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TorrentFreak has written an article that shows how easy it is to avoid the recently passed UK anti-piracy bill, dubbed the Digital Economy Bill.
Through well known techniques that have been available for some time, users can still download pirated content via BitTorrent networks, but won't get caught by those monitoring the networks for piracy.
One technique is to avoid the use of trackers, which are the most easy way monitoring groups can find a suspected pirate's IP address. Using DHT and PEX distributed systems, file transfer occurs in a distributed way and there's no central tracker to track - you don't even need to download any .torrent files, as the torrent information is also retrieved "from the cloud". It is still possible to track users if they are using DHT or PEX, but this takes more skill that might elude less sophisticated monitoring.
Another technique, although requiring money, is to get a VPN service, which can also allow you to view content otherwise geographically locked out, such as free US TV shows on Hulu. VPN encrypts your connection and gives you a different IP address, one that authorities cannot take actions against as the IP address usually belongs to a country not under their jurisdiction.
And finally, you can ditch BitTorrent altogether and find pirated downloads on RapidShare type HTTP services, or Usenet or private forums.
All just goes to show that when politicians are creating laws for technology that they don't understand, and that for all the effort being put in, and all the tax payer money being spent trying to prevent online piracy, it will only help to push pirates to use services that may one day make it impossible for authorities to track or to stop, and thus, creating an even bigger and unstoppable piracy problem.
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Through well known techniques that have been available for some time, users can still download pirated content via BitTorrent networks, but won't get caught by those monitoring the networks for piracy.
One technique is to avoid the use of trackers, which are the most easy way monitoring groups can find a suspected pirate's IP address. Using DHT and PEX distributed systems, file transfer occurs in a distributed way and there's no central tracker to track - you don't even need to download any .torrent files, as the torrent information is also retrieved "from the cloud". It is still possible to track users if they are using DHT or PEX, but this takes more skill that might elude less sophisticated monitoring.
Another technique, although requiring money, is to get a VPN service, which can also allow you to view content otherwise geographically locked out, such as free US TV shows on Hulu. VPN encrypts your connection and gives you a different IP address, one that authorities cannot take actions against as the IP address usually belongs to a country not under their jurisdiction.
And finally, you can ditch BitTorrent altogether and find pirated downloads on RapidShare type HTTP services, or Usenet or private forums.
All just goes to show that when politicians are creating laws for technology that they don't understand, and that for all the effort being put in, and all the tax payer money being spent trying to prevent online piracy, it will only help to push pirates to use services that may one day make it impossible for authorities to track or to stop, and thus, creating an even bigger and unstoppable piracy problem.
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