Anti-Piracy Outfit Hires VPN Expert to Help Track Down The Pirate Bay * TorrentFreak:
From the beginning, OVPN has insisted that it is a no-logs provider, meaning that it should be impossible for anyone to identify who was using its service to either surf the Internet or, in The Pirate Bay's case, use the platform as an anonymous exit point to hide its true location.
The battle is playing out in court in Sweden, with OVPN insisting that it has no useful data to hand over and Rights Alliance insisting that it has. Thus far the court seems to have leaned towards OVPN's claims, that it carries no logs and as such cannot hand over any information. However, the anti-piracy veterans at Rights Alliance, who have years of experience under their belts, are refusing to let the matter drop.
The most recent move, playing out this week, is that Rights Alliance has provided testimony from an expert witness, one that has masses of experience in the VPN field.
[...] "Although [OVPN] strive to store as little data as possible, there must be data connecting users and identities to make the VPN service work. In this case, a user has paid for a VPN account with the ability to connect a public static address to OVPN which the user has then chosen to link to the file sharing site 'the piratebay', i.e the user has configured his VPN account to point to the given domain."
As previously reported, the alleged use of OVPN by The Pirate Bay differed from that of a regular user. Instead of anonymizing a home connection, the site reportedly used the provider's Public IPv4 add-on. While that tool is covered by exactly the same no-logging policy, in this case a static IP address was connected to the service by a specific customer. The word 'static' is crucial here and also a recurring theme.
[...] Finally, it's worth repeating once again that the complications in this case, at least in respect of VPN security, is that The Pirate Bay's alleged use of OVPN required the allocation of a static IP address. When regular users of decent no-logging VPNs are allocated a dynamic IP address or one that's shared by countless other users, these issues should not raise their head.
Related Stories
OVPN Wins Court Battle After Pirate Bay Data Demands Rejected * TorrentFreak:
Court Sides With OVPN, Believes No-Logging Claims
Following a decision handed down Thursday at the Patent and Market Court in Stockholm, OVPN has now emerged victorious. Given the complexities of the case, the decision appears to have been a relatively simple one for the Court.
Essentially, if a party denies it has access to specific information – in this case information related to OVPN's alleged customer The Pirate Bay – it falls upon the applicants to provide sufficient evidence that the data is available to be retrieved.
The statements and evidence provided by the plaintiffs failed to show that, according to the Court.
"[I]t is not possible on the basis of the statements, which contain a number of uncertainties, to draw any definite conclusions about OVPN's access to the information to which the application for an injunction relates. Nor does any other investigation arrive at such conclusions," the decision reads.
"Applicants' application for an information injunction should therefore be rejected," it concludes.
[...] For those interested in studying the case in-depth, all relevant court documents can be obtained here (zip)
Previously:
Anti-Piracy Outfit Hires VPN Expert to Help Track Down the Pirate Bay
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:01AM (7 children)
The address can be allocated by pool. Dyndns takes care of the the rest. All of that can take place in memory without ever being written to disk.
The word "static" is irrelevant, in that pretty much every piece of vocab used in ISP land is irrelevant. What it means to engineers, and what it means to marketers are usually mutually exclusive concepts.
"VPN Expert" eh? Wonder how much that pays.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:12AM (3 children)
If you can "save" twenty trillion dollars annually in "pirated" music and movies, you can name your price. ;^)
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:47AM (2 children)
Were you always this stupid? Don't you have anything better to do than sit at your computer and steal music? No, downloading lots of stolen music won't provide legal immunity or anything similar.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:57AM
No, but if I get lucky and listen to the right tunes, I might find immortality. Ooooohhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm nom nom nom. LOL
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:05AM
steal... stolen... yea you are no lawyer bub
(Score: 2) by Zinnia Zirconium on Sunday August 23 2020, @02:43AM (2 children)
Memory can be dumped and used as evidence.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:53AM (1 child)
Memory loses its state quickly after losing power. This can be suspended by dumping it in liquid nitrogen quickly, but this is pretty extreme. I don't think any court is going to allow this for a civil case. This isn't a criminal case here AFAICT, so the government (in Sweden in this case) can't just raid the facilities and grab the equipment. They have to get the VPN provider to cooperate and provide them the data they're asking for, and the provider is saying "we don't have it, because we don't log anything". Obviously, it wouldn't be hard for them to turn on logging, they just don't want to, and the government cannot compel them to for a civil case like this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @06:10PM
FTFY
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:09AM
https://thepiratebay.org/index.html [thepiratebay.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:28AM (5 children)
Isn't this the deal where you're supposed to rent a virtual machine and run your own VPN? We've already heard many stories about commercial providers being full of holes, so stay away from them
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday August 23 2020, @02:01AM (4 children)
And you can guarantee that your server has no holes...how?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @02:13AM
LOL, all snark aside, there is NO WAY you can rent space in the cloud, and guarantee that a VPN running from that space is "secure". I don't care what kind of assurances the owner of the hardware gives - it's his machine, in his possession, and he can set it up any way he wants, while telling you ANYTHING.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday August 23 2020, @02:45AM (2 children)
