Senator Proposes to Monitor All P2P Traffic for Illegal Files

mytrip writes "Senator Joe Biden (D-Del) has proposed an ambitious plan, costing on the order of $1 billion, aimed at curtailing illegal activities via P2P networks. His plan involves utilizing new software to monitor peer-to-peer traffic on an ongoing basis. 'At an afternoon Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about child exploitation on the Internet, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said he was under the impression it's "pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation" simply by looking at file names. He urged use of those techniques by investigators to help nab the most egregious offenders."

And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[elrous0 (869638)]

Republicans belong to big business and the wealthy. Democrats belong to trial lawyers and Hollywood. And BOTH of them want to spy on me, tell me what I can and can't do on the internet, and use the government to impose their interest groups' agendas on me by force. And between big business and Hollywood, they're both just *aching* to crack down on file sharing, DRM circumvention, or anything that doesn't make some studio money, prop up a lethagic music industry and their 80's-era Compact Discs, or protect an overextended movie industry and their overpriced "tentpole" movies.

Fuck them. Fuck them both.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[CogDissident (951207)]

So, he has a "unique serial number" that always identifies a computer. But won't tell anyone how he got it. I'm guessing that they're assuming a MAC address is unique, even though it can be spoofed.

In any case, all the more reason to use the TOR network.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[Firehed (942385)]

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said he was under the impression it's "pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation" simply by looking at file names.

Does that quote suggest to you that he's technical enough to even know what a MAC address is, let alone know that it's spoofed with five seconds worth of work in the command prompt? People have of course screwed with filenames just to see what happens (much more in Kazaa/Limewire than Bit-torrent), probably to test Rule 34, with interesting results; more importantly, it shows that filenames are completely meaningless if you're looking to actually reveal content. In any case, just ticking the "encryption required" box in your torrent client solves that problem - and you can bet your ass that any sort of unique serial number would be the much more industry-standard (and equally absurd) IP address. You know - take the RIAA approach.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[Dancindan84 (1056246)]

People have of course screwed with filenames just to see what happens (much more in Kazaa/Limewire than Bit-torrent), probably to test Rule 34, with interesting results;

Yeah, I love that bash.org entry too: http://bash.org/?572066 [bash.org]

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[UncleTogie (1004853)]

So change a few to "JoeBidenHavingSexWithPreteens.mpg" and watch the fun begin!

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[clang_jangle (975789)]

I prefer "joe_biden_with_grandkids-EXTRA_HOTTT-XXXXX.mpg"

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[mastershake_phd (1050150)]

Republicans belong to big business and the wealthy. Democrats belong to trial lawyers and Hollywood. And BOTH of them want to spy on me, tell me what I can and can't do everywhere, and use the government to impose their interest groups' agendas on me by force. And between big business and Hollywood, they're both just *aching* to crack down on file sharing, DRM circumvention, or anything that doesn't make some studio money, prop up a lethagic music industry and their 80's-era Compact Discs, or protect an overextended movie industry and their overpriced "tentpole" movies.

Fuck them. Fuck them both.

There, fixed that for you.

This is not a law proposal, just loose talk

[dave1791 (315728)]

So a senator said something stupid about a subject outside of his domain of expertise. Every slashdotter, if elected to the senate, would say stupid things about SOMETHING. This is not a proposal for a law, or Iâ(TM)d be seeing it on my opencongress.org feed. Just kindly wite to the man and inform him that within a week of any such law coming into play, P2P programs would be randomizing the filenames.

The payoff

[PoliTech (998983)]

Where's the payoff ... hmmmm let's see:

Biden pushed for passage of a bill known as the Combating Child Exploitation Act. It would authorize more than $1 billion over the next eight years to hire 250 new federal agents devoted to Internet crimes against children...

One billion dollars! (puts pinky to lower lip) I see the tip of an ice berg, but ok since ... "It's for the children"!

provide additional funding to regional computer forensics labs, and give out more federal grants to the regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces. The House of Representatives passed a companion bill in October.

Ah! The rest of the iceberg! Now how will we pay for it? [slashdot.org]

No matter that it cannot possibly work, it is for the children you see. So naturally if it's not working, we'll simply need to provide a bit more funding in this year's budget, and the next, and the next...

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[MrMacman2u (831102)]

If you are implying that everyone is wealthy therefore everyone is Republican... I'd gladly claim to be a Republican if it automatically meant that $100 bills just start floating out of the sky and into my pocket.

