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This is How We Catch You Downloading

torrentfreak.com — All over Europe thousands of people are being threatened with court action for allegedly sharing games like Dream Pinball 3D on P2P networks. Now, documents obtained by TorrentFreak show details of the anti-piracy company's techniques for identifying alleged file-sharers on the internet...

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  • MercedRocks, on 10/12/2007, -4/+154Reason number 1 million and one why not to use Gnutella and eDonkey :-)
    • econoar, on 10/12/2007, -5/+172What do you mean? I love downloading songs that turn out to sound like a 3 year old ripped them onto a hard drive by singing them while playing AM radio static in the background
    • bnoxiousasshole, on 10/12/2007, -56/+6or you could just use a proxy
    • arkanebeats, on 10/12/2007, -5/+114People still use Gnutella and eDonkey?!
    • steven401, on 10/12/2007, -4/+59@bnoxiousasshole

      ...Because everyone uses a proxy to send bulk gigabytes of data.
    • jackyyll, on 10/12/2007, -6/+44You mean TOR doesn't stand for Torrent Over pRoxy!?
    • code_of_life, on 10/12/2007, -4/+67is Dream Pinball 3D any good? any torrents?
    • Killgore, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1@econoar

      too true....
    • ryanonfire, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1what about Gnutella 2?
    • veracon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@code_of_life:
      http://isohunt.com/download/13963473/dream+pinball
    • widman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Reason number 1 million and one why to use a blocklist.

      Get the level 1 list from http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php
      For example now is level1_12.04.07.zip http://w13.easy-share.com/990213.html
      Rename the file to ipfilter.dat
      utorrent: copy to /%AppData%/uTorrent/ (e.g. /Documents and Settings/user/Application Data)
      emule: copy to //Program Files/emule/conf/)

      More info:
      http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#What_is_ipfilter.dat.3F http://forum.emule-project.net/index.php?showtopic=10128
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/IPFilter

      For Gnutella there's a new list on Bluetack, gnutella.txt.
    • widman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Forgot to mention many torrents download significantly faster using level1 blocklist. On top of spying on you the p2p-bots make your client waste time and resources.
    • PsychoticClown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4In college, my primary thesis (the one I spent a long time working on) was that dead people were sneaky. It was quite unorthodox but I believed in it. I HAVE BEEN PROVEN RIGHT BY THIS ARTICLE. Remember when the RIAA sued a dead woman? What does THAT mean? HUH?! Doesn't it mean she was illegally downloading music when she was dead? Doesn't this article PROVE that the ways to track illegal downloaders are 100% reliable?

      I told that damn professor that he was going to regret the low grading he gave me. Boy I'd like to see his face NOW.
    • stockjones, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0I can only imagine all the crapware sitting idle running processes behind the scenes with all the crud people download blindy with all these p2p utilities. Ever fix a friends PC when they say it runs too slow or locks up. It would shock you all the crap people indiscriminately download. Now you have big corporate brother to worry about as well
  • Trebert, on 10/12/2007, -20/+136RIAA just stop suing people and make some good music people want to buy
    • dtd00d, on 10/12/2007, -6/+56They'd never make the same kind of money.
    • fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -43/+15People want to buy it, they just don't want to pay for it. It's the cliche that defines your generation.
    • Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -6/+30Most of the bands i like aren't raped by the RIAA anyway it seems.

      http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp
    • eridius, on 10/12/2007, -5/+84You do realize this article is not about the RIAA, right? It's a completely unrelated company pursuing piracy charges for something completely unrelated to music.
    • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -20/+9The main reason the people in my school dont buy is that they know that like 99% of the money go to the RIAA.
      If they stop that...
    • CheapDigWannbe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16RIAA make some music? This company has nothing to do with music... Nothing at all "Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality." Basically they do the same for musicians, what Russian mafia does for small business. They go to their clients, scare them ***** less by saying how if they don't pay them for "fostering," business will be destroyed by unequal competition and robbers. The business owners or musicians will be stripped of their rights, beaten, and left with nothing.


