Cleaning spam from swapping networks

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Rose-tinted lenses

"But the tool could also ratchet up the antipiracy arms race, by filtering out the numerous "decoy" files used by Hollywood and record label allies to discourage illegal downloaders."

Therein lies the problem. Despite the legitimate uses of P2P, the fact is that there are criminals who use it to steal copyrighted media.

"I believe in people; I think most people are honest," said Emin Gun Sirer, the assistant professor of computer science at Cornell who is leading the project. "I think it will be people on the periphery who will be kept out."

This is just naive. The rule of thumb is 10-80-10. 10% of the people are totally honest. 10% of the people are totally dishonest. 80% of the people are basically honest but can become dishonest if the opportunity presents itself.

"Peer-to-peer networks have been polluted with junk files and spam almost since their inception. It took spammers only a few months to realize that the popular networks presented a new opportunity for unsolicited advertising, and to adapt their technologies accordingly."

That's because criminals can't call the cops. If I pull a knife on you and demand you wallet, then you wrestle the knife away from me and take MY wallet, what am I going to tell the police?

"While aimed at unwanted advertising, the reputation-based filtering system could also serve to filter out the decoy files propagated by Overpeer and other piracy fighters, unless they too spend time rating files to become part of trusted communities."

So much for vigilante justice. The reputation based system is a good idea that I would like to see work.

Posted by: Real World   Posted on: 03/18/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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