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Microsoft Blocking Pirate Bay Links In Messenger
RemyBR writes with an excerpt from an article at El Reg: "Microsoft has confirmed that users of its instant messaging app will not be able to send each other links to popular torrent site The Pirate Bay, citing malware fears. 'We block instant messages if they contain malicious or spam URLs based on intelligence algorithms, third-party sources, and/or user complaints. Pirate Bay URLs were flagged by one or more of these and were consequently blocked,' Redmond told The Register in an emailed statement."
I know which of those three I'll bet on being responsible for TPB being blocked.
does anyone care for that company anymore? are there people still using MSN? o.O
I guess Microsoft has never heard of goo.gl
--
PressTV - The News Channel the UK Government doesnt want you to watch
Now Microsoft owns Skype, I wonder if they'll be applying the same intelligent algorithms to voice and video conversations.
Messenger usage must be diminishing, a lot of people seem to use Facebook for IM these days. Anyone more serious about IM who doesn't use Facebook probably uses a different network/client anyway. One which they do control.
They also block all posts containing the string 'no-ip.org' - I've ran into it myself, as I use my home server on a no-ip.org dynamic IP to host the occasional game and transfer files via HTTP. I just have to specify it by IP instead to get around the block. I don't know exactly why Microsoft blocks mention of no-ip.org, but it is concieveable that it might be used to host malware downloads which are then advertised via IM-spamming, so there is grounds for some legitimate reason there. Even if it does inconvenience me personally.
In the case of TPB though, there is no such excuse. If TBP hosts malware (And I'm sure there are a few files, given the volume there), it'll have to be something that requires downloading a torrent(/magnet) - and if you can't get infected just by visiting a browser-exploiting website, it fails as malware. Besides, anyone uneducated enough to follow IM spam links isn't going to know what a torrent client is. It seems far more likely that Microsoft are just doing a corporate favor for either an external company they want to maintain a good relationship with or one of their own divisions concerned about piracy.
And don't have MSN even on my dual boot XP. Yeah, XP, who needs newer?
So they block URLs, marking them as spam. Use a URL shortener, like t.co / bit.ly / what.ever, so you can bypass the scheme.
was MSFT concerned about malware, really? phttt!
msn messages are between sender and receiver. Microsoft has a duty to encrypt these messages so that no one else can read them. No one includes Microsoft.
What next? Microsoft will start auto correcting my grammar? So that the receiver gets messages with everything spelled correctly and with correct grammar? Why not just start sending messages with what Microsoft thinks I want to say?
Really. This should be the same as the post office. Stay the fuck out of my personal correspondence. If you can't do that, there should be a law saying you are spying and should be in jail.
Honestly people. How can you tell China that deleting content is bad when an American company is setting this type of example? I'm tired of "Do as we say, not as we do."
You may think that it is some grand anti-piracy conspiracy, but Microsoft is right. TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware. There are people who use it to spread viruses and malware. It makes sense too - it's quite easy method to infect peoples computers.
All of the users, who also owned Xboxes, claimed "Microsoft is a dick" for doing this.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
The official client also randomly blocks urls with .php? in them, aside from generally being a bloated piece of crap full of ads.
Facebook also blocks TPB links, and has for ages.
Microsoft and Facebook can do what they want - people can't complain too much, they are the company's networks after all, they can do what they want. But at least it's good in reminding people that their messages aren't private, and that there is going to be at least some automated checking of the contents before it's granted clearance to be sent through unaltered. If you really want to use an IM platform that's completely under your control (and not at the risk of censorship), then host your own XMPP server.
I remember when Linux was good... too...
What's wrong with Slashdot these days? /.-style news faster than /..
Recent articles: This one, Apple's free-to-use nano-sim patent, airline food tasting bad, probes of FB passwd sharing rumors...
I've already seen them all on general news site nu.nl before they appeared here.