      (quote from: http://www.riaa.com/about/default.asp )
    • Rosco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"and make some good music people want to buy"

      Preposterous! Why go through all of that work finding new talent, when you got crap like "American Idol" pumping out carbon copy Pop Stars who all look alike and sound alike. It'll never happen, because all the mindless white suburban kiddies all follow the same thing like Lemmings.
  • vsujohn2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31"The claim is that the “File Sharing Monitor” is totally foolproof and that it can provide forensic-quality information to a court in order that file-sharers be punished."
    Kind of like how the RIAA likes to sue people who dont have computers? Their system must be foolproof too
  • NoOneButMe, on 10/12/2007, -7/+88without reading.. here's my guess:
    1. download *.torrent
    2. open torrent
    3. take screenshots of the peers page?
    /edit: read, and i was right ^_^
    • NiGHTSChao, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15zomg its just that easy!
    • bergur1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26in a nutshell...yes

      I thought it was interesting though about how it automatically does a WHOIS and sends the infringing peoples info to the ISP and a cease and desist letter.
    • Vipersfate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9That's the exact thing I was thinking. I'm still wondering how they found me :(
    • SamsLembas, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13Step 4: Realize they are all also RIAA employes
      Step 5: Repeat
    • tribalsun, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Step 6: Profit!
  • Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -0/+88I wonder if this method will eventually cause them to file a case against themselves? It would certainly be humorous.
    • jcaino, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11hell, that'd be ironic.
    • MasterChi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Well here's the kicker......they probably have rights from said company to download their file to capture numerous "criminals" like us who download it illegally. They can probably also tell the courts that they only downloaded less the 1 megabyte of the file so it was incomplete therefore not real. Anyway the company with the stolen material will gladly go to court and back them up if one of us civilians tried to pull that tricks so.......Consumers lose again.
  • Wildhoney, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Stick with BitTorrent, although mainstream BitTorrent clients are in desperate need for some kind of encryption, such as AES. This will really throw the companies with their appalling programs; and as far as foolproof goes -- their application seems far too primitive. Although a lot of ISPs keep track of which users had which IPs, and when. Therefore they can check back at their logs and actually pinpoint a particular user, again though, an IP address is insufficient in a court of law. What if the user was routing through a computer via VPS, for instance.
    • Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2007, -1/+57"Yer honor, I'm sorry I left my router as open as a hooker's legs during shore leave, but it does explain all them teenagers with laptops parked outside of my house at all hours, yellin' about how the em-pee-ay-ay can go lick goats and what-not."
    • fuzzmeister, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19I wonder if you could argue that since your computer only uploads parts of the file when you use Bittorrent, it falls under "fair use". It'd be a long shot, but it's possible.
    • NoOneButMe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Er.. you'd still need some way for the end-user to decrypt the file. 'encrypting' it is pointless. they'd get the decryption key the same way you would.
  • OnAnyMouse, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1relakks.
  • rockets, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Heh, I wonder what we can do with that email at the end of the PDF linked at the end of the article.
  • DeFex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+53it was my neighbor stealing my wireless!
    • manifestdestiny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11...except that it says in the PDF that it's the user's responsibility to encrypt their network and insure no illegal activity is going on. ie: go ***** yourself and give us your money
    • generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"user's responsibility to encrypt their network "

      It's too bad all my neighbours still use WEP considering it can be hacked in 5 seconds..
    • HsoKinees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5so.. for those of us who like to play Nintendo DS games online, and are indirectly forced to use WEP... can we pass the blame onto Nintendo if such a thing happens? :S
    • an0nymous, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Well, crap. If it says it's my responsibility in the pdf. then it must be so. Drats! I better just pay.
      *twiddles mustache*
  • resplence, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15The "villain" website: http://www.logistepag.com/en/index.php

    What's with the batman logo?

