I Know What You Download on BitTorrent • Hacker News Board

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#221

Post by rootsudo » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

Since everyone is taking about their experiences seeing workmates torrent, and no one is posting how this works -

Torrents are peer to peer. Bit torrent is a type of application. Bittorrent are not inclusive to torrents anymore.

Since everything is public, you can load several torrents, and watch for the handshake to occur and record the time/date and ip address.

Do it on a large enough scale and there you go.

There are many ways to secure against this, usually USA IP holders use USA cloud services or USA IP addresses. Some are public, but even if not, you can block the entire USA , so geoblocking by a simple tool such as: https://www.countryipblocks.net/acl.php

And you're pretty much in the clear. Not perfect, but pretty much.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#222

Post by kart23 » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

krzyk wrote: post #186

flak48 wrote: post #89

An intern once thought it was a good idea to torrent a couple of Game of Thrones episodes using my startup's Digital Ocean box. We found out after Digital Ocean forwarded us an email from HBO (who presumably tracked Digital Ocean down via the IP) that we were engaging in piracy. We sent an email to everyone with access, saying whoever was doing it to stop. Then we got a second email (a final warning). Everyone denied…

One needs to remember to cover their tracks :) When I was young and stupid (at least more than now) I did some pranks using dormitory server, and knew that I should clean bash history (actually using a single space before command did that). But what I didn't know was that vim also has a history of commands :) server admin wasn't happy.

You never know what type of logging is set up though. You can log others users commands too, making use histories irrelevant.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#223

Post by proverbialbunny » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

ktm5j wrote: post #163

Tepix wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowadays internet users on cable often keep the same IP address for weeks if not months. Who knows, your ISP could change its configuration tomorrow and always re-assign the same IP address to you as long as its available. I think the point of this website is to show people that using torrents is far from anonymous and invisible.

My modem has had the same IP for nearly 10 years now! It's the same even after several moves, one to a new county. Super convenient, but that's the nicest thing I have to say about Comcast. Boy I wish there were other options.

Yep, Comcast ties your modem's mac address to an IP address.

However, if your modem is off long enough for a new user in your area to need a new IP address, they'll snatch up yours.

Also, 10 years? I guess DOCSIS 3.0 has been around that long. That's pretty impressive.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#224

Post by monksy » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

Godel_unicode wrote: post #166

alextheparrot wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unsure when you grew up, but for many of us who grew up in the 90s and 00s, this is exactly the mindset we have. I used to be able to take a movie I had and lend it to a friend, the same with music. The movement away from physical copies took this away from many of us, so we tried to take it back in kind -- piracy is what they called that behavior. I understand it might not seem right to you, but in all the soci…

> The movement away from physical copies I just don't understand this argument, physical copies of virtually any type of media absolutely still exist. If you want to own even Netflix shows on disc, you can do that pretty cheaply. I'd you want to get Blu Ray discs delivered to you by mail for a subscription fee, you can probably do that (although this is slightly more geographically restricted). This argument is simpl…

That claim isn't true. There are games that are not provided with a physical copy (i.e. Beatsaber for PSVR, Quest for Booty-Rachet and Clank, etc)

Also, I'm sure there are other Hulu, Netflix, Prime excluses that won't make it to the physical market.

----

This still avoids the main issue here: It's the right of ownership of the copy. Having a digital copy, in it's current state, prevents you from transferring it to others. Amazon's ebooks have the option for lending, but you're still reliant upon Amazon's "holy permission" to do that. (They can reascend it at any time). With physical mediums the original creators cannot prevent you from reselling what you own. (They can try.. but often times they've failed)

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#225

Post by larntz » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #91

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #43

Neat, now I know what everyone using my vpn provider has downloaded! I will happily recommend that everyone buy a router that can be flashed and pipe all your traffic through a VPN. It doesn't give you perfect security, but it defeats a lot of attempts to deanonimize like this.

For reference that is not a fool proof model. Even if you do everything right all your traffic goes through VPN... This create a case where the “bad thing” you do woth the PC, is also on the same address as all your “good things”. Let’s say with Google, your thermostat, your Wi-Fi enabled coffee maker, your game console, your phone, every website you connect to with any other device that runs through that router/VPN…

Probably better to run a container or VM behind a VPN to do "VPN" things there, and normal stuff on the host.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#226

Post by akerro » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:24 PM UTC

sevenf0ur wrote: post #147

flak48 wrote: post #89

An intern once thought it was a good idea to torrent a couple of Game of Thrones episodes using my startup's Digital Ocean box. We found out after Digital Ocean forwarded us an email from HBO (who presumably tracked Digital Ocean down via the IP) that we were engaging in piracy. We sent an email to everyone with access, saying whoever was doing it to stop. Then we got a second email (a final warning). Everyone denied…

Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show in history. I remember when the first 4 episodes of season 5 were leaked at once. Christmas came early!

Because it was great and it wasn't available legally in so many countries, or it was with forced reader and no native-English language versions in TV or 480p streaming online.

It's most pirated because it was great quality product with low quality service and delivery.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#227

Post by RyJones » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:26 PM UTC

flak48 wrote: post #89

An intern once thought it was a good idea to torrent a couple of Game of Thrones episodes using my startup's Digital Ocean box. We found out after Digital Ocean forwarded us an email from HBO (who presumably tracked Digital Ocean down via the IP) that we were engaging in piracy. We sent an email to everyone with access, saying whoever was doing it to stop. Then we got a second email (a final warning). Everyone denied…

I worked for a place where our internet was bad, but not that bad. We were coming up to a release and things were fubar. I asked the network guy to find what was up - a guy that reported to me was torrenting child porn.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#228

Post by hombre_fatal » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

larntz wrote: post #197

hombre_fatal wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ISP is looking for IP addresses in its address range in the peer list, looking it up in its customer database, and sending its own customers a letter.

Is this true? As I explained in another post, I used to work at a small ISP many years ago. We did not monitor anything, but we did get emails from MPAA people (my memory is a little fuzzy) about an IP downloading a something. We would then pass it on to our customer.

It was at least true for Comcast in 2007-2011. They were using a third-party agency for this info and then moved it in-house when I was doing contract work for them.

No clue how MPAA letters interfaced with them. Could have been an agreement with them for all I know.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#229

Post by dang » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #181

_jal wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If everyone treated piracy as theft (it is) Then everybody would be as wrong as you. You can repeat this as much as you like, but it is simply false. Legally speaking: copyright infringement is an offense distinct from theft. Speaking from reality: copyright infringement does not deprive the holder of the right of their property. Speaking ethically: Copyright infringement is a violation of a particular commercial m…

You know a forum has turned to shit when the mob down-votes the facts.

Please stop turning the forum further "to shit" with unsubstantive comments.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#230

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

tekstar wrote: post #132

flak48 wrote: post #89

An intern once thought it was a good idea to torrent a couple of Game of Thrones episodes using my startup's Digital Ocean box. We found out after Digital Ocean forwarded us an email from HBO (who presumably tracked Digital Ocean down via the IP) that we were engaging in piracy. We sent an email to everyone with access, saying whoever was doing it to stop. Then we got a second email (a final warning). Everyone denied…

I used to work at a ~100 person company that provided satellite equipment, mostly to media companies - radio stations, movie distributors, that type of thing. A senior customer service rep realized he had VPN access to a customer's, like.. T1 line. He started torrenting movies on it. On the CUSTOMERS network. Our entire company was nearly taken offline and the customer threatened cancelling the entire contract and su…

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