No, I'm not a republican OR a democrat because I enjoy the process of THINKING too much to give it up.

Both parties of this bi-partisan country are corrupt, lazy, money grubbing, fear mongers and I refuse to vote for another piece of deadwood until there are people put up for election that are WORTH VOTING FOR and not one minute sooner.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[TheSeventh (824276)]

The problem with this approach, is that you are sitting back and waiting for things to change. I don't like most things about how our government is run or the people who run it either, but I try to take a more pragmatic view of changing things.

This is also my disagreement with those supporting Ron Paul. Maybe he is the best candidate, and maybe everything would be better if he were elected, but he has literally no chance of becoming president, but a lot of his supporters talk of voting for him, instead of "throwing away your vote" on one of the 3 contenders.

So, voting for Ron Paul is not throwing away your vote, even though he can't win, and therefore, you still didn't vote for the winner of the election, and possibly helped one of the others get elected instead? I feel it necessary to vote for the lesser of 3 evils, at least so things can be BETTER than they are now. I would rather have my say in voting for someone who can win, than in voting for an ideal out of protest for the others.

It's sad, but these days more people need to vote AGAINST someone, than for someone. You don't want McCain to become president? Vote for the person running against him that can actually win. You don't like any of the three? Find the one you can deal with for the next four years and vote for that one.

Say my dream car was a really fast Ferrari, but I only had $5000 to spend and I don't have any current transportation. Should I put that money away and just wait until I had enough to buy it, (which may never happen), and not have any transportation? Or should I be more practical and find the best option available to me right now, so that I can drive to work, and get a better job that makes more money and maybe earn enough to buy the Ferrari?

It'd be great if I could have my ideal, but practicality limits reality.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[Arccot (1115809)]

So, voting for Ron Paul is not throwing away your vote, even though he can't win, and therefore, you still didn't vote for the winner of the election, and possibly helped one of the others get elected instead? I feel it necessary to vote for the lesser of 3 evils, at least so things can be BETTER than they are now. It'd be great if I could have my ideal, but practicality limits reality.

Kinda true, kinda not. While I'm not a Ron Paul supporter, the idea works for any 3rd party candidate. The more support a third party candidate gets in the general election, the easier it is for the third party to compete in subsequent elections. The party gets federal matching funds for federal elections, an easier way to get on the ballot, and state benefits vary from state to state. So yes, voting for Ron Paul does make it more likely a third party will be able to rise out of obscurity, just not instantly.

It is POSSIBLE to bring up a third party, if not to compete with the Reps and Dems, then to replace one of them. We aren't still voting for Whigs, after all.

I personally think it would be easier to start a third party at the bottom, in local and regional elections, than to make a bid for the presidency. But you need to attempt both to get the word out.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[Bryansix (761547)]

If you live in California it actually DOES make sense to vote for Ron Paul. Why you ask? Because it is a winner take all state and there is no way in hell that anybody except a democrat will take the state. So if you don't like the Democrat then you might as well vote for Ron Paul because your vote won't count for shit either way. A vote for Ron Paul or a vote for McCain is just as worthless but the Ron Paul vote sends a signal.

What you are pushing for is breaking democracy.

Re:We need to demolish the two-party system

[Alpha830RulZ (939527)]

Actually, just having three parties would change the political dynamic pretty dramatically. My Pol Sci professor described this as the Burger King Problem.

Visualize a small town, with one main street. A McDonalds comes into town, and locates at one end of the town, let's call it the east end.

Now let's say Burger King wants to come into the same town. Where is the most logical place for the BK to locate? Answer: right next to the McDonalds, on the side that is closer to the most people.

In politics we see this in the clustering of positions. It makes sens for the Democrats to be just slightly more liberal than the Republicans, so that they can capture the votes of people that are somewhat liberal republicans. If they adopt a very liberal stance, then there is no way of knowing how people in the middle will vote.

We see this in Hillary Clinton, who in other times might have been described as a moderate republican, by here views. This stance makes sense, so that she can capture the middle of the spectrum. We saw this in the last 7 years, as democrats scrambled to be almost as conservative as the republicans, because that is what made political sense.

If you have a third player in the mix, let alone many players, that destablizes this balance. Then you'll start seeing a spectrum of views, rather than polarized (abortion) or highly similar (war on terrorism) positions. It's just game theory, which seems to be the meme of the day.

Re:And people ask why I support Jesse Ventura?

