napster, gnutella, & bittorrent: legal & technical
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NAPSTER, GNUTELLA, BITTORRENT: DISCUSS LEGAL AND TECHNICAL ASPECTSBy: Kaleb Fulgham
OVERVIEW History
Napster Gnutella BitTorrent
Legal issues RIAA & MPAA DMCA & Copyright Act of 1976 Court cases & lawsuits
HISTORY
NAPSTER June 1999: Shawn Fanning, undergraduate at
Northeastern University, & Sean Parker released Napster, the first major Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software
Napster Faster and less frustrating way to swap MP3s online than
HTTP & FTP Inspired by IRC’s easy-to-use format Central servers contained an index of lists of user music
files Search box List of usernames & their files
NAPSTER Built in C++ and popularized through IRC October 1999: 150,000 registered users trading
3.5 million files February 2001: 26.4 million registered users Hardware
Peaked in 2001: 150 index only servers containing IP address info on usernames & their MP3 metadata
Similar to a telephone switchboard operator
NAPSTER Napster client connects to a
central server User queries the Napster
Central Index Server Central server returns a
list of matches Napster client connects
with the computer hosting the file
Client drops allowing private transfer Your Computer
GNUTELLA March 2000: Justin Frankel & Tom Peppers of
high-tech Nullsoft (an AOL acquisition) published Gnutella. Nullsoft created MP3-player Winamp
Gnutella Functionally similar to Napster Key Difference: Did NOT rely on one central server Each user or “node” functioned as their own server Pre-loaded with IP addresses of known nodes
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GNUTELLA Gnutella posted on AOL’s website Slashdot news leak led to increased publicity AOL & Time Warner (Music Group) merger
AOL made Nullsoft abandon project Gnutella had spread world-wide
Free & open source clones appeared Examples: LimeWire & BearShare
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GNUTELLA Gnutella client knows at least 1 other node User queries 1st node The node sends
request to other nodesuntil song is found TTL limited requests
Returns file name andmachine IP address
Client connects to file owner’s node to transfer
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GNUTELLA Latest Gnutella Version 0.6
Composite network: Leaf nodes and Ultrapeers Leaf nodes connect to ~3 Ultrapeers Ultrapeer connects to >32 other Ultrapeers Max number of “hops” lowered from 7 to 4.
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BITTORRENT July 2001: Bram Cohen released the BitTorrent
protocol which he designed in April 2001 BitTorrent
Efficient at sharing large quantities of data
Download pieces of the file(s) simultaneously from multiple peers
Tracker servers inform clients of all online active peers
Downloads “rarest-first” to ensure high availability
BITTORRENT Torrent file – .torrent
Metadata about the file(s) shared Checksums of identically sized (512KB) pieces of the
file(s) being shared Tracker server(s) – help coordinate file distribution
BitTorrent protocol does NOT offer search Many websites offer searchable indexes of torrents
Tracker servers are run on torrent search websites & some companies who need to distribute large files
BITTORRENT User searches for a torrent User downloads & opens it
with a BitTorrent client Client connects to the
tracker(s) in the torrent file Receives a list of peers
currently transferring thepieces of the file(s) specified in the torrent.
Client connects to peers to obtain the various pieces.
LEGAL ISSUES
LEGAL ISSUES RIAA & MPAA DMCA & Copyright Act of 1976 Court cases & lawsuits
A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. The Pirate Bay (BitTorrent) Raid in Sweden RIAA v. the People MPAA v. TorrentSpy
RIAA & MPAA RIAA – Recording Industry Association of America
Represents the recording industry Protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the
First Amendment rights of artists Perform research about the music industry Monitor and review relevant laws, regulations and
policies MPAA – Motion Picture Association of America
Advance business interests of movie studios Film rating system & Anti-piracy measures
DMCA & COPYRIGHT ACT Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
Subpoena To Identify Infringer - 17 U.S.C. § 512(h) Copyright Act of 1976
Liable $750 - $30,000 per song, feature film, etc. illegally traded as the court considers just
Up to $150,000 per title if intentional & willful
A&M RECORDS, INC. V. NAPSTER, INC. December 1999: RIAA filed a lawsuit against
Napster RIAA argued in District Court
Napster users directly infringe on plaintiff’s copyright Napster is liable for contributory & vicarious
copyright infringement Internal Napster email from Sean Parker to Shawn
Fanning stating that users know they are “exchanging pirated music.”
