Anti-Piracy Measures Don’t Work, Report Shows
Written by Ben Jones on January 29, 2009Traffic management company Ipoque has just released a whitepaper, detailing pros and cons of different methods of dealing with piracy on P2P networks. Surprisingly, the conclusions in the paper are not straight adverts for their own products and services. We will highlight some of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly conclusions.
Ipoque describes itself as ‘the leading European provider of deep packet inspection solutions’. Based on this statement, it would be expected that the company would take every opportunity to push their own products as possible solutions. However, in what could be the start of a new trend (but one we won’t hold our breath waiting for from others) a company interested in selling P2P throttling equipment has started to tell the truth about file sharing.
The paper, which claims to “provide an as objective as possible assessment of the countermeasures for P2P” initially left us skeptical. But, with one or two exceptions, it does what it claims to do. Other companies and politicians should take note of this. Below we look at the conclusions of the report – some we were actually moved to applaud, while others were slightly cringe worthy.
The Good
DNS Blocking
“Blocking of IP addresses could be an additional measure in a combination of different measures, but is not the salvation of the problem itself.“
Ipoque comes to the right conclusion here. Indeed, DNS blocking is not very effective. As has been proven by The Pirate Bay in their dispute in Denmark, these methods really don’t work.
URL Filters
“URL filters are widely available. Centrally hosted services such as Piratebay and even BitTorrent trackers could be blocked. An up-to-date list of URLs is a necessary prerequisite to make this measure effective. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to keep the URL database current. Affected sites could rapidly change URLs and propagate these changes. Ultimately, this would result in a never-ending cat and mouse game.“
Again the report is spot on. The Internet Watch Foundation in the UK showed that blocklists don’t work well when applied to known sites and content. On a sidenote, file-sharers who use blocklists like PeerGuardian to filter peers of uncertain identity, face the same problem.
Swarm Poisoning
“[The injection of counterfeits] have driven file sharers to the BitTorrent network, that is nearly immune against injection of fake files, mainly because content distribution is organized through web based torrent directories such as thepiratebay.org. Conclusion: The injection of counterfeits is no effective countermeasure anymore.”
They are right, it doesn’t. Not on well moderated torrent sites at least.
Fingerprint systems
“Due to its computational complexity, fingerprinting does not work in real-time for high-speed networks. Also, even though ever more file and compression formats are supported, fingerprinting is blind to encrypted archive files (e.g. password-protected ZIP files), and these are becoming more and more popular. Largescale deployment of fingerprinting technology would push the popularity of all kinds of encryption and render the whole technology useless as a countermeasure.”
This ties in with what we said last year about such systems and BitTorrent. These methods are highly ineffective.
DRM
“In the past, any DRM mechanism was hacked or otherwise circumvented. This is highly likely to happen to new systems as well.”
DRM doesn’t work, and has not worked. One person breaching it is all it takes, thanks to the Internet. Spore is a great example of how DRM only affects legitimate purchasers, and not the people it attempts to target.
The Summary
“First, and most importantly, content providers need to provide other high-quality, well priced and easily accessible online content. New business models are inevitable. In the long run, this will make illegitimate sharing of copyright-protected material through the Internet a lot less interesting.”
This is the crux. It’s why rights owners are burying their heads in the sand, in the hope it will go away. It’s not surprising, however, that rights owners do not wish to move to a model that gives a smaller return-per-unit.
The Bad
URL Whitelisting
“An example is Ipoque’s BitTorrent tracker whitelisting, that allows access to guaranteed legal BitTorrent content, while blocking access to all other P2P content. This approach works because nearly all legal P2P content is distributed over BitTorrent using dedicated and controlled BitTorrent trackers.”
Simply banning a huge number of BitTorrent trackers because they are open to all users doesn’t seem to be a good idea. One of the most eye-opening things about P2P is the sheer wealth of data it gives access to. Some may be in violation of civil or criminal law, but a lot isn’t. The same applications that can be used to share a game, can be used to promote a band, or distribute political protest by groups large and small.
