3 August 2011
From next week, P2P in New Zealand is illegal
Well, it won't actually be illegal - but you could get fined anyway.
Thanks to a Facebook discussion on the 3strikesNZ page, I've discovered yet another reason the NZ copyright amendment is bad. Non IT-geeks can skip the next paragraph, to summarize it: some rightsholders are targeting not just infringing files, but potentially any user using some kinds of peer-to-peer filesharing software.
Apparently some rightsholders are using the BitTorrent DHT (distributed hash table) to find infringing users. This is terrible practice, because a BitTorrent client, simply by running (even if it has never downloaded or uploaded anything, let alone anything infringing), participates in the DHT and passes on information about which peer to get files from - and some of those files may be infringing. A rightsholder using this method can't distinguish between clients simply participating in the DHT, and those actually sharing the file.
This applies to not just BitTorrent, but any other P2P software using a DHT, eg. eMule, LimeWire, BearShare, Shareaza, giFT clients...
We can reasonably expect these infringement notices to get through the Copyright Tribunal unchallenged, because to challenge it the accuser needs technical knowledge of how their P2P software works. Otherwise all they can say is "I don't know why you think I infringed, I just know I didn't", which of course won't hold up since it's not evidence. People in that situation probably won't bother going to the Copyright Tribunal, they'll just pay the fine.
Come September, it is possible that people will be fined simply for using P2P software.
Hopefully this will help highlight the problems with the new law - despite rightsholder groups pointing to their innocent victims and saying "look how many people we've caught infringing!"
To lazy / non-technically minded people, to be totally safe you should uninstall all your P2P programs. Or, if you're careful and you have some basic knowledge, read the next paragraph:
If you want to be certain to avoid infringement notices, you have to ensure you never run P2P programs using DHT, except through a proxy (which may have a signigicant negative impact your speeds). Don't use BitTorrent through Tor - since you should to be careful that all data goes through Tor, not just the initial connection to the tracker, which slows down both your connection, and everyone else's on the network. If you're not using a proxy for all your data, you you need to either disable DHT (which will also slow you down as you won't connect to as many peers), or stop such P2P programs from running on startup or ever. You could still file-share using a seedbox, or filesharing software designed to be anonymous, like OneSwarm or I2P.
It's worth starting to do this on Thursday (August 11th) rather than September 1st, since you can get notices for activity 21 days before the notice is sent. Tony Eaton, director of NZFACT (NZ Federation Against Copyright Theft), representing the MPAA, says they won't backdate notices from September 1, but the law isn't stopping them or other rightsholders from doing so.
It's ridiculous that I'm giving such advice. I'm a big fan of peer-to-peer for legitimate filesharing, especially in isolated countries like New Zealand, as it means less bandwidth usage, faster download speeds, and better content discovery. Too bad.
There's another important ramification: Don't let any untrusted or ignorant person use your computer or your connection, since they could run a file-sharing program, and even a few seconds of use is enough for the rightsholders' tracking software to potentially find you.
More essential reading on the new copyright law:
Update (1 day later): This doesn't seem to be at all common - it may have happened a few times, but you're unlikely to be caught this way. Still it is a possibility, so if you want certainty, you should take this into account. I've made edits to highlight that.
Sequel (1 week later): This pales in comparison to how rightsholder groups could get people fined just for using the internet... Fined for using the internet? Possible as of today in NZ
