Federal Trade Commision Debunks P2P Spyware Claim

[GhostShip]

An interesting article, and unusually full of common sense    

http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=837

For years, various copyright entities have attempted to dissuade the usage of P2P and file-sharing technologies by various means. One method most particularly utilized was to spread the myth that file-sharing or P2P networks are infested with viruses, Trojans, undesirable forms of pornography and other vermin such as spyware.
While there are some risks involved with P2P and file-sharing, they largely appear to be blown out of proportion. Pro-P2P advocates stated that engaging in file-sharing poses the same risks as other forms of Internet technologies, while anti-P2P advocates suggested the contrary. However, the FTC stated in their press release there is no evidence to suggest that P2P or file-sharing poses a greater risk than other forms of Internet surfing.

This is something that was often used to scare the ignorant and I,m glad a reputable body has decided to make the situation clear.

My opinion is even this, most p2p users are made welll aware by their fellow users that there may be a small risk and take precautions, by installing suggested prevention tools, so in fact compared to the average non p2p user we are more than able to aviod any infection, and have a bigger team of folks to help fix any problems if things do go wrong.

Get a pdf version of the report here for further detailed reading

http://www.ftc.gov/reports/p2p05/050623p2prpt.pdf

 

[p2p rules]

The Perils of P2P

Because of extreme and anonymous connectivity, P2P users are exposed to a variety of security and privacy hazards, including flaws that provide easy access to hackers, machine crashes and loss of privacy.
In 2002, the Kazaa program was covertly bundled with spyware from Brilliant Digital Media, which is used to monitor behaviour and browsing habits for target-marketing purposes.
Spyware can be embedded with a "Trojan Horse", an executable code that may leak information, corrupt files or allow system commandeering by a hacker. In January 2002, a P2P spyware program that was bundled with four separate file-sharing networks was classified as a "Trojan Horse".
Almost half of the 4,778 executable files downloaded in a one month period through the popular Kazaa file-sharing network were infected with malicious code like viruses and Trojan Horses.
At least 9 reported viruses that spread via file-sharing networks have been identified (there are undoubtedly more). Users become contaminated when downloading infected shared files.
Young users of peer-to-peer networks are at significant risk of inadvertent exposure to pornography. In a search using innocuous keywords likely to be used by children (i.e. "Britney Spears", "the Olsen twins" and "Pokemon"), more than half of the images downloaded were classified as adult or cartoon pornography.
Nearly 6 million video, image and other files identified as "xxx", "porn" or "sex" were available to be downloaded on one of the popular P2P networks in a 2 day period.
Current parental control programs designed to block children's access to pornography on the Web are generally ineffective when applied to file-sharing networks, as most such programs filter out files based on what would normally be considered completely benign keywords; as noted above.

quotes from the CRIA website.They're canadian version of the RIAA.It looks like they're trying to spread the same BS too.