Taking advantage of the WIndows 8 RTM announcement

Most of the SERP listings when you search for Windows 8 Loader are You Tube videos and file download services.

This is not really a good sign and an indication to me that there are those out there that are trying to take advantage of the Windows 8 RTM (Release To Manufacturing)

If you look at the search result above you will see that the majority of entries are from those that claim to have a download for a Windows 8 Loader. If you read the mydigitallife posting you will see that even the "experts" don't think a loader solution is going to work.

The listings for downloads are your typical "bait and switch" offerings that you see common on file-sharing sites. Promises of the "goods" that will often be "password protected" for you to find that once you have visited the website that you are told to obtain the password you will have to sign-up to a service to get the files. Or worse, your computer will get infected!

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Install windows 8 without product key:

This was a search that was logged from Wheaton, Illinois

Links:

• File Download services reviewed 
• The MyDigitalLife post on Windows 8 Loaders

Forums that discuss P2P issues

.... are generally full of crap.

You can believe what I say on this blog or you can continue to search for an answer that you want to hear.

Every now and then I repeat the searches that find this blog (from analysis of Google Analytics). I often come across these forums and most of what I see is miss-information or just plain wrong.

I will not repeat what my findings on the efforts to obscure your identity on this post, you can easily search for those yourself. Suffice it to say that I lot of what you will find in both out-of-date and incorrect. I encourage you to check the dates of the original posts and the comments made on them.

You will not find such comments on this blog as I do not post ambiguous questions that allow those with agendas to post their own solutions. The owners of these forums and authors of software such as PeerBlock are not likely to comment as they probably agree with what I am saying here. It is not in their interest to do so as it would curtail the traffic to their sites and their claims to fame.

I don't care if you find this blog or follow my advice, I have no such agenda. It just amuses me that there is so much nonsense out there!

Claims of Unlimited Download Speeds

I never cease to be amused when I see ads for BTGuard claiming that you will get unlimited download speeds if you use their services.

It is not the VPN or IP obscuring software that limits the download speed of a torrent download it is the health of the torrent that is the dominant factor when it comes to the rate at which you are accessing the files.

In addition services such as BTGuard and TorrentPrivacy are likely to be well on the radar screens of Anti P2P Organizations and the servers that you may have to connect through are most likely to be blocked. This blocking is likely to add to the latency of your downloads.

I have discussed the merits of using BTGuard and Torrent Privacy on this blog and my website (tempusfugit.ca). I have used one of the services in the past. I have found a much better solution.

BTGuard and TorrentPrivacy are aggressively advertized on sites such as Isohunt and The Pirate Bay. This is because it is there they find a target audience. As such, this is an indication of what not to use to download. You are far better off choosing a service that is off the radar and not advertized on a network that the copyright holders know are promoting the stealing of their property.

What VPN service should you use for P2P

Following a a visit from Pleasanton, California searching for "p2p vpn" I am making this post.

When it comes to the choice of a VPN service to use for downloading from a file sharing (P2P) source you are far better off choosing one that is not advertised on one of the major torrent locator sites such as Isohunt or The Pirate Bay. Companies that advertise there are more likely to have their servers blocked by AP2P Organizations and are likely to be too slow.

Update 28 Aug 2012:

Looking at at the Hide-My-Ass website I cannot see any reference to using their services for P2P or downloading from File Sharing services using BitTorrent.

Hide-My-Ass are a popularly advertised service that can be used to provide anonymity while you are using the Internet. As such they fit the criteria for their rejection for use for this purpose. However, I cannot believe that there are not users of the service that are not using HMA  for downloading copyright material. I would add the caution that seeing as they make no mention of this being a prohibited activity on their website and Terms of Service, it may be something that you only find out after you sign-up. This is the case with BTGuard.

Links:

• My previous post on Hide-My-Ass dot com
• The Hide-my-Ass website
• The BTGuard Terms of Service

Why Peerblock is mis-named

Peerblock and Peer Guardian 2 should be called APOBlock.

All these programs do is to block Anti Peer to Peer Organizations from accessing your computer. They do nothing to obscure your download activity.

You cannot block your ISP with Peerblock. If you do, you will have no Internet access. To prevent your ISP knowing what you download you need to use some other method.

In my opinion PeerBlock and.or PG2 are useless and only add an unnecessary layer to your connection to the Internet.

Please search this blog for "peerblock" for all my posts related to the operation of this blocking software and a discussion on AP2P and circumvention. 

Six Strikes and Copyright Law

Today I logged a search for: will peerblock stop the six strike law?