[porcupine8 (816071)]

Dude, I would MUCH rather they sit around and name state cakes than pass laws like this.

FYI

[Dancindan84 (1056246)]

It's a lie...

Re:SO... why do you support Jesse Ventura? (or, RT

[Stanislav_J (947290)]

Did you bother to read TFA? File sharing? DRM circumvention? hollywood/music industry??

The only thing that the FA mentions is child pornography, molestation, rape, abuse, etc. Not once do they speak about any of the illegal things you've mentioned.

I'll admit that I've a fear of a legitimate child-porn-tracking system being used to combat other activities, esp. for people in no way involved in such horrific fetishes, but that isn't the point of the system (as stated) that Biden wants.

Whenever law enforcement at any level says of a tactic or system or program, "Don't worry -- we're only going to use it to go after [insert category of criminals here]," always assume an unspoken "NOT" between "we're" and "only." Hello??? Patriot Act, anyone? Warrantless wiretaps? National Security Letters?

WHAT!?!

[Ceiynt (993620)]

pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation" simply by looking at file names. Ok, so all my Metallica files will be relabled (Not Metallica_Not Illegal file_Ignore). That should keep the feds off me.

Re:

[Swizec (978239)]

Even though at first glance it might seem filenames aren't that important, it's actually a pretty good heuristic method to gauge what a file might contain.

This is because people are hardwired to organising their stuff. A filename by the name of "rapeMe" is far easier to find when you need id than the same file, but named "rU2:s" don't you think?

Now, since people are also lazy they forget to rename these files before transmiting them.

Sure, the method is not perfect and yes sooner or later filenames

Re:WHAT!?!

[LMacG (118321)]

Hmmmmm, what am I going to do with this file therapist.avi?

Re:WHAT!?!

[Cornflake917 (515940)]

You shouldn't be downloading stuff from Sean Connery. I learned it the hard way when I downloaded analbumcover.avi.

Re:WHAT!?!

[mwvdlee (775178)]

I propose using "JoeBiden_[number].jpg" as a generic filename for all pornographic material.

Re:WHAT!?!

[mwvdlee (775178)]

Perhaps we could just encode filenames in Joe/Biden binary.
A file named "nasty_barely_legal_sicko_porn.jpg" would become something like "JoeJoeBidenJoeBidenBidenJoeJoe BidenBidenJoeJoeJoeJoeBiden BidenBidenBidenJoeJoe BidenBidenBidenJoe JoeBidenBidenJoeJoeJoe
JoeBidenBidenJoeBidenBiden BidenJoeBidenJoeJoeJoeJoe JoeBidenJoeBidenBidenJoeJoe BidenBidenJoeJoeJoeJoeBiden BidenJoeBidenBidenBidenJoe.jpg".

Tags

[Jaysyn (203771)]

I've never seen a better use for the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag in my life.

Re:Tags

[MozeeToby (1163751)]

How about a new tag, maybe... naive. Seriously, the way the government does stuff it would cost a billion just to implement what he's proposing. And we all know that child porn addicts never use encryption or, God Forbid, change the name of the files from "kiddy porn101" to "my cool bands music".

Aw jeez Joe...

[beavis88 (25983)]

And here I have been giving you credit for not being a total tool. How wrong I was...

Post Attachment: Cowboy_Neal_Riding_Congressman.jpg

I understand now

[by Anonymous Coward]

I understand how these politicians can't get a handle on terrorism, crime, drugs etc.

They think the people that deal in them are as stupid as they themselves are.

What light through yonder window breaks? Tis the clarity of seeing people for what they truely are: idiots.

File names??

[ChuBie (945413)]

He wants the filtering done on file names?? Is he serious? That would be one of the easiest filters to get around.

Re:File names??

[somersault (912633)]

Uhh.. you can just hit Shift and lowercase s.. don't need to press shift 4 to get a capital S. Are you related to Twitter by any chance?

Hmmm - just rename the files

[GuyverDH (232921)]

Give them all names like "Senator Joe Biden's Personal Photo and Video Stash.tbz"

ugh

[jollyreaper (513215)]

I hate it when they can't keep the script straight. The dems are supposed to be the stupid ones, the republicans are supposed to be the evil ones. Quit horning in on their territory!

