On Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:04:53 +0200 bartels bartels@mailme.ath.cx wrote:
On closer inspection, I find that bittorrent can run over the tor network, like any other traffic.
It doesnt run both ways because peers cannot be available for incoming connections, so users will find themselves eventually banned from servers or with lower transfer speeds for not sharing nicely. Also Tor does not (yet) carry UDP traffic. The possible exception is if the peers are entirely in onioncat space. BitTorrenters are really better off using I2P for anonymous bulk transfers though.
Personally, I cannot afford complaints and spend time on legal issues; however groundless they may be it is not what I do.
I had the same problem with my ISP - they had no tolerance for the DMCA complaints and were not willing to just pass them on to me. So at the risk of being labelled a BadExit (or at best a non-net-neutral exit) i blocked all of ThePirateBay's ip addresses from my exit node for a while. That reduced DMCA complaints down to about 1 a year, but because i had clients' sites also running on my server and didnt want any risks i eventually went non-exit. It really depends what jurisdiction you are in.
It leaves me with a question: how do the Paramount people know that my server carried their stuff? Did they download it themselves, or do they have their own bittorrent servers? They must be at either end, or am I mistaken?
They have agents who participate in BT swarms (and sometimes poison them), so they can see the ip addresses of seeders and other participants. Some government agencies such as FBI might work with them to enforce copyrights, so they may also have inside snooping info from some ISPs that are hosting torrent servers, or from machines which are those ISPs' gateways. The US Commerce Department might consider it a threat to national security if American companies "intellectual property" is vaguely threatened, so agencies such as NSA or CIA may be sharing info ad hoc under the table etc (remember ECHELON?).