Copyright Gestapo's tracking methods unveiled - P2P-Zone

TankGirl · 28-08-03, 12:36 PM

From Zeropaid:

Music Industry Unveils Tracking Methods

Wed Aug 27, 5:10 PM ET Add Entertainment - AP to My Yahoo!
By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON - The recording industry provided its most detailed glimpse to date Wednesday into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign to cripple music piracy over the Internet.

The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. The recording industry disputed her defense that songs on her family's computer were from compact discs she had legally purchased.

Using a surprisingly astute technical procedure, the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) examined song files on the woman's computer and traced their digital fingerprints back to the former Napster (news - web sites) file-sharing service, which shut down in 2001 after a court ruled it violated copyright laws.

The RIAA, the trade group for the largest record labels, said it also found other hidden evidence inside the woman's music files suggesting the songs were recorded by other people and distributed across the Internet.

Comparing the Brooklyn woman to a shoplifter, the RIAA told U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola that she was "not an innocent or accidental infringer" and described her lawyer's claims otherwise as "shockingly misleading." The RIAA papers were filed in Washington overnight Tuesday and made available by the court Wednesday.

The woman's lawyer, Daniel N. Ballard of Sacramento, Calif., said the music industry's latest argument was "merely a smokescreen to divert attention" from the related issue of whether her Internet provider, Verizon Internet Services Inc., must turn over her identity under a copyright subpoena.

"You cannot bypass people's constitutional rights to privacy, due process and anonymous association to identify an alleged infringer," Ballard said.

Ballard has asked the court to delay any ruling for two weeks while he prepares detailed arguments, and he noted that his client — identified only as "nycfashiongirl" — has already removed the file-sharing software from her family's computer.

The RIAA accused "nycfashiongirl" of offering more than 900 songs by the Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson (news) and others for illegal download, along with 200 other computer files that included at least one full-length movie, "Pretty Woman."

The RIAA's latest court papers describe in unprecedented detail some sophisticated forensic techniques used by its investigators. These disclosures were even more detailed than answers the RIAA provided weeks ago at the request of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who has promised hearings into the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders.

For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of digital fingerprints, called "hashes," that it said can uniquely identify MP3 music files that had been traded on the Napster service as far back as May 2000. Examining hashes is commonly used by the FBI (news - web sites) and other computer investigators in hacker cases.

By comparing the fingerprints of music files on a person's computer against its library, the RIAA believes it can determine in some cases whether someone recorded a song from a legally purchased CD or downloaded it from someone else over the Internet.

Copyright lawyers said it remains unresolved whether consumers can legally download copies of songs on a CD they purchased rather than making digital copies themselves. But finding MP3 music files that precisely match copies that have been traded online could be evidence a person participated in file-sharing services.

"The source for nycfashiongirl's sound recordings was not her own personal CDs," the RIAA's lawyers wrote.

The recording industry also disclosed that it is examining so-called "metadata" tags, hidden snippets of information embedded within many MP3 music files. In this case, lawyers wrote, they found evidence that others — including one user who called himself "Atomic Playboy" — had recorded the music files and that some songs had been downloaded from known pirate Web sites.

An RIAA vice president, Jonathan Whitehead, said evidence proved the Brooklyn woman was "hardly an unwitting or passive participant in the events that involve her computer."

The recording industry has won approval for more than 1,300 subpoenas compelling Internet providers to identify computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet.

The RIAA has said it expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages as early as next month. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the RIAA has said it would be open to settlement proposals from defendants.

The campaign comes just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files.

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites) permits music companies to force Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected music pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's office, without a judge's signature required.

JackSpratts · 28-08-03, 01:41 PM

Proof they practice in front of mirrors: "The RIAA described her claims as ‘shockingly misleading.’

The RIAA goons are busy beavers, no doubt about it. These are a few more ways they’ll try to make your life interesting.

- js.

Monsters of Rock
Andrew Zolli

Peer-to-peer special ops have already begun. The labels have quietly contracted elite gray-hat hackers and small computer security companies to thwart music file-sharing. According to one self-described anti-pirate, "It's eye-for-an-eye time." Here are some of the anti-P2P programs and their industry codenames.

Antinode Creates fake "supernodes," signposts used by some file-sharing technologies (Kazaa, for example) to guide users' computers to files. The pseudo-supernodes distribute misleading file information.

Fester Puts the word out on file-sharing networks that RIAA servers have music files for download. The servers redirect users to black hole sites, tying them up indefinitely. Newer P2P clients drop useless connections more quickly, so this approach may already be obsolete.

Freeze Uses an existing bug in P2P clients to remotely "hang" computers hunting for MP3s. The result could be more than mere frustration - unsaved data can be lost during a long hang. It's in development now.

