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AT&T Gets Patent To Monitor and Track File-Sharing Traffic

Posted by timothy on from the phone-company-is-the-isp-and-vice-versa dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Internet provider AT&T has patented a new technology that allows the company to accurately track content being shared via BitTorrent and other P2P networks. The company explains that the technology can be utilized to detect pirated downloads and combat congestion on its network. Whether the company is already using the system to track infringing content, or has plans to do so, is unknown."

44 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Wishful thinking... by Kaenneth · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Your users are infringing our copyrights!"

    "You just infringed our Patent."

    1. Re:Wishful thinking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      "You all infringed our basic human rights"

    2. Re:Wishful thinking... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      This patent doesn't look like it amounts to much.

      Their "content analysis module" must, according to their diagram, access "illegal" content to analyze it before they can track it.

      Which means: if they use it, they are JUST AS GUILTY of "downloading" as whoever they're tracking. This is the very same problem that has stopped all the other tracking systems in their tracks, as it were.

      The law DOES NOT exempt corporations.

  2. Encypted VPNs FTW by maliqua · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So i guess one should just factor the cost of VPN service into there comparison when deciding which ISP to chose

    1. Re:Encypted VPNs FTW by fredprado · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sorry my friend, but most of the VPN services used for this end do not keep records and are in places where they are not required to. Who the hell would use a VPN in US, land of the corporations?

    2. Re:Encypted VPNs FTW by Seumas · · Score: 2

      That isn't always the case. You need to inquire as to the policy of your VPN service. For example, ProXPN (a service I've been looking into) makes the following statements about their policy:

      "proXPN, B.V. will only use personally identifiable information collected through our web site to contact users regarding only products and services offered by proXPN, B.V. We will NOT share this information with anyone. Period."

      Our system only monitors a connection if a user is having connection issues so that we can improve our services to you.

      Information about users that is maintained on our systems is protected using industry standard security measures.

      We do not monitor or record activity on our network (not that we even could, as the connection is encrypted).

      We log which proXPN IP is assigned when a user connects. These logs are kept for 2 weeks and then deleted. We use these logs for internal server administration and IP provisioning.

      Of course, I'm sure that if the government knew you were using a particular VPN service (easily identified by your billing records), they could just contact the company and say "from today on, you must monitor and retain all records for this user" and they would.

    3. Re:Encypted VPNs FTW by CanEHdian · · Score: 2

      We log which proXPN IP is assigned when a user connects. These logs are kept for 2 weeks and then deleted. We use these logs for internal server administration and IP provisioning.

      Isn't the entire point that the VPN IP you are using CANNOT be traced back to you? Why is this logged? I don't mind logging THAT you are using the service and other billing-related data points, but why the exact IP (instead of e.g. out of which pool)? And why keep these logs for a full 14 days instead of the duration of the connection and in volatile memory to boot? 14 days is long enough to obtain subpoenas, evidence preservation orders, etc.

      --
      When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
    4. Re:Encypted VPNs FTW by westlake · · Score: 1

      Sorry my friend, but most of the VPN services used for this end do not keep records and are in places where they are not required to. Who the hell would use a VPN in US, land of the corporations?

      I admire the geek's willingness to trust services based five to ten thousand miles distant whose true allegiances cannot be known.

      If they sell you out you have no recourse.

    5. Re:Encypted VPNs FTW by fredprado · · Score: 1

      Well, maybe because the said person would want to access stuff outside his own anonymous network...

    6. Re:Encypted VPNs FTW by fredprado · · Score: 1

      Well, in the end you have to trust in something. Personally I feel much more comfortable trusting people like the piratebay guys and associates than I feel about trusting Google and MS, especially after the last NSA shenanigans of late.

  3. So they patented... by Molochi · · Score: 2

    So they patented tracking an easily traceable file transfer protocol. One that everyone knows leaves them open to easily provable lawsuits if they use it to pirate stuff.