It just seems less risky than commercial VPNs
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Zinnia Zirconium on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:07AM (1 child)
If you like risk a really great idea would be to run your own personal VPN server on a static IP that reverse resolves to your own vanity domain where the Whois data has your full name and home address so everybody knows exactly where to serve the subpoena.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday August 24 2020, @02:17PM
The best kind of risks are those in service to an ideal, for a better way of life. And these sorts are, I believe, just such a risk. Copyright must ultimately bow to reality. These industry shills and their masters have stuffed themselves full of propaganda about them being huge victims of piracy, in spite of the fact that the business is doing fine. Makes them dangerous. In spasms of "end justifies the means" thinking, they are entirely too eager to trample upon privacy in order to identify the people they alleged to be committing piracy
I am not personally interested in running a VPN service. There are many other things that can be done. I helped shut down one of the "experts" that the MAFIAA once used to provide testimony against the accused. In court, he was using the university's name to bolster his credentials. I complained to the university about the conduct of their professor. As I suspected, the university administrators had no idea their hot shot professor, who had just made the cover of their alumni magazine as their professor of the year, was dragging their good name into court, and when they learned of it from me, they didn't like it.
And do commit a bit of piracy. If that's too scary, then you can at least make more use of your local public library, or the Internet Archive.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:59AM (11 children)
"The Pirate Bay's alleged use of OVPN required the allocation of a static IP address."
In point of fact, TPB has not been exactly "static" for several years. They go down, they go up, they go down, they go up, over and over. To all appearances, they are in routine damage control mode, attempting to obfuscate their location.
About the only thing the anti-piracy people can do, is to have the court order that OVPN start maintaining useful logs. In which case, TPB jumps again, to some other provider, or maybe set up their own network.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Zinnia Zirconium on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:26AM (10 children)
I've never actually used The Pirate Bay specifically but if it really has that much trouble staying up then it must be way too popular. Why can't its many users find the very many other alternative sites? Do the users really have to flock around the one and only THE Pirate Bay therefore making it one huge target?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:39AM (7 children)
That's an interesting question.
IMO, TPB actually WANTS all that attention. They aren't bashful, they know what they are doing, and they keep on doing it. I can't count the times that the people who run it have thumbed their noses at "authority". They love doing what they do!
People, being people, decide what is popular. Whether it's women's clothing fashion, transportation, cell phones, or pirate sites, people decide whatever they decide. For years, TPB has been highly popular. What else is there to say?
Maybe people, like TPB, actually want government and the mob to know what they are doing? It's a way for little nobodies around the world to thumb their own noses at "authority".
Personally, I seldom want to pirate anything, but when I do, I fire up Qbittorrent, with all of it's search engine addons. I suppose there are about 25 addons, I just grab them all for a new installation, and from time to time, update them all. I don't much care where a magnet comes from - either it works, or it doesn't.
All of that said, I suppose TPB has a kind of "respectability". They've been around forever now, and everyone knows of them. I don't think any other site has the name recognition that TPB has.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by Zinnia Zirconium on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:54AM (2 children)
OK got it. Theconformists who blissfully use Facebook and Spotify are the same people who use The Pirate Bay.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:56AM (1 child)
Maybe not real accurate, but close enough for government work.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @02:47PM
Pretty much like your sig.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:23AM (3 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @05:32AM (2 children)
Unfortunately, the Pirate Party flopped like a lead baloon here. I was on the mailing list, did my best to attract attention to the party, helped however I could, but just about no one was interested. The two party system is strictly two party here.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:00PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday August 24 2020, @05:44AM
Money is what Americans hear best. It's a mental shortcut. They reflexively think that anyone who is rich must have a lot of merit. Must have done something right. The most extreme believers in that suck up that Prosperity Gospel blasphemy.
Political parties that don't have buckets of money can't even get the time of day from the average American.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @07:01AM
https://old.reddit.com/r/torrents/comments/5ok0yd/torrent_sites/ [reddit.com]
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Sunday August 23 2020, @10:32AM
https://unblocked-pw.github.io/ [github.io]
meh its has nothing to do with popularity it could die tomorrow and torrent traffic would recover in days. The reason is that it is a symbol, one that has poked the eye of media many times and they want to hold its decapitated head up to the crowds so they may gasp in horror.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:27PM
They are trying to track down TPB by asking a VPN for logs? That makes no sense.
Here is a free script for them:
I must assume they are trying to track down actual peers on the torrent network, otherwise they are asking the wrong "VPN".