MPAA/RIAA caught setting torrent honey pots

By FlibbyFlobby
in Back Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Veteran

FlibbyFlobby

Posted
Posted

MPAA gets caught laying torrent traps

Author: Brett Thomas

Published: 12th January 2007

It has long been suspected that the MPAA and RIAA might try to frustrate or even punish pirates by using bugged, dodgy, or otherwise false Bit Torrent trackers. However, it wasn't easy to catch the agency "in the act"...however, one slick admin over at btjunkie.com has done just that.

The torrent files are set up as 'honey pots' - they record the IP of the connecting pirate as he or she downloads the pieces of the files (which are bogus, by the way). They're even named smartly - many of the fakes look like real torrent names, including fake cracking groups, formats, etc. And before anyone goes and screams "Entrapment!", the MPAA is hiding behind the fact that it is not a law enforcement agency (despite that it takes the reverse of that stance in the courtroom) and that it's just offering something fakes for people who were going to do anyway, making the act legal.

Under law, it is illegal to "fight fire with fire," so the trackers that propegate the servers are actually links to dead files that will either stall close to completion or just be a mess of scrambled data. To date, nobody has had virus or malware issues with the dodgy sites - just a lot of failed downloads. The amount of servers and quality of the files being thrown out illustrates a very professional job.

The btjunkie admin recognized a pattern in the servers that provide continually deficient downloads, and the guys over at TorrentFreak have started to put up some of the server names. A combined force from both sites is combing through and flagging the files based on their host, as well. All of the hosts come out of the southern California and Las Vegas areas, and are easy to identify by IP ranges.

Just for an example of how much of this is going on, here is a current search from TorrentPortal - all of the files with a red X are fakes.

Bit Tech (Source)

Mentor

*John*

Posted
Posted
Isn't it illegal?

And besides tracking you, what else can they do? Sue you for downloading fake files?

In the UK at least, attempting an illegal act, even though that act is impossible in practice, is still illegal. Examples:

1) There was a guy who went through British Customs with several bags of white powder. He believed them to be cocaine that he had bought abroad. However, he had been scammed, and it was actually talcum powder. Even so, as his intention was to smuggle drugs, he was charged and convicted.

Therefore, if you download a fake file by accident, but its clear that your intention is to download a pirate copy, then you can still be charged.

Grand Master

Julius Caro

Posted
Posted
In the UK at least, attempting an illegal act, even though that act is impossible in practice, is still illegal. Examples:

1) There was a guy who went through British Customs with several bags of white powder. He believed them to be cocaine that he had bought abroad. However, he had been scammed, and it was actually talcum powder. Even so, as his intention was to smuggle drugs, he was charged and convicted.

Therefore, if you download a fake file by accident, but its clear that your intention is to download a pirate copy, then you can still be charged.

Well, that makes some sense. But, let's say the police set him up or something like that. That would be illegal right? That they "induce" you to commit a crime. That has to be illegal! Anyway, with the torrents it is another story. It is not like the riaa is posting files all over the internet screaming "HEY! DOWNLOAD ME!".

You get my point, I guess

Enthusiast

lerum

Posted
Posted
In the UK at least, attempting an illegal act, even though that act is impossible in practice, is still illegal. Examples:

1) There was a guy who went through British Customs with several bags of white powder. He believed them to be cocaine that he had bought abroad. However, he had been scammed, and it was actually talcum powder. Even so, as his intention was to smuggle drugs, he was charged and convicted.

Therefore, if you download a fake file by accident, but its clear that your intention is to download a pirate copy, then you can still be charged.

Surely you could then go and turn this around to say that you weren't trying to download the illegal file rather see if the file was one set by the MPAA?

Mentor

*John*

Posted
Posted
Well, that makes some sense. But, let's say the police set him up or something like that. That would be illegal right? That they "induce" you to commit a crime. That has to be illegal! Anyway, with the torrents it is another story. It is not like the riaa is posting files all over the internet screaming "HEY! DOWNLOAD ME!".

You get my point, I guess

I get your point, but let me explain it this way.

If an undercover police officer approaches you, and asks if you want to buy drugs for example, that wont hold up, as you wernt looking for drugs, you were offered them. However, if you walk up to someone who looks like a drug dealer (but who is actually an undercover police officer) standing by the road and ask them for drugs, you are looking for drugs, they have offered you nothing, so that would hold up.

In the case of online downloading, they arnt sending you e-mails offering you warez, you are searching for them yourself, so the evidence collected this way would definately hold up.