Of Course

[gx5000 (863863)]

Of course they can do this... They can also stop spam dead in its router or switch feeds... We know where the viruses are originating from, and spam and and and... Since these greasy rogues produce over 90% of the e-mail, then one can take from that that they're also paying big bills to do this... The Golden rule persists, and this InterTubeTechnocrat hasn't a clue.... The thing is probably a work around for the FCC accounting which states that ISP's cannot restrict (reads choke P2P) network feed or else they lose their blanket immunity to prosecution on content.... this guy is trying to build them a trap door...ain't gonna work.

impossible w/o outlawing encryption

[davidwr (791652)]

If encryption is used, you can't do it.

If monitoring is heavy-handed AND encryption isn't illegal, it will be used.

The net effect: Wasted CPU time for encryption/decryption.

Keep the voters ignorant

[by Anonymous Coward]

Real issues: economy, environment, crime, international relations

Distraction issues: file sharing, gay marriage, abortion, drugs, bosnian snipers

Likely proposed by the ISPs

[ween14 (827520)]

If I was an ISP who wanted to slow the use of P2P on my network, I only have a few options.

Comcast tried the first option, which is to drop the connections. The outrage on tech sites was massive, and eventually led to them being investigated by the FCC.

Barring that option, why not put the burden on the government to handle the filtering. Heck, that is even better because now you don't have to pay for it anymore, your customers pay for it through their taxes.

From now on...

[zerocool^ (112121)]

From now on, I'm renaming all the tarballs I package.

tar -cvf XXX-9yo-boys-blowjobs-and-crystal-meth.tar dovecot-1.0-stable/

~Wx

Re:From now on...

[kotj.mf (645325)]

> tar -cvf XXX-9yo-boys-blowjobs-and-crystal-meth.tar dovecot-1.0-stable/

I was thinking something more along the lines of:

cp never_gonna_give_you_up.avi XXX-9yo-boys-blowjobs-and-crystal-meth.avi

How 'bout some quid pro quo

[0xdeadbeef (28836)]

I propose we monitor all government communication for evidence of corruption.

Just follow the money...

[i_want_you_to_throw_ (559379)]

I am sure that Sen Biden's idea has nothing to do with the fact that he has taken $178,358 from the TV/Movies/Music [opensecrets.org] lobby in this last cycle. The ROI on paying off a politician is insane. Just look at Orrin Hatch and the DMCA.

Utter disingenuous bullshit

[moxley (895517)]

Could this be anymore disingenuous? Could this be anymore bullshit?

So is is about violence? Take a look at TV. I don't see him concerned about that.

SO this is about porn? I think not as P2P is one of many ways to obtain porn and has nothing to do with the production of it.

So this is really about lobbyists and big business buying support for an assinine policy that goes against the interests of the people this man is supposed to serve.

Now let's look at the technical side. Doe he even know what he is talking about? Obviously not. MAC addresses and IP addresses can be spoofed; neither of them can definitively ID a person.

Does he even understand general technology concepts? Obviously not, because if he did he would realize that the second one technological avenue is closed, the tech community will create a new one. Innovation cannot be stopped by repressive minded politicos who are in the pocket of consortiums.

This is an important issue - one that could be used to basically take away the privacy you have on your computer and internet connection. When this government uses things like this they will take advantage of them to the hilt.

P2P Users Propose to Monitor All Senators...

[moxley (895517)]

P2P Users Propose to Monitor All Senators for Illegal Activity:

Including:

Taking of bribes or payment for votes/policy quid pro quo.
Hiring of prostitutes
Possession of Child Pornography
Violation of Campaign lows relating to finances
Violation of Federal "do not call" registry
etc, etc, ad infinitum.

Re:

[dreamchaser (49529)]

Yeah. One party will try to enslave us just slightly faster than the other. It's so nice having a clear choice. (sarcasm intended)

Re:Remember, Kids

[Pig Hogger (10379)]

Think twice (and then three or four times for good measure) the next time someone tells you to vote Democrat in order to protect your rights.

Anybody who votes republican whilst not being a zillionaire is a sucker. Plain and simple. One who has swallowed the total lie that republicans are less tax-happy than the democrats. Democrats tax now, but republicans tax later by inflating deficits and the debt.

Don't believe me? Google for US federal deficit charts...

Re:Remember, Kids

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

Dems always suck on IP issues and censorship. That's been the case for decades. They think of the children waaaay too much.

On the other hand, republicans also suck for censorship (dems hate violence, repubs hate boobies), and they are far more likely to get "decency-style" laws passed, than infringe on individual liberty...If you can't buy booze on a Sunday in your state, somewhere, there is a Republican to thank.