The answer to this is "No" - as Peerblock will not protect you against anything! (see my other posts on the subject). In fact I was not aware that there was a "Six Strikes" law, I thought it was just a proposal by the media industries in an attempt to contain piracy. I will not try to enter into this argument, you can read this for yourself on the links below. I am just taking issue with some of the technological issues that are raised by this discussion.

Following some of the links that I have found on the pages linked below, I take issue with some of the statements that I find.

The discussion here was prompted by some of the comments on the articles I found when making a search for "Six Strikes" - i.e. the article by Ian Paul, PCWorld,    Jul 8, 2011 and others.

Like most forums the nature of the comments is more from the nature of appearing smarter than the other participants and insulting each other.

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RIAA MPAA and CopyrightInformation.org (The Center for Copyright Information)
Hardly an independent organization:

• Executive Vice President & General Counsel - Executive Vice President & General Counsel Steven M. Marks, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Recording Industry Association of America    (RIAA)

• Member - Marianne Grant, Senior Vice President, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.  (MPAA)

• Chairman - Thomas Dailey, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Verizon Communications, Inc.

Plus representatives from Verizon, Viacom, Comcast, iKeepSafe.org, Future of Privacy Forum, 
Jerry Berman, Chairman, Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee 
Gigi Sohn, President and CEO, Public Knowledge

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Some quotes from the Center for Copyright Information:

I don't really see what the following means:

"..... helping consumers take action to protect themselves, their internet accounts and home networks."

The only ones that are possibly being "protected" are the music and movie industry themselves. I think that it is very much "wishful thinking" on the part of the "industry" here. The threats that they are proposing are not likely to be so, the "six" that is, and they are unlikely to be passed into law.

Also, the information is hardly "educational" as it is purely FUD being spread by the "industry"
"........ the educational information provided in an alert will lead to very few subscribers who persist (or allow others to persist) in illegal file sharing."

It is not likely that those that are persisting in file-sharing  are not likely to be frightened off by idle threats and are more likely to step up their efforts to avoid detection in the first place.

Those allowing others to persist are likely to be the ISPs themselves - I would say in general that the ISPs are more interested in staying clear of the "industry" and are probably just paying lip service to them as they do not want to appear as being um-cooperative or not obeying local laws.

Links:

• ISPs Fight Piracy: Meet the Six Strikes - Ian Paul, PCWorld,    Jul 8, 2011
• Copyright Alert System (CAS) - www.copyrightinformation.org
• Europe seems to be more aggressive with a "3 Strikes" rule

File Sharing Scams

Services such as RapidShare, FileSonic etc. - should be boycotted.

The rub here is evidenced by the fact that there is a reseller program.

It doesn't matter if you have files and stuff that people want to download. Just say that you have and set up a billing system to sucker people in and then, after they have paid, they find out that you don't have what they are looking for. You may have suckered them in by giving a file that they were looking for and hopefully you have convinced them that you have a lot more of the same thing.

Once you have a "punter" signed up they have little chance of getting their money back.

Links:

• Filesonic website - a list of resellers
• Rapidshare reviewed on this blog
• Alternative file sharing services (to P2P that is)
• The SideReel Scam - a service that claims to have an archive of all TV shows, but doesn't

Rapidshare are just in the business of trying to get your money

Rather than being a file-sharing service they are a premium download service that go out of their way to get you to sign-up before telling you how much it is going to cost.

You have bound to have come accross RapidShare in your quest for content to download from file-sharing sites on the Internet. My advice is to stay clear of Rapidshare as their business methods are so devious.

If the service was worth it they would not have to resort to such deceptive activities. Not only do you have to wait to make your download, your session will time-out if you leave your computer and come back to it later:

You will have to wait even longer if you have made a "free" download:

A RapidPro User will be favoured ---- do you really believe this after all the other nonsense that they    present you with on their website?

If you search the Internet to find out how much the service costs most of what you will find is conjecture. If they were serious about things they would say on their website and people wouldn't have to search! A German success story......" - indeed!

This post is an older post (circa 2011) that featured on www.tempusfugit.ca - my website - it has been re-posted on The Technology Muse.

Links:

• Pricing for Rapidshare 29/06/2010  - digitalspy.co.uk
• techdirt.com - Rapidshare Countersues Perfect 10 For Being A 'Copyright Troll' Who Only 'Shakes Down' Others
• Downloading movies
• Downloading the Canon SDK's - this is a common activity that you will find yourself on this type of service.
• Other File-Sharing Download Scams

How do i keep my isp from knowing what I search (for)?