Shame If implemented, would distribute a benign P2P virus in an illegal media file that adds the words "I steal music on the Internet" to a user's email signature. Expect to see that appear as a slogan on T-shirts a few minutes later.

Silence Scans computers on P2P networks for illegal material, hacks into the pirate machine, and deletes the data. One problem: Early versions delete legal MP3s, too.

Suck Scours the Net for large libraries of MP3s, and then starts asking for files. And asking. And asking. Eventually, the requests clog library owners' connections like hair in a pipe - and if the RIAA is using that bandwidth, then nobody else is. As a bonus, this approach generates huge volumes of data traffic, driving up pirates' usage and incurring the wrath of ISPs.

Tattle Recruits other industries. If you have lots of liberated music, chances are you also have a few pieces of software that fell off the back of a truck. Recording industry bots already track online piracy - insiders have suggested the RIAA share that information with the software and movie industries.

http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...readid=173256, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...art.html?pg=12

goldie · 28-08-03, 05:29 PM

I'm really beginning feel quite ill............................

multi · 28-08-03, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Shame If implemented, would distribute a benign P2P virus in an illegal media file that adds the words "I steal music on the Internet" to a user's email signature. Expect to see that appear as a slogan on T-shirts a few minutes later.

lol

someone should make fortune from that one...

Quote:

Suck Scours the Net for large libraries of MP3s, and then starts asking for files. And asking. And asking. Eventually, the requests clog library owners' connections like hair in a pipe - and if the RIAA is using that bandwidth, then nobody else is. As a bonus, this approach generates huge volumes of data traffic, driving up pirates' usage and incurring the wrath of ISPs.

this imo..would be the most effective
in a lot of cases..

assorted · 29-08-03, 02:38 AM

Suck is a neat idea to stop trading, but the problem is in it's practice. I think it will take too many connections to really knock out all the large traders. How many could they realistically knock out that way with their servers and bandwidth? 5% of all large traders? If that? It would also be easy to fight, as an IP ban would fix it right up. Files that would rewrite your favorite p2p to ban the baddie IP addresses would start popping up and Suck would have to start changing there IP addresses, only to get nailed when everyone updates there IP list. I like the idea, but it wouldn't really work.

Shame is much less effective and I'm really rooting for them to try this. If that's all the virus does I'd give it to myself AND buy the tshirt! Of course giving users any form of virus is illegal under any circumstance and should remain so for the obvious idea of future misapplication and sheer precedent.

The goal of both of these is to make p2p trading more of a pain in the ass so that what they are selling is more lucrative (aka: the bottled water metaphor). The side of me that wants this struggle to work out in a compromise is actually kind of for these ideas as opposed to making congress create laws that make p2p users felons. I like the idea of p2p being allowed to exist as a virus strewn, giant queued wasteland with cheap (.50-$1 a track), high speed, high quality mp3s available of complete label catalogues available for those willing to pay. In that world freedom of speech survives, p2p survives and choice survives. People that don't want to bother working looking for stuff on the networks will buy it and those that CAN be bothered (teenagers, broke motherfuckers, hobbyists) will. If there was a Dead Can Dance or Pixies album I really wanted immediately in a fit of impulse nostalgia and I could get it high speed at the touch of a button... I would be very tempted to pay for it at .50-$1 a track instead of tracking it down song by song.

Of course, if the RIAA blows it and starts treating people like me like felons they are going to blow it and I'm NEVER GOING TO BUY ANYTHING FROM THEIR MEMBER COMPANIES AGAIN. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

multi · 29-08-03, 04:13 AM

they caught the person that released the early copy of the hulk
cnet

assorted · 29-08-03, 12:01 PM

i'm not gonna do any permanent boycotting over them getting the actual person that leaked a film. while i cheer the people who leak films and music, the movie and music studios have a right to go after (yes, criminally) the person that is taking their tapes and leaking them.

there is a clear difference between targetting THE GUY that unleashed the hulk before it was released or THE GUY that stole the unmixed radiohead tapes from the studio and going after "jimmy" for sharing whatever.

cindy · 29-08-03, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by assorted

there is a clear difference between targetting THE GUY that unleashed the hulk before it was released or THE GUY that stole the unmixed radiohead tapes from the studio and going after "jimmy" for sharing whatever.

how can you be for the one and not for the OTHER? Seems to me if you benefit from the original theft than that also makes you an accessorie to a crime. Just like buying stolen goods in the parking lot at *CENSORED*. Just because you didn't actually STEAL the goods in the first place...DOESN'T make you "less guilty".

If the people who stole from warehouses to distribute hot merchandise had no "market" (i.e., "you" to buy from them) then they wouldn't do it as it wouldn't be profitable for them to do so.