A general, dutch news site. Reports on
Seriously: what happened? Is a general news site deeper into tech news nowadays than /.?
It can't be update frequency: after I read the story there, I see plenty of stories added here before the same story is finally posted.
I dunno about you all, but I liked it when /. gave me news ahead of it hitting general news. Trailing... not so nice.
</whine>
Why the fuck is this -1? Mods, please put your crack pipe down for a few seconds.
TPB is indeed infested with viruses and malware - I don't care, because I know how to take precautions. For me, it's a minor nuisance. Joe Sixpack, OTOH, will regularly screw up his machine. And people here are always moaning how insecure Windows is - yet when MS try to take action, they are lambasted for "blocking free speech".
Let's face it people, TPB isn't exactly a shining example of virtue. They do not give a shit who's ads they serve.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I worry about Windows 8 with the tight integration with all your personal email, data everything sitting on the Microsoft Live cloud. Your Live email, Skydrive, Photos, Windows 8 IE history, bookmarks, apps, the desktop settings everything is on the MS Cloud and transiting through their network. What is there to stop them from giving the same treatment to the your entire computing.
The worst malware I ever encountered is from microsoft (specifically windoze 95 and 98), I can remember the days, it took hours to get rid of all the problems and stuff it installed that I didn't want. I suppose they are also blocking all mentions of windoze 95/98?
Out of the many many years I've been using TPB only once did I ever download a torrent that was an infection. It tunred out they were getting blasted with numerous ups by someone intending to infect others. All the infections from that particular campaign were taken down within 10 minutes of reporting them. So far as I've been able to see the moderating on that board is quite good considering what it is.
TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware.
That may or may not be the case, but don't you think it is funny that now that tpb is becoming a legitimate source of music and video from independent artists, corporations with creative industry ties have starting unilaterally blocking tpb without worrying about the law?
I guess they don't mind free advertising, but they HATE competition.
You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
I know who will remain last in the instant messaging usage statistics :)
Yes. It does contain some malware. So? It also contains legitimate (non-malware, I mean) content. I'm not sure I agree with the entire thing being blocked just because some of the content is malware and some people are too foolish to tell the difference.
It won't make much difference, people will just type "www.theporitebay.org/xxxxxx" instead. Like all other MSN 'blocking' it will be just another Windows annoyance rather than an impediment.
No sig today...
Can't users just send the magnet links through the chat interface? Or god-forbid, email?
They are just pure text, so no need for html's, right?
The obviousness oozes out of this article... for starters, who uses MS IM anymore? FB and gtalk have pretty much squeezed those out with mass appeal unless you have a multi-client and are holding onto it for legacy reasons. Secondly, much like anything else that has made national headlines for 'the solicitation and is a hub of means to access of copyrighted material' should probably be abandoned and use something else people.
Windows ME = Worst malware I've ever had on one of my computers.
Part of the issue is that most users don't update their browser plugins. There has been a rash of Java exploits stemming from malicious code embedded in some banner ads (partly because users just don't update Java). The exploit causes redirection to another site and drive-by installation of malware.
TPB is serving whatever ads they get paid to serve and don't really care to identify and remove the malicious ones.
....that anyone still uses MSN Messenger.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Unless your messages are GPG or PGP encrypted when they leave your PC, you cannot be sure they are not intercepted, read, spied on, modified, data-mined and used to target ads, etc. It doesn't matter which company handles them. If you want your messages to be between sender & receiver- use proper encryption. There is no other way and there never was. Small shop Linux admins can cat /var/mail/ebonum just as well.
Now Microsoft has no duty to do anything. They provide messaging service for their own benefit & profit, not yours, with features they think benefit THEM most. Even if they include some encryption, it will be closed-source, lame and with backdoors. If you want to use their service, you have to accept these terms. If you don't- use something else. Jabber is still there, and so is IRC.
Ugly thing is that 99% of people using MSN will not know about these issues nor care about them. But that's just people. Unless it affects their salaries or pensions or benefits or religious sensibilities or beer prices, 99% percent of people will not care about it.