This post was prompted by the search that comprises the title of this post. The post that the was found by the visitor from Morehead City was my post relating to whether PeerBlock was any use in stopping your ISP seeing what you are downloading.

The question of what you are searching for and what you are downloading are two separate issues and Peerblock is useless in both cases

The morality of torrenting (file sharing)

I really do have a problem with the morality of this. I know that it is wrong, but it is so easy. There is little chance of being detected if you use a service that obscures your identity. It would also seem that in certain jurisdictions that the penalties for doing this have either not been decided or they allow violators to have 3 instances where they are found out before any action is taken against them.

This is not the case world-wide and some countries and regions do prosecute illegal file downloaders. There are always stories in the press where a file-sharer has been "made an example of" and has been sued for large amounts of cash. These, of course, could be just "scare" tactics to convince those that are thinking of making these downloads that it is too risky.

It is strange that when I poll my colleagues that many take no measures to obscure their identity and just ignore any violation messages that they get from their ISPs. Others have not even received any such warnings - I am confused.

The "Three Strikes and your out" principle

This principle as been one that the architects of those drafting rules to control copyright and provide protection against violations.

The concept of the 3-strike principle is that you will have your access to the Internet blocked and/or face prosecution if you are caught participating in P2P downloading copyright protected material more than 3 times.

I have followed the progress of these protections for a number of years. As far as I know there are few jurisdictions that actually have legislation in place that actually enforce this. Many nations have discussed it, including the US and Canada but only some European nations, namely France and some others, have laws in place and are actively enforcing them.

• UK ISPs must warn alleged pirates, says draft Ofcom code - Zack Whittaker ZDNet, June 26, 2012
• An example DMCA violation letter.
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) - part of the legislation in the US
• Copy Protection and methods used to protect Copyright
• Lord Mandelson sets date for blocking filesharers' internet connections - guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 October 2009  Mark Sweney (see this was 3 years ago and Mandelson was a cabinet minister in the then Labour government) 

I have reservations on how such provisions can be implemented. Especially in the UK as it is my understanding that there is actually competition in this market space. Unlike here in Canada where often there is only a limited choice of ISP.  I presume that a "Violators List" will also include not only past infractions but also those with other ISPs.

Banning an individual from Internet Access

Now this is a concept in itself! Shutting down a connection through an ISP is only a very small part of this. Also it is very naive in it's approach - what about those who have Internet presence from within the Internet? The Technology Muse is a case in point here, how is banning the individual who is the Muse from a point of entry going to stop the existence?

Blocklists - what is the value in them?

Having read what the websites that promote these lists say I am prompted to ask the question why!

It appears to me that the compilation of a list of IP addresses that you might consider blocking as somewhat an accademic one. It may make you feel better that you are "sticking one" to the organizations that you take dispute, governments and people that actually own the things that you want for free, but blocking their access to your computer is, in my opinion, a waste of time.

Some of the things that are in some blocklists:

• Companies or organizations who are clearly involved with trying to stop filesharing.
• Companies which anti-p2p activity has been seen from.
• Companies that produce or have a strong financial interest in copyrighted material.
• Government ranges or companies that have a strong financial interest in doing work for governments.
• Legal industry ranges.
• IPs or ranges of ISPs from which anti-p2p activity has been observed. 

It is clear what the intent is here, but the question is that does having a list of these entities make any difference? Whatever your thoughts on file sharing maybe the use of these lists is questionable at best.

Links:

• Bluetack Level 1 blocklists
• nexus23 ipfilterx
• All about Peer Blocking

The LimeWire Scam

It is interesting, to me, that an email related to Deep Packet Inspection has an advert for LimeWire P2P generated by GMail.

It is my suspicion that this is an example of an exploitation of the LimeWire name by another entity to cash in on the LimeWire name. It is probably nothing to do with the original LimeWire program or service and it is an attempt to fool those that do not know that LimeWire were subjected to a court injunction to take-down their service in October 2010.

This type of activity is still rife June 2012 so it is a clear indication that the measures taken by so-called "Anti P2P Organizations" are ineffectual in curtailing it.

To be fair it is not an advertising link but a "more about" link. I am not sure how Google generate these.

• My page on LimeWire
• My definition of a scam

.torrent not available or syncing in progress, check back in a jiffy

If you search for the above string you will see why you are seeing this message on Isohunt.

Here are my observations when I connect through a VPN and when I don't

Loading my VPN software:

It is clearly nothing to do with "syncing" and more to do with geographic filtering.

