholes for use by TLAs.

      COFEE is a diversion and another example of the complicity ingrained in giant corps to aid official and commercial spying through browsers, ftp, http, faulty crypto, leaky data farms, telecomm splitters, juicy NDA contracts and grants to non-profits, internet nodes, not to say OSs, cells, i-pods, household appliances, e-games, porn sites, anything digital missing from this list.

      Honestly, aping this noble forum, Cryptome's only purpose is to disinfo slight resistance to the tsunami of edu, com, gov, mil, intel kind.

  4. I can relate. by Jazz-Masta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "... Microsoft contacted Network Solutions, which hosts Cryptome, and since John Young, the owner of the website, wasn't too keen on losing his whole website for the sake of a single 15MB file, he removed the download link and sent Network Solutions a notice of compliance."

    I can relate to this. Around 2002 I received notice over a few files that a website had on one of my servers. I talked it over with the individual (owner) and he agreed it wasn't worth the effort and removed them. Everyone was happy.

    I know /. regularly crucifies people who comply with these notices as wimps, corporate sellouts, etc, but when someone has to put food on the table, and really does not care about the content more than their own livelihood, then there really is no issue. This is why we have wikileaks, etc, so that individuals do not have to bear the brunt of responsibility for hosting these leaked files or other sensitive info.

    In the case of COFEE, it was a 'stealing software' issue, and not a 'this is my right to leak this program' issue. Or maybe it is...maybe some reverse engineers can find out COFEE is putting innocent people beind bars?

    1. Re:I can relate. by Guspaz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It won't matter anyhow, Microsoft just ignorantly invoked the Streisand effect.

      Note to everyone out there faced with a "leak": The best thing to do is NOTHING. By trying to have something removed, it will only be spread more widely.

      If Microsoft had simply ignored the incident, Cryptome would have hosted it and the vast majority of people would have never even heard of COFEE. Now, tons of people are downloading it just BECAUSE of the reports of their takedown campaign.

    2. Re:I can relate. by JWSmythe · · Score: 2

          I've seen several C&D's (Cease and Desist) in my time. Most were for copyrighted photos, where someone had copied them without permission and used them. Depending on the offense and the usage, they were treated from removing the offending pictures, to removing the whole site. The whole site treatment was only if (and only if) they constituted the entire site. The customer was always notified, which kept everyone out of legal trouble.

          As much as we may not like the topic, and have a disregard for the multibillion dollar corp, it's their software, and it was being provided illegally. The C&D was appropriate, and it was handled appropriately. Regardless if it's a guy writing software out of his house and every sale counts towards paying his bills, or one of the biggest companies in the world, it's really not right to just steal their stuff. Obviously it wasn't stolen by cryptome, nor did they turn a profit from providing the software. That's probably what protected them against a very nasty lawsuit.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    3. Re:I can relate. by jonadab · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > It won't matter anyhow, Microsoft just ignorantly invoked the Streisand effect.

      Maybe.

      > Note to everyone out there faced with a "leak": The best thing to do is NOTHING.

      That depends on your goal.

      > By trying to have something removed, it will only be spread more widely.

      True.

      > If Microsoft had simply ignored the incident, Cryptome would have hosted
      > it and the vast majority of people would have never even heard of COFEE.

      Also true.

      > Now, tons of people are downloading it just BECAUSE
      > of the reports of their takedown campaign.

      Yes. But, speaking as a cynic, how do you know that this isn't why it was leaked in the first place? How do you know Microsoft didn't *plan* to invoke this reverse-psychology failed suppression effect to create buzz?

      There's an old saying: there's no such thing as bad publicity. This isn't strictly true in the absolute sense, but it's much *closer* to true than many people realize. If it weren't for bad publicity, Microsoft would hardly have any publicity at all and yet, somehow, they seem to be doing okay, fiscally speaking.

      Maybe I'm giving Microsoft too much credit, but it seems possible to me that someone within the organization arranged this on purpose, unofficially of course, as a form of marketing.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  5. Will this henceforth be known... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...as the hot COFEE incident?

