Torrentfreak: “Movie Boss Avoids Copyright Q&A to Avoid Piracy “Crazies”” plus 2 more |
- Movie Boss Avoids Copyright Q&A to Avoid Piracy “Crazies”
- Attackers Can ‘Steal’ Bandwidth From BitTorrent Seeders, Research Finds
- Court: Usenet Provider Doesn’t Have to Filter Pirated Content
| Movie Boss Avoids Copyright Q&A to Avoid Piracy “Crazies” Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:08 AM PDT
Consumer groups and citizens, on the other hand, want any response to be measured and coupled with assurances from entertainment companies that Australians will stop being treated like second-class consumers. Local ISPs have varying opinions, depending on the depth of their Big Media affiliations. Back in July a discussion paper leaked revealing government proposals that include measures such as the tweaking of ISP liability right through to ‘pirate’ website blocking. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull later indicated that a public Q&A would be held in September for representatives from the entertainment industries, ISPs, and consumer groups to air their thoughts on the proposals. While the opportunity was welcomed by the majority of stakeholders, it’s now clear that not everyone will be there. Village Roadshow is the company that mounted the most aggressive anti-piracy legal action ever against iiNet, one of Australia’s largest ISPs. They have a deep interest in how this debate pans out. This morning, however, co-CEO Graham Burke told ZDNet that his company wouldn’t be attending the discussions because he’ll be overseas at the time. While that may be true, an email Burke sent to Turnbull and other participants shines rather more light on the topic. “My company is not prepared to participate in the forum. As expressed to you previously these Q and A style formats are judged by the noise on the night and given the proposed venue I believe this will be weighted by the crazies,” Burke told the Minister. According to ZDNet, attendees from the ISP industry will include iiNet CEO David Buckingham, Telstra executive director Jane Van Beelen and Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein. On a musical front the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) will be in attendance, as will writer and producer Peter Duncan. Looking after the interests of citizens will be consumer group Choice, but it appears Burke and Village Roadshow are concerned about potential dissent from the “crazies”. “What is at stake here is the very future of Australian film production itself and it is too crucially important to Australia’s economy and the fabric of our society to put at risk with what will be a miniscule group whose hidden agenda is theft of movies,” Burke told the Minister. It’s perhaps understandable for the movie boss to avoiding walking into a losing battle, but referring to those that do wish to participate in an open debate as having a hidden agenda of “movie theft” isn’t going to win over potential allies. Boycotting discussions in which people get the opportunity to air their perhaps opposing opinions doesn’t indicate a willingness to enter a dialog or negotiations either. But that might be the nail on the head right there. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| Attackers Can ‘Steal’ Bandwidth From BitTorrent Seeders, Research Finds Posted: 19 Aug 2014 02:33 PM PDT
This popularity makes BitTorrent an interesting target for attacks, which various anti-piracy companies have shown in the past. One of these possible attacks was recently unveiled by Florian Adamsky, researcher at the City University London. In an article published in “Computers & Security” Adamsky and his colleagues reveal an exploit which allows attackers to get a higher download rate from seeders than other people. In technical terms, the exploit misuses BitTorrent’s choking mechanism of clients that use the “Allowed Fast” extension. Attackers can use this to keep a permanent connection with seeders, requesting the same pieces over and over. The vulnerability was extensively tested in swarms of various sizes and the researchers found that three malicious peers can already slow download times up to 414.99%. When the number of attackers is greater compared to the number of seeders, the worse the effect becomes. The impact of the attack further depends on the download clients being used by the seeders in the swarm. The mainline BitTorrent clients and uTorrent are not vulnerable for example, while Vuze is partly affected. “Vuze is only partly affected as it allows pieces to be downloaded 64 times and then all further requests are rejected. Nevertheless we have listed Vuze as vulnerable since it is possible to reconnect and restart the attack,” the paper reads. An older version of Libtorrent also had this vulnerability but that was fixed a year ago. TorrentFreak spoke with Adamsky who predicts that similar results are possible in real swarms. Even very large swarms of more than 1,000 seeders could be affected through a botnet, although it’s hard to predict the precise impact. “If an attacker uses a botnet to attack the swarm, I think it would be possible to increase the average download time of all peers [of swarms with 1,000 seeders] up to three times,” Adamsky tells us. “If most of the clients would have a vulnerable client like Vuze or Transmission it would be possible to increase the average download time up ten times,” he adds. In their paper the researchers suggest a relatively easy fix to the problem, through an update of the “Allowed Fast” extension. In addition, they also propose a new seeding algorithm that is less prone to these and other bandwidth attacks. Update: The article was updated to clarify that only older version of Libtorrent were affected. According to the research Transmission currently has the “Allowed Fast” code commented out, but it could become vulnerable when it’s implemented. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| Court: Usenet Provider Doesn’t Have to Filter Pirated Content Posted: 19 Aug 2014 07:55 AM PDT
Through the court BREIN demanded that NSE delete all infringing content from its servers, and in 2011 the Court of Amsterdam sided with the copyright holders. The Court argued that NSE willingly facilitated copyright infringement through its services. In its verdict the Court ruled that NSE had to remove all copyrighted content, and filter future posts for possible copyright infringements. Responding to the verdict the Usenet provider said that it was economically unfeasible to filter all messages. The company therefore saw no other option than to shut down its services while the appeal was pending. This week the Appeals Court ruled on the case overturning the previous verdict, setting a more positive precedent for Usenet providers and similar services. The Court concluded that NSE does not facilitate copyright infringement as long as it maintains a procedure through which copyright holders can send unlimited takedown notices. In addition, the Court decided that proactive filtering of copyrighted content is not required, as that conflicts with existing jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. “We are very pleased with this ruling,” NSE CEO Patrick Schreurs says. “The Court correctly states that a Usenet provider such as News-Service Europe can not be expected to proactively monitor the messages others place.” The ruling this week is an interlocutory verdict. The Court still has to rule on how NSE’s notice and takedown procedure should operate. Afterwards, both BREIN and NSE still have the option to take the case to the Supreme Court. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
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