Oh, and even if you have GPG, you can still have a trojan or a hardware keylogger on your PC, so you'll never be 100% safe & secure. But you can tilt the odds somewhat in your favour.
--Coder
You're right. And you know another site that is full of avenues for spyware and malware? Facebook. They should block all links to Facebook too. In fact, I'd contend that Facebook is an exponentially more threatening vehicle than TPB.
And many direct download links may or may not contain viruses, urls may or may not point to websites with malicious scripts. I say we block all of these as well, what do you think?
I use Messenger with my friends, people I know. I've seen some of them get their accounts hijacked and send out scam links, but I've yet to see a Pirate Bay scam operation.
TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware.
I've been a Pirate Bay user for at least 5 years now, and must say, your statement is BS: tpb has an excellent community that actively comments on the torrents. tpb is probably the strictest torrent site out there. Only http://1337x.org/ comes close in terms of the quality of the torrents that _remain_ on the site.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
"TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware."
So are Google and Bing.
Out of Google, Bing, and TPB one of these sites has a trusted users flag from whom you can trust that content is unlikely to be infected. Guess which one of these sites it is.
I'm not sure they're talking about torrents, just malware infected banner adverts.
In all the multi-years I've been in the scene, only twice have I downloaded dodgy files. First was off an anon-FTP dump, that contained the Chernobyl virus (CIH). The second was at TPB. It was a harmless scripted ASF file. Thanks Microsoft; not only did you create the method, you created the solution (MSE).
TPB is the least of my malware worries.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
That it would probably be simple as hell to circumvent that blocking.
Either use one of the many alternative domains for TPB or use one of those url shortening services.
Alternatively, don't use messenger or find other way of referring to TPB via it.
Or as someone else mentioned, just copy and paste the magnet links, it's not like TPB actually USES the the torrent files anymore.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Next we should block torrent outright. That should put a kabosh on those guys trying to download Linux via torrent.
Does Pirate Bay also serve legal content? If so, by what authority can Microsoft block legal access to legal content? While I guess it is possible that people are spreading malware through Microsoft Messenger, only a fool would follow a link from someone they didn't know or who was anonymous. Even so, do people really need Microsoft to be big brother and protect us from the chance of accessing something containing malware? Censorship is censorship.
And people here are always moaning how insecure Windows is - yet when MS try to take action, they are lambasted for "blocking free speech".
That's because it's what they're doing. The wider internet is full of malware, that doesn't mean you block the whole internet. You just block the URLs that are known to contain malware. Which is, incidentally, what they almost certainly do on other sites -- download.com is probably full of malware too, do they block the whole site? What about RapidShare or the like?
It's very clear that this "Pirate Bay is unsafe" is just a pretense. There is no excuse for blocking an entire domain unless the entire domain contains nothing of value, and that isn't the case here.
You may think that it is some grand anti-piracy conspiracy, but Microsoft is right. TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware. There are people who use it to spread viruses and malware. It makes sense too - it's quite easy method to infect peoples computers.
It depends on what you call "right". I would expect a messaging app to send any message, not block something that it thinks won't be good for me. What if I work for a studio and want to let someone know that our latest blockbuster has been pirated? Or if I am researching antivirus software and want to tell someone of a zero-day virus I have discovered?
More importantly where does it end? When AI is good enough will I be prevented from discussing "dangerous" topics, like making explosives? Or dangerous political parties? Or making non-PC criticisms of religions? Will there be calls for email services to do the same? I want to be able to send any message and discuss any topic I want.
What do you think the whole MegaVideo take down was all about? (Hint.)
So, essentially, you're saying, if we want to fight AIDS, it's better we outlaw prostitution and make access to them impossible instead of making sure everyone uses condoms?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You may think that it is some grand anti-piracy conspiracy, but Microsoft is right. TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware. There are people who use it to spread viruses and malware. It makes sense too - it's quite easy method to infect peoples computers.
