RIAA and MPAA Can’t Stop BitTorrent, Study Finds
Written by Ernesto on October 14, 2009For years RIAA and MPAA members have hired companies to attack popular BitTorrent swarms in an attempt to interfere with their downloads. According to a recently published paper by New York University researchers, these attacks are highly ineffective. At best, they slow downloads for a few minutes, something most users don’t even notice.
Record labels and movie studios are willing to pay serious cash to protect their content from being shared on BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks. They have paid millions of dollars to anti-piracy outfits such as MediaDefender who in return promise to do all they can to distribute fake and polluted downloads.
According to a recently published paper by Prithula Dhungel, Di Wub and Keith Ross, these effort are a waste of time and money. In the paper titled “Measurement and mitigation of BitTorrent leecher attacks,” the researchers show that BitTorrent swarms are hardly influenced by attacks from anti-piracy outfits.
The research looked into the effectiveness of two popular attack methods used by companies such as MediaDefender. The first is a ‘piece attack’ where the hostile leecher attempts to slow down downloads by creating as many hash fails as possible. The second method is the ‘connection attack’ where the hostile leechers try to tie up as many TCP connections as possible in order to make it impossible for downloaders to connect to real peers.
The different methods were tested in a real-life BitTorrent swarm of a popular music album that was targeted by these attacks. “We present measurement results for a torrent for a new album, which was verified to be under attack,” the researchers report, adding “This popular album was released a few weeks before our experiments. At the time of the experiment, it held the number 1 position on the UK album chart and iTunes ranking list.”
The researchers then downloaded the ‘attacked’ torrent several times with both Azureus (Vuze) and uTorrent. For each download they recorded the time it took to complete, both with and without using blocklist software that bans (some) of the attackers’ IP-addresses.
The results were quite remarkable. The researchers found that, on average, downloads with a blocklist were 30 to 35% faster. In other words, the efforts of the anti-piracy outfits do slow down the targeted swarms, but only for a few minutes at most, and not long enough to deter anyone from downloading.
A more detailed look at the peer distribution of the two BitTorrent clients further reveals that without the IP-filters, uTorrent encounters only 2% of malicious peers, who all use the ‘piece attack’ method. Azureus on the other hand encountered no ‘piece attack’ peers at all, but 18% ‘connection attack’ peers.
Not surprisingly, the researchers conclude from their research that the methods used to attack BitTorrent swarms are highly ineffective. “The anti-P2P companies are not currently successful at stopping the distribution of targeted assets over BitTorrent. We have also found that blacklist-based IP filtering is insufficient to filter out all the attackers,” the researchers write.
What the researchers have overlooked is that both Azureus and uTorrent have implemented various technological measures against these automated attacks. The results may differ for other BitTorrent clients. Azureus (now Vuze) has put a lot of work in preventing ‘piece attacks’ and uTorrent has implemented similar anti-pollution measures.
The overall conclusion put forward in the article is most likely the right one, and to most people not even that surprising. The millions of dollars spent by the entertainment industry to protect their works from being shared on BitTorrent is at best only a mild annoyance to the ‘pirates’.
Via.
Previously: Alleged Pirate Walks Free Under New Anti-Piracy Law
Next: AFACT v iiNet: Day 8 – Anti-Piracy Evidence Lacking
94 Responses
I never noticed anything slowing my downloads, but maybe I never touched anything under attack.
It is somewhat comforting to know that such tactics don’t work.
It should also be pointed out, that this study only examined swarm poisoning. It didn’t test or examine in any way logging methods, used for litigation.
While poisoning is easily identified, logging can not be detected at all, and so peers that do so can not be added to blocklists.
Long Live Bit Torrent.
Don’t need studies to tell us this.
One day I read a Hulk comic book. The guy was trying to punch the rain.
@5 hat off sir
Replay to post 5. The RIAA should try suing rain and see if it makes a difference. I’m not surprised they didn’t so far
“Record labels and movie studios are willing to pay serious cash to protect their content from being shared on BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks. They have paid millions of dollars to anti-piracy outfits such as MediaDefender who in return promise to do all they can to distribute fake and polluted downloads.”
So those millions just just wasted could have gone to the artists they are so fruitlessly attempting to defend and save. Goes to show where their ‘heart’ *truely* is.
I use the latest ipfilter.dat. In advanced settings I changed the ip ban ratio so if I get 1 piece from an ip, I ban that! Those ips that I get bad pieces from are always using a dynamic ip so it’s not good if i start to ban those. However ipfilter is recommended to everyone for your own security. It is a reliable database where there are ip ranges of anti p2p company names.
