3/11 What do I need to do to make sure I don't get sued when I use
bittorrent? I am still a newbie. Thx.
\_ Azureus bittorrent client w/ safepeer plug-in supposedly
blacklists evil MPAA spy machines...
\_ Don't download copyrighted materials, or run it on someone else's
machine.
\_ How about a real answer? I don't care much for music/movie,
only apps/games.
\_ It is a real answer. Bittorrent was not conceived to
provide any sort of anonymity; Bram Cohen states as much
somewhere on http://bittorrent.com. The fact that you have a
tracker file hosted somewhere makes your IP show up. -John
\_ That's illegal and you can never fully "make sure" you don't
get sued.
\_ Under bittorrent, how would they trace me? Just give me
the technical info, if they were to do so? does the .torrent
file contains my info? ip?
\_ If you don't know enough to figure this out yourself,
you really shouldn't attempt it.
\_ In other words "I don't know".
\_ In other words, "You're a dumbass, and I'll laugh
my ass the fuck off if you get prosecuted"
\_ Sniff. Please sir, don't call me names.
\_ AFAIK, the underlying d/l stream in BT is not
encrypted. Someone w/ a pkt sniffer can tell
tell that you are using BT and what you are
d/l'ing. If they record the pkts, (which may
not be protected under 4 amd) the recorded
stream may be used as evid of your copyright
violation.
The best way to avoid this is to not become
an attractive target by d/l'ing high value
items frequently. The ONLY 100% safe way is
to not d/l copyrighted material.
\_ Isn't it easier than that to track someone?
I mean, if you're downloading Revenge of the Sith,
that means you're also serving it.
If I'm the Feds, and I turn on my bittorrent
client and start grabbing the movie, I should get
a list of IP addresses of everyone I'm getting
packets from. I just tell the movie companies to
ask the ISPs to match IP addresses to people's
names for those people sending the most packets.
It doesn't matter if the data are encrypted, since
the IP addresses in the IP headers are in cleartext.
(although I feel stupid putting it this way)
\_ ISPs do not have to disclose the names of
people for a particular IP addr unless the
cops get a warrant by showing prob. cause.
To show prob. cause, the cops need to prove
that the IP addr actually served or d/l'ed
copyrighted content thus violating the
copyright. (simply having copyrighted
content on your computer that you own may
be covered under fair use and does not
show that you have likely violated the law).
If the content is encrypted, then the cops
can't really prove to the judge issuing
the warrant that you served or d/l'ed
copyrighted content and may not be able
to meet the prob cause requirement.
(Some judges might say that having the
files there was enough to est. prob
cause so you have to be careful)
If you use authentication, and the feds
lie to you to get a valid passwd, then
you may have all sorts of other legal
protections.
\_ Maybe that's why there are so few torrent
users being sued. Anyways, since I don't
think the torrent data are encrypted anyway,
maybe it's not worth arguing about.
From a "I might get sued!" standpoint, I
personally would take the assumption that
encryption won't help for the Revenge of
the Sith example, but, YMMV.
\_ Uhm, it is a real answer. You want to use it for illegal
purposes, so you risk getting sued.
\_ From what I've heard they've only sued 7 bittorrent users
(non-ISPs). It's not as bad as MP3 sharing ... yet.
Basically, you are a target if you have fat upstream, you leave your
computer on all the time so you have the double whammy of always
serving files and your IP address never changing, and you serve a
lot of new movies.
You're probably not a juicy target, but for the average user, I
would just avoid grabbing new mainstream movies, lots of recent
movies, or serving lots of ISOs like WinXP or Office 2003.
\_ Thanks! And to the guy above, f*** off!
\_ Uhm, so you basically posted to get someone to pat you on the
back and say "Oh no, baby, it's okay. No one's going to sue
you!" That's pretty retarded. I mean, honestly, if you're
going to trade in copyrighted materials, you become vulnerable
to a variety of legal actions. Period. If you can't accept
that, the just buy the fucking thing and quite wringing your
that, then just buy the fucking thing and quite wringing your
hands.
\_ Every piece of software on your computer is legally
obtained?
\_ No clue...but I know the risks and am willing to
accept them. *shrug*
\_ I see, so all that no stealing lecture does not
apply to yourself. I am speachless.
\_ You do realize that more than two people can post
right? I haven't campaigned for or against the
morality of the issue, only the OP's retardation
about playing games with legality and essentially
entering a state of denial. You're an idiot,
by the way, just in case that wasn't clear in your
post.
\_ He didn't ask for a lecture, just how to avoid the law.
\_ So if op had asked you how to shoplift, you would
have told him w/o informing him that (1) it was
wrong to steal and (2) he may be subject to criminal
liability?
What I find more disturbing is the fact that op
feels entitled to download games (and whatever
else he wants) w/o paying for it. Regardless of
the civil/criminal liability associated w/ this
sort of activity, op OUGHT to realize that actual
people worked on the games that he is stealing
and if everyone acted like him and stole these
games there would be no incentive for people to
work on future games. If the hard work of others
brings you benefit, PAY FOR IT or we all lose in
the long run.
\_ I'm not going to disagree with you about games, but
I don't agree that stealing software always costs
companies money in lost business. I've used stolen
copies of very expensive software to get the feel
for them and figure out how to use them and then
spent huge amounts of Other People's Money to buy
the real thing based on having tried it for free.
In some cases I would probably not have made that
purchasing decision had I not been able to try it out.
So in the end, the company made *more* money than
they would had I not stolen a copy while I was a poor
student who couldn't afford it anyway.
\_ I can see your rationale. If you end up
buying a copy of the software or deleting
it b/c you don't want to buy it, there is
no violation of the principle that one ought
pay for things from one which one derives a
benfit. Unfortunately the law does not (and
probably cannot ever) allow for this.
The general principle could be applied to
games/music/books/movies/&c. if there were
no public library or private rental systems,
however, it is so easy and affordable to
rent things it doesn't really make sense to
steal.
\_ Well, the way for this to be legal is for the
company to have the foresight to give away
a version that's good enough to learn the
commands and get a feel for it so poeple like
me don't *have* to break the law to try their
damn product. Wasn't there a free version of
Doom in the begining to get people hooked?
After that, I was more than happy to shell
out the money for the real thing which I
probably wouldn't have done otherwise.
\_ right...I'm sure companies which provide
demo versions never get their software
stolen. -tom
\_ Join a private forum. No, really.
\_ Would decentralization, using SSL encryption, and only using
centralized servers to randomly connect people, and always
use another node as a middle-man when xferring data make it
really hard to track? Sort of a cross between filetopia and
bittorrent...
\_ onion routing, so nobody's sure what data is going through them,
taht would be more like it. See 'freenet' |
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