Google is also infested with sites that contain malware. There are people who use it to spread viruses and malware. It makes sense too - it's quite easy method to infect peoples computers.
It contains a lot more viruses than TPB ever could.
Should Google be blocked too?
Why would you want to MAKE SURE everyone uses condoms?
Are you their goa'uld overlord or something?
Or are you trying to cram your Ori religion down their throats?
Invite them to use condoms by all means, but "make sure" - you certainly let slip your real feelings there. I think outlawing prostitution is a lesser degree of interference than making sure EVERYONE uses condoms.
blog.sam.liddicott.com
iirc they do block RapidShare, or at least they did 5 years ago when I used MSN still.
It depends what you're downloading. I've successfully downloaded ONE piece of software via TPB torrents that wasn't infected. I stopped even trying several years ago, because it was obvious the only reason people were posting "cracks" was to spread botnet infections to the unwary.
So, no, unlike other media, I don't download and "try out" games like I do music and movies. I'm forced to go to a store to play around with a demo if I want a preview of a game.
But that's ok. The reflexes aren't what they used to be, so I pretty much quit the twitch FPS and sports games. And once you eliminate those from your gaming sessions, you realize that the vast majority of the remaining games are free or dirt cheap if you buy them online or as apps.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
contains nothing of value
That is highly subjective. One man's trash is another man's treasure. The fact that a given domain would exists at all means that someone took the time to set it up, so it obviously has value to at least one person. I'm stretching a point but isn't that the basic underlying argument behind censorship anyway? Don't look at this because it's garbage because I say it is.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I agree... I want e-mail software that removes e-mail from spammers, but if a friend sends me an e-mail with a link to a spam site, I can decide for myself if I want to click the link.
Of course, if the software warns me and asks me to confirm when I click the link, that's ok too.
You could make a prostitute detector and equip it on cars so they don't start when they detect a prostitute in it. That way you can't bring one home and contract viruses.
I remember I couldn't link anyone to my googlepages site (when googlepages existed) or a file listing on a CMS (download.php)
I end up defending the Great Satan (Microsoft) here, but they're right: Pirate Bay has more viruses, trojans and other drive-bay attacks in its ads than the average site, by a factor of at least ten.
I clean up a lot of PCs still, and the biggest vector of infection is still porn sites. The second biggest vector is The Pirate Bay.
Do people really still use Messenger? I thought everyone had converted to gmail/gchat and/or skype?
That has been my general experience too, TPB has malware on it, but does a better then average job of policing it, which makes singling them out seem a little suspicious.
Or ... Microsoft could just fix their software.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
I didn't even know Microsoft *HAD* an instant messenger.
This is a bit like the guy who lives in his parents basement saying he will only date supermodels with brown hair.
Not even. I'm sure eventually people will just start using URL shortening services to post links (if it becomes a larger problem of censorship, perhaps TPB will start generating them itself for users to share).
Paper contains fishing url according to my Kaspersky
You may think that it is some grand anti-piracy conspiracy, but Microsoft is right. TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware. There are people who use it to spread viruses and malware. It makes sense too - it's quite easy method to infect peoples computers.
So? Maybe I'm an anti-virus researcher and I want to find the stuff for work/school.
Unless Microsoft detects in some way that my computer itself has been infected, and the malware is actually the thing that is putting the links into the chat program to infect people on my friend's list, I don't want them censoring my communications.
Under MS' logic, the phone company would go around analyzing the voices and beeping out any mention of a telephone number, mailing address, or web site that is a scam. There'd be an uproar if the telcos were found out to be tapping our voice lines; what shouldn't there be an uproar for Internet communications?
You're missing the forest for the trees.
