Producers deciding to charge thousands of ordinary people who illegally downloaded the Malayalam blockbuster “Bachelors Party” using the “Agent Jadoo software has stirred up some controversy in Kerala. But this issue is already a ranging debate in the west.
Many web users use BitTorrent to download a song, book, film or even TV shows illegally. But chances are that such people would be under the crosshairs of copyright enforcement as fast as within three hours of the download.
A study conducted by security researchers Tom Chothia and colleagues at the University of Birmingham, UK and presented at the SecureComm conference in Padua, Italy last week reveals that the “good guys” are monitoring BitTorrent download sites such as the PirateBay for at least three years now and track and monitor the IP address of the downloaders.
While some copyright enforcing monitors adopt direct monitoring techniques such as establishing connections with peers to estimate participation in sharing activity, most monitors adopt indirect monitoring techniques such as relying on indirect cues like presence of the IP address in a tracker's peer list. This indirect method do not distinguish between hardcore downloaders and casual or unwitting downloaders. They rather prioritize on the popularity of the content. This has resulted in cases such as printers and wireless access points receiving cease-and-desist letters.
Seasoned downloaders can circumvent such monitoring by using proxies that routes traffic through another server or by deploying IP-blocking applications. But the whole business of such monitoring activities raises a host of concerns.
The biggest question is internet privacy. Regardless of the legality or illegality of the download or the motive for undertaking the monitoring activity, the fact that someone somewhere is monitoring ordinary internet users’ activity without any court order or approval from any legitimate law enforcement authority is unnerving. This could be a clear-cut case of breach of civil rights and privacy and the monitors may be just as guilty as the illegal downloaders.
Critics also allege that such illegal monitoring is actually a new and unethical business model under the guise of “war on piracy.” A recent class action suit in Kentucky launched by porn studios against BitTorrent users, demanding payouts in the range of $1000 to $5000 from those who illegally downloaded porn movies is a case in point. Many of the victims have preferred to pay up, too embarrassed to fight the case in court.
Reference: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/09/06/honeypot-monitoring-bittorrent-downloaders/
Many web users use BitTorrent to download a song, book, film or even TV shows illegally. But chances are that such people would be under the crosshairs of copyright enforcement as fast as within three hours of the download.
A study conducted by security researchers Tom Chothia and colleagues at the University of Birmingham, UK and presented at the SecureComm conference in Padua, Italy last week reveals that the “good guys” are monitoring BitTorrent download sites such as the PirateBay for at least three years now and track and monitor the IP address of the downloaders.
While some copyright enforcing monitors adopt direct monitoring techniques such as establishing connections with peers to estimate participation in sharing activity, most monitors adopt indirect monitoring techniques such as relying on indirect cues like presence of the IP address in a tracker's peer list. This indirect method do not distinguish between hardcore downloaders and casual or unwitting downloaders. They rather prioritize on the popularity of the content. This has resulted in cases such as printers and wireless access points receiving cease-and-desist letters.
Seasoned downloaders can circumvent such monitoring by using proxies that routes traffic through another server or by deploying IP-blocking applications. But the whole business of such monitoring activities raises a host of concerns.
The biggest question is internet privacy. Regardless of the legality or illegality of the download or the motive for undertaking the monitoring activity, the fact that someone somewhere is monitoring ordinary internet users’ activity without any court order or approval from any legitimate law enforcement authority is unnerving. This could be a clear-cut case of breach of civil rights and privacy and the monitors may be just as guilty as the illegal downloaders.
Critics also allege that such illegal monitoring is actually a new and unethical business model under the guise of “war on piracy.” A recent class action suit in Kentucky launched by porn studios against BitTorrent users, demanding payouts in the range of $1000 to $5000 from those who illegally downloaded porn movies is a case in point. Many of the victims have preferred to pay up, too embarrassed to fight the case in court.
Reference: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/09/06/honeypot-monitoring-bittorrent-downloaders/