Unfortunately the "motivations" behind "stealing" a movie to release it FIRST on the internet aren't motivated by things as simply at monetary gain. Its still "wrong" but we as p2p pirates support these actions....why?

assorted · 29-08-03, 06:24 PM

hey hey harby.

as i said i see a clear difference. if you don't see that difference that's cool. it's all opinion, after all.

Ðiego · 30-08-03, 03:02 AM

Nice dress..

Ð

multi · 31-08-03, 01:34 AM

by geffers

Quote:

There is a programme just released called Pop Cop(dont get confused with popup
cop) its download addy is

w**.surferdepot.com

This website is a Nuke Pirate Setup..please do not go there.
Over the next few weeks no doubt other programmes will be released with the same
addy..Keep Away...Already a forum has been taken down by it.

not sure what all this is about..but best stay wary of it anyway..

28-08-03, 12:36 PM	#1
TankGirl Madame Comrade Join Date: May 2000 Location: Area 25 Posts: 5,587	Copyright Gestapo's tracking methods unveiled From Zeropaid: Music Industry Unveils Tracking Methods Wed Aug 27, 5:10 PM ET Add Entertainment - AP to My Yahoo! By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer WASHINGTON - The recording industry provided its most detailed glimpse to date Wednesday into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign to cripple music piracy over the Internet. The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. The recording industry disputed her defense that songs on her family's computer were from compact discs she had legally purchased. Using a surprisingly astute technical procedure, the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) examined song files on the woman's computer and traced their digital fingerprints back to the former Napster (news - web sites) file-sharing service, which shut down in 2001 after a court ruled it violated copyright laws. The RIAA, the trade group for the largest record labels, said it also found other hidden evidence inside the woman's music files suggesting the songs were recorded by other people and distributed across the Internet. Comparing the Brooklyn woman to a shoplifter, the RIAA told U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola that she was "not an innocent or accidental infringer" and described her lawyer's claims otherwise as "shockingly misleading." The RIAA papers were filed in Washington overnight Tuesday and made available by the court Wednesday. The woman's lawyer, Daniel N. Ballard of Sacramento, Calif., said the music industry's latest argument was "merely a smokescreen to divert attention" from the related issue of whether her Internet provider, Verizon Internet Services Inc., must turn over her identity under a copyright subpoena. "You cannot bypass people's constitutional rights to privacy, due process and anonymous association to identify an alleged infringer," Ballard said. Ballard has asked the court to delay any ruling for two weeks while he prepares detailed arguments, and he noted that his client — identified only as "nycfashiongirl" — has already removed the file-sharing software from her family's computer. The RIAA accused "nycfashiongirl" of offering more than 900 songs by the Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson (news) and others for illegal download, along with 200 other computer files that included at least one full-length movie, "Pretty Woman." The RIAA's latest court papers describe in unprecedented detail some sophisticated forensic techniques used by its investigators. These disclosures were even more detailed than answers the RIAA provided weeks ago at the request of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who has promised hearings into the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders. For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of digital fingerprints, called "hashes," that it said can uniquely identify MP3 music files that had been traded on the Napster service as far back as May 2000. Examining hashes is commonly used by the FBI (news - web sites) and other computer investigators in hacker cases. By comparing the fingerprints of music files on a person's computer against its library, the RIAA believes it can determine in some cases whether someone recorded a song from a legally purchased CD or downloaded it from someone else over the Internet. Copyright lawyers said it remains unresolved whether consumers can legally download copies of songs on a CD they purchased rather than making digital copies themselves. But finding MP3 music files that precisely match copies that have been traded online could be evidence a person participated in file-sharing services. "The source for nycfashiongirl's sound recordings was not her own personal CDs," the RIAA's lawyers wrote. The recording industry also disclosed that it is examining so-called "metadata" tags, hidden snippets of information embedded within many MP3 music files. In this case, lawyers wrote, they found evidence that others — including one user who called himself "Atomic Playboy" — had recorded the music files and that some songs had been downloaded from known pirate Web sites. An RIAA vice president, Jonathan Whitehead, said evidence proved the Brooklyn woman was "hardly an unwitting or passive participant in the events that involve her computer." The recording industry has won approval for more than 1,300 subpoenas compelling Internet providers to identify computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet. The RIAA has said it expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages as early as next month. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the RIAA has said it would be open to settlement proposals from defendants. The campaign comes just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites) permits music companies to force Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected music pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's office, without a judge's signature required.