A&M RECORDS, INC. V. NAPSTER, INC. Napster’s defense
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. Napster similar to Sony Betamax VHS recorder
Fair Use Sampling Space-shifting Permissive distribution
Audio Home Recording Act
A&M RECORDS, INC. V. NAPSTER, INC. United States District Court ruled in favor of the
RIAA United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit Napster - Liable for contributory & vicarious
infringement Napster users infringe at least two of the copyright
holders’ rights the rights of reproduction, § 106(1) distribution, § 106(3)
A&M RECORDS, INC. V. NAPSTER, INC. Ninth Circuit ruling March 5, 2001
Napster capable of commercially significant non-infringing uses
Could control the infringing behavior of users Must prevent trading of copyright music
Napster paid roughly $36 million to copyright owners
MGM STUDIOS, INC. V. GROKSTER, LTD June 2005: MGM sued P2P client companies
Grokster & Streamcast P2P lost for inducing copyright infringement for acts
taken in marketing their file sharing software Both advertised as “Napster alternatives” “[T]he goal is to get in trouble with the law and get
sued. It’s the best way to get in the new[s]”– Streamcast chief technology officer
MGM statistician revealed that ~90% of all files available on the P2P were copyrighted works
THE PIRATE BAY RAID 2004: MPAA pressured the U.S. and Swedish
government to shut down The Pirate Bay May 2006: Police in Sweden raided The Pirate Bay,
shut down their website, & confiscated their servers The Pirate Bay
BitTorrent search engine & tracker server Launched in November 2003 by
Gottfrid Svartholm & Fredrik Neij Down for 3 days Publicity and +1.7 million more users
THE PIRATE BAY TRIAL January 2008: Criminal & civil prosecution in
Sweden for promoting the copyright infringement of others with torrents by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström
Found guilty Sentenced to 1 year in prison Pay a fine of $3.5 million
RIAA V. THE PEOPLE 2003: RIAA began a litigation campaign against
those who infringe copyright law Lawsuits against ~30,000 people
Usually settled out of court: $3,500 avg. total Court settlements: $750 - $150,000 per song
“Attempted distribution” is NOT in Copyright Act Simply storing copyright material in P2P “share” folders “Infringement of the distribution right requires an
actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords” – cited in Atlantic v. Howell
RIAA V. THE PEOPLE October 2008: Harper claimed she did not know
she was doing anything illegal She thought downloading music was like the radio Judge ruled $7,400 (37 songs @ $200/song) for
“innocent infringement” June 2009: Jamie Thomas-Rasset found liable for
infringing 24 songs for $1.92 million July 2009: Joel Tenenbaum found liable for
infringing 30 songs for $675,000
MPAA V. TORRENTSPY February 2006: MPAA sued TorrentSpy.com
Facilitating copyright infringement by linking to torrents containing copyright films
May 2008: U.S. District Judge ruled Against TorrentSpy.com’s Justin Bunnell & associates Must pay the max $30,000 for “each of the 3,699
infringements shown.” $111 million
CONCLUSION Direct HTTP / FTP downloads strain servers P2P file sharing systems
Convenient to search Effectively distribute load
Majority of content on BitTorrent & P2P is copyright material
Downloading & Sharing copyright information without permission is copyright infringement
Public domain file sharing is LEGAL!
Questions?
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SOURCES http://howstuffworks.com for diagrams Appetite for Self-Destruction – Steve Knopper All The Rave – Joseph Menn ArsTechnica – http://arstechnica.com EFF – http://eff.org
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