Primus
@rr.com
| reply to swhx7
Re: RIP utorrent
Here's your proof: »torrenthelp.depthstrike.com/2007···out.html
Wireshark packet dump of uTorrent traffic.
Everyone is freaking out about a new feature in the 1.7 tree, Local Peer Discovery. It uses multicast traffic to try to find geographically-close peers in order to speed up your transfers. The multicast block of addresses (224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255) is normally blocked by routers/firewalls/etc, leading to alert popups, leading to OMGWTFMPAABACKDOOR! calls. |
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swhx7
Premium
join:2006-07-23
Elbonia
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to raydog1
Right, that's true. But there is incentive for building in "back door" or spyware code. Any for-profit software company can benefit from collecting statistics on its customers or even data-mining them as individuals. And with the **AA collaboration, it's also in the company's interest to build in something that can be used in future to regulate what users can do with the software (i.e. DRM). They would have to get rid of the open source competition to take advantage of this, but there are ways that could happen.
As I posted elsewhere, there's no proof for or against spyware or other tricks in uTorrent. But there are good reasons to be suspicious of any closed-source software from a profit-oriented company, especially when it's given away free, and even more so when it's commonly used for something that competes with the sponsors of the purveyor. |
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swhx7
Premium
join:2006-07-23
Elbonia
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode  :I'm still looking but I haven't seen any solid proof that the newer client reports anything to anyone. Perhaps people can offer up some evidence of this?
Thanks for saying this. I replied to someone making the opposite claim, and said that there's no proof of that either.
It is reasonable to be suspicious of any closed-source software from a profit-oriented vendor. But we can't have definite statements without evidence. |
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raydog1
Feel Secure
Premium
join:2003-07-10
La Vergne, TN
| reply to Karl Bode
There would be no point in creating an app that reports to the **AA. They can use the regular means to find lawsuit victims just as easily. Just fire up any bittorent app, connect to any Harry Potter movie torrent, collect IPs, send letters, rinse, repeat. |
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Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02 | reply to cypherstream
I'm still looking but I haven't seen any solid proof that the newer client reports anything to anyone. Perhaps people can offer up some evidence of this? |
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