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Most Torrent Downloaders Are Monitored, Study Finds
derekmead writes "A new study from Birmingham University in the U.K. found that people will likely be monitored within hours of downloading popular torrents by at least one of ten or more major monitoring firms. The team, led by security researcher Tom Chothia, ran software that acted like a BitTorrent client for three years and recorded all of the connections made to it. At SecureComm conference in Padua, Italy this week, the team announced that they found huge monitoring operations tracking downloaders that have been up and running for at least the entirety of their research. According to the team's presentation (PDF), monitors were only regularly detected in Top 100 torrents, while monitoring of more obscure material was more spotty. What's really mysterious is who all of the firms are. Chothia's crew found around 10 different monitoring entities, of which a few were identifiable as security companies, copyright firms, or other torrent researchers. But six entities could not be identified because they were masked through third party hosting. Now, despite firms focusing mostly on just the top few searches out there at any given time, that's still a massive amount of user data to collect and store. Why? Well, if a reverse class-action lawsuit were feasible, those treasure troves of stored data would be extremely valuable."
monitored torrents likely to be monitored... news at 11.
no, most normal people don't care
you really live in quite the bubble if you think MOST people are using VPNs...
Most good VPNs say they don't keep logs, or say they delete logs within 24 hours.
FTFY.
I recently donated to bluetack because I was thankful for their blocklist services. still, I use them only because they show up first on a simple "ip blocklist" query on google.
Which blocklist do you use, and how are you satisfied with their service, and how sure can we be that these 'shady' monitoring services are included/updated on these lists?
that and, all that blocklistupdating consumes a lot of bandwidth, too.. isn't it feasible to update blocklists via magnet links?
ciao from a rainy italy
Scare tactic away. I'm going to keep downloading.
I can get a product the media assholes won't give me at ANY PRICE! For free.
It's not even up for debate anymore. I'm not listening to the media mafia anymore. Wrong? Illegal? Immoral? Stealing from the artists?
Sure whatever you say fucknuts. I'm going to keep downloading anyway. And teach other people how to as well.
Go try to convince and have an arguement with someone who still cares. I'm going to do whatever i want.
Why? Because fuck you thats why.
And no matter what i do. I'll never be as big of a douche as anyone from the media mafia. Never.
One day the illegal media cartels might actually get it, that the "pirates" provide a better product. No adverts for other films (Disney is top culprit but there are others), no trailers accusing you of being a crook despite buying a legit DVD / BluRay, no DRM... no regiuon coding, in other words, it just works. The illegal media cartels just p people off with their crappy product.
The problem is, the politicians in many countries that can sort this out have been bought and paid for by the illegal media cartels, so expect no change to their tactics.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
"I would assume that most people are using VPNs these days, even for casual web surfing."
The skewed perspective of slashdot never ceases to amaze me.
It's safer to rent movies and rip yourself, direct download links for movies, borrow an open Wifi point, and direct exchange content with friends (hard drive swaps). These methods are far safer than Bittorent. As for TV shows, those seem to be a bit unclear in terms of legality (tested in courts), and not taken to court that I am aware.
For my part I don't really know who to trust. How do I know that PrivateInternetAccess is a legit service, and that they are really doing what they say they do? If I'm going to pay for a VPN service, I definitely want to be sure that they are solid.
A friend of mine works for a UK company (musicmetric.com) that provides artist popularity data to record companies and other entities (top list providers, etc). One of their data points are monitoring of music torrents. Note that this data is not for the purpose of lawsuits but just to see which artists/albums/songs are popular in different countries and regions (even down to city level using geoip lookup). Their spiders/crawers/monitors they have deployed are, AFAIK, hosted by a 3rd party hosting provider. I also know there's another competing company in the UK doing the same thing.
I'm guessing many of them are marketing companies, since torrent feeds give you a fairly accurate picture of what's hot or not and where without the PR spin. Otherwise I don't see much point, the legal value of an IP deteriorates quickly - either you have to send a C&D or sue now, in a year nobody knows who it belonged to.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
"But six entities could not be identified because they were masked through third party hosting."
NSA
FBI
FAPSI
GCHQ
CSE
GCSB
sudo make me a sandwich
Not a bad idea actually. I really liked face2face feature in sneakernet. Going to a friend and get the latest CD on tape (some of my friends had 'auto-reverse'!) and then go - with the walkman playing my latest freshest copy - to other friends who copied the tape for themselves to their tape (some of those had 'doublespeed'!). Sit down and have a coffee, talk a little until the tape was done. Reverse both tapes. Have another coffee... Great times!
