Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

[GreyGeek]

You'll get owned!

http://www.itworld.com/security/2154...use-bittorrent

Entertainment companies seeking to trace people who are illegally file sharing may be interested in new research that could identify filesharers through their Skype accounts. A research team has figured out how to link online Skype users to their activity on peer-to-peer networks, a correlation that could represent a major threat to users' privacy.

The study focused on how a Skype user's IP address can be determined without that user knowing, and then linking that same IP address to files that are being shared through peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent.

Using information that users publish in Skype's directory, such as their name, location and birth date, the researchers were able to get very close to identifying the person doing the sharing. They note, however, the method will just identify a machine rather than an actual person behind the computer.

I suspect that having Ekiga or other VOIP client accounts will be susceptible to the same hack. If you are stealing movies now would be a good time to stop!

[vinnywright]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

nice heads up

I would assume that both skype and a torrent client would both half to be running for that to work wouldn't they?

I guess that would include the gmail VOIP as well?

I dont steal things but I do use Ktorrent a bit .....however my bandwidth is such that I usually only run it at night when nothing else is going on


VINNY

[ScottyK]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

So all the more reason to set up a separate box to download all of those, er, linux distos!

[SteveRiley]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

Lately I've been advising a couple health care organizations on privacy issues. The work reminded me of some research published in 2000 showing that 87% of all Americans could be uniquely identified by the combination of their date of birth, gender, and ZIP code. (Research by Dr. Latanya Sweeney.)

There's really no simple way to hide source IP addresses; for without this information, the Internet would be unable to route traffic to your computer. The Tor Project is probably the best mechanism for near anonymity now, even though researchers occasionally discover weaknesses.

Edit: In no way am I encouraging the use of privacy-enhancing resources to engage in illegal activity.

[wizard10000]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

There's really no simple way to hide source IP addresses; for without this information, the Internet would be unable to route traffic to your computer. The Tor Project is probably the best mechanism for near anonymity now, even though researchers occasionally discover weaknesses.

I used to run a tor exit node - tor is one way people smuggle pictures of their government shooting dissidents out of the country - one of my pet peeves is someone using tor for piracy.

I know you're not advocating using tor to leech movies, music or software but tor is a limited resource and all the hardware, bandwidth and time is donated - if someone's got a reason to use it by all means do so, but if I was still running that exit node you wouldn't be able to use my server for much besides http.

[vinnywright]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

So all the more reason to set up a separate box to download all of those, er, linux distos!

LOL .....I have used it send files to people before as well .... like a simple quick file server......if their is no hurry as theirs just the 1 seed.

@SteveRiley theirs also a tor-proxy.net toolbar for firefox ........among others.

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

I know you're not advocating using tor to leech movies, music or software

Correct. I was simply providing some information on privacy tools. I'll edit my post to discourage using such tools for piracy; as someone who's spent most of his career working in various aspects of intellectual property, I'm quite sensitive to such abuse.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

....
I would assume that both skype and a torrent client would both half to be running for that to work wouldn't they?

The Skype user database is encrypted. The "researchers" could not have accessed the names and IP addresses of the users without Microsoft's permission. So, IMO, it doesn't matter if you are running Skype or not. Your name and IP address have been captured by Skype software and are available for data mining. In fact, Microsoft and most other corporations who have a face on the internet do data mining of consumer information. That was/is how Microsoft can relate the embedded GID in a Word document to a credit card transaction executed on line with a vendor using Windows servers, or identify the Philippino hacker who released a virus he wrote and compiled with VB. Not even TOR (The Onion Ring) totally secures a user from being identified, especially by hackers backed by a government or large corporation.

I guess that would include the gmail VOIP as well?

Google data mines as much, if not more, than any other corporation. They follow US law regarding copyrights and patents (except when they disagree with a patent and wage war against it in court) and probably have no problem working with RIAA in tracking down and suing down loaders of copyrighted material, which the DMCA fair use does not protect.