Hope this helps :)

Proficient

Carlos11

Posted
Posted
In the UK at least, attempting an illegal act, even though that act is impossible in practice, is still illegal. Examples:

1) There was a guy who went through British Customs with several bags of white powder. He believed them to be cocaine that he had bought abroad. However, he had been scammed, and it was actually talcum powder. Even so, as his intention was to smuggle drugs, he was charged and convicted.

Therefore, if you download a fake file by accident, but its clear that your intention is to download a pirate copy, then you can still be charged.

In Brazil that would be an "impossible crime" since there wasn't, in fact, an element of the crime.

The crime theory says to analyse first the objective elements then the subjective ones (like intention).

In other words, the person should "do" exacly what the law describe as a crime. "Powder" is not drug so... The "MPAA/RIAA" is not pirated material so... :)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • The Microsoft Office feature that time forgot

      By cleverclogs · Posted

      Yes, THIS is wordart, not the styling that can now be done. Wordart was all about those curvy words, that you could change the path of, like making words go around a circle. I don't think it can be done now, right?
    • Waymo recalls self-driving software after cars enter closed freeway work zones

      By RangerLG · Posted

      Just saw a news report of a Waymo driving into a flooded road.
    • Password Safe 3.72.0

      By Copernic · Posted

      Password Safe 3.72.0 by Razvan Serea Password Safe is a password database utility. Like many other such products, commercial and otherwise, it stores your passwords in an encrypted file, allowing you to remember only one password (the "safe combination"), instead of all the username/password combinations that you use. Once stored, your user names and passwords are just a few clicks away. Using Password Safe you can organize your passwords using your own customizable references—for example, by user ID, category, web site, or location. You can choose to store all your passwords in a single encrypted master password list (an encrypted password database), or use multiple databases to further organize your passwords (work and home, for example). And with its intuitive interface you will be up and running in minutes. PasswordSafe was originally designed by the renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier and released as a free utility application. Password Safe 3.72.0 changelog: Fixed bugs Improved font scale handling - should resolve font size issues on high resolution displays. GH1749 In the Master Password Setup window, "Show Master Password" is no longer truncated on some displays. GH1092, SF1595 Size and position of main window is now correctly restored on scaled displays. SF1630 Keep password expiry date when both password and password expiry are changed; don't clear a non-recurring expiry when the password's changed. SF1628 Custom values can now be copied to the clipboard in read-only mode via Ctrl-C and right-click->Copy Value. New features GH1196 Dark display mode support: Password Safe now supports the system display mode, as well as setting the mode directly via Manage->Options->Display->Display Mode. This change also updates the general "look & feel" of the app to the current Windows theme. Known limitations: The Date picker and keyboard shortcut controls do not switch to dark theme The Customize Toolbar dialog does not switch to dark theme Custom Field support has been added to the more advanced features: Filters XML and Text import and export Comparison, Sync and Merge databases SF938 Custom field values may now be selected by name and copied via a "Copy Custom Field Value..." submenu in the entry context popup menu. SF936 Notes and Custom fields layout now overlap, selectable by tabs, resulting in a more compact and less cluttered layout. SF935 Autotype: Specifying '\v{name}' in the autotype text will cause the corresponding value to be autotyped. Download: PasswordSafe 64-bit | Portable 64-bit | ~20.0 MB (Open Source) Download: PasswordSafe 32-bit | Portable 32-bit View: PasswordSafe Website | Quickstart Guide | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Google DeepMind AI Control Roadmap: When Alignment Fails, Defense-in-Depth Takes Over

      By +TRS-80 · Posted

      Google DeepMind published a document on June 18, 2026, that may be the most consequential admission yet from a frontier AI lab: alignment training alone cannot guarantee that AI agents will remain under human control, so structural containment must be built before more capable models arrive.............. https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318758/20260620/google-deepmind-ai-control-roadmap-when-alignment-fails-defense-depth-takes-over.htm  
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it

      By Taliseian · Posted

      I've got a SoundBlasterX G6 that I use in my streaming setup. Sounds great to me and I've had zero issues with the ancient software package so far in Win11. That G6 has 7.1, Dolby, fully working SPDIF and since it's a USB device it's outside of my rig so I don't have to worry about EMF distortion. Looks like for now this is a pass for me as I think I have better hardware....

  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      Almohandis earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Dedicated
      JuvenileDelinquent earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • First Post
      DrWankel earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      DrWankel earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      Supreme Spray LV earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      503
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      170
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      88
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      75
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      74
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!