I wouldn't necessarily call it sneakernet though. I would call it a SOCIAL NETWORK!!
rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
Why does it matter that they keep track of this information. Pretty soon we'll all have an IP address and we'll be globally trackable and tracked.
Seems about right to me.
So only people downloading the latest movies/music are monitored.
Since about 99% of the population will commit some sort of copyright infringement in their life, they can hold it over you in the event you decide to make a complaint.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Well, if a reverse class-action lawsuit were feasible,
No, my EULA explicitly says you drop your right for a class-action lawsuit.
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
Well, what is the disadvantage
You have to configure it, and your VPN is not necessarily covered by the laws that cover ISP's. This is good and bad of course, but if your VPN does something illegal and then declares bankruptcy there's not really anything you can do about it, if your ISP does something illegal odds are it's big enough they won't be out of business and you may get some form of restitution.
What is the point of your post. Article title states: Most Torrent Downloaders Are Monitored, Study Finds
Well, what is the disadvantage? Why would you NOT want to use one?
Because unless you're running your own VPN, there's no proof or guarantee that whoever is running it isn't farming your data anyway, and just lying to you about it.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I'm looking at the list of films I can go see at the cinema today. None of them are worth this level of intrusion. Stop making films and music it's bad for freedom. :)
That's not a disadvantage. In the event they are, you're no worse off, but you are likely better off. Most of them are probably telling the truth as they have their reputation to consider.
If you're paranoid, string a few of them together.
It might be easy but it's going to make you worry the next day and might come back to haunt you later.
I'm behind seven proxies.
Yea, we know -
Six of them are ours.
Yours,
The NSA
There are several reasons why I think reverse class action suits or even fine-per-infraction would happen. If all you do is download, then the copyright holders would have to not only identify you (and IP's are not reliable) but also get around fair use (depending on where you live) in the case where you download content you've already purchased. If you're also seeding, then chances are you will probably get caught sooner or later.
i pay $50 a month for internet. what's the point in paying for a vpn service? what does it get me other than not being blacked out of Yankee and Met's games on MLB TV Premium?
Well other than widespread reputation damage that the few people who DO know the value of VPNs will wholesale stop using THEM....
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
It's a really bad idea.
Have another coffee... Great times!
And then Dave asks if you can get movies, and you can so you do. Then Dave starts asking more and more.
"Listen Dave, I don't mind getting you the odd DVD, but seven times a week is asking a lot"
"I'll pay you"
And so it begins.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Should you care if your VPN goes bankrupt? Just get another one...
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Are you counting AOL as a VPN?
I know and still don't care. Then again, I live in Canada... we have much different case law re: IP addresses used to identify actual people.
AccountKiller
Once monitored, who knows what else they may be doing with your IP address and it MAY NOT BE YOU. Go to somebody's yard use their open Wifi and touch just one of the Top monitored files and they'll get on the monitor list.
Hate your neighbor? use their Wifi to torrent a bunch of movies currently out in theaters. Six strikes...they probably won't even realize it is the Wifi before being banned by the local monopoly. (In my area both ISPs signed up with the content Mafia so you are probably banned from internet almost completely.)
Does anybody think it is time to start connecting their neighborhoods on their own?
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Question: When I've used software PeerBlock in the past, I've seen quite a few blocked connections in the log. But does using PeerBlock or something similar actually work to prevent the monitoring identified in the study?
*cough*hfrarg*cough*
I think you mean this article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-hollywood-encouraging-onine-piracy
Pogue (don't get people started on him), said:
Note that while you added on "or purchase", the article never states this.
Which is a good thing, too, or Pogue would probably have been called out.
I don't know who 'the authority' on the 10 most pirated movies of 2011 would be, but I suspect torrentfreak would be a good source:
http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-2011-111223/
Amazon has all those titles available on DVD, Blu-Ray, some combo packs with 'ultraviolet digital copy' (yuck), instant purchase through Amazon's instant video and - yes - even one rental (127 Hours).
So "or purchase" is simply false.
A bit of privacy. Some people use it to decrease the chances that they'll receive a copyright notice, too.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Its that most of these films were released after IMDB was created. When people see a new movie they actively want to share their opinion of that particular film with the rest of the world. With old movies people are more likely go go "Meh. History already judged it." This is especially true when old movies are cheap and new movies in theaters are expensive. The second factor is how many positive reviews for films are given by the younger people who will give movies like Transformers 10/10, but have never seen better movies like Terminator 2 and the Abyss.
