Anti-Piracy Blocklists Don’t Keep BitTorrent Spies Out

[silicon_toad2000]

Many privacy-conscious BitTorrent users are well-aware of this kind of monitoring activity and take measures to remain anonymous. The preferred way for many is to use a VPN or proxy which conceals their ISP IP-address.

Another group of BitTorrent users prefer a free option in the form of a blocklist. These blocklists prevent a BitTorrent client from connecting to IP-addresses that presumably belong to anti-piracy outfits.


While these blocklists do provide some “security” they are not foolproof. Some anti-piracy groups are not recognized by the blocklist and therefore not blocked. This means that users who rely on them as their only means of protection are at risk of being logged.

In a new paper titled “The Unbearable Lightness of Monitoring: Direct Monitoring in BitTorrent,” researchers from the University of Birmingham try quantify this problem.

The researchers developed a methodology to detect which “peers” in a swarm are likely to be anti-piracy monitors. The research looked at 60 public torrent files and over a period of time they found 856 peers (on 5 subnets) that showed strong characteristics of monitoring agencies.

This data allowed them to compare their findings to the IP-addresses that are blocked by the popular i-Blocklist blocklist, to see how effective it is at keeping BitTorrent spies out.

Perhaps not surprisingly the blocklists doesn’t offer complete security. 69% of the IP-addresses of monitoring companies were blocked, but the other 31% were not. In other words, nearly one in three logging attempts bypassed the blocklist.

“Our direct monitoring analysis produced 593 peers (out of 856) that appear in subnets listed in the Anti-Infringement list. In addition, our analysis identifies 263 peers that, albeit displaying the same behaviour as monitoring peers do not currently appear in blocklists,” the researchers write.

“BitTorrent users should therefore not rely solely on such speculative blocklists to protect their privacy,” they add, suggesting that these BitTorrent users should add blocklists based on empirical research.

In addition to examining the effectiveness of i-Blocklist, the researchers also identified the prevalence of indirect versus direct detection methods.

In the past, indirect methods – where monitoring companies obtain lists of IP-addresses without connecting to the downloaders – have been heavily criticized. The main problem is that these lead to a high number of false accusations. For example, research has shown that due to shoddy techniques even a network printer can be accused of sharing copyrighted files on BitTorrent.

http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-blocklists-dont-keep-bittorrent-spies-out-120904/

[GhostShip]

This is simply a rehash of what we have been saying for years about overbroad blocklists and blocklist that are too general in validation, they give the impression of defence but they cannot logically be expected to block every anti P2P snooper out there, the snooping also is not in itself evidence of anything bar some titles in a listview window its only if files or parts of files are obtained that any infringement actually takes place, with bit torrent unfortunately this is always the case automatically, with P2P networks each and every sharing user has to be contacted and at least 30 files downloaded to prove their case of "massive" infringement, and in the cases of the past the level was way more than 30 files allegedly shared before legal action was started.

Simple way to stay safe is simply not to play their game and go for the low hanging fruit BT provides, look for material that's copyright expired or free, same with classic books and user written ebooks etc, grabbing the latest movie might feel "hip" but its at considerable risk to wallet.

[Hooked]

Nothing is ever really "fool proof".  I hopped off the BT train a very long time ago.  It's one heck of a way to move data around quickly but as stated, it has serious financial risks.  ...at least it did for me.  I became so paranoid that I started checking log files and IP's against everything that I could find on the net, knowing that I wouldn't catch everything.  Hell, it got so bad that I woke up in a cold sweat from a dream where two men in suits that resembled what you would expect the FBI to wear were standing over my shoulder watching everything I was downloading on my computer.  I tell 'ya, it was so real it was spooky.  ...all I could think about was the impending doom should I get caught up in the "sue them all" drag net that was being cast at the time.

Had I been caught, I would have burned in financial hell for eternity.

[Bluey_412]

But of course, you have now diligently expunged all those naughty files from your libraries and now have only legitimate files, pure as the driven snow...

[White Stripes]

what has hollywood put out lately thats worth even downloading... risk or not...

[silicon_toad2000]

i dont know how lately lately is, but i saw war horse and didn't feel ripped off after seeing it.

[Hooked]

But of course, you have now diligently expunged all those naughty files from your libraries and now have only legitimate files, pure as the driven snow...

Actually, yeah.  I used to have storage HD's that sat idle in my computer parts totes.  Old stuff.  Good stuff.  Then I plugged them in one day and discovered that I didn't listen to that type of music much any more.  I'd seen the movies.  I'd played the games.  Apps had been superceded. Blah, blah, blah.  ...I took them out and shot them with my hunting rifle for fun.  ...now granted, I still get my music fix.  The games, apps, movies, etc. are pretty much long gone. 


Purged do to loss of interest.  No harm in that.

[White Stripes]

i dont know how lately lately is, but i saw war horse and didn't feel ripped off after seeing it.

the trailers for warhorse made me think 'been done' but it may have something to it....  either way i'll wait for it to come to tv...

a good example of what i mean by hollywood being unoriginal is 'battleship' ... a movie of more cg and explosions ...

[Hooked]

i dont know how lately lately is, but i saw war horse and didn't feel ripped off after seeing it.

the trailers for warhorse made me think 'been done' but it may have something to it....  either way i'll wait for it to come to tv...

a good example of what i mean by hollywood being unoriginal is 'battleship' ... a movie of more cg and explosions ...

I couldn't bring myself to see it.  Once I heard the promo clips I was thinking "ohhh look....they're using the same sound stuff from the transformers movie(s)."  Been, Seen, Done.

[silicon_toad2000]

Yeah I can't think of anything else I've seen trailers for that made me want to shell out 20 bucks to go at a specified time and sit somewhere less comfortable than my lounge and pay obscene amounts for a drink and some popcorn

[Bluey_412]

Yeah I can't think of anything else I've seen trailers for that made me want to shell out 20 bucks to go at a specified time and sit somewhere less comfortable than my lounge and pay obscene amounts for a drink and some popcorn

He he, so you go sit at your keyboard and squint at a 2/3 screen-size image

lol

[silicon_toad2000]

or wait to hire the dvd or stream other freely available online content to my tv and sit in my comfortable couch at a time convenient to me.

[White Stripes]

home theater is always better than the blurry 'big' screen at the cinema...

for one you can hit the pause button for bathroom breaks.....