Most Torrent Downloaders Are Monitored, Study Finds 309
derekmead writes "A new study from Birmingham University in the U.K. found that people will likely be monitored within hours of downloading popular torrents by at least one of ten or more major monitoring firms. The team, led by security researcher Tom Chothia, ran software that acted like a BitTorrent client for three years and recorded all of the connections made to it. At SecureComm conference in Padua, Italy this week, the team announced that they found huge monitoring operations tracking downloaders that have been up and running for at least the entirety of their research. According to the team's presentation (PDF), monitors were only regularly detected in Top 100 torrents, while monitoring of more obscure material was more spotty. What's really mysterious is who all of the firms are. Chothia's crew found around 10 different monitoring entities, of which a few were identifiable as security companies, copyright firms, or other torrent researchers. But six entities could not be identified because they were masked through third party hosting. Now, despite firms focusing mostly on just the top few searches out there at any given time, that's still a massive amount of user data to collect and store. Why? Well, if a reverse class-action lawsuit were feasible, those treasure troves of stored data would be extremely valuable."
Name the 6 entities! (Score:4, Interesting)
"But six entities could not be identified because they were masked through third party hosting."
NSA
FBI
FAPSI
GCHQ
CSE
GCSB
Re:This just in.... (Score:5, Interesting)
WTF is stopping them ???????????
I make open source software. I have a donation link on my site and in my app. I have thousands of people using my app every day.
In an average month, I receive $3 in donations*.
That's what's stopping them - people love to talk about how they don't really want this stuff for free - they only want to be able to pay a reasonable amount of money to the people who create it. But the majority of these people rarely put their money where their mouth is when actually given the opportunity to do so.
I realize I'm comparing software and entertainment, but I haven't yet seen anything that tells me people would behave differently. If they're not voluntarily paying for software that helps them do their jobs every day, I don't see the likelihood of paying for a couple hours of one-time entertainment as being very high.
* Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to profit off of this version of my software and I appreciate even the $1.00 donations. But the data here illustrates my point nicely.
Re:Incorrect title (Score:5, Interesting)
So only people downloading the latest movies/music are monitored.
FWIW, Pogue's column in the latest Scientific American claims that of the 10 most pirated movies over the internet, none are out there for legal rent or purchase.
Re:This just in.... (Score:3, Interesting)
>>> people love to talk about how they don't really want this stuff for free - they only want to be able to pay a reasonable amount of money to the people who create it. But the majority of these people rarely put their money where their mouth is
I want it for free.
There I said it.
I bet 99% of us are the same. For example I read books for free that are published online. The number of actual books on my kindle that I paid for? Zero? If it costs money I skip over it and read the free stuff instead. Same with software. Why pay for MC Office when I can get OpenOffice free? Why buy a CD when I can hear the music free on youtube? There is simply too much free entertainment/software in the world to ever bother paying for something.
Re:This just in.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I occasionally drop 10 bucks on DwarfFortress. But that's because it's unique, there's nothing out there like it and I'm paying to see it keep getting made.
Re:This just in.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I will pay $1 to $10, without much thought for something in the android market.
I just hit one button, and the payment is done.
Anything much more than 1-click, becomes work, and it's not even worth bothering, just to pay a few bucks.
If I have to click a donate button, then get redirected to paypal, then sign in, then verify the amount and from which funding source, then click ok, then get rerouted back, then check later to make sure that the transaction didn't go sideways.
android market. with all it's downsides, mostly just works.
build a square, make it attractive, provide a few ammenities, provide a bit of security and stability, and merchants will come, then the buyers.
you've provided a water fountain, where the drinking is easy, but the paying is an asswhip.
make the drinking a tad more difficult, and the paying very easy.
allow users to sample a taste with ease, then make it easy for them to pay for a full helping.
that's what a good market does.
Re:This just in.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing worth stealing, though.
We are sorry. Because your IP is not a US IP, you cannot view or purchase this content. You will have to wait for a year or so before this shit is available in your country at 3 times the price or more. We like to fuck you in the ass as much as possible. Well, if you're asking me, they are inducing people to donwload illegally. I and many users would love to pay a fair price and download a legal HQ copy of my favorite show, only I have to use a VPN connection to watch certain content in the US, like Hulu, or purchase certain items that I like. It seems that borders even exist on the Internet. Soon you'll need a green card just to connect to an American server. It's disgusting what they are up to. So fuck all trackers and attack or DDoS the shit out of them. I want them off my Internet.
Price point and competition (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course cheaper isn't a reason on it's own, otherwise you are condoning stealing because that too is cheaper.
The vendors' selection of a price point is something that has gone astray here. And it's linked to competition from other entertainment devices - music and video are a smaller fraction of the pie than they used to be.
I'm willing to pay up to euro10 for a DVD, and less than that for a CD. This means I wait several months (or a year) after a new release before it reaches my price point. DVDs typically start out here at euro20+ and some CDs are amazingly priced at euro20+ when "hot". After a few months, one has a better view on whether a CD/DVD is worth getting for the long term. There was a time I'd pay the crazy prices being asked for new releases, but it passed a long time ago.
A few years ago, a survey (maybe in The Economist magazine) indicated that people were spending about the same fraction of their income on entertainment as they had 25 years earlier. However, the share taken by music and video (predominantly VHS then, DVD now) had declined significantly, while that taken by gaming and suchlike had grown, and dining out etc. had not changed much. Clearly, if we're expected to buy just as much music and video, the price has to be more attractive. They're competing with PlayStations, internet, and suchlike for money and attention.