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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.
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.
I'm pretty sure that's StarCraft - not messenger
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
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.
A lot of those who were using MSN have since moved to Skype, which is now also owned by MS...
Allthough MSN is still surprisingly big in terms of usage, hundreds of millions of active users according to ComScore and the like (much bigger than Skype), the real big trend is that the users moved to Facebook for what they used Messenger for (chatting and updates). And btw. Facebook Chat blocks Pirate Bay too. All the major IM services have been running automated malware blocks for a very long time. I'm surprised people are surprised that Pirate Bay is on the list (regardless whether you think it is "right" or not).
In Sweden it is, AFAIK, the most popular IM client (although a lot of people have recently taken to using Facebook's built-in XMPP-based chat).
You see, ICQ used to be king of the hill. Then in the very late 1990s and early 2000s lots of kids with no knowledge of computers or how horrible MSN Messenger was compared to the competition were going online and using the, at the time, IM client included with Windows. The ICQ users mostly switched to MSN or used a multi-protocol client to stay in touch with everyone. Eventually everyone stopped using ICQ and what was left was a country of MSN users.
So why wasn't it AIM or one of the other services popular in the US that became popular? Well, AIM came from AOL which never really operated anywhere but in the US. ICQ was popular but was beaten by MSN since MSN came pre-installed with Windows. This btw, explains why MSN is "popular" outside the US, early adopters used other services but when the "regular people" came online the one IM client they saw was MSN. ICQ was "for geeks" and AIM and YIM had pretty much no chance since neither AOL nor Yahoo! had much market presence.
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
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.
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...
Don't worry. Microsoft's backdoors will not work well until about the fifth version. :-9
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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.
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...
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.
"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.
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.)
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.