I Know What You Download on BitTorrent • Hacker News Board

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#611

Post by ooobit2 » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:09 AM UTC

cutemonster wrote: post #462

tekstar wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This customer service rep, how was otherwise his work performance / output? How was he like to work with?

I've fired people for having less wherewithal than to ask a question like this. His performance, output, or attitude are irrelevant. He knowingly used company property to violate federal law... IP law at that. Guy should be lucky he didn't get sued for gross negligence.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#612

Post by kchoudhu » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:09 AM UTC

tomjakubowski wrote: post #564

gcbw3 wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd bet that was a bouncer/client set address, for the joke. Sigh, people probably trust things like this today because FB(whatsapp)/Google/slack/discord forces you to sign up with valid phone numbers and probably expose that as your ID.

I think the joke may have been by ChrisLMB, who saw the opportunity when he read the unmasked second-level domain in ben174's address.

Definitely had this happen to me when I was new on IRC.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#613

Post by kchoudhu » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:10 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #496

ben174 wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey that's me :)

You can't just say that and then not follow up. It's literally against HN rules, read the ToS.

If he's lying, it's an extremely elaborate set up

https://www.bugben.com/

...check out his resume.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#614

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:34 AM 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…

[deleted]

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#615

Post by mulmen » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:40 AM UTC

mindfulhack wrote: post #573

mulmen wrote: post #42

Off topic but this raises a question about iMesssage parsing of URLs. I copied just the base URL (without my IP, so he would get his) and sent this to a friend. The preview in iMessage lists my IP, because iMessage actually visited the link. Does the message he receives show his IP or mine? e: Just tested this, it shows my IP on the receiving end. It appears iMessage creates the preview text on the sender’s side so t…

I just checked a few links sent back and forth between me and another iMessage friend, both from within Messages.app on my Mac, and the synced Messages app on my iPhone. I don't see any IPs being displayed at the end of URL strings when I copy and paste the link from the generated previews. My friend would have definitely only ever sent links from their iPhone, but often I would send mine from the Mac. How exactly do…

The IP leaks through the name of the page on the URL preview. https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com redirects to https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com/en/peer/ which includes the IP of the sender. The name of the page includes the IP address of the sender. "Torrent downloads and distributions for IP 0.0.0.0". If you paste the URL in a sentence with a period at the end this preview may not be generated.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#616

Post by pastage » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:41 AM UTC

Xortl wrote: post #577

tomc1985 wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels so weird to grow up in an age of rampant, unabashed piracy, where literally everyone around you is burning CDs or cracking games or handing out copied mixtapes, and see questions like these. It just goes to show how thoroughly streaming squashed piracy (at least before everything fractured into the current landscape), and how short our collective memories are. Data yearns to be free -- sharing it and copying…

If someone puts great effort and cost into producing media, why would others be entitled to get the fruits of that labor for free? Game of Thrones is a luxury, not a necessity; people aren't entitled to it just because they want it and refuse to pay for it.

Streaming services are still less convenient, though they are moee accesible now, and it shows, piracy is less and less popular every year.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#617

Post by geofft » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:45 AM UTC

ooobit2 wrote: post #611

cutemonster wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This customer service rep, how was otherwise his work performance / output? How was he like to work with?

I've fired people for having less wherewithal than to ask a question like this. His performance, output, or attitude are irrelevant. He knowingly used company property to violate federal law... IP law at that. Guy should be lucky he didn't get sued for gross negligence.

I might be misreading the comment above, but it sounds to me like it's asking, "Were there any signs of him being untrustworthy?" (and not "He shouldn't have been fired.")

It is precisely because of the magnitude of his error that it would have been nicer to fire him before he made it.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#618

Post by gorgoiler » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:46 AM UTC

PHGamer wrote: post #364

rovr138 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ouch More proof dates aren't easy.

they would be if everyone would just use UTC

The orthodoxy is that the two most common forms of time stamps are:

(1) Unambiguous: a time in the past that is represented by the number of seconds since the epoch, Jan 1 1970. When coupled with a location/jurisdiction, they can be converted into a wall-clock time like “1:23pm 04 May 2006 Europe/Paris.”

(2) Ambiguous (but semantically meaningful): a time in the future that would be shown on a clock at the location of the event.

The logging of IP addresses would use the former.

The upcoming trial date for illegal torrenting would use the latter.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#619

Post by dboat » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:47 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #609

waheoo wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philosophical line in the sand. Media companies have abused laws and rights that are supposed to encourage and enrich society not diminish and stifle it. They're beyond redemption at this point. The whole industry can burn at the stake for all I care. Netflix included. (Why does it matter what country I live in again? Why do you remove access to certain shows st random?) The only media I pay for willingly is books an…

This just reads like a list of excuses. You could swap “piracy” with “selling drugs” and “entertainment industry” with “big pharma” and it would read just fine.

I don't think it's a valid argument to brush raised issues aside as excuses.

Media companies are aggressively litigious bullies and the way they conduct their business is at odds with the interests of the public at large. Not speaking for the others but I have no tears for cry for losses incurred by actors like that, especially not "losses" of digital media licensing opportunities.

Re: I Know What You Download on BitTorrent

#620

Post by pastage » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 5:54 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #121

deadalus wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seedr.cc, bitport.io or zbigz.com exist to solve this problem and would have saved him his job.

Or... just don't use work resources to torrent, period.

Piracy has always been rampant at companies, sure now days its too easy to track but in the beginning we only had good piracy bandwidth because so much of it was done on company dollars. With the good eyes of CEOs, sure it was cold hands when they got raided.

I never do personal stuff on company time/equipment, just seems stupid. I'm not sure I think it should matter though...