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Security Your Rights Online

VPN For Kazaa Users Launched 57

Posted by simoniker from the hiding-behind-screen dept.
prostoalex writes "AnonX allows Kazaa users to connect to its own VPN, effectively obfuscating their original IP address that certain association has been using to subpoena the file-sharers. The company is created by a Texas ISP employee, but is registered in Vanuatu, and already has 7,000 users paying $6 a month."
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VPN For Kazaa Users Launched More

VPN For Kazaa Users Launched

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  • Which is wonderful.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Your_Mom ( 94238 ) <slashdot@inNETBSDnismir.net minus bsd> on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @09:25PM (#8255564) Homepage
    ...until the RIAA somehow finds a way to get access to their user records...

  • Speed problems? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pilot1 ( 610480 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @09:30PM (#8255589)
    I just skimmed through their website, but it looks to me like their user's speeds would be limited by their bandwidth, just like any other proxy.
    So what happens when 20% of those thousands of users get on Kazaa at once?
    • I just skimmed through their website, but it looks to me like their user's speeds would be limited by their bandwidth, just like any other proxy. So what happens when 20% of those thousands of users get on Kazaa at once?

      Maybe faster downloads, more sharing, and vanuatu buys lots of high speed bandwidth from ISPs. :)

  • Disclaimers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CelticWhisper ( 601755 ) <celticwhisper@Nospam.gmail.com> on Thursday February 12, 2004 @12:27AM (#8255638)
    It's still nice to see that something's being done to help. Even if it is just another proxy service, that still makes it another proxy service that the RIAA has to expend time and effort to "manage."

    I wonder, though, if they can implement some kind of disclaimer or warning (like those you see when logging into some FTP servers) that state that personnel from the RIAA or from record companies are not permitted to use the service. I may be mistaken, but that should provide some legal clout in the event they get h4xx0r3d (so to speak) and their users sued like so many others.

    • Re:Disclaimers? (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by DAldredge ( 2353 )
      Do you have ANY proof that those BS disclaimers are legally binding?

    • Re:Disclaimers? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mumblestheclown ( 569987 ) on Thursday February 12, 2004 @05:00AM (#8256514)
      I may be mistaken, but that should provide some legal clout in the event they get h4xx0r3d (so to speak) and their users sued like so many others.

      I love those legal disclaimers that sites put such as "law enforcement people and RIAA members or affiliates are not permitted to enter this site." this attempt to hide from copyright infringement culpability is as laughable as it is juvenile.

      for the record, they carry absolute zero clout, and doubly so in this era of DMCA. however, they probably make for good search terms.

      • I may be mistaken, but that should provide some legal clout in the event they get h4xx0r3d (so to speak) and their users sued like so many others.

        I love those legal disclaimers that sites put such as "law enforcement people and RIAA members or affiliates are not permitted to enter this site." this attempt to hide from copyright infringement culpability is as laughable as it is juvenile.

        for the record, they carry absolute zero clout, and doubly so in this era of DMCA. however, they probably make for good
      • It depends. Using those entry pages to protect blatent copyright violations does not work.

        However, this is not to say that they have no weight at all for everything.

        The following entry page has been standard issue in its community for four or five years, and has been verified as probibly defendable over this time period by multiple lawyers. (Note: all material identifying the site or the companies has been removed.)

        By proceeding any further into this site, you agree to the following
        terms

  • Confusion (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mhesseltine ( 541806 ) on Thursday February 12, 2004 @12:36AM (#8255684) Homepage Journal

    So, let me get this straight; these users can't or won't pay to purchase music/videos/software/etc., but they will pay some company a monthly fee to protect them as they illegally download said music/videos/software/etc.

    I actually hope that this company is a front for the RIAA, nailing those who are too stupid/greedy to figure it out.

    • Re:Confusion (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Thursday February 12, 2004 @12:51AM (#8255769) Journal
      Sure. It's a lot cheaper. If the music has equivalent value to you as a CD, downloading a single album has just paid for at least two months of service.

      Remember that anyone downloading music/movies is investing time, hard drive space/bandwidth, and potentially CDRs anyway.

      I actually hope that this company is a front for the RIAA, nailing those who are too stupid/greedy to figure it out.

