The end of P2P and file sharing?

[nihil]

I came across this:

SafeMedia has retained MAYO Communications, Los Angeles to help spread the word that its core technologies are the only solution to ending Online piracy. SafeMedia Corporation, based in Boca Raton, Florida has developed technology that completely wipes out illegal file sharing. “SafeMedia’s ‘Clouseau®’ makes it impossible for anyone to send or receive any illegal Peer-2-Peer transmissions or file sharing,” said President Safwat Fahmy, the founder and CEO of SafeMedia Corporation.

Well he would say that wouldn't he?

I wonder how it would work with encrypted and/or compressed files?

http://www.pr.com/*************/36553

[kryptonic]

/me loads up limewire and starts downloading everything I can think of lol

So will this effect BitTorrent?

[nihil]

Sorry the original link seems to have gone?

http://safemediacorp.blogspot.com/

There is more information on that link. Yes it is supposed to work against torrents.

It does strike me as being "hyped" though. All .gov, .mil and enterprises should be blocking that sort of traffic anyway.

I think that it is aimed at the school and university environments? I wonder just how much of P2P filesharing goes on in those environments, as opposed to privately owned equipment?

[dalek]

Wonder how they will get around this app.

Peerguardian

http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

Documentary evidence of what if anything that computer may or may not be doing, cannot be logged by computers at the blocked addresses. This affects organizations who monitor file sharing networks to identify those IPs sharing files in breach of copyright, who will not be able to make a connection to the given computer and will therefore not see legally admissible evidence of any kind if file sharing is happening

[nihil]

I think that software is intended to stop you being spied on from specific IP addresses.

The Closeau is a hardware device that seems to act something like a firewall. It isn't intended to "catch" anyone, it just drops traffic that it thinks is illegal.

It is a sort of CYA for institutions, colleges, schools and businesses. If they block illegal filesharing copyright material doesn't get onto their systems and they cannot be held to blame?

[dalek]

I think we have been had nihil...

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1146

Edit: Come to think of it the name Clouseau should have been a flag....

[nihil]

Hi there dalek,

I think that it is genuine, or at least is intended to be. The marketing hype is fairly typical of startups who are testing the water to see what potential demand will be. They don't appear to be trading at the moment.

I question the exaggerated claims, particularly with encrypted packets. I would guess that the main driver is some sort of blacklist.

If they can get the support of the entertainments industry and politicians (not difficult given their levels of IT knowledge?) then there will be a market from people who want a CYA solution. As in: we used the solutions you approved, you can't sue us?

[dalek]

It may look convincing, but I'm putting my money on EFF.

More Ludicrous Marketing Claims About P2P Filtering

April 09, 2007

A few years ago, EFF debunked an anti-P2P packet filtering technology sold by Audible Magic. Twice. The notion that universities can just buy a piece of software to end file sharing on their networks forever is false. But it keeps coming back.
The latest product of this sort is from a company called SafeMedia. Its website is covered in dramatic marketing newspeak and includes a weird appeal to the Congress to install its software in "every public and private institution receiving Federal funds". So what are they selling, really?
SafeMedia's flagship filtering product is called Clouseau — suggestively named after the hillariously incompetent detective played by Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther movies.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005189.php

It's hard to be certain from marketing-speak on their website, but it appears that «Clouseau» works in two ways:

1. Recognizing protocol-identifying "magic numbers" or other distinctive patterns inside individual packets from a particular protocol (like Gnutella, or eDonkey, etc).
2. Building up a "profile" of traffic by looking at a series of packets.

A system like this could indeed block many of the p2p protocols that are widely used today (including some encrypted protocols, without breaking the encryption). It certainly isn't, and will never be, "infallible." In fact, the claim is ludicrous. Detecting encrypted file sharing networks is very difficult, and blocking them without interfering with other encrypted protocols like HTTPS, IMAP/S, or SSH is next to impossible.
To illustrate this, suppose that SafeMedia attempts to block a program like Allpeers. They might succeed in doing so briefly, because the program tries to make its encrypted SSL conections over TCP port 36000 at first and only later switches to port 443 (the HTTPS port). On a TCP/IP network like the Internet, eavesdroppers can see the port numbers even if they can't decrypt the traffic. So if Clouseau was clever enough, it would remember the initial 36000 connection and stop that machine from using port 443 later (blocking https websites as a side-effect).
But if Clouseau started doing this, Allpeers could change their software to use port 443 from the beginning. If the SafeMedia engineers were really good, there might be another round of cat-and-mouse as Clouseau tried to perform traffic analysis on the sizes and timings of the encrypted packets, and Allpeers started changing their sizes and timings to look like a more typical https website.
Filtering tools merely drive the development of sharing tools that are resistant to monitoring (including small networks like Allpeers, and encrypted versions of BitTorrent and eMule), and drive students to start using them. They don't get us any closer to a real solution that gets artists paid while letting fans continue to share music. Universities are already being forced to expend significant resources doing the RIAA's dirty work, and they should think very carefully before implementing expensive tools like SafeMedia's.

Save your pennies....

[Drakain Zeil]

“SafeMedia’s ‘Clouseau®’ makes it impossible for anyone to send or receive any illegal Peer-2-Peer transmissions or file sharing,” said President Safwat Fahmy

famous last words

[nihil]

Well guys,

I expressed my scepticism from the start, but I believe that these guys are serious with their snake oil.

I did some research:

House of Representatives lobbying disclosure: #308250359
Senate lobbying disclosure: #18466-1001532

Looks like they are doing what I suggested and trying to tout their snake oil to the politicians