How to Find Fake Torrents Uploaded by the MPAA and RIAA
Written by Ernesto on January 28, 2007The MPAA, RIAA and several anti-piracy organizations are constantly trying to trap people into downloading fake torrents. These torrents are hosted on trackers that are setup to collect IP addresses of all the ‘pirates’ who try to download these files.
To make these traps more visible, Fenopy just introduced the FakeFinder. The FakeFinder lists the most popular fake torrents and the latest fake trackers. It also allows you to search for fake torrents by keyword or infohash.
The actual .torrent links for these fake files are blocked, and FakeFinder serves an informational purpose only. It is actually quite amusing to browse through these fake files and trackers. The companies that host these anti-piracy trackers came up with some interesting hostnames like “dirtydevils.cyberbox.com.br” and “bittorrent.isthebe.st“.
Although most of the IPs of these fake trackers are already blocked by blocklist software like PeerGuardian, they still manage to collect the IP addresses of thousands of users who do fall for this trap. Most torrent site admins are aware of these fakes, and remove them as soon as they are uploaded. It is kind of a paradox. On the one hand anti-piracy organizations send thousands of takedown requests to torrent sites, while they upload fake files with similar titles themselves.
Some might argue that downloading a fake file is not really a criminal offense. And yes, it is doubtful if this evidence will hold up in court. However, the job of organizations like the MPAA is to scare people, and that is often enough for them. The first thing they will probably do is send a letter to your ISP saying that you tried to download so-and-so file. And even if they take it a step further, they try to settle before these things are played out in court.
FakeFinder shows that BitTorrent site admins are trying to track down these fake torrents, and it’s a nice way to expose the darker side of anti-piracy organizations like the MPAA.
Previously: BSA Monitoring BitTorrent Traffic
Next: Torrent Site Carelessly Exposes User Information
69 Responses
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It’s a mind game. A game of trickery. +1 for BT.
It would be great if this list would be integrated automatically in torrent clients as blacklists, with an auto clean of old torrents in it.
* second post * addition *
When I search 24, it gives an amazing long list… :S
Very interesting. Thx.
Would this MPAA fake torrent think count as entrapment in some fashion?
i got hit by downloading a movie on a redflagged connection
A logged attempt to download a fake file would be enough for most ISP’s to bend over for a DMCA subpoena (which bypasses all court procedures, smacks of abuse, and should never have been made legal.)
The RIAA are a big bunch of crybabies living high off the hog.
http://www.substantialincomes.com
My personal solution:
1. Of course, use peerguardian.
2. Always use torpark to get your .torrent files.
or
3. Go to backfox.com first and connect to torrentspy from there.
Proxy is the key to completely avoid these people from ever knowing you\’ve downloaded a .torrent file.
Why not set up some honeypots for the MPAA? Could be as simple as a bot running on an otherwise clean connection with nothing to hide, serially downloading a random selection of these fake torrents.
Then the ISP gets a DMCA subpoena for the honeypots, confiscates the equipment, and we get to read about it on our favorite blogs.
It’s always been a cat/mouse game, and while I don’t condone “piracy”, I think a few megaconglomerates could use some humbling.
If you download a fake torrent and lose your job because of an MPAA threat, would you win a lawsuit against the MPAA?
Wow, that’s just… blah.
Remember, the best way to hurt the MPAA and the RIAA is to always refer to their member companies when talking about them. The negative publicity transfers from a profitless “association” to the actual companies who care very much about their publicity and their image.
The MPAA is not uploading fake torrents, it is Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, and Universal Studios.
The RIAA is not uploading fake torrents, it’s EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, and Universal Music.
@SJ: how about using WUSE instead or RIAA. WUSE, Warner Universal Sony Emi. It helps you remember the big 4 behind the riaa plus it’s descriptive of them :)
It would need a few big sites but it could catch on. You could also use it like this: RIAA WUSE sues dying woman etc.
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