NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Speculation, how AT&T can implement "copyright filtering" without wiretapping/dpi...
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In message <8cef5dcf0801280954u3212367fv6f03cc5cefa4c8eb@mail.gmail.com>
, Nick Weaver <nweaver@gmail.com> writes
>Thus all the schemes for "video DNA" and "audio DNA" tracking are
>robust in the arms race, at least with a bit of effort. If the
>transformations to avoid detection require inserting a huge amount of
>noise and disruption, the MPAA and ISPs wins, because that shuts down
>piracy just as sure as blocking the content.
I agree up to a point -- and that point is an assumption about when the
distributed files are decrypted.
Suppose the files are distributed in an encrypted form, but the key to
decrypt the files is not sent out until a week on Tuesday. Although the
title of the file "latest film" may be suggestive of it being a
copyright violation, it might just be called "r2d2.pt6" or "linux.v7.39"
all of which are rather open to interpretation.
Once the key is revealed (which is a very low bandwidth operation and
impractical to block using any technology) then you will know if you
have a copy of 'No Country for Old Men' or 'Star Wars VI' or a copy of
the latest version of Linux.
In fact, a little work with the encrypting engine (check out
Waldman/Maziere's Tangler) and you can distribute all three at the same
time (though it will be a bigger file) and later reveal the key to
decrypt the one you want...
... although this delayed gratification may seem unrealistic for getting
hold of movies on BitTorrent, the "release the key later" is seriously
looked by researchers who are trying to find ways of preventing the Bad
Guys from reverse engineering operating system patches faster than they
can reach the end-users...
...and of course there's other "censorship resistant" publishing schemes
in the literature, with various interesting properties in each case.
So don't think as encryption as a trivial obfuscating technology,
there's more to it than that. You're left with a large file being
distributed and various nods and winks as to what it might contain...
and indeed it might even be manipulable to contain more than one thing.
In a world such as this, the lawyers will surely become ever richer as
they argue as to whether the balance of the nodding and winking means
that there is a prima facie case for blocking...
>Accept it, identifying that a LARGE piece of content is a blatent
>copyright violation is a straightforward technical problem, and robust
>to the arms race with just a little effort.
That's true under a certain set of assumptions, but not under others
- --
Dr Richard Clayton <richard.clayton @ cl.cam.ac.uk>
Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, CB3 0FD
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