If you get in on a torrent when it first is released and get out as soon as you download it because you are in a repressive country like the USA, they havent even started monitoring it by the time you already quit and your IP had fallen off. RSS feeds of TV shows are your friend along with a modified program that stops seeding as soon as you have it downloaded.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Where I work, we have monthly-ish meetings that also includes watching a classic type of "Blood On The ____" workplace safety film. Naturally, at the beginning, there is the FBI warning about stealing imaginary property...
I really do hope to meet an example of someone who pirates safety films: a thieving cheapskate who is concerned for his employees well-being.
Shareware for the PC in the days before I started to use Linux was just impossible to keep up. 10 dollars here, 10 dollars there... it just never ends. I recently made the mistake of paying for a license for Sublime Text 2. Then I had the need for a plugin to edit files directly over SSH. That plugin wants money too. No doubt more plugins are useful and want money too. And I still need to get a winzip license and pay for god knows how many more tools.
It is knickle and diming me to death expect the dimes are 100 dollars and the knickles are 50 bucks. And it is not like these sellers try and make it easy, NOT EVERYONE IN THE WORLD HAS A CREDIT CARD YOU FUCKING AMERICAN CENTRIC ASSHOLE!
You can either give in (I actually tried to see if F2P works for MMO's and NO IT FUCKING DOES NOT) or say fuck it and be a leech but a leech with money for food.
But YOU are only asking for a small amount. That ain't the issue. The issue is, SO IS EVERYBODY ELSE.
Think of ads. One ad ain't a problem. A thousand ads ARE a problem. And there aren't a thousand ads out there, there are millions. You either shut them all out or go insane. And then that poor honest advertiser who really has a product you might want... well. that honest bastard is blocked out too.
For me the killer with paying for media content was when it became clear that even if you had a song on both LP and CD and Tape AND minidisc (I am a gadget whore)... if you wanted to put it on your new fangled Mp3 player, the music industry wanted you to pay for it again. Now I am a sheep and a I love it when I am shorn but I put the limit at being skinned. Leave us sheep alive to be fleeced once a year, not skinned alive and our succelent meat sucked from out still breathing roasting corpse. Do that and even sheep might get an attitude.
For desktop software, Winzip was the killer. It whined so much for such a basic tool (and you would need a rar license and lha etce tc) that it just became easier to ignore it and just go free software altogether.
It was this shareware attitude that killed the Mac for me. Once was forced to use one and every tool seemed to cost money. Run Linux and you got enterprise grade software for free, use OSX and you pay for a basic text editor. Fuck that.
This sheep is not for skinning.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The VPN would have access to all of your browsing habits, while normally sites only have individual site browsing habits (including ad sites... although those are easy enough to block the majority of).
It must be exciting for them to monitor me downloading Fedora or openSUSE.
Maybe the OP is a 75+ year old cogger which only like humphrey boggart film , and thinks that since 1947 there hasn't been anything worth watching. We should praise him for using tech at such an advanced age, rather than lambast him for poor taste ;) hihi.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
...The one with Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno, among others.
How the plot was "shallow and silly", and the characters "lacking depth". That kind of thing.
As if it wasn't 'Godzilla 2000', or, indeed, just a movie.
Of course cheaper isn't a reason on it's own, otherwise you are condoning stealing because that too is cheaper.
The vendors' selection of a price point is something that has gone astray here. And it's linked to competition from other entertainment devices - music and video are a smaller fraction of the pie than they used to be.
I'm willing to pay up to euro10 for a DVD, and less than that for a CD. This means I wait several months (or a year) after a new release before it reaches my price point. DVDs typically start out here at euro20+ and some CDs are amazingly priced at euro20+ when "hot". After a few months, one has a better view on whether a CD/DVD is worth getting for the long term. There was a time I'd pay the crazy prices being asked for new releases, but it passed a long time ago.
A few years ago, a survey (maybe in The Economist magazine) indicated that people were spending about the same fraction of their income on entertainment as they had 25 years earlier. However, the share taken by music and video (predominantly VHS then, DVD now) had declined significantly, while that taken by gaming and suchlike had grown, and dining out etc. had not changed much. Clearly, if we're expected to buy just as much music and video, the price has to be more attractive. They're competing with PlayStations, internet, and suchlike for money and attention.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Sorry, but those complaints were valid: Broderick's Godzilla movie was indeed lame. "Just a movie" isn't an excuse; there's been lots of excellent movies over the years with great characters that don't lack depth and didn't have to resort to obviously lame plot devices. "Aliens" (1986) was a great movie, at least as far as characters go. "The Abyss" (1989) was also an excellent movie with good characters. Neither of these pretended to be high art nor aimed for film festival awards, but they were still good movies, so it's not like you can't have a good movie that appeals to a mass audience. Even the earlier Star Trek movies were good, especially The Wrath of Khan.