If i get one BAD piece sorry i mistyped
35 % is more than just a few minutes for many torrents.
The researchers admit they broke the law with their study…
Now we can argue about Peer Guardian again. ;)
@9: ipfilter.dat provides a false sense of security, and a single bad piece isn’t an indication of swarm poisoning.
Maybe if they made better movies and music, I’d pay to go see them. Where are movies like The Godfather, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, or The Deer Hunter? It seems everything is PG-13, Eddie Murphy as a woman in a fat suit or Sci-Fi, that is so over the top, my kids don’t even want to watch. All garbage. Music sucks too. Where are all the good rock bands? F*ck top forty, techno, rap,and dance music. Where is the music and movies for men? Where are the Soundgarden or Nirvana’s of today?
Oh yeah!
Nothing can stop the sharing!
Nothing can stop the people!
@2
Torrent trackers should ban loggers !
Great news for all of us who hate bigwig greedy studios who ripoff their artists and the general public.
And I might add about my boycott of all things Hollywood.
1.Do not buy any new movies
2.buy all movies used and help out your local economy instead.stores in your city/town sell used movies and have workers who need paychecks so help out your locals this way.
3.buy new tv boxsets so you can support the shows you watch on television.sometimes it helps a show to get a new season by buying the boxsets that come out
What a fuckwitted way to skin a cat. The cost of contracting the likes of “Mediadefender” will doubtless be passed on to the consumer, thereby inflating the cost of overpriced yet cheap-as-chips to produce CDs and DVDs.
Surely the MPAA and RIAA should have the sense to *reduce* the retail price of CDs and DVDs.
Perhaps they could reduce the price by something like the amount they are throwing at “Mediadefender”, and that might ratchet up a few extra sales. If they were to reduce the price a bit more (by lowering the profit margin a little) they might even see a stronger growth in sales.
@13 The decent rock bands are still out there, they’re just not released by majors, which is why you shouldn’t buy from them.
I don’t know why you lumped techno in with those other mainstream genres, it’s all released by indie bedroom producers.
Are uTorrent’s defenses against these kinds of attacks also in the mainline BitTorrent client?
Haha. FVck heads. You can’t stop us.
That still annoys me though.
They’re our networks.
How would record stores such as HMV or Virgin like it if we accidentally spilled a large McDonalds milkshake all over their CD/DVD displays?
I use utorrent via a VPN, no other security or ‘measures’, add a torrent have a coffee and come back or continue with my work… and check after a while and its done.
I had no idea these idiots were still trying to pollute the swarm or even mess with it – just goes to show how effective their methods are.
As for the millions spent, im happy and sad at the same time… happy these idiots are throwing away their money, sad to see where they threw it.
Personally, I think that not only can they not stop filesharing, they don’t particularly want to either.
Suing people is a much more profitable business model than people actually buying their products.
when i have most piece attacks, are when i download music.
Movies & Games almost no pollution at all.
We do not want to stop Bittorrent. Only the people using it in a bad way to make lots and lots of money by distributing unauthorized files. We have been listening to you as you have been saying for years now that Bittorrent is invulnerable. Well humans are not. That is why we will focus on the humans that operate the big illegal hotspots while working with nazis, drug addicts, drug traffickers and psyched out hackers with criminal records.
Hello, i know you anti piracy scumbags read the articles on this site, as well as you slimeballs who fund the scumbags, so pause and think about this for a second:
If a download takes us 5 minutes, with all your antics it takes us 6 and a half minutes.
If a download takes us 10 mins, then we gotta wait 13 mins.
If a download takes us 20 mins, then we gotta wait 26 mins.
If a download takes us 30 mins, then we gotta wait 40 mins.
etc
If you were a downloader, would those few extra minutes bother you?
Exactly, it does not bother us either.
@24:
And they don’t have to pay the artists this way =) – they simply can cry about their loss of income and overall damages to get all the money from trials just for themselves
26@:
Distributing it for what money? If I rip a CD I bought and put it on BT, will I get any money of it? Will other people downloading it and then uploading it will earn anything? No. I don’t have to use TPB or other hosting service for .torrent files (so there won’t be any ad revenue) – I can send it simply by email to my friends. There is no illegal income of such sharing.
Anyone know of a good proxy server I can subscribe to that is fast and secure and won’t EVER give my real IP to the MAFIAA??
Spend money on useless crap. They should give the money to the artist instead.
“Record labels and movie studios are willing to pay serious cash to protect their content from being shared on BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks.”
So, basically, they’re losing money because of themselves?
@27
Honestly, the wait wouldn’t bug me all that much, if at all. The only time it would bug me is if I had to download an album and throw it on my iPod before I went to sleep, but that’s hardly an issue.
