P2P General Warning...

[theARTiSAN]

Hi every1,

THere has been a bunch of talk here over the past month or so about different p2p clients (like KaZaa, imesh, WinMX, etc...)
All that having been discussed (along with all the spyware ramifications) we need to move on to another serious aspect of p2p that might be pause for concern.

Regardless of what p2p client you use (and this includes ALL flavors or p2p and IRC too), you DO need to be very careful about what you share and what you download.

There are several companies that are strong-arming ISPs into cancelling accounts of people proven to be sharing copywritten files.

Companies, such as Media Works, are pressuring p2p network Admins into releasing information that is leading to end user confrontation of some form, be it threats of legal action, ISP discontinuation, etc. The companies such as Media Works are doing this by downloading items on the p2p networks, verifying them, pressuring the p2p Admins for the IP info and putting pressure on the ISPs of those individuals to terminate their accounts (or worse yet, threatening legal action).

We all probably know by now that all p2p (hell, ALL internet) traffic is being logged in some form or another.
Don't be scared to ever turn your computers on again, just be really careful. It has been said by countless people before that alt.binaries/newsgroups are the only safe places to fileshare anymore - I dunno about that, just mind yourselves and don't get to complacent in thinking no one is watching what you are doing, because they are!

The 2 most dangerous filetype (catagories) at the present time seem to be Movies/films/pre-releases (DVD rips, Divx, etc) and of course porn/child porn/bestiality/necrosadistic-God-Knows-What and other illegal sh*t like that...

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On a different note, there are several other ad/spyware free clients I have bumped into lately:

Ares: http://www.softgap.com/

Shareaza: http://www.shareaza.com

Soulseek: http://www.slsk.org/


Again - fileshare to your hearts content, but do be mindful and keep an ear to the rails... Never a bad idea to try to stay as far ahead of the game as possible.

p.s. This has nothing to do with the MIDI HUB... I can nearly guarantee with all certainty that the copywrite protection agencies have much bigger/better fish to fry than a dozen people (at the moment) running a private DC HUB...

VIVA LA HUB!

[Ronny]

Have just wiped kazza off the face of my pc. Downloaded a virus which was cleverly disguised as a midi file but, no problem, I have Norton 2002.

WRONG!! The virus wiped my Norton's capability to go on line and get updates.

CURSES!!

I had to restore my pc to a month ago and had to start installing programmes once again.


:hit:

My advice, we I think you all know.

[lostdave]

they wouldn't be able to get on the hub to see if we were sharing copywritten materials anyway....which of courwse...we're not :D

all works have been sequenced by the share's concerned and represent their own interpretition of that song...the fact that it is alot like the original writers interpretation is purely symantics :D :D

DAve

[theARTiSAN]

P2P is a neat idea overall. But you have to consider the pure volume of corrupt or poor quality files (audio or otherwise), virus infections, legal ramification and overall bullsh*t we go through with it over Kazaa/Morpheous/grokster (etc etc etc) networks.

Sometimes I wonder if it is even worth the hassle.
Well, ok, it is worth it for me... But it is a big hassle...
If you're going to play the game, keep your eyes open, keep your virus app(s) up-to-date, scan routinely for viruses and trojans...

Dave is 100% though - as far as the MIDI hub goes, it is not something we need to worry too much about.

[advancedflea]

I Must agree with artisan. P2P shareing is not a particcually brilliant idea as far as certain things go. do not get me wrong, Kazaa is practically my life support, BUT there is alot of illegal stuff out there.

Trust me, ISP'S would kill for this info, that is the reason for spyweare, they are (illegally) trying to get all the info on you that they can INCLUDEING what you download off P2P apps (amoung other things) the best protection you can get is loads of firewalls. set them all on "high alert" so they tell you when ANY un-reconised program "talks" out to the internet and when ppl (like ur ISP) are trying to hack you.

The best firewall combonation is Norton personal firewall 2002 and Zone alarm (You can get a pritate full version off of kazaa of both of the above programs)

As artisan says, be VERY carefull about what you download off P2P programs (Much less anything else) there is alot of illegal stuff on them, and Viruses. allthough as far as illegal stuff goes, If I find anyone downloading child porn, there computer will suffer an un-provoked attack...and I will personally call the aurthorities on u. I will make sure i get the HDD out of ur computer.