I dont steal things but I do use Ktorrent a bit .....however my bandwidth is such that I usually only run it at night when nothing else is going on

That's the best way to use a Torrent on a low bandwidth connection. Since you aren't downloading hollywood movies or music someone has ripped and posted on line illegally, I wouldn't worry. But, I'd make a point of not using those sites that mix FOSS software and distros with bootleg copies of Windows, or movies or music. The RIAA's shotgun approach to suing mass quantities of down loaders may result in you being hit by a legal pellet. It's called "collateral damage".

[SteveRiley]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

Your name and IP address have been captured by Skype software and are available for data mining.

When an application embeds both your source IP address and your user name in encrypted connections, there's very little you can do in such cases to conceal yourself. Anonymity on the Internet is becoming scarce.

Not even TOR (The Onion Ring) totally secures a user from being identified, especially by hackers backed by a government or large corporation.

Onion Router ... All forms of security require trust in something. In the case of Tor, that trust is placed in the operators of the exit nodes. And anything that can be trusted can also be compromised. In theory, at least.

But, I'd make a point of not using those sites that mix FOSS software and distros with bootleg copies of Windows, or movies or music. The RIAA's shotgun approach to suing mass quantities of down loaders may result in you being hit by a legal pellet.

What worries me most about the use of privacy-enhancing technologies on the Internet is the same problem society faces with privacy-enhancing capabilities elsewhere: the automatic assumption some people make that those who desire privacy must have something to hide.

The United States Constitution grants no explicit general right to privacy (but see below) because the framers were unable to imagine a day in which privacy is no longer an implicit guarantee. For example, 224 years ago, you could stand in the middle of cornfield, have a private conversation with someone else, and reasonably expect that no one would know (a) it occurred and (b) what you talked about. The advent of parabolic microphones and high-resolution satellites has scotched this luxury.

Today's toxic political climate -- poisoned especially by the uneducated bleatings of the Teabaggers -- appears to eliminate the possibility of serious consideration of adding a guaranteed right to privacy. The Fourth Amendment, alas, was not written broadly enough to anticipate the future and is currently under massive assault. Would someone please explain to me why papers manufactured from tree pulp and stored in a briefcase shod with animal skin differs from "papers" composed of magnetic patterns and stored on a rotating "briefcase" coated with iron oxide? Why does the second not receive the same protections as the first?

"I've got nothing to hide," goes the boast, "so only guilty wankers need privacy."

[GreyGeek]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

.....
Today's toxic political climate -- poisoned especially by the uneducated bleatings of the Teabaggers --

When the Tea Party first started up I got an email from Nebraska's representative, Brad Stevens, asking for support. The movement was less than a couple weeks old when I got the email and I was surprised to see such a well structured organization in place, with paid representatives. I did a whois on the AmericansForProsperity URL in his email. It was an eye opener, with a trail that led to "1726 M Street NW, 10th Floor" and showed a plethora of other AFP organizations apparently astroturfing to deceive citizens into believing that they are larger than they are, or the monied interests pulling the strings are more diverse than they actually are. Most were funded by pharma and health insurance companies wanting to sustain the status quo by fighting health reform. Timothy_R._Phillips, who took over after David Koch (that Koch) registered the AFP site, was listed as the current registerar, until they put the website behind an anonymizer ISP, hiding the connection between the what the public sees, and who is behind the curtin. Most of the crowd at the first Tea Party events were hauled in on buses supplied by joinpatientsfirst.com/bus-tour (a rent-a-crowd organization). If Tea Party folks knew that they'd throw up, then feel foolish for letting their valid concerns get hijacked by corporate political operatives.

As you say, the political situation is getting chaotic and in-your-face aggressive. It seems that every negative news event is being blamed on Obama or Bush and most comments to news and blog articles jump immediately to those accusations, followed by exchanges of personal insults by people on the extremes, most of whom cannot spell or write a coherent statement. Rational discussion is essentially impossible, and the biggest, or "loudest" mob dominates. The situation makes discussions on KFN a blessing because of the mutual respect and the unwritten agreement to disagree without being disagreeable.