They continue to try and stop innovation of the digital age instead of attempting to capitalize on it. More and more authors, and even musical artists, are finding that sharing their music for free gives them more sales through merchandising, live shows and gigs.
Yet somehow RIAA and MPAA ignore these facts flat out. They would rather create a false sense of scarcity to the music (including movies) as if it would run out when its technically available infinitely.
It never bugs me either, I don’t care if it takes me days to finish downloading, Because my computer is on 24/7. So I don’t give a fuck..
It never bugs me either, I don’t care if it takes me days to finish downloading, Because my computer is on 24/7.
YOUR DATA WILL BE ADDED TO OUR SWARM
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
LoL @ 11, do you really want to get them started again?
In the last thread that we argued the article leaned towards proof that PG & PB does indeed help, but argue they did..
Personally, I use http://forums.peerblock.com/index.php and until I see a valid reason not to instead of a bunch of long winded BS, I will continue to do so…
35% Ppl. like #11 said, it IS “more than just a few minutes for many torrents.”
@26 “That is why we will focus on the humans that operate the big illegal hotspots while working with nazis, drug addicts, drug traffickers and psyched out hackers with criminal records.”
- …yea, because the main concern is putting a stop to all them damn nazis and crack heads working with the top bt search engines! How many times do you have to punch yourself in the face in the morning to believe the bullshit coming out of your mouth?
MediaDefender and other companies knew their methods are futile for sure, but why would they care to reveal this since the attempt alone brings them millions.
may be i can create a new fake method to stop p2p networks and compete with MediaDefender XD
in a recent study, experts have concluded this to be a “NO DUH” scenerio. months of research and study went into determining the state of this situation. trust me, i’m from the internet.
Does the MPAA and RIAA have shareholders? Spending millions to combat poor people that wouldn’t have paid for it otherwise seems like something a company would do to “appear” to be concerned with the issue, and not necessarily an effective strategy to end it.
Good point, Jay.
With so much deception and counter deception, sometimes it’s hard to figure out where reality ends and the Matrix begins.
MAFIAA = owned.
Loved it lmao
@27
I always watch a show while I eat so if I ever need to download something (an ep of the office or whatever) the longer it takes, obviously the more restless I become.
But that only affected me when I had DSL and even then I’d download entire seasons long before I had to eat
Now, with cable, an episode of the office takes me 5 minutes. That extra minute and a half is nothing.
These companies are just greedy. They think that, like almost everything else in business, the more money you throw at it, the better it gets.
One thing I never understood is how the RIAA and MPAA don’t understand the global market and e-commerce. Look at the porn industry it’s huge and guess what it’s also widely pirated, but they still turn enormous profit! I thought apple stepped in the right direction with I-Tunes and they reaped the benefits of that being 90% of the music download market and they are even selling songs very cheaply. Look at Steam it has become the one-stop-shop for PC gamers. I don’t even go to the store anymore why? Because I can get a game quickly, have auto updates, and it’s cheaper.
These guys need to go back to the drawing board and realize the market has changed and they need too also.
Aaaan this year’s Award of Captain Obvious goes to the study “MAFIAA vs. BitTorrent = MASSIVE FAIL”.
Our consolation prize goes to the study proving that 2×2=4.
2*2=100
I’m totally secure. I download from Pirated Wifi. :D
Let those bastards deal with the Cease & Desist letters!
MuAhAhAHHAHHAhA
Fuck you MPAA & RIAA
http://www.peerblock.com/releases/public-releases/peerblock-1.0.0-r181
thanks for the peerblock h u
Everybody says that RIAA should capitalize on the new technology. But this is a flawed argument. What if RIAA could no capitalize on new technology – would it have meant we should stop using it because someone cannot do business in that field anymore?
I think the correct position is this – if the new technology makes certain businesses obsolete, businesses should move to other fields where their services are needed. RIAA cannot make money using Internet? We couldn’t care less. It is not a tragedy. Laundresses also have lost their businesses when the washing machine appeared. What – we should’ve considered using it illegal too?
How is this “news”?
@Everyone thought #26 was serious…
Come on, I know it’s pretty hard to recognize irony on the ‘net, but the guy wrote with the nick “MAFIAA” and it was such an utter bullshit (even invoking the nazis!)… Do you really need an … tag to recognize the obvious?
Yup, the engine doesn’t like less-than and greater-than signs… so do you really need an [irony]…[/irony] tag around every single ironic comment?
Isn’t interfering with downloads, slowing down speeds on purpose, and sending bad data… like illegal, as in denial of service?