Automatic detection tools
“Such systems can detect infringements nationally and internationally. The location is not important. Especially automatic detection systems work highly efficiently and produce court-proof evidence data. This measure is very difficult to circumvent”
Yes, the only problem is that these tools are not very accurate. They target dead people, printers, those that have never shared, and everyone else falsely accused. Strangely, they point this out themselves 2 paragraphs earlier:
“Active monitoring has garnered a bad reputation because content providers have in the past often tried to criminalize copyright infringers and imposed ridiculous penalties as a deterrent. In addition, there have been flawed lawsuits with verdicts about persons with no Internet access. Careful investigation along with adequate penalties are necessary to improve the reputation of this measure”
The Ugly
Using Exploits
“As for any computer system, attacks are possible, and there are commercial providers offering this as a service. An attack on eDonkey, for instance, may have the effect that the downloaded file is larger than the original, and the download never finishes. There are similar attacks for BitTorrent.”
Using exploits in file-sharing networks and clients is of course insane. Moreover, depending on the vulnerabilities exploited, this could be a violation of criminal law. At best, as with the Sony Rootkits, exploiting software systems like this is at least reputation-damaging. Of course, there’s also…
The Great!
Encrypted communication
“Encrypted communication and private file sharing networks can only be controlled by criminalistic methods involving a high effort.”
Again we applaud Ipoque for reaching the right conclusion. Not much we can say about this, except it’s the truth, and can’t be repeated often enough.
Is it a paper that is objective? Well, its the most objective one yet, but then that’s not saying much.
Previously: Government Refuses to Revoke Draconian File-Sharing Law
Next: US Pirate Party Docks in California
51 Responses
pffff…kao da nas boli kurac ovde na balkanu :D sve imamo za dz :D
I think that the problem is that the industry makes the decisions. I think that, if enough people were aware of the facts, and it came down to a popular vote, all of these measures would be rejected. Right now, pretty much nobody is aware of the issues. After all, if you ask random person about the issues surrounding file-sharing, almost nobody would know about it. Perhaps the situation could be much better if people knew better.
Unfortunately, there is a paucity of information for public opinion regarding file-sharing issues (in the United States, of course). There are almost no results on Zogby, Harris Poll, and Pew Research Center. The only results are from the Gallup Poll, although the results are encouraging. However, it is only a single poll, so we do not know much about it: http://www.gallup.com/poll/6397/New-Spin-Music-Distribut... – amongst adult internet users, 46% think that file-sharing of copyrighted music should be illegal, whereas 43% think that it should be legal. A solid 63% of adult internet users oppose DRM. Now, there only needs to be a question of whether people support or oppose these anti-piracy measures.
Roze
http://www.10ch.org
at least someone is trying to report on neutral ground!
“Encrypted communication and private file sharing networks can only be controlled by criminalistic methods involving a high effort.”
A sweeter sentence would be hard to come by! Even though the MAFIAA and in particular the RIAA are a bunch of criminals trampling over all sorts of laws in the process of "exercising their rights and defending their product" (excuse me while I barf, will come back and finish typing this…. ok, am back) they still have to pretend like they are doing their best to follow the law, which is impossible if they want to curtail encrypted and private networks.
In short, game over dear MAFIAA bitches, it took you 5+ years to see suing was not going to get you anywhere, I wonder how long its going to take you to see that its game over in this present context.
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
Lets focus on getting rid of the Child Porn on TPB..that seems more important.
There has been a bit of a trend lately of people with voices who can be heard telling the (if slightly adorned) truth. It would be great to see it continue, but I'm not holding my breath any longer than the TorrentFreak folks are.
I agree. Who gives a fuck about a few movies or cd's. The real issue that people should be going after is child porn and fucked up shit like that.
What they build up, we will tear down.
Change or be changed.
Hate to be the grammer guy and all but…
"Some may be in violation of civil or criminal law, but a lot isn’t."
Should be "arn't."
There is no child porn on TPB, and if you see some report it as you would any other bad torrent, it will be deleted promptly. Im glad to see someone telling the truth, but like said before, not holding my breath.
http://bluehumor.org
Which is not on TPB.
if they have the resources to chase after people on the internet then why arent they using them to catch people involved with cp.
It is not picking information, but reporting on a report. I don't know how many independent studies there are of this, but of the couple there are, most say that anti-piracy measures don't work.
Its not on TPB, but scum like the above like using differnt usernames to start rumors that they can later (?) bring up in a case
"bu..buu buu..but we can't make money from the suffering of children. We're a business so the children can go fuck themselves if they want any of our help"
Because to the likes of the RIAA children getting f*cked (and getting their life ruined) is not as important as getting 99c per song
Your correction is wrong (along with your spelling of grammar) as 'lot' is an abstract noun.