You're obviously a smart guy (or gal, whatever) You go on TPB with a functional and practised mindset that knows not to click on big flashy green "DOWNLOAD NOW" buttons or get sidetracked into the alleyways of specious online casinos and moron-plausible "DOWNLOAD OUR PROPRIETARY APP AND HAVE YOUR ILLEGAL FILES INSTANTLY! Run fisd23489.exe?". You download your torrent or magnet file or whatever and get the heck out.
Grandma, whose singular remaining drive in life is the vehement downloading and installation of toolbars, bless her, visits thepiratebay. Her experience is going to be completely different from yours.
These filters aren't protecting us, chummer. They're protecting grandma.
Microsoft really is zooming in on their foot with a telescope attached to a nuke lately with their unilateral decisions. Bad decisions at every level, from the OS, to APIs, to the software they provide. Things that everyone has taken for granted slowly being made to either be incredibly hackish or next to impossible to do in new versions.
Not good for a company that is in direct control over majority of the user space experience. If they keep on the path they are going ordinary users just might get fed up with the limitations being imposed upon them and migrate away from their software.
Next up: MS starts using shorteners APIs to check URLs and blocks magnet: URI scheme.
It depends on what you call "right". I would expect a messaging app to send any message, not block something that it thinks won't be good for me. What if I work for a studio and want to let someone know that our latest blockbuster has been pirated? Or if I am researching antivirus software and want to tell someone of a zero-day virus I have discovered?
"A company I hate makes a product that does shit I don't like! Instead of moving on with my life, I'll cook up insane speculative straw man scenarios and knock them down on the Internet!"
It's amazing how people can turn mundane bullshit into some kind of critical issue. What if you need to tell some vitally information to somebody? Well, perhaps you'll pick up the fucking phone! There's a thought!
Easy enough to solve, don't install Java at all.
... but who is going to sue?
All communications between two private parties need to be encrypted. It'll eventually be that way.. we're just going through the Dark Ages again, this time Technology is the focus instead of Religion (history.. repeating itself.. didn't anyone learn anything from the last Dark Ages?)
You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
It's amazing how people can turn mundane bullshit into some kind of critical issue.
So why make a big deal about his comment?
This is silly, no one actually uses MSN Messenger in this day and age, do they? I mean, I think I can hear your AOL and Earthlink accounts calling....
for one.. who sends out full links to a torrent/magnet file anyways? that would have to be the lamest idea around, unless you want to get caught.
2nd - who using Pirate Bay anymore anyways? not people in the know... so many other better sites to get what you need out there.
As much as I love Microsoft there is always a way around someone blocking you from what you want to do.
yes, clicking bay links infected my pc too. because they made me download stuff with my bittorrent application and then manually starting something i really really wanted by browsing the directory and finding the exe with a twist.
You may think that it is some grand anti-piracy conspiracy, but Microsoft is right. TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware
Name one. Better yet, link to one.
You are so full of fecal material your blood is brown. Go scaremonger for the DHS.
Microsoft is no doubt bowing to pressure from Hollydead (who can't compete and must enforce its monopoly on low-brow schlock), that it received via Federal Gov. Inc. (who needs Hollydead's shekels badly to help finance its part of Propoganda Fest 2012 (euphemistacally called an "election")).
Fix? The software isn't broken. It just responds very well to completely fucking stupid users who run malware executables.
When will people learn?
It starts with blocking "thepiratebay.com". Then people start using "thepir@teb@y.com". Then when they block that, maybe it morphs into "tehpyr@teb@e". After not very long, and way too much in labor costs by network admins, they're totally missing blocking references to "7|-|3P1R473B4'/.(0/\/\".
MEMO TO DISNEY (and everyone else trying to censor shit on the internets: Give the fuck up, it doesn't work no matter how hard you try, and it just makes everything more annoying and confusing for everyone!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
More importantly where does it end?
When every switch and router does DPI and knows what's good for you. Hey, there could be a new standard for network cables that only allows approved devices to communicate. Hmm, where have I seen this before?