The fact that some torrents are not available is due to that they are being blocked in some jurisdictions. Above is the SERP entry showing DMCA take-down requests.

Bill C-11 - An Act to amend the Copyright Act (Canada)

Bill C-32 contains highly contentious changes with major implications for both copyright holders and institutional and individual users of information - a quote from Micheal Geist's blog - either a comment from him or a visitor to his blog about C-32 (now C-11)

In 2010 Michael seemed to imply that there there was some sort deception (or at least a lack of transparency) on the part of the Canadian government - I am more of inclined to believe that it is more to do with a lack of understanding of technical issues on the part of the politicians.

the brief to the ACTA on the Government of Canada website

The issue is Canada's response to the International agreement set out in the ACTA. This page (and blog) are not meant as a commentary on the debate it is purely a starting place for links so that the debate can continue to be followed.

The issue of IP rights - 2012

With the debate on SOPA and PIPA and the reactions from WikiP, Google and others - the issue of where we stand with respect to copyright enforcement is one that is going to be with us for a while.

It is very unlikely that you are going to find this page, but that does not mean that I do not feel compelled to write it.

I have studied the DMCA and the ACTA in the past and also the responses that countries such as Canada, the UK and Europe have made to these US initiatives. The role that the media industry plays in all this and their attempts to control what they see as "piracy"

DMCA Violation Letter

That is forwarded by your ISP

• See example here

Forum Independence

Companies often setup a forum that is supposed to look like it is an independent group of users of the product that have got together to swap ideas and tips.

They are also used to provide Customer Service for a product where the website for the product itself does not. There are many reasons for this. The first reason is that it is a cheap option as a company can get its users to solve the other customers problems. The second, and this is particularly the case when a product may help you break a law in your jurisdiction, a forum provides some sort of detachment from the company where forum members can post solutions that the company would be prosecuted for if they were to tell you to do something in an official capacity.

I can think of many instances of this taking place and I don't need to name them here. The reason you are probably reading this is that you have come across one.

I am not saying that you should not participate in such a forum or not to believe anything that is posted on them. Only that you should be aware that they may not be as impartial as they would like to appear.

A characteristic of this type of forum is that a large proportion of the posts are those that are either overly enthusiastic about the merits of the service or site "this the best torrent tracker site" or those that are asking about log-in problems. Take a look at the date of some of the posts, many are years old.

Examples of forums that I deem to be less than independent.

• IPTorrents.com
• 1ClickDVD Copy - LGSoftwareInnovations forum
• Most forums dedicated to copying digital media Including the one above)
• Most forums dedicated to downloading from P2P
• Isohunt- BTGuard
• TorrentFreak - BTGuard and TorrentPrivacy
• Number1onGoogle's Chris Jones - A spokesperson for Lamnia (formerly SBA Media) tvontheinternet.co.uk.

The Occupy Movement

The problem  that I have with all this is that the people, largely young people, that follow all this are the same as those who do not see anything wrong with file sharing and copyright violation.

The issues may not be fair and the laws governing them ineffectual but this does not mean that actions of the Occupy/Anti Globalization lobby are just.

I guess it is because I consider, I am, one of the 1%.

I bet they all have smart phones! I don't but I do have a fair investment in Apple. I remain to be skeptical about Facebook.

• EFF  - the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Copy Protection and methods used to protect Copyright

nexus23 ipfilterx

What Nexus23 say about themselves:

IpfilterX blocks Anti-P2P companies and the organizations that support them, Corporations, Military Ranges, Government Agencies, Law Firms, P2P spammers and many more.

I came accross this filter when I was researching some of the nonsense that is associated with blocking peers in the attempt to avoid detection while downloading torrents.

I don't care if you believe me that this filter is useless and continue to think that this nonsense is going to protect your identity while downloading from p2p. I have no stake in this argument but if you want advice on this subject I suggest you read on.

A quote from the nexus23 dot org website:

....... Whom we contend are the key members of conspiracy against peer to peer networks and their innocent users.

There was not much to clip on the nexus23.org website - in fact it looks  rather "gamey" - the developer, Karl, seems to be a member of the SourceForge community. This doesn't really improve the product.

KarlX seems to be having problems in getting funding for his development and says that he will not have any more updates. There also seems to be a fair amount of acromony against Bluetack. I have a screen-shot of a screen-shot from the Bluetack website where Karl is attacking Fakir.

Links related to blocking peers:

• All about Peer Blocking