Site Offers History of Torrent Downloads By IP 340
tsu doh nimh writes "You may have never heard of youhavedownloaded.com, but if you recently grabbed movies, music or software from online file-trading networks, chances are decent that the site has heard of you. In fact, you may find that the titles you downloaded are now listed and publicly searchable at the site, indexed by your Internet address. So far, youhavedownloaded.com has recorded more than 50 million unique Internet addresses belonging to file-sharing users. The site is searchable by file name and by Internet address. When you visit, it automatically checks and lets you know if your Internet address is in the database."
Honeypot? (Score:4, Interesting)
Beware all you clickers!
Re:Geez, we're down to scare tactics now, huh (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a good tactic though. Public shaming has always been effective.
It's likely to be more effective at stopping people than their mass lawsuits have been.
Facebook data harvesting tool (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, at least we know how they're monetizing this admittedly slick database; they won't allow you to submit a removal request until you provide your facebook credentials. To even reach the text below, you need to unblock Facebook in NoScript:
______
Removal Request
What’s the matter? You’re brave enough to steal music, movies and programs but only because you thought you weren’t going to get caught? Well whoever told you that was completely wrong and now your information has gone public. Are you afraid of media companies finding out that you’re a pirate or are you afraid of your friends finding out exactly what you’ve been downloading? Whatever your reason may be, the internet is no place for secrets. Even if you use every precaution in the book, there’s always a chance that someone like us will figure out what you’ve been up to. Because, the reality is, if man made it...man will get around it...and man will figure out how to exploit it. It’s just human nature.
Anyway, like we said before, luck is on your side today because we’re actually nicer than we let on. I never said we wouldn’t bust your chops about it, but at least we’re offering you a chance to redeem yourself — The details can be found after logging in to your Facebook account.
Re:Not so much (Score:5, Interesting)
Ditto. This thing pegged me as downloading something from "Lil Wayne" while not correctly identifying the things that I have actually torrented. Although I usually stay away from stuff that RIAA or MPAA have any jurisdiction over.
So they aren't going to publically shame me over downloading Centos? I'm so dissapointed.
Illegal (Score:5, Interesting)
And if they track any IP address from Switzerland, they are breaking the Swiss data protection laws and can be sued for damages for collecting the IP and breach of privacy.
See http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/switzerland-gathering-ip-addresses-from-bittorrent-sites-illegal.ars
What happened to another IP slurper...
"But Switzerland, which is not an EU member, has decided that it can't sanction Logistep's behavior. The country's Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, Hanspeter Thür, took Logistep to court and this week won a major victory. The Federal Supreme Court ruled that IP addresses are in fact personal information and that companies like Logistep can't go about slurping them up for mere civil cases like file-swapping lawsuits. Logistep must cease all current copyright infringement data collection.
In a press release issued yesterday, Thür praised the court's decision. He sees Logistep as trying to "assume tasks clearly in the State's domain." Only the state can violate personal privacy, and only when pursuing criminal cases."
Don't take it seriously (Score:5, Interesting)
The privacy policy, the contact us page — it’s all a joke. We came up with the idea of building a crawler like this and keeping the maintenance price under $300 a month. There was only one way to prove our theory worked — to implement it in practice. So we did. Now, we find ourselves with a big crawler. We knew what it did but we didn’t know how to use it. So we decided to make a joke out of it. That’s the beauty of jokes — you can make them out of anything.
However, if you have a better idea — don’t hesitate to contact us.
Re:Facebook data harvesting tool (Score:5, Interesting)
Said Facebook data will be fed into their publicly available Facebook database, to be released in a week.
Re:Not so much (Score:5, Interesting)
I do find it funny though, they do list Pioneer One [pioneerone.tv]. That's right, shame on me for sharing a TV show that was made to be shared.
lol.
Re:Geez, we're down to scare tactics now, huh (Score:3, Interesting)
Right. Because file sharing policy is the sole dictate of where I should live.
Site Only Lists the Foolish .. (Score:5, Interesting)
Because it's totally accurate... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hi. We have no records on you.
This means you are using a private torrent tracker or, of course, you may not be a torrent user at all!
I torrent a ton. On that IP. I don't use private trackers. I am even seeding now.
Their detection method is clearly terrible.
Re:Facebook data harvesting tool (Score:4, Interesting)
Doesn't look that way to me - it's the standard Facebook Connect popup window that connects to Facebook.com via HTTPS.
What part of it looks like phishing for passwords to you?
Re:Honeypot? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://panopticlick.eff.org/ [eff.org] - Why do browsers reveal so much about themselves?