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Java...banner ads? I thought GIF ads were bad enough. What's next, Flash and Silverlight ads?
Why do you think the RIAA labels sued Napster? Same thing. During Napster's heyday, CD sales soared. But not just RIAA CDs, indie CDs as well. But the indies were dependant on P2P and the RIAA has radio and TV.
Note that after Napster was sued was when CD sales plummeted, and the lying bastards at the RIAA claimed it was Napster's fault that their sales were dropping. You don't have to be a physicist to know that cause never follows effect. Also note that none of the corporate media at all said one single word about the very large boycott against the RIAA labels after they sued Napster.
You are correct, the entire anti-piracy crusade by the MAFIAA is a fight against their independant competetion.
Free Martian Whores!
So if BIGNUM users complain that http://www.microsoft.com/ is harmful what then?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I say this time and time again.
If you must have java for things like Eclipse or intranets like Kronos at work just disable it in your browser.
FF lets you disable the plugins.
IE goes a step farther. it lets you disable it in the internet zone under security settings and will enable Java in the intranet zone for your crappy web apps. If your users need java for one site just build a custom zone for that domain with java. Admins at work always forget to do this.
Chrome does not even support java so your safe. Thays good because much software is incompatible with java7 which is more secure.
Sadly I have not usedjava on the web in 10 years. No one uses it anymore for applets. HTML 5 will replace all its promises
http://saveie6.com/
Or making non-PC criticisms of religions?
Vote Santorum, he'll make everything but Christianity illegal, so this will be made much easier :)
Making a comment about his comment is making a big deal out of it?
As far as what it sounds like, the restriction is only enforced client-side, so maybe using Pidgin or other clients will bypass this block. Anyone that uses MSN that can verify this?
Of course, I wouldn't put much trust in a Microsoft-run IM service in the first place...
Yes, if his original comment was a big deal, then comment about his comment is a big deal too.
They're both the same, a random comment at an internet forum, not an open letter to the Parliament.
Too bad you're basically the 1%. Warning users doesn't work. In fact, what you propose is incredibly dangerous. Ignoring the dancing pigs problem, a LOT of spam rely on the whole "friend" thing. The old Facebook "I'm stuck in <foreign city> and need money, please send!" is the most common one with hijacked accounts, but it also has an email counterpart from harvested contact lists. And spammers have been doing this far longer than Facebook has been around - it's how many of the early virusese worked - they sent an email with the payload that scans the contact lists and propagates themselves onwards. Short of exchanging public keys with your friends...
Anyhow, the malware from tpb doesn't come from the software itself, it's from the cracks and keygens, and always has. The software you download from tpb will be the same as what you get if you bought it - the reason being that these days, it's all signed by the company making it. However, the keygens and cracks that patch after install aren't checked and people do blindly run them. They're usually wrapped trojans - the keygen/crack as distributed by the crackers is completely clean, but someone basically took that and wrapped their dropper trojans around it.
Of course, if you have the legit key and need a copy of the bits, you can ignore the keygens and crap and download the files via tpb with no issue.
And it seems movies are in the same boat - fake movies with links to "download required codec here!" in the video.
You forgot to block access to the back seat. Historically, it's a major concern.
Also, I'm thinking of the fun implications of the system. You'll drive you daughter to college and the car won't start. I imagine a long, awkward, suspicious pause before you decide either to check the battery or start the sobbing and the beating...
And I highly suspect the filters could be circumvented by anyone with a brain...
Problem solved. Move on.
A "banner ad" is a block of HTML which is supposed to stay within its allotted "banner" area.
As such, it can contain anything that HTML can contain and which doesn't clearly (i.e. noticeably) break out of its rectangular frame when the site's admin tests it out.
Scripts, Flash, Silverlight, Java, you name it; if it's installed and can be embedded in HTML (or included by the HTML referencing another file), it's possible. But the only reason the banner's HTML would really ever contain a Java embed would be if the banner's designer wanted to execute a Java exploit on visitor's computers. And a conscientious site's admin would delete the offending banner in short order if this was discovered to be the case.