      [shrug] I kind of wish that all speeders would get nailed for breaking the law, potentially with speed-detection devices hidden in all cars. With speeding, people's lives are actually at risk (as opposed to folks just infringing copyrights). However, most people don't like the idea, because they like breaking the law to some degree. I suspect that the same applies to your "I hope the company is an RIAA front" idea -- probably most other people, like me, find the idea of going after users in such a manner distasteful.
      • [shrug] I kind of wish that all speeders would get nailed for breaking the law, potentially with speed-detection devices hidden in all cars. With speeding, people's lives are actually at risk (as opposed to folks just infringing copyrights). However, most people don't like the idea, because they like breaking the law to some degree. I suspect that the same applies to your "I hope the company is an RIAA front" idea -- probably most other people, like me, find the idea of going after users in such a manner di
        • Speeding is prosecuted. I should know, I just got back from traffic school. Why should this be any different? Sure, nobody is going to get killed pirating MP3s, but if that's your justification then do we get rid of all non-violent crime?

          I'm not advocating eliminating either speeding or copyright infringement enforcement. What I would find disturbing is this particular approach to enforcement -- setting up shell companies that simply log all data and potential copyright infringement users engage in. Thi

          • Re:Confusion (Score:2, Funny)

            by dethlejd ( 71126 )
            The reason that this argument falls apart is as follows:

            If the "powers that be" can ticket you everytime you speed, people will stop speeding.

            If they find a way to guarantee that a file that is shared across a network violates copyright, and prosecute (read: fine) the persons involved in the transmission of the file, people will stop trading copyrighted material.

            I, for one believe, however, that a small percentage of users will always remain smarter than the folks trying to prevent promiscious copyright
            • Also figure the 10,000 screaming fans at a concert each paying $45 - $200 a pop, buying t-shirts at $25 a pop, and poserts at $25 each and tell me how CD's which go into make those artists that popular are really wothj $15 each. If I could buy more CDs with my moeny I might actually find a few more current bands that I really like and want to go to a concert to hear live.
          • If the police did this it would probably be rule entrapment. There are some pretty strict rules that must be followed durring an investigation. This would be like a cop going to a person on the street saying "Come here and buy drugs from this drug dealer while I watch the door". Since the cop brough up the drugs first, it's entrapment.....
            • No. Entrapment requires that someone be incited to commit a crime. Simply recording what someone does is not illegal, since the loggers are not directly encouraging someone to commit a crime.
          • Quote: It would be much like hiding (without telling the consumer) speed-tracking devices in cars.

            This technology already exists and is currently being used to settle collision claims. You are looking at vehicle onboard logging and processing systems from the likes of GM. Oh yeah, no one tells the buyers of such vehicles that there is a speed logging device inside the mysterious vehicle computer.

    • Three Words (Score:3, Informative)

      by Hell O'World ( 88678 )
      Digital Rights Management.
      The experience of downloading music from Kazaa, even though it can't beat the old Napster, is still miles above the new legal downloading systems, because you can do whatever you want with the music when you get it, unencumbered by artifical limitations.
      I want my MP3s.

    • And I hope the RIAA falls. Why? Because they've been legally ripping people off for years now. Legal, illegal, a rip-off is a rip-off. Buy a whole cd of crap to get one decent song? The price of making cds has dropped by more than half (which was the original justification for them costing so much) but the price of the cds hasn't dropped by a penny. Not to mention the copy protection so I can't even make a back-up in case the cd is damaged.

      Music services to download a song for a $1? Not all of them are av

  • Yawn.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Neo Matrix Surfer ( 751658 ) on Thursday February 12, 2004 @02:46AM (#8256187)
    I have been doing this for almost a year using an offshore service called the MetroPipe Tunneler [metropipe.net] and their SOCKS Proxy.

    Just basic SSH Tunneling with an easy to use system that encrypts the traffic from your machine to MetroPipe, and from there you go out on the net via Proxies and others see MetroPipe and not your IP.

    What is good about MetroPipe is that they are NOT located in the USA. And they do not keep logs to even give to anyone that even asks.
    Let alone all the other Proxies they offer such as POP-FTP etc.

    And about speed. Give me a break. Of course there will be a speed slowdown. That is the price to pay for an additional layer of privacy.

    Boo Hoo. Additional hops mean slower download speed. Fine by me. The extra privacy and anonymity is well worth it. And with todays DSL speed I get, even with the additional HOP, I still have blazing speed especially if you try and price a raw T1.

    I am happy with My 2 Cents. Peace.

    • Re:Yawn.... (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by __past__ ( 542467 )

      What is good about MetroPipe is that they are NOT located in the USA. And they do not keep logs to even give to anyone that even asks.

