View topic - Study finds 25% of P2P downloads to be fake files - ExtraTorrent.cc The World's Largest BitTorrent System

Study finds 25% of P2P downloads to be fake files

Author

Message

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 18:00

Author:

sam_code4u

When it comes to addressing software or media piracy on peer-to-peer networks, publishers and content owners have typically been reactive in fighting them by launching lawsuits against individuals and forcing them to pay fines in an effort to scare others from doing the same. Unfortunately, that tactic has not been very effective and it is costly. So, companies have gone on the offensive.

Researchers in Europe, with a good portion being from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, have presented a paper which looked at the motives of the largest BitTorrent seeders. While some seeders use fake files to spread viruses, malware or even advertise goods or services, others were paid by publishers and content owners to upload large numbers of fake files in an attempt to make it frustrating for users to utilize P2P for piracy. Initially, P2P networks fought back with countermeasures including blocking IP addresses and the accounts of the biggest offenders. Yet, a stunning number of fake files have still slipped through.

According to the paper, a large dataset containing 55,000 of the top files shared from 35 million IP addresses sourced from popular BitTorrent search engines The Pirate Bay and Mininova, were identified to contain 30% fake files thanks to antipiracy agencies. Those files are definitely having an impact when you look at the number which have been downloaded. Some people assume these fake files are largely ignored. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, 25% of the files downloaded were fake.