@4
but studios obviously do.
anyway, they could have spent those millions of dollars to reduce release prices to a more acceptable level.
Yea!!! This is great news. Free for everyone!
Let’s sue them back for ruining our downloads! In Norway the Internet is a right! You can’t take away someone’s rights. We have a right to all the content we can download!
bittorent ain’t the only way folks share ,, i was just down at my bro’s place and he’s got near 600 movies that i’m grabbin a copy of and i inturn will share them with my buddy and he inturn will do the same with his buddies ,, it’s an endless hobby :D
Instead of spending millions of dollars trying to stop us, why don’t they offer to pay us to stop using torrents?
@58
I’d like to know what Norway you’re talking about, because in the country – it is not a right.
I should know, I’ve been here for 38 years.
One thing most of us don’t realize is that these entities don’t just want to stop sharing, They want your entertainment dollar. If you spend friday evening knitting, reading, whacking off, or watching torrent movies you wont be feeding their kitty.
They should have spent that money setting up a subscription model distributing their own catalogs via torrents… people would FLOCK to that… we all just want access to the media.. we’re willing to pay, just get us the damn access!!!
I wonder if anyone has audited MPAA/RIAA to see what percent of the dollars they collect actually goes to the artists they supposedly represent.
Also, they should have to PROVE in court, via signed documents, etc. that they actually have been authorized to represent the interests of
EACH song or movie they sue someone for downloading …
Just my opinion.
i use usenet through newshosting.com for $15 bucks/mo. There’s no “cops” because I’m paying a private company for unlimited download bandwidth and they don’t keep server records.
I used to be a mod on an audiowarez IRC group, but that got to be a real dodgeball game and there was always someone out to “get” us.
I think that the O’negro admin is going to bring file sharing to a screeching halt with criminalization (instead of these MAFIAA lawsuits in civil court) and when that happens (and a few high profile cases are made examples of) there’s going to be a whole lot less fun stuff to d/l.
Lesson? (to quote the once popular Janis Joplin) Get it while you can, baby!
Sad, this “hope and change” stuff.
If we ever attacked them we would have a lawsuit filed against us.
Anyone else think that this whole story might have been fabricated, in an effort to make this “MediaDefender” company lose business? Seems like it to me…
Or you could, uh, , -pay- for something.
I’ve been downloading for over a decade now. Napster, Kazaa, Shareaza, DC++ and now Bittorrent. Haven’t downloaded a single fake file ever, nor have I ever been prevented from successfully downloading, not even once.
I used to use IP blacklists (PeerGuardian) but stopped because I felt they had the potential to do more harm than good. As the test showed, they only stop some of the attackers some of the time.
Occasionally legitimate addresses will find their way onto the blacklist and that does a hell of a lot more damage than any attacker could do. Just imagine how much fun downloading would be if your own address ended up on the blacklist for example.
Plus uTorrent does a good job of auto-banning attackers and in all the time I’ve been online I’ve never gotten a cease and desist letter (knock on wood). All blacklists do is give people a false sense of security, just like thinking you’re safe behind glass windows and screen doors lol.
It is all about monthly subscriptions with no limitations. I currently pay for rapidshare for all of my media. Music, Movies and everything else, if the mpaa and riaa realized that people want everything and all the time for a nominal monthly fee. No shitty limits and or copy protection that sucks you into their service for the rest of your life. Let the users feed the fire and the companies stoke the flames, that is how it was before and that is how it should be now.
I stopped buying movies because they won’t play on my PS3 bought oversea when I was on a trip. So more the reason why people are doing what they’re doing.
Meh, shall we go back to IRC?
I’ll trust an encrypted private topsite over a slow torrent any day. :’(
@ 65 Oct 15, 2009 at 15:41 by oOoK
i use usenet through newshosting.com for $15 bucks/mo. There’s no “cops” because I’m paying a private company for unlimited download bandwidth and they don’t keep server records.
I used to be a mod on an audiowarez IRC group, but that got to be a real dodgeball game and there was always someone out to “get” us.
I think that the O’negro admin is going to bring file sharing to a screeching halt with criminalization (instead of these MAFIAA lawsuits in civil court) and when that happens (and a few high profile cases are made examples of) there’s going to be a whole lot less fun stuff to d/l.
Lesson? (to quote the once popular Janis Joplin) Get it while you can, baby!
Sad, this “hope and change” stuff.
If they criminalize it, the sharing of files will just gradually pick back up like it did in sweeden like when they criminalized it. No one one will care, it will just go on. Prob mostly all anon then. They have then accomplished nothing, kind of like what they are doing now. Either way, pirates always win. Legal or not, pirates are here to stay.
