[ NNSquad ] Re: RIAA to stop suing file-sharers, will work with ISPs to cut off repeat offenders

[Wes Felter <wesley@felter.org>]

> From: Mark Casazza <mark.casazza@mail.cuny.edu>
>
>   Catching up on the mailing list after the Christmas holiday I  
> noticed one
>   thing that was completely missing from the discussion of ISP  
> becoming the
>   RIAA's enforcement agents.  The "public" information Richard  
> alludes to in
>   his post is the IP number of the computer engaged in sharing the  
> torrent
>   file (for BitTorrent at least).  However, The Pirate Bay, arguably  
> the
>   largest BitTorrent tracker, is purposely "polluting the list of
>   IP-addresses the tracker returns"  [1]Link from TorrentFreak.   
> Does any
>   ISP really want to get involved when the customer just has to  
> point to a
>   published article (like the one I referenced) and say "the tracker  
> must
>   have inserted the IP I was assigned that day!"

It's relatively easy to connect to a "suspect" IP address and verify  
that it is transferring a particular file using BitTorrent. (You could  
even encrypt your connections to prevent The Man from snooping!) If  
the suspect does not allow incoming connections (a common case), then  
you can register your own address(es) with the tracker and wait for  
the suspects to contact you. These techniques will not catch every  
participant in the swarm, but RIAA copyright enforcement seems to be  
statistical anyway.

(And before someone says PeerGuardian, it's also relatively easy to  
evade that blacklist.)

Wes Felter - wesley@felter.org - http://felter.org/wesley/