    So are they going to sue Comcast over this? Or does Comcast have prior art?

    --
    "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
  4. don't sell it if you can't provide it. by gandhi_2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "combat congestion on its network" ...which is more cost-effective than... you know... actually paying for the infrastructure to handle the utilization levels you are selling to customers.

    --
    THL phish sticks
  5. Obvious by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The method is simple: Find a link to torrent, check it for copyright violation and try to download registering IPs of peers in process.

    The technological countermethod is simple too: I2P or VPN. I2P is a CLOSED network, and it means that you cannot download anything from ordinary Internet but VPN can be used traditionally. There are lots of other P2P networks but I just have no info about them.

    The legal countermethod is simple too: Attempt of investigators to download a counterfeit file is a provocation of crime that should not happen without it. And there is no method to ensure that the peer really contains a file except this provocation.

    1. Re:Obvious by Gaygirlie · · Score: 3, Informative

      The method is simple: Find a link to torrent, check it for copyright violation and try to download registering IPs of peers in process.

      Alas, not everyone is necessarily sharing, and in many countries just the act of downloading copyrighted material without sharing it is not illegal or constitutes a copyright violation. It is, for example, possible to download from BitTorrent like this, though not many people seem to know how.

    2. Re:Obvious by Tyr07 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not good enough.

      Confirmed torrent. Confirmed IP's. Did not confirm machine with content. Did not confirm owner of machine.
      Encryption is enabled. Unable to confirm actual data is being transmitted to IP address, unable to determine actual data is be transmitted from the IP address.
      Only method to confirm - Receive and or send copyrighted data to IP to confirm it has or is receiving copyrighted data.

      Crap, provided copyrighted files to people.
      Arrest self.

      There's laws that prevent entrapment etc. Special cases can get special warrents but generally.

    3. Re:Obvious by Kaenneth · · Score: 1

      Except no actual data transfer needs to take place; the basis is 'Making Available'; just like it's illegal to sell oregano while claiming it's marijuana.

      "But I wasn't actually going to do it!" is not sufficent defense, otherwise noone would be in prison for 'conspirancy to commit...'

    4. Re:Obvious by johanw · · Score: 1

      That depends on the local laws. I remember here someone who thought he bought marihuana in The Netherlands was arrested for it when he crossed the Belgian border, but they had to drop the charges when it turned out he was cheated on and had actually bought legal dried vegetables.

    5. Re:Obvious by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      You don't need to keep the NSA from tracking you. You need to keep back hired investigators doing bulk-trawling or ISPs using packet inspection en mass. Not so sophisticated, or so focused: If they can't identify you with a purely automatic script, then you're not worth their effort.

    6. Re:Obvious by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      Entrapment doesn't come into this, because there is no need to take the issue to court either civil or criminal. The main interest from ISPs like AT&T is going to be in bandwidth conservation - all they need to do is find the torrent users, apply a quick whitelist for the 'big legitimate' class like WoW updaters, and throttle the rest to dialup level. It does mean a few false alarms as people downloading the more obscure linux distros and independent films are misclassified as pirates, but the loss of a small fraction of customers* could be far outweighed by the savings made in peering costs and deferred network upgrades.

      *Assuming they actually have an alternative provider to go to - many areas have a regional monopoly ISP.

    7. Re:Obvious by Artagel · · Score: 1

      Let's keep a few things straight here...

      (1) Civil and criminal copyright infringement are two different things.
      (2) To be liable for civil infringement, the copyright owner has to enforce.

      I am having real difficulties figuring out why a copyright owner would complain about it if AT&T performed the method. I also have difficulty figuring out why a government would care if the copyright owner did not.

      If it is merely a method to catch the stupid, well, there are plenty of stupid people so it is not pointless.

    8. Re:Obvious by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 1

      2 variants. 1) THEIR bastardized client feeds a /dev/urandom to downloaders and logs their addresses in process. 2) YOU use existence of such a client to show that you haven't sent a real file and are innocent as a result.