    (as I post this, a vile thought crosses my mind: would their servers survive digg effect?)
    • fuzzmeister, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Wow, it's pretty obvious that a designer was only involved in the top half of that site.
    • xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6no, he would have saved that header in jpg format.
    • lillepalle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Try and click the login button:

      FEHLER
      Ihre Logindaten sind nicht vollständig!
      zurück

      of course; Germans are behind this, just like last time...
  • gheide, on 10/12/2007, -2/+39If someone "hacks" your wireless network, how is it your reponsibility (and education) to have the "latest firewall and anti-virus software" as well as a secure network?? Even the most literate computer geek can be hacked and their system compromised and used for file-sharing... it happens all over the net. If someone breaks into my house, steals my gun and uses it to kill someone, am I guilty of murder?
    • galore, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2"steals my gun and uses it to kill someone, am I guilty of murder"

      The thing is, if there is no evidence that somebody stole your gun, somebody gets murdered with that gun and you don't have an alibi but a motive, you'll be in a whole lot of trouble.
    • gr0ss, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3You would only be guilty if someone stole them and you had no attempt to protect them, as in a gunsafe. If someone stole them from your gunsafe and broke that, you would be less likely to be held for blame in the murder. But if you just left it out on your counter and someone picked it up while you were pooping and shot your neighbor and the gun got traced back to you, then your basically *****. (don't judge it, it was just quickly thought up)
    • Fletchnuts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can't be held liable in a criminal court, only in a civil court.
  • SyberMile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11so now it there gonna sue for downloading a part of a file that is copy protected so should the fbi go to home depot and arrest them for selling parts of bombs and meth cooking sounds about the same to me?
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If they willingly sold you parts they knew were for a bomb, then yes, probably. Regardless of wether they knew, they'd still be questioned..
  • dudad, on 10/12/2007, -3/+65Here is my IP address:
    65.21.217.101
    Track it. Find me. Sue me. I dare you.
    Chances are it's my neighbors wireless network, a proxy, or a non static IP.
    • steven401, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Like Wildhoney said above, most ISPs keep track of your account number and what IP addressed you've been assaigned and when, I presume.
    • brianez21, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16OrgName: Critical Path Inc.
      OrgID: CPAT
      Address: 2 Harrison Street
      Address: 2nd Floor
      City: San Francisco
      StateProv: CA
      PostalCode: 94105
      Country: US

      NetRange: 65.20.0.0 - 65.21.255.255
      CIDR: 65.20.0.0/15
      NetName: CP-NET-ARIN-3
      NetHandle: NET-65-20-0-0-1
      Parent: NET-65-0-0-0-0
      NetType: Direct Allocation
      NameServer: NS1.CP.NET
      NameServer: NS3.CP.NET
      Comment:
      RegDate: 2001-01-29
      Updated: 2006-02-22

      OrgAbuseHandle: CPAA-ARIN
      OrgAbuseName: Critical Path Abuse Administrator
      OrgAbusePhone: +1-415-541-2500
      OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@abuse.criticalpath.net

      OrgNOCHandle: CPNOC-ARIN
      OrgNOCName: Critical Path Network Operations Center
      OrgNOCPhone: +1-415-541-2500
      OrgNOCEmail: cpnoc@criticalpath.net

      OrgTechHandle: CH-ORG-ARIN
      OrgTechName: Critical Path Hostmaster
      OrgTechPhone: +1-415-541-2500
      OrgTechEmail: hostmaster@cp.net

      # ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-04-14 19:10
      # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
    • sinembarg0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1310 seconds later:

      You live in or near San Francisco and your ISP is Critical Path. Now all I have to do is call Critical Path in SF and tell them your IP address and give them a time and date and 'proof' of infringement, and I'll have your name, address, and phone number. Enough to sue you.
    • seti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28Hey that is my IP address!!! are we using the same TOR exit server?, proxy..? I am not in SF but in NYC
  • CheapDigWannbe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29Your honor, we have DNA proof that the knife found on 72 Some St. has been used to murder the victim. Thus the individual living in the house is guilty!