I am glad to see TPB actively removing and protecting against Child porn. They also donate to child porn detective agencies and send them IP's of suspected offenders on there site.
There has never been or will be child porn on TPB. 100% clean.
Nothing works but P2P will live like always.
Join http://www.TorrentSpy.cd
"Im glad to see someone telling the truth, but like said before, not holding my breath."
Shouldn't it be "I'm glad to see someone telling the truth, but like somebody said before, I'm not holding my breath?
Well, it's the report with the realisic and smartest conclusions about filesharing I ever read ; )
Just what the text says: gov & antip2p must read the report too
although this report isn't 100% accurate in its suggestions I applaud them for at least taking a step in the right direction.
I never pretended to be a grammar (sorry about spelling, always been a trouble for me) master or anything. I simply noticed what seemed to be wrong, and since it was within the article, I thought id point it out. Im also aware that I dont type with 100% correct grammar, but then again im not a blogger myself. I find that its faster, and not extremely important to skip the commas and such, as long as everything makes enough sense.
I fully apologize for that, just figured if I was correct it would be best to point it out, to better all of us. Ill keep my mouth shut about those things from now on unless im 100% sure. Sorry again.
Another report says it works, you guys are just pick and choosing info -.-
There is no way BitTorrent could be a good way to transfer illegal things like that when all the IP addresses are public.
"Because to the likes of the RIAA children getting f*cked (and getting their life ruined) is not as important as getting 99c per song"
————————————————————————–
LOL!
are you literally blaming the MUSIC INDUSTRY for not hunting down pedophiles?
you should go complain to taco bell while you're at it. word on the street is they only care about cheap mexican food and couldn't give less of a shit about children being abused.
and then maybe after that, you can complain to your bank that they aren't licensed to do tattoos or ask to speak to the manager of your local car dealership because they don't sell exotic pets…
idiot.
You are imagining something which does not exist, which is "blame." Me1 merely stated the fact that they do not care so much about hunting down pedophiles as they care about getting 99c per song, which is not blame, but a description of the RIAA's priorities.
of course that's their priority! they're a MUSIC industry.
you might as well point out that they don't serve pizza.
no f***ing shit.
LOL, they never have worked! LOL
RT
http://www.privacy-center.vze.com
However, hunting down pedophiles is the priority of all humans. Are the people in the music industry humans or not?
Spot on! Great article TF.
Oh? How are you proposing people do that – you know, considering to that if you download supposed child porn to verify it is indeed child porn you are liable to prosecution unless you have safe harbour protection (which only selected agencies dedicated to hunitng child pron do).
freetard is right for once. The RIAA could'nt use this technology to hunt child porn without openi ng themselves up to prosecution.
I guess so.
It is human nature that they have various reasons as to whether they buy an item or not. Every person has found a way to get something for free or really good bargain. At times, as with music, people will buy it, other times they don't. Maybe they already bought it, maybe they are just checking it out and will buy it later. Who cares why? The point is, that if someone like the music, they will probably tell someone else of the find, and maybe that person will buy also, or instead, depending on the case. That is the new business model the industry will have to come to terms with. In fact, I suspect many people refuse to buy after they download just because of the way that these companies are handling the situation.
@r33tard
"are you literally blaming the MUSIC INDUSTRY for not hunting down pedophiles? "
You're one miserably clueless little mongolod, aren't you?
Alright, since you're having some serious comprehension problems, let me try walking you through this nice and easy. The Pirate Bay does everything it possibly can within its power to fight child porn, despite having no real obligation to do so. It goes far above and beyond its call of duty. This is in stark contrast to the MAFIAA, which does absolutely nothing whatsoever within its power to fight child porn, and yet tries to villify The Pirate Bay as an evil worse than Satan and nail brokep to a cross.
Hence, the fucking point.
The irony of you watching you call somebody else an "idiot" is quite amusing.
"You're one miserably clueless little mongolod, aren't you? "
——————–
"mongolod" is not a word.
as for the rest of your drivel, the pirate bay has a very real obligation to expunge itself of child porn and that obligation is of course, self preservation. the moment such a thing were allowed to run amok, they would be exposing their flank to a whole new demographic of opponents. the fact that the MUSIC INDUSTRY doesn't help fight child porn is not, in fact, "stark contrast" to anything…
i do however agree that the industries use this issue to badmouth p2p and encryption technology. i haven't studied the issue so i don't know if there's any truth to it, but i would guess a lot of CP is traded using the same encryption protocols that the pirates use.