29-08-03, 02:38 AM	#5
assorted WAH! Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 725	Suck is a neat idea to stop trading, but the problem is in it's practice. I think it will take too many connections to really knock out all the large traders. How many could they realistically knock out that way with their servers and bandwidth? 5% of all large traders? If that? It would also be easy to fight, as an IP ban would fix it right up. Files that would rewrite your favorite p2p to ban the baddie IP addresses would start popping up and Suck would have to start changing there IP addresses, only to get nailed when everyone updates there IP list. I like the idea, but it wouldn't really work. Shame is much less effective and I'm really rooting for them to try this. If that's all the virus does I'd give it to myself AND buy the tshirt! Of course giving users any form of virus is illegal under any circumstance and should remain so for the obvious idea of future misapplication and sheer precedent. The goal of both of these is to make p2p trading more of a pain in the ass so that what they are selling is more lucrative (aka: the bottled water metaphor). The side of me that wants this struggle to work out in a compromise is actually kind of for these ideas as opposed to making congress create laws that make p2p users felons. I like the idea of p2p being allowed to exist as a virus strewn, giant queued wasteland with cheap (.50-$1 a track), high speed, high quality mp3s available of complete label catalogues available for those willing to pay. In that world freedom of speech survives, p2p survives and choice survives. People that don't want to bother working looking for stuff on the networks will buy it and those that CAN be bothered (teenagers, broke motherfuckers, hobbyists) will. If there was a Dead Can Dance or Pixies album I really wanted immediately in a fit of impulse nostalgia and I could get it high speed at the touch of a button... I would be very tempted to pay for it at .50-$1 a track instead of tracking it down song by song. Of course, if the RIAA blows it and starts treating people like me like felons they are going to blow it and I'm NEVER GOING TO BUY ANYTHING FROM THEIR MEMBER COMPANIES AGAIN. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. __________________ I hate hate haters

29-08-03, 04:13 AM	#6
multi Thanks for being with arse Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The other side of the world Posts: 10,343	they caught the person that released the early copy of the hulk cnet __________________ i beat the internet - the end boss is hard Secret Temple of It

29-08-03, 12:01 PM	#7
assorted WAH! Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 725	i'm not gonna do any permanent boycotting over them getting the actual person that leaked a film. while i cheer the people who leak films and music, the movie and music studios have a right to go after (yes, criminally) the person that is taking their tapes and leaking them. there is a clear difference between targetting THE GUY that unleashed the hulk before it was released or THE GUY that stole the unmixed radiohead tapes from the studio and going after "jimmy" for sharing whatever. __________________ I hate hate haters

29-08-03, 06:24 PM	#9
assorted WAH! Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 725	hey hey harby. as i said i see a clear difference. if you don't see that difference that's cool. it's all opinion, after all. __________________ I hate hate haters

28-08-03, 01:41 PM	#2
JackSpratts Join Date: May 2001 Location: New England Posts: 10,017	Proof they practice in front of mirrors: "The RIAA described her claims as ‘shockingly misleading.’ The RIAA goons are busy beavers, no doubt about it. These are a few more ways they’ll try to make your life interesting. - js. Monsters of Rock Andrew Zolli Peer-to-peer special ops have already begun. The labels have quietly contracted elite gray-hat hackers and small computer security companies to thwart music file-sharing. According to one self-described anti-pirate, "It's eye-for-an-eye time." Here are some of the anti-P2P programs and their industry codenames. Antinode Creates fake "supernodes," signposts used by some file-sharing technologies (Kazaa, for example) to guide users' computers to files. The pseudo-supernodes distribute misleading file information. Fester Puts the word out on file-sharing networks that RIAA servers have music files for download. The servers redirect users to black hole sites, tying them up indefinitely. Newer P2P clients drop useless connections more quickly, so this approach may already be obsolete. Freeze Uses an existing bug in P2P clients to remotely "hang" computers hunting for MP3s. The result could be more than mere frustration - unsaved data can be lost during a long hang. It's in development now. Shame If implemented, would distribute a benign P2P virus in an illegal media file that adds the words "I steal music on the Internet" to a user's email signature. Expect to see that appear as a slogan on T-shirts a few minutes later. Silence Scans computers on P2P networks for illegal material, hacks into the pirate machine, and deletes the data. One problem: Early versions delete legal MP3s, too. Suck Scours the Net for large libraries of MP3s, and then starts asking for files. And asking. And asking. Eventually, the requests clog library owners' connections like hair in a pipe - and if the RIAA is using that bandwidth, then nobody else is. As a bonus, this approach generates huge volumes of data traffic, driving up pirates' usage and incurring the wrath of ISPs. Tattle Recruits other industries. If you have lots of liberated music, chances are you also have a few pieces of software that fell off the back of a truck. Recording industry bots already track online piracy - insiders have suggested the RIAA share that information with the software and movie industries. http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...readid=173256, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...art.html?pg=12

28-08-03, 05:29 PM	#3
goldie yea, it's me. Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: usa Posts: 2,093	I'm really beginning feel quite ill............................

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