Proxies, keys and privacy
Most of the newest generation of file-swapping hopefuls use some kind of encryption, scrambling files so that they become impenetrable strings of data as they are transferred online. This helps keep out some prying eyes, but most monitoring services, such as BayTSP, simply pretend to be an ordinary file-swapper, searching and downloading files instead of trying to break into the network from outside. No matter how powerful the encryption in the network, that digital handshake is required, Net experts say.
Many of the services are also moving toward Internet "proxies" as a way to mask identities. Under this model, the direct handshake between uploaders and downloaders is interrupted by a digital middleman. Instead of being downloaded directly, a file is handed off to another Web server, or passed through another set of computers, before finding its way to the downloader.
The latest version of Streamcast Networks' Morpheus, as well as the smaller Earthstation V software, allow their users to connect to these online proxy servers, send search requests and upload and download through them.
Rohrer's Mute is a more extreme version of this proxy idea, in which every computer on the file-swapping network becomes a middleman, passing on search queries and actual files that are on their way elsewhere in the network. This makes it nearly impossible to determine who is uploading or downloading what information -- but the model has a cost.
Ordinary file-swapping networks work quickly, because only small bits of information -- search queries and background data -- are relayed between most of the computers. In Mute's model, each computer potentially serves as a courier for vastly larger multimedia files. That can quickly clog people's Net connections, slowing or stalling the network altogether.
Rohrer says this is the natural trade-off between speed and perfect anonymity. What has been surprising is how many people have been willing to use the network even though it takes as much as an hour to download a song, he said. At last count, his software had been downloaded nearly 80,000 times, according to his host site.
"People seem to be willing to deal with it given the privacy issues involved," Rohrer said.
Spanish developer Pablo Soto, whose Blubster and Piolet software have attracted several hundred thousand users, is taking a decidedly different tack. While including strong encryption and some privacy-enhancing features in a new version of the software expected to be released in the next few weeks, he's also changing the way files are downloaded.
Talkback
Quote: Our investigators are well-versed in what these technologies do and how they work
But they would say that wouldn't they?!
Couple the encryption system with proxy chains and you make it all the more difficult to track the individuals.
I live in "Rip Off" Britain, where we pay a ridiculous premium for music and movies, considering the manufacturing costs. It took a concerted effort on the part of the consumers to reduce new car prices, so why shouldn't the music/film industry suffer the same wrath?
Until the prices are reduced to a realistic level, people will continue to download music from P2P networks.
From talking to others about this issue, there seems to be an increasing trend in using P2P downloads to simply try before you buy. If you are serious about your music, an mp3 encoded at 128bit is far inferior to the quality of a true digital recording. I listen to classical music and have downloaded a lot of pieces via P2P. If I like the composer and performance, I delete the download and purchase the original because I prefer the high quality!
P2P is dead as is warez sites but there's lots of ways to "file swap" it's just that swapers are now more careful about how their doing it and who they tell how it's being done.