CSC 379 SUM2008:Week 2, Group 4
File Sharing Countermeasures
Intro Here
Example Countermeasure Methods
Juniper NetScreen
University Screening
MediaDefender
MediaDefender is a company with the sole purpose of providing clients with content protection against Peer to Peer networks. Their goal is to stop the illegal sharing of copyrighted content over these file sharing software programs. Clients for this service include music recording companies, movie publishing companies, and software companies.
The means by which MediaDefender protects the content of clients vary widely and are greatly debated. Publicly, MediaDefender is said to employ only non-invasive countermeasure to foil users of P2P file-sharing networks. Spoofing and Decoying are the two main ways MediaDefender blocks the sharing of copyrighted content. Decoying involves sending a barrage of fake media files to the P2P network, making it extremely hard for the users of the network to decide which file is the true media or just a fake put up by MediaDefender. Spoofing goes along with Decoying by making the file seem more popular than it actually is. This makes the legitimate files even harder to find.
There is controversy whether MediaDefender has used illegal means to block illegal users. Hackers have supposedly retrieved evidence that MediaDefender has used invasive means of foilings file-sharing users. In addition, it is suspected that they have been involved with Denial-Of-Service attacks on websites that distribute copyrighted content.
From an ethical standpoint, it is perfectly legitimate to foil users on a P2P network site in a non-invasive manner. Just as other users are posting valid but copyrighted material
Ethical Concerns
Do Not Remove Yet
Many strategies have been used to reduce sharing of copyrighted content on networks. Examine in detail the ethical considerations surrounding at least two of your choosing.