Re:Remember, Kids

[somersault (912633)]

How the fuck do you expect voting for one of two parties is going to represent the majority of your views? I live in the UK, and I'm fed up of random slashdotters flaming republican this, democrat that, can you please explain what the actual difference is? I've seen more than one person point out that there is none, and I wouldn't find that hard to believe. I think as far as democracy is concerned, people should be able to vote on invidual laws and such (if they consider that law important) rather than vote one party every few years and expect to have things go the way they're wanting them to. Does it really matter whether this guy is Republican or Democrat? I'm sure there are plenty of idiots in both parties..

Apologies for the slightly trollish nature of my post, but it's really pissing me off seeing this inane republican vs democrat stuff, it's like racism or something, except the fairly arbitrary divide being which set of self-important morons you vote for instead of place of birth/skin colour. Admittedly you do have a choice who to vote for, but in the end there are always gonna be problems no matter who you vote for, under the current system at least.

Two Parties = No Voice

[kcdoodle (754976)]

You are preaching to the choir, man!
When voting, I ALWAYS end up selecting the lesser of two evils.
I would like to see more of a parliamentarian form of government in the U.S.
Most of all, I would like to see the abolishment of "winner take all" rules for electoral votes that some states have.
I could rant for days about different ideas and suggested changes, but this is the gist of it.

Re:Remember, Kids

[Clovis42 (1229086)]

think as far as democracy is concerned, people should be able to vote on invidual laws and such

Well, the US, and most other "democracies" are representative democracies. Voting on individual laws is a terrible idea. Just look at Athens. Regardless of that though, citizens of the US (in some states) actually do get to vote on individual laws, through "Issues" polls, or on state consitutional amendments. That's how some states get ridiculous "anti-gay marriage" laws passed that a representative body would probably avoid.

The US is not, by law, a 2 party system; it has just developed that way. Democrats and Republicans do not always vote in one big block either. There are "blue dog" Democrats who will occasionally side with Republicans on some things, for example. Middle of the road representatives sometimes team up to challenge their parties. So, in the end, there actually is reasonable representaton.

The problem is that most Americans don't really understand how they are represented. Many don't vote, or only do so when their vote counts the least, the presidential election. The Senators represent smaller areas, and Representatives represent even smaller areas than those, and that's just the FEDERAL government. Most of the stuff that actually affects your life is decided by your State/County/Local/City representatives. Hardly anyone votes for them, or can keep track of them. Which makes those votes the most powerful you can cast.

So, to somehow be on topic, for this issue it doesn't matter at all if they are Republican or Democrat. Pretty much all the federal reps are "it's a series of tubes!" boneheads for technical issues.

Biden's not Senator RIAA

[Reality Master 201 (578873)]

He's the senator from MBNA and Citibank.

Totally different.

Re:And I'm sure . . .

[zappepcs (820751)]

You are exactly right in your suspicions, get ready for darknet p2p programs to start popping up all around us. When Mr. Biden asks what a darknet is, I hope he is summarily ejected from public office. Subsequent to this law, the information on the internet made available to share via darknets will in turn make its way to those who would share materials that are illegal, so the end result is nearly zero. Some idiots will always get caught, but they are just as likely to get caught without this law.

Anyone with his position should have enough intelligence to seek out smart people and see what can be done sensibly. Of course, all his intelligence is in his wallet; which is (un)fortunately under his ass most of the time.

It really is time to get rid of big business lobbyists. Their damage to the US is unfathomably huge. Time for open lobbying, not dissimilar to having to post your lobbying requests on the legislator's wiki site for all to see.

We need a LOT more transparency in the influences on legislators. Clearly.

This legislation is being promoted without clear evidence that it is needed. Where is the supporting evidence to show that this legislation will stop what it is intended to stop? How will it stop those from posting to the Internet from countries where the material is not illegal? There is no evidence to support it. If there is, the law is not needed. They can use the evidence they already have to arrest those guilty of the supposed crimes. Fucking idiots.

What an asshat. Yes, your child can click on the 'download britany spears' link and get childporn. Those filenames are ALWAYS accurate. Damn, even the **AA were using wrong filenames to spoil P2P sharing.

Re:And I'm sure . . .

[somersault (912633)]

pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation

Would that also mean monitoring someone downloading, say.. The Sopranos, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, any hentai whatsoever.. and so on and so forth? :P