RIAA Wants To Start Peeking Into Files You Store In The Cloud

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110520/03411314352/riaa-wants-to-start-peeking-into-files-you-store-cloud.shtml

by ygreek • 15 years ago

62 38 15 years ago

cookiecaper2• 15 years ago

Encrypt, encrypt, encrypt. If possible, use ecryptfs or TrueCrypt or some other non-transparent encryption mechanism on files that you back up to remote sites so that you know they are always safely encrypted and don't have to think about it (just copy the lower-level, encrypted container). Both ecryptfs (with filename encryption) and TrueCrypt can back up encrypted versions of your files without even giving away filenames, so RIAA can't go acking for MP3s. Of course, manually using gpg and specifying an unrelated output filename works too.

If you're uploading anything remotely important to a third-party service, you should encrypt all of it beforehand. As we see time and time again, it can be really surprising how easy it is for an insider, a random script kiddie, or in this case, a company with a posse of anxious lawyers to grab your data. You need to encrypt that data before it ever leaves your disk for persistent storage on someone else's infrastructure. Encrypt encrypt encrypt.

switch007• 15 years ago

100% agree. Encrypt. Not because of what you are afraid today, but for what might happen in the future. You can't even begin to imagine the ways our privacy will be violated tomorrow.

nextparadigms• 15 years ago

All file locker services should offer a check-box or something by default, before you upload your files, to encrypt them with your own key. That should cover a lot more people than it would if everyone had to do everything by themselves.

gst• 15 years ago

This should not be a checkbox, but it should be the default. And that's exactly what Wuala is doing.

DasIch• 15 years ago

Call me paranoid but I would not even consider that as an alternative to doing the encryption on my own.

orijing• 15 years ago

Let's take Dropbox for example.

They save a lot of costs by deduplicating copies of files, and it makes file renames/moves/shares really easy for them. Therefore, they wouldn't have the incentive to destroy that advantage: That's one of the major scale advantages they get for covering so many users.

With that said, they could offer that "by default" to premium users who already pay for the service to simplify their lives and keep their more profitable customers happy.

What are everyone's views on that, from Dropbox's perspective?

Chrono• 15 years ago

I guess it is time to start encrypting the files I got in the cloud. None of which are copyright'ed or especially secret but better safe than sorry.

joelthelion• 15 years ago

The RIAA is about to discover client-side encryption by default :)

RexRollman• 15 years ago

The RIAA really has become a disturbing entity.

code_duck• 15 years ago

The politicians who are willing to accept and act on their greased palm offers are the real problem. In a normal, non-corrupt system, the RIAA would never come anywhere near receiving such powers, anymore than Jim McJones down the street.

cks• 15 years ago

Why don't the cloud storage service providers encrypt/store all user content in such a way that it can only be read by the user? I doubt there are any ethical benefits in storing the data in such a way that they (the service providers) can read it. Even if there is I doubt that users would agree to such usage.

jodrellblank4• 15 years ago

Because then they can't store only one copy of each duplicate file, skip uploading duplicate files, work with file hashes knowing that the same file will have the same hash, and less pleasantly, they can't do analytics, advertising and recommendations on the types and quantities of stored files.

bdhe5• 15 years ago

That's not true. As is, in a lot of crypto problems, there are powerful workarounds that require a lot of work. See here for one idea: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2461713

Unfortunately, this starts to become a cat-and-mouse game.

brown9-2• 15 years ago

I think some storage providers might not be comfortable with the situation where they'd have to tell a paying customer that they can't help them at all when the customer loses the key - they choose simplicity as a feature over appealing to the security-conscious.

As for Dropbox, they need to be able to read the files to serve it to you from their website.

nkassis• 15 years ago

Can't they implement client side encryption? A javascript based encryption mechanism could be interesting.

jlouis• 15 years ago

There are cloud storage providers doing this. See for instance the tarsnap.com solution. Data is stored but with a key in your end. In other words, it is cloud storage done right.

cabalamat• 15 years ago

I'm sure if the MAFIAA thought they could get away with it they'd lobby for mandatory snooping software on everyone's PC so they could check for illegal copies.

Because, y'know, human rights and the rule of law are far less important than preserving the music industry's business model for a few more years.

ygreek• 15 years ago

This idea is actually not as crazy as it may seem. Copyright lobby is usually just one step behind the Chinese policies of restricting access to the illegal content, with the only difference in definition of illegal. Chinese have developed such tool, [1], and were planning to install it on every new computer sold in China. But later scaled down it's use.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dam_Youth_Escort

911-inside_job2• 15 years ago

Well, if you were one of the major owners or CEOs of a recording company what would you value more - your own profits or the human rights of the unwashed masses?

orangecat• 15 years ago

Better yet, get rid of general purpose computing for civilians altogether. That's one reason I support Android; if most people end up on locked down platforms like iOS or WP7, it becomes much easier to pass and enforce draconian laws. Remember the CBDTPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Broadband_and_Digital_...)? It would actually be feasible if everyone were using iPads.

waterlesscloud• 15 years ago

Why is the RIAA special? I produce copyrighted material all the time.

I demand the right to start looking at everyone's cloud files too.

salemh• 15 years ago

For a specific example. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10133425-38.html

911-inside_job2• 15 years ago

Because they've spent 10s of millions $ on bribing politicians ("lobbing") and you haven't.

yason• 15 years ago

I welcome thee, dear MAFIAA, to bring out your inspective forces upon the encrypted bits of my tarsnap.com archives.

I hereby promise they positively do contain copyrighted materials indeed, and I thus encourage your troops to spend considerable time trying to decipher whatever it is that I've stored in these clouds of the 2010's internet.

RIAA Wants To Start Peeking Into Files You Store In The Cloud

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