    Oh I wonder where the lawsuits will end up with this logic...
  • nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Inaccurate title. "This is How We Catch You Downloading" ... but they don't catch downloaders. The article is about how they catch those who host files to share. The difference is significant. How they catch downloaders ... have they ever? I don't think so.
    • jackyyll, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Hmm yeah.. I think i only got caught when uploading... Last time i be a good BT user!
  • puppycrack, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6I see they're using Microsoft Access to track these people. What kind of hack uses Access for a production system of any significant size? What's the app written in - VB? Jeebus!
    • insovietrussia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You would be very surprised. Many, many businesses regularly use Access databases and code in VB.
    • UKsHaDoW, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0We have a whole bar code system running on access and VB....
  • mrfx2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5For one its not illegal to download files it illegal to share files.
    For Two you can hammer the networks like the digg effect leaving the message to the RIAA to back off or we will download more and they will.
  • lysdexia, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Wild, isn't it?

    The ways to justify common theft in the digital age are as flawed as they are numerous. Whatever happened to basic honesty like: "I want it so I will buy it."
  • seti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Explain to your lawyer what is Tor, let him know that your are running a Tor server in your PC. Case dismissed.
  • wvstephens, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Ok from what I can see from the letter, only a few bittorrent users caught are using Azureus and probably not with the peerblock addon most caught are using bitcomet,,, Yea I know false hope, I myself would rather have false hope than no hope. Second they only seem to be focusing on one torrent site Torrentsandmore so stay away from that one. I for one would rather use bittorrent than the gnutella networks users caught on edonkey or gnutella appear to have a mac address recorded. I am sure it is the mac of your modem not your router. second be smart keep everything you download music, videos etc.. on a separate hard drive.. You get a letter in the mail pull that drive (what hard drive) show me the proof.
    • jawbreaker4fs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Caught using moblock and uTorrent (moblock is *nix equivalent to PeerGuardian or the Azuerus plugin) from an eztvefnet torrent... granted, it was probably reposted on mininova.
  • noclips, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9use PeerGuardian
    http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
    • chaimpot0k, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I was just gonna say.. "and this is how I stop you from catching me.."

      http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
    • Achilles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Yeah, PG2 isn't full proof

      ...unless you believe public (a.k.a. readily open to even government agencies) ip block lists make for beautiful tinfoil hats
  • digitallysick, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3sudo apt-get remove 3dpinball
  • Scooter1974, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5http://duggmirror.com//tech_news/This_is_How_We_Catch_You_Downloading/plain.html
  • akaii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If I keep my wireless network open to everyone, I wonder which one of my 50 neighbors are they going to sue.
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It'll be who ever owns the Internet account.
      "Please note that it is possible that your IP address may have been used by a third party if you have an unsecured wireless connection or your computer security has been compromised, or if other people or children have access to the computer connected to the internet service provided by your ISP. Accordingly, although your computer may not have been used to carry out the account alleged, your internet connection may habe been used. This might explain why there is no copy of the Game on your computer (Assuming it has not been subsequently deleted)/
      The security of your computer is your responsibilty and you need to ensure that you are protected at all times with the most up to date anti-virus and firewall sortware, and snsure that any wireless router is properly encrypted, in order to be certain that your computer is not being used for unlawful purposes and without your knowledge or consent."

      (..Did that first paragraph just claim children aren't people? ["or if other people or children"])
  • akumal999, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0wow thats real newz
  • Killgore, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yeh no one uses those programs anymore...
  • LordMaul, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3And... This is why I'm hot.