"I've got nothing to hide," goes the boast, "so only guilty wankers need privacy."

Folks that make that boast demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the 4th Amendment and of the concept of privacy itself. A law paper explains why. Sooner or later everyone will be confronted by a police officer, for some reason, asking questions about something. A "I've got nothing to hide" followed by a loose tongue is the quickest way to get into legal trouble. The laws today are so poorly written, deliberately I believe, that an aggressive or vindictive prosecutor can twist any event, action, or even inaction, into a felony commission by someone. That's why one should know what their rights are, and what to do when stopped by any law enforcement.

I wonder how many people know, for example, that since 9/11 a law was passed which makes all the borders of the US out to a distance of 100 miles, "Constitution Free Zones", where law enforcement does not have to show a badge number, or honor 4th Amendment or other constitutional rights. By some estimates that means that 2/3rds of the population of the US is, essentially, living without the protection of the Bill of Rights in what can be plainly called a police state. And now, the TSA has moved out of the airport terminals and onto the Interstates in Tennessee, testing the waters for apathy to see if that move can be expanded to all the Interstates. Then it will be the other major highways. Then into major cities, then highway nexus points that funnel traffic between towns and villages. A law was recently introduced into the House to make it a crime to publicly ridicule the TSA. I don't think it will pass, but Congress is gotten into the habit of passing Bills it never reads, so who knows?

[SteveRiley]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

If Tea Party folks knew that they'd throw up, then feel foolish for letting their valid concerns get hijacked by corporate political operatives.

One of my favorite legal scholars (alright, yes, go ahead, laugh at "favorite legal scholar," I already have ), the always-unassailable Larry Lessig (presentations, writings), recently visited Occupy D.C. He encouraged the protesters to reach out to the original Tea Party, the group that formed because of its hatred of corruption. That group and the protesters have more in common than in disagreement. James Sinclair wrote an entire article with much the same thought, and even included a helpful diagram:

[img width=400 height=218]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pho4SDZg2eo/To-cS0tId7I/AAAAAAAAADQ/FlGE6MqwKSc/s1600/OWSvsTP.jpg[/img]

The situation makes discussions on KFN a blessing because of the mutual respect and the unwritten agreement to disagree without being disagreeable.

And the congregation said, "Amen!"

A law was recently introduced into the House to make it a crime to publicly ridicule the TSA. I don't think it will pass, but Congress is gotten into the habit of passing Bills it never reads, so who knows?

Welcome to the 15th century, where dissing the royalty is a capital crime.

[wizard10000]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

Correct. I was simply providing some information on privacy tools. I'll edit my post to discourage using such tools for piracy; as someone who's spent most of his career working in various aspects of intellectual property, I'm quite sensitive to such abuse.

Amusingly, I got banned from /. for running that exit node. When I emailed /. staff to find out what I'd done to rate the ban they told me it was because of the tor node.

When I took the node down they lifted the ban. It seems at the time they were getting hit pretty hard by trolls using tor to make a mess of the place. There are a bunch of not-so-nice people using tor to do all kindsa not-so-nice stuff.

But - the main reason I took the node down is the traffic was kicking the crap out of my SOHO router and I got tired of it locking up several times a day. If you're gonna run a tor node you really need an enterprise-class router.

But I digress

[GreyGeek]

Re: Have Skype running and use torrents to share copyrighted material?

.....

One of my favorite legal scholars (alright, yes, go ahead, laugh at "favorite legal scholar," I already have ), the always-unassailable Larry Lessig (presentations, ....

+1
He is promoting the correct solution to the problems also -- fix congress, which, IMO, is the cause of the problems. Congress will have to be fixed before we can repeal corporate person-hood and return CEOs to the same status as every one else: one person, one vote. Right now, a million bucks of lobby cash from a corporate CEO nullifies millions of citizens votes.