Rapidshare vs Hotfile?

A.Penny.Saved

Mr_Oink wrote: »

There has to come a point where the digital thieves that use Rapidshare find themselves facing the '''music''' chuckle chuckle - digital economy act anyone? :-)

The Digital Economy Act won't make any difference in this case as you would know if you had read it. Not until ISP's start checking people's internet connections for filenames etc will there be any way to stop such activities and there are other ways to prevent that.

... Mind you, without the illegal music and software down-loaders, stealing banking details from compromised computers may be wayyyyy more difficult :-)

Ever heard of email and attachments? lol
All forms of digital media are almost exempt from such problems as there is very little chance of it infecting a computer, except for some very minor vulnerabilities which were quickly patched. Only using infected software could cause such problems. Simply becoming a victim of a drive by infection while visiting a legitimate website due to infected Ads is far more likely and is much more common as it can infect far more PC's if done correctly.

The BBC website was hacked with a similar type of thing on a number of occasions.

So what was that about "digital thieves" being the only people who in your opinion are to get caught out and have their computers compromised?

And no I don't own any such download accounts but that doesn't mean I don't follow what is happening.

It is such "digital thieves" as you put it who will drive the entertainment industries to change their ways and stop controlling media. Much of it can never be seen or heard and only because corporate bods are trying to control it all. Deciding what people can see and listen to, things which people might like but never get the opportunity to experience because the providers don't want to make it available. Only when the producers of such material start to provide that to people are people more likely to stop downloading it. It's not just because it's free that it happens, there are other more important reasons in many cases.

So less of the sanctimonious clap trap. Think before you speak, it's about more than you have bothered to consider.

Mr_Oink

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

So less of the sanctimonious clap trap.

If you say so......

JJ_Egan

As one who monitors the file sharing industry i can say that of late rapidshare is in decline that is due to them running a huge clean up after their USA court case . Dodgy files are actively monitered now even renamed files are taken down if they have a hash or MD sum that matches a known illegal file . Hotfile took over from RS but they are now also very active in deleting files and monitoring uploads .
Latest is multiple spreads over many different file servers instead of just one or two .This method of transferring illegal files has all of a sudden popped up on the radar of those that hunt out illegal file sharing .Their is also some comment that forums are now actively monitered and links followed through and rapidly taken down .Just as a number of TV show hosting sites have been taken down within the last six months .

jje

Mr_Oink

The ACS law farce halted some of the ground the rights owners had gained, but the technology is there and scalable to catch people that steal media and software - and dress it up any way you like, stealing is what it is.

Sure, the hardend thieves will try to subvert detection but it's really this simple; You can try splitting files, you can try proxying, you can try using VPN's but the simple truth is all the parts and pieces needed to reassemble the file will, ultimately, concentrate at your ISP with your credentials on it. Usage behaviour of file sharers is simple to profile, the mechanisms pretty much exist to punish and prosecute.

As for the post of 'A.penny.saved' he/she makes the point: "All forms of digital media are almost exempt from such problems as there is very little chance of it infecting a computer, except for some very minor vulnerabilities which were quickly patched." Indeed this is mostly correct and I could not fault the excellent observation that most *known* vulnerabilities are patched quickly.

The problem is digital thieves don't just steal music and video - they also tend to steal software. Some are even stupid enough to run their entire systems on cracked, stolen operating systems. The beauty is you can patch your system, you can patch your players, you can update your AV and Firewall - but if some spanner of a user is running cracked software they've downloaded from some file sharing 'friend', there is a very good chance there is a lot more going on under the hoods of their machines than they appreciate.

As for the claptrap about media companies it's really simple; These are luxury goods - not necessities. The rights owner(s) can please themselves how they licence or offer their wares to the market. Not liking the big bad media company, not being able to afford their products or simply not wanting to pay for them is no justification for stealing. It never is and the argument is so old and trodden over it's pointless to bang on. If it were right, we would not now have legislation in place to deal with it (and other digital 'wrongs').

A.Penny.Saved

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Their is also some comment that forums are now actively monitered and links followed through and rapidly taken down .Just as a number of TV show hosting sites have been taken down within the last six months .

jje

Now? Many such forums have been actively monitored for years.

The copyright enforcement people use automated systems and have done for quite a long time. They used to manually report files but started doing it with bots to increase the amount they could report.

With this method they can take down files within minutes.

Where there is a will there is a way and people find ways around it like they always will.

Companies connected with the media industry have been carrying out illegal activities for a very long time, DDOS'ing websites is only the tip of the iceberg of what they have been doing. Pot, kettle & black come to mind.