Anti-Piracy Methods in Doubt after Accused Downloaders Found to be Innocent
Some users of peer-to-peer networks such as Gnutella, BitTorrent, and eDonkey, and other users who don't use these downloading services, are being wrongly accused of software piracy by companies acting on behalf of copyright owners.
The use of IP addresses as sole proof of illegal downloading is being questioned after it was found that many internet users had their unsecured wireless networks 'piggybacked' by pirates. There are calls for hard drive examinations to be used also.
Prosecutors say that it is a legal requirement for internet users to secure their networks but it is argued that the Copyright Act in the UK makes no demand of this, although it is regarded as common sense to protect a wifi connection.
speaking of which i'm monitoring 4 wifi networks around my house, scanning for WEP IV's and WPA keys :p (all for my research) good (or bad?) to see a lot of people in my neighborhood using encrypted networks
"Tracking you by Hard drive serial/number, also by mac address.
I have seen game clients like punkbuster ban by hard drive serial number."
IP is the only way they can track you and actually find you to be able to accuse you of piracy.
With just the MAC or hard drive serial number they could ban you, but not figure out who or where you are. Punkbuster isn't worried about where you are.
If I gave out my MAC address or hard drive serial number, I'm willing to bet nobody could track me down. But with the IP, they could narrow it down to the 'hood that I'm in.
Mac address could be used as confirmation alongside ip address. Even though ip address' can be changed ie dynamic ip address your isp still keeps a record of all your different ip address' and when you were using them. Personally if any body ever came knocking on my door about piracy they would have fun going through all my stuff, most things i own license for i just download them through torrents cause it's quicker and i cant be bothered finding the disk, same goes with DVD's, i am setting up a media network, with all my TVs being able to watch movies off my computer and i found it quicker to download the movies then to convert the DVD's that i have already purchased sames goes with music.
this is why i keep a piece of 6"x12" piece of plywood with very strong magnets on one side and a drawer handle on the other side. cops comin? destroy my hard drives in one swoop lol
Unless everyone is being given a Static IP address (which is not very likely) most peoples public IP will change every 24 hrs - 6 months depending on the ISP. So how the heck can the IP adress be a legitimate way of tracking someone anyway?
I don't think that it matters whether you're using a static or dynamic IP address since with a dynamic IP all authorities have to do is contact the ISP who holds that IP within their range and ask them who was using that addresss at a given time. Either way it wouldn't take much to find out the location of the downloader.
When I do spooky things on the WWW, I use anonymous foreign proxy servers (HTTP, SOCKS, etc). For example, to hide web surfing habits, I can use a proxy server in the Netherlands (or anywhere else) to access a torrent site in France (or anywhere else) and download stuff here, leaving the proxy IP from a computer halfway around the world in their records, not my true home IP. Anyone can do that. That way search engines like Google have no searches in their records under your IP number. If you were looking up chloroform on the WWW just before your mother-in-law disappeared, at least the cops won't have a record of that in any search engine logs connected to you.
I can also use one of three neighbours unsecured wireless connections along with proxies to become a phantom in cyber space.
The possibilities are endless.
Because of this, an IP is NOT a 100% reliable way to track down any individual who is web savvy, but it can be helpful to find those people who haven't a clue as to how the WWW works and do absolutely nothing to mask their identities - like my sister who doesn't realise that people near her home with a wireless laptop can use her account at will 24/7, since she never shuts it off except to reboot occasionally.
My nephew wanders about town with his laptop just looking for unsecured wireless connections and he's found MANY of them. At one point, even the local police station had an unsecured wireless connection. It was a teen kid who told them about it before they even realized it.
static or other wise are logged with information like customer number,date and time.the ISP keeps those logs on hand and freely give them to investigators.
well I'm on an unprotected wii here, but it's a metro wlan with coverage all over the town (and 5 static leafs) all 5 leafs have working adsl routers, all 5 said routers are intentionally left open to gateway through as you wish.
Why not? I'm gonna pay the adsl service anyways, I'm hardly ever using it with my work hours... Granted that I've got nothing 'valuable' in my PCs; && I have AV & Firewalls on all of them, why not let anyone with a laptop, anywhere in the city use it?
"why not let anyone with a laptop, anywhere in the city use it?"
Several good reasons to be afraid - very afraid.
Because someone could possibly use your account for criminal purposes and it would be traced to you causing lots of grief - like it did for those falsely accused by the MPAA because that was done to them.
People with roving laptops can post/download kiddie porn or commit other crimes using YOUR unsecured connection without you realising it. Guess who would appear guilty to the cops and be mentioned on the evening news and investigated?
No joke. I can really happen. Lots of potential dangers in unsecured wireless.
Here's the biggest wireless danger of all:
If you do not secure it, then a person outside on the street can set up a password and lock you out of your own wireless account.
