Certain Torrent Sites To Help MPAA

[GhostShip]

Folks this sort of sell out by sites that should know better is to put it bluntly, wrong.

http://www.slyck.com/story1509_isoHunt_and_TorrentSpy_to_Filter_Torrents

Just when BitTorrent fans didn't think the situation could possibly get any worse, news has surfaced that both sites will begin filtering copyrighted work. News.com and Wired blogs are reporting that Justin Bunnell has started a DRM (Digital Rights Managment) company named FileRights, which will serve to assist content owners remove unauthorized content.

"With FileRights we used the community networking power of the Web to automate and aggregate the entire copyright filtration process," Bunnell said. "Torrentspy now uses the FileRights cooperative filtering process to filter search results on its popular search engine."

isoHunt is also a "compliant" website, according to FileRights.com. So what's this all about? Basically, it’s a method to automate the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notification process. With FileRights, the content owner submits the file's name and hash code. Because presumably the hash code for "great_movie.avi.torrent" will be identical each time a user tries to upload the file, the amount of work (namely a DMCA notice) will be reduced.

Its a shame well known sites like this introduce filtering for content as now they can be legally attacked for any breakdowns in its operation, this wouldnt be the case if they didnt have the system in the first place.

My major complaint is that this indicates to any Judge in the current case they are appealing that they have been negligent in not applying this system before and this weakens the case for not forcing them to take action that violates every privacy promise they made to their users, closure would be the honourable thing to do at this point.

[bughunter]

lets be honest here p2p torrent sites are in it for the money, hence all the advertising on there sites..........
despite what they have said in the past ,they couldnt care less about the users,they simply use user statistics to get more advertising revenue..............
yes you right closure is the honourable thing to do, but like so many involved in either trying to obtain revenue ( pie ) to those that do make a load of cash( isohunt) etc, there not honourable, money drives them and they will hang on as long as possible..........
but this is of course is  good news for winmx, will soon be a lot of file sharers about looking for a new home...........
as you have rightly pointed out this is now the beginning of the end for torrents, as there case for not content filtering has all but evapourated..............
if we could now only summon the courage to remove pie from winmx and thus the cartel and there fakes, udp doss and denial of service attacks, what a advertising bonnaza this would represent to all those masses of file sharers who will soon be looking for a new home.................food for thought.....................

[SamSeeSam]

Well there will always be some torrent sites that are user driven, piratebay, for instance so its not the end of the road. Users will simply shift and those sites that try to scam will die double quick.

Cheers

[chuck]

 I understand that this is in the USA but we all see how things spread fast when greed comes in .We all know how greedy the RIAA is could this come to other countries soon? and what would this meen to the servers for mx? if god forbid this spreads.RAM hmm whats next?


Two weeks ago, a judge ruled that BitTorrent search engine Torrentspy was required to enable server logs and turn the information over to the MPAA as part of the discovery process (the MPAA is suing Torrentspy for contributing to copyright infringement). That ruling was based on the theory that the information in question is already stored in RAM and therefore already exists; Torrentspy would not actually need to log any new data, just record what was already passing through its servers. The legal implications of this argument are staggering, and two technology groups have just pointed them out to the court in a new amicus brief.

In the filing, the EFF and CDT say that the judge's decision "would mark a radical expansion of the scope of federal electronic discovery obligations... Virtually every business in the United States relies on digital technologies for all kinds of communications. And virtually every function carried out by those technologies depends on and results in the temporary creation of RAM data that is not ordinarily retained." If the ruling stands, companies might be forced to archive any potentially-useful information that appears in a PC's RAM or face the prospect of penalties if they are sued and cannot produce the data.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070625-eff-and-cdt-torrentspy-decision-could-spell-end-of-internet-privacy.html

[KM]

and what would this meen to the servers for mx?

erm, exactly, what would it mean for anything to do with it? i see no connection at all, a couple *more* torrent websites sold out to the industry groups for a quick buck (it's hardly the first time it's happened)... i see nothing there that would make anyone think this has anything to do with winmx...

[chuck]

Erm Well Km the ruling that info from ram would need to be loged like the ips that connect to mx servers. thats what. Its not there yet but who knowes what  tomarrow will bring.

[chuck]

 Km you have allways said that the only info the servers had on mx users was held in ram and only for short times.And that you had no logs on ram now they are saying that you need to keep logs of ram use.I think this is going to open a can of worms and change many things as far as P2P and web sites.I understand and agree that useing P2p is not against the law any where at this time.But everyone has to agree that things change fast and normaly not for the good.
My question was more to what will happen if ram logs have to be maintained in the future for all web apps. Our IP's are only seen on winmx servers in ram if what youve said in the past is true,and no logs have been kept of them.As far as Bt sites rolling over for the man im not suprised but the loging of ram is some thing we should all worry about.Not just for Winmx but all P2p programs.

[KM]

and your point is?

[White Stripes]

i dont even see how it would be technically possible to 'log' ram considering its speed vs harddrive speed and the lack of an 'infinite' harddrive...

log only the IPs you say? but what about other information that 'should' have been logged according to future cases based around this...

this will be overturned... its too far fetched and too far reaching...

[GhostShip]

The only person this ruling would affect is Sabre as his pie peer cache is in the US but he logs users addresses anyway against our advice.

We are not in the US and nor are any of our sites or site operators, so they can go whistle dixie as far as we are concerned with this change in their law

I dont believe this ruling will stand as its based on a false technical premise as can be shown simply to the judge, ram is not stored information as its being updated and over written thousands of time a second, that is transitory information and only a most junior and untechnical Judge would be persuaded otherwise.

[KM]

one of the peer caches is currently in the US, for redundancy, but that's all rather irrelevant as the servers see no information that could be used as evidence in any court case and therefore no court would be able to order any such information from the servers

[chuck]

 Ty Ghost you are the only one that understands what i was asking .I agree with you on loging ram . I know your servers are not in the usa i allso know that many laws in the us are now trying to be used in other countrys.Km some times you remind me of snip with your answers.Sorry but its true.You have allways said if the riaa or anyone other made demands on the servers you had no logs to give them all was handled in ram.What they are trying to do is say ram needs to be loged.That is bad for all p2p if they can make this hold. They will find a way to use this info one way or the other. Lets hope this never sees light.

[KM]

give me a single reason why (assuming it was technically feasible) it would be in any way a bad idea to not only log the data, but publish it at a publicly accessible URL showing say the last 100 users that queried the caches?

i assume you are trying to claim that by using a p2p network anyone who holds any form of copyright is entitled to the contents of your bank account? if that is what you believe then feel free to send me your account details so i can empty it, i am of course one of those copyright holders along with everyone who has ever produced anything of value... (but make sure i get there first so that I can enjoy the vodka you're buying, instead of some rich person who already has enough money to buy their own vodka)

[bughunter]

also even if a court orderd the cache servers run by sabre and km to hand over there logs, it wouldnt help the cartel in any letigation as being on winmx such as in a room  isnt illegal and doesnt imply that you are in some way breeching copywrite by being there,

as all the cache servers could do is verify that you were on winmx and any data  such as a file transfer isnt logged by the caches, as it doesnt pass thru them, the beauty of a decentralized network(winmx) as against a centralized network (napster)

thats of course if its even possible to somehow extract any data temporilly held in ram for only a splitt second to some form of log.........
as already pointed out by other posters the cartel is dreaming.................

[sIrMoOn]

but make sure i get there first so that I can enjoy the vodka you're buying

Vodka - now you're talking KM.  Want to be drinking buddies? = )