We are now entering the Age of Information
a time where information is open source,
but not all is legal.
lol i just thought of something…
it would be fun to organize large groups of people to simultaneously start downloading via BT a file for a certain period of time, then leave it and move on to another file,
the files could be voted for before on some page.
i’d call it, “mobbing”
this would make it very annoying for the company’s like media defender because they wouldn’t know what the next file will be…
+ the downloads would go nice & fast =3
Every game on .torrent seems infected with virus. Steam have the ideal model
With music and movies, instead of selling overpriced movies/music with extras , fancy sleeves big plastic boxes, arrange for online dloads for £2 for albums and £3 for films, I’ll supply my own CD/DVD with no crappy extras, director commentaries etc etc fancy booklets etc and who’d eber bother pirating and facing amssive fine all nice n legal, kill piracy and stop all this nonsense. get your act together follow Radiohead’s model
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
I will often download movies due to being slightly hearing impaired and confined to a wheelchair I can’t “enjoy” the cinema – if I then really like a film I’ll buy a genuine DVD. Destroying torrents and other means would mean I would hardly ever get to see new films before the #DVD release at best and don’t the companies want WOM?
It really is laughable that this is the best form of attack these people can come up with…Off the top of my head I can come up with several better ways….
So if the RIAA or MPAA have any money left, they should send it to me!
…I mean sure mostly I’ll spend it on cake and DVD’s but at least half of it won’t be wasted that way.
The one time I ever encountered MediaDefender trying to pollute a torrent was with a recent music release. And this was not with some current Top 40 artist, it was with an older, established one considered to be part of the Classic Rock genre: Rod Stewart.
They and MediaSentry (at the time a separate company) were hitting that particular torrent like crazy. And when I went back to look for it on Mininova, it had been taken down, less than an hour after it was posted.
I have however encountered MediaDefender trying to DoS the WinMX Peer Network. They’ve been doing this ever since Frontcode shut down its cache servers and the third party ones sprung up to take its place. MediaDefender tried and still tries to flood the network with fake files.
go BitTorrent > beat them.
Even if they could defeat BitTorrent people would start using something else. Split archives are pretty popular these days too (albeit it may not be as secure as a private BT tracker)
I installed this peerblocking thingy.. and downloads from open trackers got much faster. I’m on several private trackers too, but if you use open trackers often i recommend you to install it.
@48
“2*2=100″
You fail at binary math, my friend. :-) Captain Obvious tells you that there 100 equals 10 multiplied by 10.
My first and only thought: Oh fuuckface really?
@84
2*2=4 (base10) = 100 (Base2)
Epic Fail!
@86
That’s exactly what I meant. :-) Please, turn your sense of humor on.
The Internet was designed as a communications medium that would survive a nuclear war. However, it also survives and defensed against these silly attacks as well. It is like the war on drug or the war on terror or “protect the children” moral panics. They are not necessary.
@61
I think he meant Finland…
I think these measures aren’t annoyances at all but rather fun challenges.
These industries don’t get it that the general public including the people that pirate, like challenges, most people these days, even though they have the world and all the entertainment they could ever want, at their fingertips, are still bored.
So giving them challenges like these attacks and tricks is just giving them something fun to do and fight against.
In the end, they still get what they wanted and had some fun flipping the finger at the industries.
their problem is that they are and will always be n00bs how much they ever study computers and internet
you can stop evolution, its as simple as that, its a natural selection.
the greedy bastards must dissapear to make place for the advancement of globalization and because of the natural evolution of humanity from a barbaric animal to a highly intelligent being.
and we just happen to be more intelligent they they will ever be.
Im not worried, im happy that filesharing has brought us together in this great way and that instead of dissapearing or mutual enemy makes us the future and the hope for humanity by bringing together so many freethinking individuals from all the corners f the world to one common conciousness where our combined intelligens and experience is stronger and more powerful then any supercomputer that can ever be built.
Welcome to the future :)
*cant stop evolution (typo)
The convolution criminal rationalizations in defense of stealing — “sharing” proerty which rightfully belongs to someone else — are botrh ludicrous and transparent, beginning with the loudly proclaimed concern for the “exploited artist,” which only means in practice this:
The record (as example) companies steal from the recording artists, so the wsay to teeach the recording companies a lesson we’ll steal from both the companiees AND the artists.
That should help the artists. Sure. Yep. Uhuh.
It’s amazing how pseduo-moral and -ethical are the thieves who spew their falsification of stealing as being virtuous. Not even a pickpocket or mugger could reationalize it better.
LONG LIVE PIRACY !!!
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