MPAA Caught Uploading Fake Torrents
It is no secret that the MPAA and other anti-piracy organizations track down alleged pirates by uploading fake torrents. Up until now it was always unclear where those files came from, and how to identify them.
The MPAA and other anti-piracy watchdogs try to trap people into downloading fake torrents, so they can collect IP addresses, and send copyright infringement letters to ISPs. They hire a company to put up fake copies of popular movies, music albums, and TV series. They even use pirate like filenames such as “Battlestar Galactica S03E07 REPACK DSR XviD-ORENJi” and “Miami Vice[2006]DvDrip[Eng]-aXXo“.
One of the btjunkie admins has found a unique way to identify trackers that host these fake files, which makes it easy to efficiently remove them.
Virtually all the servers that spread these fake files are located in Southern California and Las Vegas. The administrators of these servers follow patterns that make it easy to identify them. The content of the trackers and seed amounts make them stand out. There are more unique characteristics, but we wont reveal all the tricks because they could take counter measures. Here are some examples of servers that host and track fake torrents:
Tracker 1, Tracker 2, Tracker 3 & Tracker 4. (Screenshots: One & Two)
All the information was provided to me by one of the admins of btjunkie, who works together on this with other torrent site admins. He says that the MPAA and friends use a variety of tactics. The tracker will either stall everyone at around 90% or the content will just be a blank monochrome screen.
“I really think this is being done by professionals with a budget, that’s a lot of servers to setup and it takes some expertise to setup in the manner that they did it,” says the btjunkie admin. “I don’t think I really need to say who would spend money on something like this.”
Here are some good examples of how these fake torrents clutter up the search results. Virtually all of those X marked torrents are coming from the ip-ranges we mentioned, and are fake files. The good thing is that Torrentportal’s report system is well used by their users.
The server boxes that host these torrents fall in serveral ip-ranges. Here are a few of the ranges that were discovered recently. You can easily add these to the blocklist of your torrent client (if it supports one), filewall, or blocklist manager.
The anti-piracy servers use hostnames like 101tracker.dhcp.biz, aplustorrents.qhigh.com, bitnova.squirly.info, bittorment.ocry.com, and pirate-trakkrz.leet.la. All these hostnames can be traced back to the same IP Ranges, these ranges contain possibly hundreds of fake trackers, so feel free to block them:
A list of infohashes of fake torrents can be found over here.
Note that it’s not only MPAA material that is hosted on these fake trackers. It is more likely that the servers are owned and operated by an organization that logs IP addresses for several copyright owners and or anti-piracy organizations.
Update: according to one of out readers these ip-ranges belong to “Media Defender“, a company that is hired by copyright owners, to log IP-addresses. This reader, who worked for Media Defender until recently, confirmed that some of the torrents that were mentioned, are indeed on the MPAA’s list.
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201 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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I have a friend created some friggin hard drive that will destroy itself upon the push of a button. Not really destroy but erase and scramble. It will mirror your primary hard drive but erase traces of music, video, and non-critical .exe files. I cant’t tell people how it works exactly but it is the neatest friggin thing in the world!!!
Good thing that entrapment (even by the authorities) is forbidden by law where I live.
Yey to the U.S., the “land of the free”. NOT!
Im increasingly tempted to download every fake torrent from the MPAA/RIAA out there, on a brand new HDD, then just epically shit myself with mirth when my stuff gets raided only to be found ive only EVER downloaded the fake torrents
XD
[quote comment="38106"]Sorry guys but its places like these that are eventually going to make movies and mainstream entertainment obsolete, i mean how do you expect ppl to want to go out and make more movies for you to download if they can’t even make the money back they spent on making them, prepare for the end of mainstream entertainment as we know it.[/quote]
That’s kinda the point I think…
most mainstream media is absolute garbage.
Why do you think people are so quick to steal it…it’s not worth the $10 ticket price (usually).
I think people know enough to support the artists they REALLY like…the simple process of weeding out.
This is why the entertainment industry is kicking and screaming…
they’re becoming obsolete as the best artists are going DIY with their own computers…all they need is a distributor.
But then, I suppose your a big Shrek fan…
If somebody downloads a fake torrent, it’s NOT ILLEGAL, because the user hasn’t downloaded any copyrighted material, just it’s name! So there can’t be anything to scrare if they get you ;)
why dosent the mpaa
just stop all the torrent sites if the are working on stopping all of this, or is it because its not illegal to use torents
does peer guardian automatically update these IPs or do I need to take care of this manually?
Quote “The “intent” of downloading, what was perceived as the copyrighted content by the individual downloading, which constitutes the alleged infringement or crime.
”
Maybe my intent was to download this junk torrent I have heard so many talking about! :-)
The “intent” of downloading, what was perceived as the copyrighted content by the individual downloading, which constitutes the alleged infringement or crime.
Maybe my intent was to download this junk torrent so many people have been talking about to see what all the fuss was. :-)
[quote comment="37951"][quote comment="37897"]doesn’t matter that the content is not real (copyrighted material) it’s the “intent” that would stand up in court. The “intent” of downloading, what was perceived as the copyrighted content by the individual downloading, which constitutes the alleged infringement or crime.
[/quote]
My defence would be, My intent was to download this junk torrent that so many people have been talking about to see what all the fuss was about. :-)
My ISP would lose a shit load if disconnected me considering I also have 2 phone lines with them.
Here’s an idea, why don’t the MPAA (or whatever they are called) just open up a download site or buy them all out. They would make shit loads with all the advertising revenue.(Hmmmmm or maybe they would shut them down if they bought them) Maybe I didn’t think about that enough :-)
if you can’t beat em join em’
I just finished my degree in music business for which I was required to take several copyright law courses. The laws for sex crimes (as many have suggested) are not the same as copyright laws. I know the argument seems logical but it isn’t factual. If a copyright was NOT infringed upon, then no law was broken, regardless of intent. If the MPAA or RIAA are actually trying to trick you into downloading fake files (which there is no real proof of) then it is most likely a scare tactic. Also the people arrested for soliciting prostitution and the men on “To Catch a Predator” are not arrested for intent. The crime was the solicitation itself. They say repeatedly on “To Catch a Predator” that having a conversation of a sexual nature with someone who is believed to be a minor is illegal. They can be arrested even if they never go through with it, or even show up at the house (but it makes for much better TV when they do), but the point is that the crime already happened it wasn’t the intent of a crime that they are arrested for.
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