Safe P2P-ing

squashed · Safe P2P-ing

If you share copyrighted files on peer-to-peer networks, it's almost certain that the RIAA and/or MPAA is monitoring your actions, according to a new study, meaning that it's only a matter of time or luck until The Man comes a-knockin'. (That's not supposed to be Him to the right, by the way... the cat-and-mouse metaphor comes later.)

To do this, The Man creates fake P2P accounts that search for shared files and record what you're sharing. These fake users often have the same range of IP addresses, which P2P blocklist applications (Bluetack, PeerGuardian, Trusty Files) compile into a list that P2P programs ignore, safeguarding you against unwanted scrutiny from RIAA and MPAA bots.

A new study from Anirban Banerjee, Michalis Faloutsos, and Laxmi Bhuyan of the University of California says that users who do not use one of the apps "will almost certainly be monitored by blocklisted IPs." In fact, a full 12-17% of all IPs that contacted the researchers' computers were on the lists -- i.e. possibly from the RIAA/MPAA/etc -- although the study also says that most of the blocklisted IPs belong to government or corporate organizations, and that only a few belonged to record labels.

TorrentFreak wondered how effective these apps are, and asked "an expert in the field, who worked with several anti-piracy organizations" about them. He said that they help, but are not completely effective. Once the RIAA realizes it's on a blocklist, it probably just switches to a new set of IPs, and the cat-and-mouse game continues.

As for what the government's doing monitoring P2P share folders, that's anyone's guess.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/04/riaa_and_govern.html#more

block list apps.

http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php
http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
http://www.trustyfiles.com/

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"An open-source bittorrent client, Deluge, now provides an internal, anonymizing browser to protect its users from overzealous ISPs. The client runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. From the site: "Everyone knows that it is common practice for ISPs to do their best to either block or throttle bittorrent users. We believe that this is wrong and unethical, as there are many legal uses for bittorrent. If an ISP is throttling or blocking bittorrent traffic, you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." Their forum has more info"

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/12/23/1439218.shtml

http://deluge-torrent.org/

Deluge is a lightweight, Free Software, cross-platform BitTorrent client.

* Full Encryption
* Anonimizing Web Browser
* WebUI
* Plugin System
* Much more..

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http://filesharefreak.com/2007/12...ts-private-internet-file-sharing/

A darknet is a private virtual network where users connect only to people they trust, or they connect to other unknown anonymous peers under cloaked conditions. Many F2F networks are classified as Darknets, even if they aren’t self-described as such. Two examples are WASTE and Freenet. Even RetroShare and CSpace are considered darknets.

One thing is certain about darknets: They are anonymous and uncensored. And they are also unpoliced - this is not a metaphor or a figure of speech. Real-world cops can access a darknet, but there is nothing any policing agency in the world can do about it.

Dictionary definition of ‘Darknet’: The collection of software and servers used to distribute music, videos and other copyrighted material illegally.

While this is partly true in defining what a Darknet does, by no means are Limewire, Usenet or BitTorrent considered darknets. In fact, they are considered Lightnets. Darknets are usually F2F (friend-to-friend) oriented, usually built on camaraderie. Most true darknets are next to impossible to find, but here are some examples of known popular darknets, and how to get started.

Freenet
WASTE
Onionland
I2P

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Anonymous P2P clients

* In Japan, the anonymous P2P clients Winny and its successor Share are the most popular filesharing clients in the country.

* In the United States, Freenet is a mildly popular P2P network that is used as an anonymous, P2P version of the World Wide Web.

Other, lesser known filesharing clients include:

* Azureus was the first Java BitTorrent client that made it possible to switch to anonymous mode on the I2P and Tor networks.
* ANts P2P allows P2P file sharing and HTTP publishing/consulting. The irc chat feature is not anonymous, only the personal peer to peer messages are as well as secure as data transfers.
* Entropy was written in response to Freenet. It accomplishes the same task, and has the same interface, but the internal implementation is very different, it's written in C, it claims to be much faster, and easy on the computer's resources.
* Free Haven
* GNUnet
* I2P
* JetiAnts
* MFC Mute
* Mnet
* MUTE
* Napshare, written in wxWidgets
* Nodezilla
* Peercast
* Rodi
* WASTE is an anonymous client for a small network of trusted peers, run only by those peers. Works optimally with individual networks of 50 peers at most.

http://www.anonymous-p2p.net/

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Combining BitTorrent With Darknets For P2P Privacy

CSEMike writes "Currently popular peer-to-peer networks suffer from a lack of privacy. For applications like BitTorrent or Gnutella, sharing a file means exposing your behavior to anyone interested in monitoring it. OneSwarm is a new file sharing application developed by researchers at the University of Washington that improves privacy in peer-to-peer networks. Instead of communicating directly, sharing in OneSwarm is friend-to-friend; senders and receivers exchange data using multiple intermediaries in an overlay mesh. OneSwarm is built on (and backwards compatible with) BitTorrent, but includes numerous extensions to improve privacy while providing good performance: point-to-point encryption using SSL, source-address rewriting, and multi-path and multi-source downloading. Clients and source are available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows."

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/23/2245231