      First variant is obviously detectable and easily punishable. Wikipedia states that the hashes are SHA-1 so it is VERY VERY DIFFICULT to feed a random data with correct hash. So every data error is the cause for total ban, and if needed the corresponding distributed banhammer will be produced.

      Second variant is IMPOSSIBLE. You may make every client you like. But if you use it, it will immediately disrupt the system while giving nothing to you personally (you cannot download with this client - you will be banned). If you use it to show that you have no such file - it's enough just to have no such file. Result will be the same. And you cannot even make a legal precedent since if they don't have a real chunk from you they will never sue.

      Of course, if the SHA-1 is crackable, it would be a fun to supply a noise to known *AA IP addresses. But still it will NOT set a precedent.

      You may set the upload speed to 0 - the adversary will see that you have the file but will be unable to download, check and sue. But it will disrupt the basic idea that the peer should give more than take.

    9. Re:Obvious by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      You've just ran into a net neutrality issue. There have been and would potentially be more law suits regarding legitimate services being denied on particular networks.

      http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Sued-For-Traffic-Shaping-Again-92039
      http://www.lawsof.com/page/Bell-Canada-Sued-For-Shaping-Internet-Traffic.html

      Issues arise as they are also throttling things like VOIP services as well. Suspected reasons is to encourage people to purchase their services for communication, long distance etc, by crippling cheaper alternatives that exist on their network. The issue rises from the concept that consumes have paid for a service with a specific amount of speed and permitted volume throughput. Consumers believe they are entitled to do what they want with what they were advertised and paid for. ISP's get upset when people actually make use of their services, and also if their services are providing them with cheaper phone alternatives etc.

      It's similar if you paid for an All Season pass to football games or the such, and when you actually started going, the company got upset because they sold your seat to someone else as well, and now they need to invest in more seats.
      Or if say Duracell sold flashlights, and you purchased one. Then Duracell got upset that you started using energizer batteries in the flashlight instead.
      So they started dimming the flashlight, and tell you if you want full brightness, you have to use Duracell batteries only.

      You'd be upset, you paid for the flashlight.

      They need to stop overselling their seats to cheat the competition by appearing to offer much better seats when it's not true.
      Plus in generally they need to stop offering blanket services and then saying but only if you do exactly what we say with it.
      There's probably a lot of physical object comparisons I can use that make these practices unacceptable.

      I realize my comment / opinion doesn't really cover situations where file sharing is primarily being used for copyrighted material, but the biggest problem with their methods of attempting to curb that can easily be applied to bad practices if the data is legal.
      People seem to behave as if the ISP's wouldn't do this if the volume of transfer was all legal and legitimate.
      I think they just need a better way of handling copyright infringement, or business need to adopt a different business model to stay in business with the way the world is these days.

      I don't think trying to make laws so they can stay profitable the same way their existing business model works is turning out to be that effective.

    10. Re:Obvious by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      That's actually standard procedure on season ticket sales. Likewise airlines. It wouldn't be economical otherwise.

    11. Re:Obvious by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      You're right for the All Season Pass, on reflection that's a poor example since you don't get reserved seats. It would be perfect if you were given a specific seat number and it was taken when you arrived. More like if you reserved a particular seat in first class on an airline.

      My flashlight example still remains strong however.

  6. Reducing the amount of companies tracking torrents by olip85 · · Score: 1

    good thing!

  7. In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 3, Informative

    What do you mean by "solid adversaries"? My comrade (I live in Russia) uses Ipredator.se. There is zero possibility that Ipredator will cooperate with Russian copyright agency or Russian anti-extremist agency (There is also consumer rights agency that censors against suicide etc but there are no criminal fees for such violations). And is zero possibility that YOUR solid adversaries such as NSA, CIA aso will cooperate with OUR adversaries as FSB, KGB, NKVD, GULAG aso for pressing Ipredator.