Does that clear up your question any?
I'm much more concerned about Ron Paul than Santorum.
The President can do jack shit about people's religion. Really. I'd like to see him try to outlaw porn. It'll be a cold day in hell before he does. But the President has quite a bit of control over the military and a fair amount of say in what the Federal Reserve decides to do (well, it's its own thing and can pretty much do its own thing, but the President can tell it what he wants it to do and it can get spanked if it doesn't).
See, I'd rather have a President who has batshit crazy notions about religion than one that has batshit crazy notions about foreign and fiscal policies. You can't win them all, but if you can pick the ones you want to win, those are the ones I want to win.
WTF!? Who on earth downloads software from TPB? Movies: sure, music: yup, pr0n: definitely, but software!?
You may think that it is some grand anti-piracy conspiracy, but Microsoft is right. TPB is infested with torrents that contain malware. There are people who use it to spread viruses and malware. It makes sense too - it's quite easy method to infect peoples computers.
Actually when people report files have malware, they usually get deleted.
Of course, cracks tend to bring up false postives all the time, which is the industries way of saying they have malware/trojans/kitchen sinks.
While yes, there are some malware to be had off tpb, I find it smaller compared to that amount on usenet and from websites with cracks/keygens and the such.
Not to mention tpb has trusted uploaders, so if your not stupid (which most people are) you can easily get the proper stuff downloaded, malware free.
Be seeing you...
I agree, who uses TPB now? It's sucked hard for ages and has been nothing more than a virus distribution system.
Out of the many many years I've been using TPB only once did I ever download a torrent that was an infection.
Perhaps this is true of only the infections that manifest themselves?
To really qualify this statement you would have had to carefully analyze your system state prior to the download and after deploying it. Not very many people have the expertise, time, resources to do this. What if the trojan's payload was time delayed? Would you know where and when the infection took place?
I only bring this up because I've encountered a few stealth malware that were completely undetectable using conventional tools. Even connecting the HDD to a clean system for a battery of scans revealed nothing. The computer operated perfectly normal to the user but firewall logs continued to report massive amounts of outbound port 25 connections to every country on the planet to spread the word of Viagra. It would do it in random 10 minute spurts every few hours in an effort to not raise alarm or it was trying to be funny.
You are downloading untrusted software from an untrusted source and base your trust in the reputation of someone on a pirate website and comments posted by other downloaders. How many of these commenters would have actually noticed the above malware or even cared? If only a few did actually post a warning would anyone take it seriously? If it activated months later would they have even known what download it came from to report it?
The bottom line is, unless every piece of code running on your PC came from trusted media/sources you cannot be certain that you did not infect your system. The moment a single piece of code is executed from an untrusted source you can have no certainty.
I guess they don't mind free advertising, but they HATE competition.
This is likely the real reason they are attacking P2P/filesharing. It threatens their distribution monopoly.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
What are the steps to reproduce? I am able to send thepiratebay.se links to my msn contacts using Pidgin.
You forgot to block access to the back seat. Historically, it's a major concern.
Also, I'm thinking of the fun implications of the system. You'll drive you daughter to college and the car won't start. I imagine a long, awkward, suspicious pause before you decide either to check the battery or start the sobbing and the beating...
... or taxing.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
It's very clear that this "Pirate Bay is unsafe" is just a pretense.
To you perhaps. But to someone who did get infected with something just from visiting the site, and not from any of the torrents, it isn't so clear. Not saying it's right, just saying it isn't clear what Microsoft's motives are.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
I'm sorry, you seem to have mistaken hysteria and word games for rational debate.
Call us back when you grow up.
You can check the cracks/keygens against the checksums from the release group's site, but yeah, most users have no idea how to do this.
there are other torrent sites...
You have no certainty, period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
But you still gotta live, right?