      At least that's what they tell you. But what would stop such a company from logging all the sensitive information that get (and given that you'd use it for everything you don't want to know about, they would probably collect a lot of very interesting info) and later sell it to some spammers, for example, or simply start blackmailing you?

      The problem with all these privac

  • Is This Article a Kazaa Ad? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DynaSoar ( 714234 ) on Thursday February 12, 2004 @03:19AM (#8256285) Journal
    Because I don't see anything on the AnonX site that says anything specifically about Kazaa or any other file sharing system. It says it's for security for any online activity.

    I think it's a damn shame that the first thing that comes to mind is file sharing, when far worse things like human rights violations are far more worth protecting. Yes, this proxy system is for that too.
  • Let me get this right. A guy physically residing in the States is earning money from a service whose primary and almost sole intent is to facilitate the commission of a crime. How long before the feds are on his arse? Just because the company is in Vanuatu, doen't mean he can't be done for living off illegal earnings or some-such law designed to put away mobsters and drug barons.
  • As it gets more and more insecure to use P2P filesharing services, the users should consider switching to a filesharing network which fully respects privacy and completely disables censorship (achieved by encryption)

    For details see the Freenet Project homepage [freenetproject.org].

    BTW there is another interesting (though by far not as widely used) filesharing network, called GNUnet [ovmj.org].
    • Because I can never find anything but ragged porn on Freenet. It is a chicken and egg type problem. Freenet never reached that critical mass to be as interesting as Kazaa. But Anon-X is even more than that. It is like a new version of Anonimizer.
  • It's not just for Kazaa. It's a VPN that any and all of your Internet software can use. Use it at work to get around nazis who block listening to Di.fm, use it at school to get around port blocking and throttling....

    My interest in it was actually getting unfirewalled, as that cripples Internet performance. But my school blocks the protocols necessary for outbound VPN connections, so I only had it for a month.

    It's nice because you don't need their proprietary software. You just download a VPN connection fi

  • Just Ducky - A new argument for key escrow - curse (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MadHungarian1917 ( 661496 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @11:53AM (#8270478)
    Now the feds will have a new argument for _requiring_ key escrow "to protect IP" just wonderful. and the broadband providers will have a new excuse for blocking VPN connections on residential circuits. Which will make it really inconvenient and _expensive_ for those of us who need these tools for productive work. Ahh the tragedy of the commons writ large

    I just wish for once people would think about the consequences for the rest of us before rolling out a commercial service.

    The place to fight the DMCA is the courts and we do have some judges on our side. Does anyone remember the Cartervision case where Hollywood wanted to ban VCR's the judge in that case found while the VCR's could be used to infringe copyright they had substantial 'non-infringing' uses which is the same tack the judge in the p2p case is taking. Let's not give _big media_ any ammo for their view of the world.
    • broadband providers will have a new excuse for blocking VPN connections on residential circuits
      Seeing as how the majority of VPN users are using their VPNs for legitimate work, I can't see ISPs getting away with this one. I would think most of the illegal stuff goes on through SOCKS proxies.
      • In my neck of the woods MediaOne->ATTBI->Comcast blocks IPSec unless you purchase a _business_ account for 2-3X the cost of the basic plan.

        I have DSL and Satellite because I refuse to do business with said crew of pirates.

        When MediaOne bought our local cable provider they changed the billing so you were billed for 2 months for every month of service this was "in case you did not pay your bill" but they would refund the charges when you terminated your service yeah sure and if you belive that I have
  • It's just a proxy service... look what it supports:

    Supported Software: Explorer, Netscape, Kazaa, Morpheus, Freenet, Emule, Gnutella, Imesh, Shareaza, BitTorrent, Limewire, Trillian, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, IRC, WSFTP, CuteFTP, Windows Media Player and Real Player

    Found here [anonx.com]

    I'm sure every peidophile/childmolester/spammer/scam artist is already paying their $7 a month to get in on this.

    Just use a fake credit card, and they think they are invisable (until a warrant is issued for the access l

  • You know, ISP's dont have to log any information about you. There is no law that forces them to log anything that you do. I dont know why they do it, seems to me it would be even funnier and more convenient for them, to just trash all the logs, that would end all these stupid law suits. I am sure that will happen soon however, we live in a corporate world, when the first large isp begins to do this, they will get so many customers they wont know what to do with them.

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