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Researchers: Your IP is logged within 3 hours of downloading a torrent
A computer security researcher and his team have discovered what they describe as massive monitoring of BitTorrent download websites by copyright enforcement organizations, security companies and government research labs. Tom Chothia from the University of Birmingham, UK, further noted that this behavior has been going on for at least three years.
The researchers set up a fake server and very quickly realized that someone was monitoring what was being downloaded from the server and who was doing the downloading. They noted that only the top 100 torrents were being tracked. If you happened to download a popular album, movie, television show or ebook, you probably had your IP address logged within three hours of doing so.
Chothia and company presented their findings at this week’s SecureComm conference in Padua, Italy. In the presentation he points out that publically-available blocklists used to prevent contact with monitors contained a large number of false positives and false negatives. As such, they recommend using blocklists based on empirical research instead of speculative ones.
The question left on everybody’s mind now is, what do these monitoring agencies plan to do with the seemingly massive amount of data they have collected over the past three years? One would have to assume that copyright lawsuits would have already been handed down at this point if that were the intent. Or perhaps the top torrents are being monitored simply to assess the scope of the problem for future planning or laws.
User Comments: 32
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It really doesnt matter what we say to those ppl who chose to pirate via Torrent sites. They will just have some assinine response that they have thought up justifing their actions. Then when the US govt does something REALLY draconian and messed up that puts the screws to those that pirate, we will hear from them "Oh no one told me it was illegal" or better yet "Why am I being persecuted? I only downloaded a couple of movies". In the end, these ppl chose to continue those actions. When the BS finally does hit them, everyone will have the "I told you so's" ready and waiting.
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I got tracked on two movies. I got emails from Verizon explaining the process. In the email it stated the movie companies also pirate the "popular" torrents to track the IPs that connect to their server. All the IPs are recorded and every few months they send lists of IPs to the the ISPs. The ISPs send emails to the people responsible for the download based off the name on the account, which was me. They told me they didn't give out any of my personal info and would only do so with a court order.
I download some movies because it is ridiculous to have to pay $20 for me and my wife to go to the movies and another $20 if I want popcorn and a drink. I work full time, she goes to medical school full time and we have a 3 year old. I can't afford going to the movies. I know this is no justifiable excuse but maybe if the companies made things more reasonable this wouldn't be as big of a problem.
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check sott.net said:
I searched the net for "websites that file lawsuits regarding the use of video downloader software" and found few pertinent search results other than the following ZD Net.com post as follows: "Every Inch Counts: Porn Filesharing Lawsuits Crest 30K Defendants."
How timely that I would find the current page mere hours later.
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fimbles said:
Ip adress is not proof of identity.
Same as if a car thief runs someone over in your stolen car you will not go to jail.
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This has an unnecessary foreboding to it. They are collecting it for research. Sure some of it is for sending out those FUD "we have your IP" letters to ISP. Surely some are intended to for ill-fated lawsuits (ie the lawsuit is unlikely to work in most cases). But mostly it is what it is, research.
The MAFIAA isn't totally dumb. They do know that sharing helps their industry. Tracking IP gives excellent marketing research to them. People buy more music and movies than they ever did and sharing makes it happen by providing a no risk inroad to potential customers that is free for the media companies. Just like The War on Drugs, the only ones who support the war are those who benefit: drug dealers and enforcement. They get paid. Same with the War on Piracy. And of course now and then they do symbolic busts which disproportionately hurt the poor to keep the FUD going.
But if we all stop believing the hype then the drug pushers lose their power. Share and share alike.
Peace
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Elpresador said:
Will I Get Tracked I Live In Australia
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Elpresador said:
I Downloaded a Torrent At McDonalds LOL Their IP Will Be Tracked
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