    Sorry. :(
  • Starfinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This might be a stupid question. But if they simply use the IP address of the download, how do they actually know who to send the "bill" to? As it has been pointed out open wireless networks can be accessed all the time, where I live I can connect to 10-15 open wireless networks. But even IF it was my own network and it was someone in this house who did the download, should it be me or my girlfriend who got the bill? If it was the person who pays for the bill, then thats cool - cuz I get that as part of my salary, so in fact if my boss is an idiot, ill just go download a lot of stuff and make sure I get caught - then he gets the bill or how does this work?
  • plagiats, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What a baaaaaaaad photoshopped image! If you use the "EVIDENCE" stamp as it is, you'll end with "EVIDENCE" written backwards...
    • diggmegood, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3thats because their evidence is dodgy ;)
    • Cr0z, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually, I believe you'll find that the actual rubber stamp is facing down, seeing as the handle is facing up. The word 'evidence' on the stamp is merely a label to identify it.
    • plagiats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2you are right, I didnt pay enought attention to the picture. my bad.
  • Soldan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dream pinball is ok... but if pinball is your thing i suggest downloading visual pinball and pinmame...and then running recreated tables...

    why waste time with lame pinball when you can play some classics.. addams family anyone? twilight zone...

    http://www.vpforums.com/vptables/tables.php
  • chenkersthecat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's hard to get caught downloading illegal music when your neighbor doesn't even know that you're stealing their wireless internet.
  • lateralus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It's times like these when I thank God(tm) I've got a bunch of neighbors with ssid's like NETGEAR and LINKSYS
  • lateralus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If the legal action is against people who enjoy playing pinball, then i'm all for it. Get these people off the streets by all means necessary.
    • chenkersthecat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You're damn straight. Bunch of psychopaths those pin-ball-playin' *****!
  • pfwd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I cant see how you could 100% pin an IP address on a person. There are to many factors involved such as dynamic IP, Flash/spoof IP's more than one user to an IP etc..
    I-- It seems like you have NAT errors
    The price of a CD has dropped due to DL and I'm all for it. Plus it hasn't seemed to affect the industry much. I'm a DRM hater tho!!


  • Codeman917, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://fenopy.com/fakefinder/
  • rohanch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I love how Telewest Broadband (one of the ISPs shown in the PDF) invoiced the pinball game company £18,473 (about $35,000 I think) for providing their subscribers' details...
  • nwoantibody, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Pinball sucks. Can't believe they're downloading that *****.
  • wastern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This wouldn't really apply for pinball, but as far as media goes, I would buy everything from iTunes (or other digital stores) if all the DRM was gone and I could use it as I wish. Music, movies, ebooks, etc. I just want to know what I buy is going to work in 10 years like I did with physical media. With DRM I don't have that assurance
  • habubu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11)Create lame ass game no one will is willing to pay for.
    2)Distribute game on p2p.
    3)?????
    4)Profit.
  • utdiscant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Well, this is another good reason for using Google for p2p: http://www.dyberemening.dk/gfs
  • spyd4r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So if this "File Sharing Monitor" is based off of Shareaza have they released the code since Shareaza is GPL?
  • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I found the paragraph stating the following very amusing.. :
    "The figure of £300 is broken down as follows:
    (a) damages for lost sales of our client's game which has been made avalible for others to download; and
    (b) the costs involved in:
    [writing to your ISP/gettin details/preparing witness statements/dealin with the ISP's lawyers/arranging things for the Court/more writing to the ISP/talking to you]"

    It seems nearly all the fine is relating to the legal fees needed to force you to the pay the fine in the first place.. That seems.. recursivly stupid - It seems it costs far more money to sue people than they acctualy lose. For all intents and purposes, it'd make more sense for the game dev to nicely ask people to pay for the game they downloaded, rather than incur all the legal costs - People would be far more willing to pay ~£20 or something for the game rather than £300 (Which breaks down into £20 for the game and £280 to make back the money they used to force you to pay that £20..)
  • rkuchiki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you read the article, it says the modified client only searches for a filename, attempts to download one piece, then logs the filesize, ect (which is apparently what the search results return). So tell me how they are verifying these are not fake filenames...

    So if I go on P2P with a WoW Patch named as "Dream Pinball 3D.exe", they think they have the right to sue me? Heh.
  • miker71, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2How can they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was me and not a freeloader using my unsecured WLAN?
  •  

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