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Sony Leaks Reveal Hollywood Is Trying To Break DNS
schwit1 sends this report from The Verge:
Most anti-piracy tools take one of two paths: they either target the server that's sharing the files (pulling videos off YouTube or taking down sites like The Pirate Bay) or they make it harder to find (delisting offshore sites that share infringing content). But leaked documents reveal a frightening line of attack that's currently being considered by the MPAA: What if you simply erased any record that the site was there in the first place? To do that, the MPAA's lawyers would target the Domain Name System that directs traffic across the internet.
The tactic was first proposed as part of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2011, but three years after the law failed in Congress, the MPAA has been looking for legal justification for the practice in existing law and working with ISPs like Comcast to examine how a system might work technically. If a takedown notice could blacklist a site from every available DNS provider, the URL would be effectively erased from the internet. No one's ever tried to issue a takedown notice like that, but this latest memo suggests the MPAA is looking into it as a potentially powerful new tool in the fight against piracy.
The tactic was first proposed as part of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2011, but three years after the law failed in Congress, the MPAA has been looking for legal justification for the practice in existing law and working with ISPs like Comcast to examine how a system might work technically. If a takedown notice could blacklist a site from every available DNS provider, the URL would be effectively erased from the internet. No one's ever tried to issue a takedown notice like that, but this latest memo suggests the MPAA is looking into it as a potentially powerful new tool in the fight against piracy.
Exactly. There's nothing frightening about this at all; it's a nuisance at best for the sites. Between using IP addresses directly, or editing a hosts file, or switching to an offshore DNS server, it's all of a 30 second delay.
For sites dedicated to piracy, it won't make the slightest difference in traffic. The demand is there, so people will seek out the product. The idea that making it marginally (or even substantially) more difficult to find will reduce demand is like saying "If Barnes and Noble doesn't carry pornography, there won't be any demand!"
Is piracy morally justifiable? Not really. In the end, someone is going around the rules of society for personal gain. Still, available evidence suggests that the actual economic damage is minimal, at worst, and possibly that it's helpful to the bottom line. People who pirate seem mostly to be people who wouldn't pay anyway, so they're not really lost as customers. Additionally, word of mouth can help the popularity of films, regardless of whether that opinion came from a free screening, a paid viewing, or a pirated download. From a practical standpoint, it doesn't make sense to focus efforts on stamping out something that's so benign. In other words, we shouldn't tolerate measures that negatively impact the rest of society to protect one group from an imaginary harm.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I don't know who actually is behind this attack, but I'm starting to applaud them.
You might want to hold your applause.
I saw the previews months ago for that movie and thought to myself "That looks stupid." but now I'm going to go see it anyway. You should really encourage all of your friends to do the same. Blackmail resulting in self-censorship is not something that needs to be encouraged.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Well, it's kind of like Snowden. Everybody knew they were doing something wrong. The sheer magnitude of it is slowly coming to light. Nobody started off with the illusion they were innocent before this.
I'm torn, I really am. On the one hand, yes, hacking and extortion bad.
On the other hand, I find multinational corporations like Sony to be complete douchebags, who will do anything to advance their own goals, at the expense of everyone else on the planet, and with the assistance of governments who have been willing to stick it to their citizens to protect corporate interests, largely because the politicians are on the fucking payroll.
And then I want to go all Tyler Durden on them because I'm getting tired of the oligarchy and the asshole politicians enabling it.
You don't keep a free society by making it beholden to corporations who tell us what we can and can't do.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If they break DNS, we'll just move to a shadow system, whether based on hosts or just another flavor of DNS.
Fuck them.
That "shadow" system you speak of could in fact be the catalyst we've all been waiting for to push the majority into IPv6 space.
Nobody knows who is making 'threats'. I see no reason to give any money to Sony. They are hardly a bastion of free speech. As far as I'm concerned the whole thing is a scam, though the new Bond flick could be okay. Eh, maybe Sony might get my money after all, and I am amused by your Hollywood Tough Guy talk :-)
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Lots of people prefer to ignore that the world's root DNS servers are controlled by US companies, who invented the Internet and DNS...
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!