    1. Re:Will this henceforth be known... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Mod parent DOWN -1, clueless.

  6. Still available on TPB.... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5156601

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    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  7. Links Still Live by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Funny story, just visited cryptome and the files are still downloadable.

    1. Re:Links Still Live by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Informative

          Check the file contents. The only thing in the zip file is the takedown notice.

         

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  8. Takedown notice... by Trebawa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thus guaranteeing thousands of frantic downloads.

  9. but did he give it back by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    But did he email his copy back to Microsoft?

    1. Re:but did he give it back by Abstrackt · · Score: 2, Funny

      But did he email his copy back to Microsoft?

      No, but he did send them a drawing of a spider.

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  10. Want... by RealRedMist · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have no idea what this is. I havn't even read the article. But on the basis that Microsoft don't want me to have it, I'm going to hunt it down.

    1. Re:Want... by JWSmythe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's why most people are going to grab it.

          1) They don't want you to have it.
          2) They are making a big deal about it.
          3) (the lesser reason) To see what MS is giving up to LEO.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  11. Available on Freenet by FreenetFan · · Score: 2, Informative

    COFEE is available on Freenet, as are most things like this.

    Freenet is very usable at the moment. Speeds are pretty good considering the constraints of encryption and anonymity, and there is a lot of filesharing going on.

    1. Re:Available on Freenet by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Freenet and other anonymous forwarder schemes arent's secure, unless you already can trust any and all of the nodes you connect directly to. And if you can trust them, you might as well use a network share -- it's much faster.

      Why it isn't safe? Funneling. The easiest imaginable (but far from most efficient) version is a cluster of N nodes, where N equals the maximum number of jumps a packet can take, the internal max TTL of the protocol used. The nodes are firewalled in a chain, so that only one end of the chain is open from the outside, and only the other end of the chain can send requests out to the internet. Then those who run the nodes know that any traffic that makes it through to the end of the chain must be from directly connected hosts. It doesn't matter if the TTL is randomized and encrypted in an onion layer; as long as there is a max, even if only one out of a million packets make it to the endpoint host, for all the traffic that does make it, they know the source and the destination.

      The problem is that with a design where the next hop gets to choose its next hop, you can't prevent someone from creating funnels where traffic can't go to other nodes, only to other malicious hosts or the outside.

      Another problem is if you have a single pipe. Then it's dead easy to sit at your ISP and drop the pipe to you intermittently. When there are outgoing requests when the pipe to you is down, the snoops know that the traffic originates from you. And again, with a funnel, they can find out where the traffic is going. Do they know what the traffic is? Well, they may be the ones that host the materials you try to access, in which case, yes, they do.

      And yes, a large portion of the so-called darknets are run by law enforcement agencies and institutions working closely with them. Letting a thousand people getting away with downloading pipe bomb recipes, child porn and sedition against king Dumbledore is apparently acceptable if they can nab one every now and then, and thus justify their own existence.

  12. huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unlike ECHELON listening posts, Dick Cheney's Secret Bunker, the names of MI5 Moles in the IRA, CIA internal memos and the like, Coffee is a copyrighted work which falls under DMCA law, which all registrars must respect.

    None of which you listed falls under any laws that would prevent their distribution. If someone stumbles upon some intelligence, there is no law preventing someone from disclosing that intelligence, even classified intelligence if you are a civilian.

    1. Re:huh? by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mission Accomplished.

      You now believe that copyright violation is the most serious bit of public misbehavior a citizen can get up to. --And, no, I'm not talking about this particular incident, or that particular website, (which I've never even heard of). I'm talking about the national freak-out which began with Napster, and which I was laughing at way back then, but have come to seriously believe may be the crowbar used to justify the final descent into totalitarianism. That's how ludicrous this has all become.

      Ooooooh. Somebody didn't watch adverts while downloading a crappy bit of Hollywood. Opiate of the masses, and now the latest excuse to storm your home with the most recent incarnation of the Gestapo.

      That and Organic Farming, for equally preposterous reasons. A cat can NOT look at a king and you WILL eat toxic food.

      -FL