[p2p-research] Never Mind the Policy: Can Filtering Technology Stop p2p?

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Tomas, feel free to cross post this on our regular blog and/or Ning,

Michel

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 4:52 PM, Tomas Rawlings <tom at fluffylogic.net> wrote:

> Source:
> http://blog.catbot.org/content/never-mind-policy-can-filtering-technology-stop-p2p
>
> There is another story in the media about the ongoing debate about what (if
> anything) the government should be doing in response to online piracy;
>
> A rift has opened between music's creators and its record labels, with a
> broad alliance of musicians, songwriters and producers fiercely criticising
> the business secretary Lord Mandelson's plans to cut off the broadband
> connections of internet users who illegally download music.
>
> What I find interesting about the coverage is that there is little to no
> discussion about if such measures are possible. By that I mean, is the
> technology there to accurately stop piracy – so, assuming you had robust
> legislation giving a clear definition of what was to be done – is the tech
> there to do it? There is no doubt that some technologies exist, but I
> suspect that there are serious limits to what it can achieve. For starters,
> any technology solution would need to have some or all of the following to
> be practical:
>
> * Easy to implement – The network ecology that this technology is coming
> into is dynamic, thus if the technology takes time to implement, then the
> conditions may have changed and rendered the tech obsolete.
> * Low bandwidth – if the process of checking all the traffic is taking too
> much out of the network, it is going to impact on the service that people
> will have paid for – as well as penalising all users, regardless of if they
> are indulging in non-legitimate uses.
> * Discriminatory - Able to discriminate between legitimate and
> non-legitimate traffic accurately. If it targets the wrong people, it is
> going to cost time, money and reputation for the ISPs involved.
> * Decryptory – There has been marked rise in encrypted p2p technology of
> late. This means that any system will need to deal with not only encrypted
> peers, but also encrypted packets of data.
>
> Now those are the 'easy' points – the obvious ones that the technology
> would need. From the p2p research I've been doing, I would suggest that
> there are a couple of other ones of note too:
>
> * 100% Effective – One key thing about internet ecology is that it is very,
> very easy for users to change p2p software. Users can also communicate
> virally, so can pass information on about holes in any system rapidly. The
> exploitation of the loop-holes will also be viral. This means a 99.9%
> effective system upon implementation will rapidly become a 0% one.
> * Psychic – The other issues is that once a flag goes up, there will be
> many, many people trying many many methods to by-pass the system. This will
> be continuous and will consist of lines of attack from new directions. The
> system implemented need to anticipate and head-off these attacks to stay
> in-the-game.
>
> I am being a little provocative in the points above, but I feel they are
> valid. I think you see what I am saying – stopping online piracy is very,
> very difficult. Some may point to the Great Firewall of China as a
> successful example of internet control – forgetting that it is backed by an
> authoritarian state and might not be effective for all we know – became its
> failings are not going to be publicised either by the government there or
> the users who've found a way though.
>
>
> -
> Tomas
>
> -----------------------
> Tomas Rawlings
> Development Director, FluffyLogic Development Ltd.
> web: www.fluffylogic.net
> tel: 0117 9442233 -
> Also see:
> blog on film & interweb: www.plugincinema.com
> blog on p2p, media ecology & evolution: blog.catbot.org
> tweet: www.twitter.com/arclightfire
>
>
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