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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.
Lots of people prefer to ignore that the world's root DNS servers are controlled by US companies...
The MPAA et al feel they have the right to undermine every bit of technology to server their purposes. They want veto over all new technology to ensure that it aligns with their goals, and makes sure their rent seeking is entrenched in law.
Sony was more than willing to spread malware, and as a cartel these clowns have way too much sway over governments, and seem to think they can act with impunity.
Want the sure file way to the shitty oligarchy of the future? Keep letting these bastards call the shots.
I don't know who actually is behind this attack, but I'm starting to applaud them.
Sony and the other members of the MPAA are out of control, and pretty much deserve to be burned to the ground for the crap they do.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Good strategy. Go ahead with that plan and let us know how that turns out.
If they break DNS, we'll just move to a shadow system, whether based on hosts or just another flavor of DNS.
Fuck them.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
> and working with ISPs like Comcast to examine how a system might work technically
Yet another reason not to do business... well, you know.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
No one's ever tried to issue a takedown notice like that...
Really?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
They haven't?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
Tried this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
Because, the last I checked...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
It was happening
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
all the time...
uhm, regular old dotted quads (ip addrs) work fine and cannot be 'taken down' since they are not lookup based but topology based.
and even with ip alias and redirects, a dotted quad can be just about as good as a dns name. better, in some ways, since it cant' be faked like a name can, and does not require another fetch for the name->ipaddr lookup.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
We'll make our own DNS!
With blackjack and hookers!
Unfortunately, to the asshole lawyers these companies employ ... the core functionality of the internet be damned.
They simply don't care about anything but their own profits. They just want to be in charge of how all technology is used.
What they want is pretty much the nuclear option. Because they say so, something needs to be removed from the internet, and anybody who doesn't gets squashed like a bug.
Who gives a crap about analogies? The MPAA have one goal here: to make every piece of digital technology on the planet be only usable in ways defined and approved by them.
Fuck that. Having media companies in charge of this crap is a terrible idea.
This is why ISPs need to be classed as a common carrier .. what happens on their network is none of their business, and they don't have liability for it. This takes away the bullshit ability of corporations like Sony from being able to dictate how technology is used.
This whole notion of secondary liability is crap.
But for any Anonymous hackers out there, maybe all executives at the MPAA or any of their law firms ... they now have secondary liability for being douchebags and assholes, and have forfeited their right to privacy.
This is just corporate control of way too many aspects of the internet. So fuck Sony and the other guys in the MPAA. I sincerely hope they all get this treatment.
The idiotic DMCA was a terribly written piece of legislation which put far too much power in the hands of multinational corporations. And idiot governments around the world have been entrenching it in law.
At this point, I think Sony has more rights than I do.
So to hell with them. I say start punishing them, and cause as much economic damage to them as can be done.
The goals of the MPAA et al do not coincide with the goals of the rest of society. And they shouldn't be having their business model entrenched in law. They're just a bunch of parasites who feel entitled to revenue.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Even though the Pirate Bay move to North Korea was a hoax, but if North Korea really wanted to exact revenge on the industry why wouldn't they take an approach that would really hurt them and actually host pirated content?
Esra Erimez
It's bad enough that companies like Verizon, in a effort to help us and provide better service, hijack 404 errors and redirect them to their tailored search results, now this. In light of how little vetting some of these take down notices seem to receive before the ban hammer falls, this is truly scary. Scary in that they think this is how to go about business. Like others have already alluded too, this is likely to at worst cause a minor bit of annoyance before a way to protect against this silliness is found.
Funny, Microsoft has actually had a P2P DNS system for several years: PNRP.
DNS was created in 1984 to replace the old flat HOSTS.TXT system, at which time the file contained only "several thousand" entries, according to one source I found. Maintenance and distribution of the file was already becoming a problem by that point.
The oldest actual HOSTS.TXT file I found for download was from 1990, and contained about 9,200 lines. (No link; don't want to spam someone's Internet history server just to prove a point. Do your own Googling if you don't believe me.)
There are single data centers with more than a few thousand public-facing IPs in use.
As for this vague handwavy idea of a shadow domain name system, what's going to make that immune from the same sorts of attacks? There's this vague notion that if it's distributed and encrypted, it will be impossible to kill, but guess what? DNS is distributed and encrypted already.
It's inevitable that the copyright holders will expect IP addresses or ranges to be blocked or simply deleted from routing tables.
And then innocent bystanders will become caught up in this.
That's how this escalates. And how it is dangerous to let them do even the little thing.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
It seems that the bipeds who once inhabited this planet had, at one time, developed a comprehensive worldwide networking system. They accomplished much through it, from exchange of all kinds of information to commercial transactions, education, and even personal communications.
But suddenly, one day, this useful system was destroyed. Apparently a small group of bipeds, which had enriched themselves by creating carefully distorted fictional representations of life and events, decided that the network might be slightly reducing the rate at which they amassed wealth. So they sabotaged it.
We really have no idea what kind of intelligence those bipeds had - if it was even intelligence as we know it.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
uhm, regular old dotted quads (ip addrs) work fine and cannot be 'taken down' since they are not lookup based but topology based.
and even with ip alias and redirects, a dotted quad can be just about as good as a dns name. better, in some ways, since it cant' be faked like a name can, and does not require another fetch for the name->ipaddr lookup.
...about the awesome library of stuff hosted at 127.0.0.1
In this case? With regards to an industry that could be killed tomorrow if enough people simply voted with their wallet? Yes, I do think it's wrong.
This indicates that you really don't know how the world works, especially in terms of "entertainment". Perhaps 50 years ago this point would have some merit, but not within the last couple of decades at least. Actually investigate how the industry works, then we will talk.
To give you a hint, Sony in this case is a target because it's a single entity who has repeatedly screwed over consumers. They knowingly installed malware on people's computers and faced a class action lawsuit for it, though consumers received nothing from the damages. For higher profits they have sacrificed customers again and again, all to their benefit and consumer detriment. This part I am guessing you would agree with.
To the voting with your wallet, how big is Sony and how many tentacles do they have into virtually everything from hardware to software? Monopolization has ensured that you can't destroy a company that easily, it takes Government intervention to break up a company of this size. Since there are at least several Governments that pay Sony for all kinds of things from hardware to software, that won't happen any time soon. The breach and theft of a movie won't hurt them, it generates propaganda (those evil bastards just want our freedom) and PR for the movie. Are you daft enough to believe that Kim Jong-un can't figure out a comedy? Do you still believe that the Benghazi raid was because of a class E youtube movie too?
The point here is really that the only way to harm a company like Sony is with vigilantism. I don't agree with hackers releasing Sony customer data because that harms the consumers more than Sony. If they can force Sony to change, all the better. Exposing the MPAA/RIAA for their bullshit tactics may actually reduce some of the nonsense they do on a daily basis.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I wonder what Kim Jong-Un would do with this power? Anything different from the MPAA?
How should Comcast objectors living in Comcast territory cope with the 10 GB/mo cap of non-Comcast home Internet through the sat or cell company?
I dunno. Perhaps complain to your municipality about the granting what is essentially a monopoly to a company with such a bad customer service record. Make correcting the situation a factor in getting re-elected.
Where I am, we have a choice of cable or fiber, before you have to consider lower tier like DSL wifi, satellite. (I consider satellite lower tier because of the terrible upload speeds.) I understand that other areas, especially older municipalities, don't have the choices we have in my area. That fight is with local government, I think.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.