    1. Re:In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Yeah, if ran by for instance the Pirate Bay people or Bahnhof I would assume they would go pretty far to not bend over.

      I don't know who's behind IPredator (Trygghetsbolaget i Lund AB.)
      But chances are it's similar people.

    2. Re:In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by aliquis · · Score: 1

      I think it's sad Assange doesn't feel safe here and what we rather than Iceland isn't the place where you want to be in the Snowden case.

      Though maybe we're not that far appart. But still.

      More freedom please, not less.

      Maybe the government need to think about some of the positive consequences which can come from that to.

    3. Re:In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by loosescrews · · Score: 2

      Ipredator is run by The Pirate Bay.

    4. Re:In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      And is zero possibility that YOUR solid adversaries such as NSA, CIA aso will cooperate with OUR adversaries as FSB, KGB, NKVD, GULAG aso for pressing Ipredator.

      Why? Why wouldn't our governments tell each other their citizen's secrets? It's not like they care about them.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by Anarchduke · · Score: 1

      Mostly because anytime Putin can tell the US to go to hell, it saves him from having to use a Viagra.

      --
      who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
    6. Re:In Soviet Russia the pr0n downloads YOU! by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Ipredator is run by The Pirate Bay.

      Linked text:
      "Despite being related to The Pirate Bay it is not run by anyone affiliated with The Pirate Bay. All technical matters are handled by Portlane Networks who also run Anonine and Relakks.[3]"

  8. Re:Use Encrypted Anonymous Networks Instead... by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 2

    Due to modern snooping tech, it's quite unwise to believe that any amount of noise will hide anything.

  9. Re:Use Encrypted Anonymous Networks Instead... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You would reveal the ability to track closed system onion routing traffic in order to catch someone who downloaded a Justin Bieber album?

  10. here is an idea by Osgeld · · Score: 3, Insightful

    quit overselling your network and spend more time developing your crappy network rather than being the media companies bitch

    win win

  11. Hey... thats illegal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If you use encrypted connections for your torrent client. What AT&T is doing is a violation of the DMCA...

    Lets get the lawyers on it.

  12. Re:Magic Button by Stormthirst · · Score: 2

    I was wondering the same thing. Doesn't this invalidate their common carrier status?

  13. Re:Hey... thats illegal. by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 2

    No. Other peer makes a crypto handshake with you, and you voluntarily agree to establish an encrypted link with him. After this, you have no "They illegally decrypted my communications" excuse. Then they use the standard Bittorrent protocol to request any part of the file, and you voluntarily agree to send it. They get it from your IP. You are caught.

  14. Re:Use Encrypted Anonymous Networks Instead... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    Get a few friends, set up Retroshare. The encryption in it isn't great, so don't count on it to keep the NSA out (1024-bit RSA should hold them back for a few minutes), but cracking it is still well beyond the abilities of any anti-piracy organisation or contractor.

  15. That's right folks, by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 1

    Step right up and get yer patent because the PURPOSE to which data is put , the semantic intention of the consumers of the data is now a distinguishing factor which permits another, new, patent to be applied.

    I'd write more but I am getting a patent on capturing the data stream of people looking for a information used in job searches...

    Fuck, the Dewey Decimal system of categorization is loaded with potential patents one for each topic when people search on. We've barely begun to mine the gold in them yar hills.

    yeeeeeeHAW !!!!

  16. Great news! by hobarrera · · Score: 1

    If they patent it, all the others ISPs won't be using this sort of tech to annoy it's users.

  17. The subhead is incorrect. by edibobb · · Score: 1

    "Internet provider AT&T has patented a new technology..." The technology is NOT new. As such, it was awarded a patent.

  18. AT&T is throttling.... by 3seas · · Score: 1

    Youtube as well... google for it...

  19. A Patent for Wire Tapping? by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    I think I'll patent for observing drug testing. I'll charge AT&T everytime they think of a new patent.