It is too easy to catch P2P criminals that’s why they dont go after you.
They are tryin to catch the big guys like me.
ipoque is providing german lawyers with p2p data…
What a pile off wank
nice post…
http://musikmanaics.blogspot.com
Well, your momma is though!
The day I trust a piracy site to interpret a report for me, and to report on piracy objectively is the day I cut off both my hands and learn to play the piano with my mouth.
Thanks for your "objective" reporting Torrentfreak but no thanks, stick to just blatantly lying about piracy and making tons of money from advertising based on pimping other peoples work like you, TPB and other piracy sites do. Stop trying to justify it.
Actually, I think it's primarily on Usenet.
The article is mis-titled. What it should say is "these anti-piracy measures don't work". If governments really got their act together (I'm looking at you, Sweden), they could *easily* shut down piracy by going after the sites. It's not like we don't know who runs the pirate bay.
By act together im guessing your talking about breaking civil law and violating peoples rights.
Please stop breathing my air, idiot.
How do you know there has never been child porn on TPB? It could have been removed or there could still be stuff out there labeled as something else. I agree that everything should be done to remove it, but it's next to impossible to get every last bit of it down.
The phrase was not "act together" but "got their act together". But, thanks for your input. What are you even talking about with "breaking civil law". Do you mean that Sweden should not be pressured to act like a responsible global citizen? You know, I recently read an article about how people in East Africa like the pirates (the pirates stealing ships and demanding ransom). If the people of east Africa got together to vote on the issue, they might agree to let the pirates continue to operate because they bring money into their communities. The fact that a majority of people in some country agree to something doesn't mean it's right. Similarly, what would you say if Sweden allows child porn to be distributed by people operating servers in Sweden? Should that be allowed because the people of Sweden think it's okay? What's going on in Sweden is that a bunch of freeloaders like getting shit for free and want to pressure the government to keep getting shit for free – which is exactly what would happen in east Africa, as well.
Please stop breathing my air, idiot.
You are getting civil and criminal law mixed up. Pirating (the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted material) is part of civil law and the rest of what you are talking about is part of criminal law. What this means is that the government prosecutes criminal law and civil law is comprised of law suits by companies and individuals. For the government to go after pirates would be a violation of their constitution and any case would get shut down by the judge in charge of the case. The only way they could charge pirates would be to pass an amendment making copyright infringment a criminal offense. That would be the first step for the country to become an authoritarian state.
Let's say that tomorrow the pirate bay decided to change their model. They decide that they're going to sell cracked digital content (music, software, movies, etc). They aren't going to pay the original artists/creators anything. They're just flat-out making money selling other people's work and becoming millionaires. Further, let's say that Swedish law was okay with this. You're arguing that there is absolutely nothing anyone could do to stop this rip-off because it would somehow violate the pirate bay's "rights" and any pressure to stop this rip-off would "be a the first step for the country to become an authoritarian state."? I call BS. But, according to your argument, this should be perfectly 100% okay as long as Swedish law was okay with this. Obviously, something is wrong if that's true.
“First, and most importantly, content providers need to provide other high-quality, well priced and easily accessible online content. New business models are inevitable. In the long run, this will make illegitimate sharing of copyright-protected material through the Internet a lot less interesting.”
Bingo. Somebody is finally getting it.
Adapt. The. Business. Model.
Hi everybody,
I took the time of downloading and reading the paper, something that apparently nobody here did.
The article title is misleading because id does not represent what the paper actually says.
The entire page 5 is dedicated to say how well hash-based detection methods work, to conclude that “Blacklisting based on file hashes or other file IDs
can provide a viable way to severely limit the
distribution of copyright-protected content.”
Sorry to wake you up, but Ipoque here is only trying to sell a hash-based detection system. period.
I used to use torrents, and Disney effectively made me stop after I downloaded a movie for my three year old son.
Since then I started to use http//www.grabaid.com , a service that allows you to easily download from the Usenet at 500+KB/sec. It used to be free forever, but now they only give you one free month. I pay $15/ month for one of their larger plans, and do not feel the need to spend $80/ month for all of the channels I would need just for the TV programming, not to mention the ‘illegal’ movies.
Worth a shot, looks like thepiratebay and isohunt will not last forever. ThePirateBay has been tricky lately. (I still use torrents for music)
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