Compared to other mass-audience sci-fi movies, and even compared to older Star Trek movies, 2009's Star Trek falls flat IMO.
wow.
you sound like a horribly unpleasant person.
rated 8.3 on IMDB and in the top 500, maybe you're, like, the one with shitty taste, dude.
The Big Lebowski. And confirmation. Now you'd better watch it.
In terms of VPN service, no, that's not a problem. In terms of them deciding to sell data on all of your traffic through their service to someone... that's a bit more problematic.
That 24 hour retention policy, not really a 24 hour retention policy, and really a 24 month sold at auction monthly policy could be real unpleasant.
Ehhh... there was quite some time between the walkman and the DVD... I lost contact with Dave in the mean while :-P
rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
And I have to sign up to a Credit Card that costs me a lot of money (EU banking systems are free or charge 15 euro per year) to allow you to take my money?
There are plenty of payment platforms around that accept all the worlds payment systems for you. Use them instead of just a Credit Card processor.
Really smart webshops even give EU customers a discount because that 2% Credit Card charge? Does not exist, iDeal (dutch banking) charges a max of 50 cents if you got the absolute worsed rate in history. So a 200 dollar order doesn't have a 4 dollar credit card free but a 50 cent one. That is money either the customer can safe OR you can keep yourself. And chargeback fee? Ideal doesn't have any. For that matter, a chargeback can only be done when a complaint is made with the police for fraud. Not just because the buyer changes his mind. It is also more secure.
But hey, go credit card only, enjoy the lack of EU business, higher costs, lesser security and blame it all on people preferring to get stuff for free.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Does anyone know what responsibilities these monitoring companies have under the data protection act?
I was stunned when I watched the Hunger Games Blu-ray this weekend as what I thought was the lead up to the main menu in fact lead to a large message: "Previews for Your Mandatory Viewing".
To get you into film's authoritarian dystopia.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Yup. The thing that concerns me as a parent is what the kids might do. I have caught them with sharing software on their PCs and have had to remove it. It is almost impossible to detect at the network level, and I can't go and inspect their PCs daily. I just have to set rules and monitor, but the nature of kids is to not believe their parent who works in IT over their friend who says you can just click on this link to download a bunch of music. They don't really have much to lose either.
So I just try to monitor as best as I can, and deal with issues when they arise. The average user does NOT understand how torrents even work, let alone how those tracking them operate. A teenager has no concept of what a $10k legal settlement is either.
For my part I don't really know who to trust. How do I know that PrivateInternetAccess is a legit service, and that they are really doing what they say they do? If I'm going to pay for a VPN service, I definitely want to be sure that they are solid.
I haven't joined a VPN services because I'm thinking that may just make it worse. Now some company has not just my browsing habits but potentially an email, credit card number, and address (or whatever billing details that are required).
There are VPN services that allow to mail cash. However, they know you by your IP. Just a few years ago I'd have thought I'm crazy for even thinking like this. But with all the news about companies trumping consumer rights and warrentless searches I really don't know anymore what to think.
Tangent here, but I think it's the same fundamental problem. Anybody have a brilliant idea?
Well, not brilliant, but useful :) Did you know that most of the VPN providers will accept PayPal? And did you also know that you can set up a PayPal account using a Visa or Mastercard gift card...that you bought with cash?
Yes, it's a bit of a hassle, since you'd have to add a new gift card to your faux PP account every so often as the other runs out, but hey, then they don't have anything but your IP to work with, and some throwaway email account. It's some peace of mind, at any rate.
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
I got one of those "Never do that again" warnings for torrent downloading from Time Warner a while back and they would not restore my Internet connection until I clicked the "I agree" button at the bottom of the warning. Started using Tor and downloaded the crap out of stuff to see if I got a second warning. Haven't had a problem since but then again, I've started going to fastpasstv.ms to get most of my tv series and movie needs.
Windows assumes you are an idiot...Linux demands proof.
Most likely Macromedia. Loose-lipped employees I know confirmed about a decade ago that they like to host as anonymously as possible in order to monitor file trading activities (usually on the end of multiple ADSL lines, in order to appear like endusers)
Does the bit about the top 100 torrents being monitored imply that if you're not downloading anything from the top list, you're likely not being watched? In other words, if someone was to wait a month, rather than download something immediately, they probably wouldn't get spotted?
Not that I'm necessarily implying this is a good idea - I'm just curious. (The last thing I torrented was a LibreOffice installer - see, it does get used legitimately! :-)