New legislation delivers jail time to anyone offering pirated films via a shared drive, but what if a user isn’t aware they’re sharing pirated films? As we mentioned on Thursday, the Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act is the latest batch of legislation designed to help thwart what the MPAA views as a looming film piracy super-storm.
Unfortunately, like so so many batches of tech legislation before it, its vague wording leaves the bill open to an endless sea of questions. Any user who so much as possesses a pirated film in a shared folder (whether it’s actually shared with others or not is irrelevant, Mr. Anderson) could face up to $250,000 in fines or five years in prison.
Alex Goldman of ISP-Planet wrote us yesterday and brought up an interesting point. What if users are sharing pirated films without knowing that they’re sharing pirated films? His latest article explores a Windows tactic that allows remote users to take over a directory within a Windows based server; turning that directory into a bandwidth sucking warez resource.
The directory hack uses characters that confuse the Windows OS, and can’t be deleted by traditional methods (attempts to delete result in warnings that file names are illegal). Goldman suggests doing a simple Google search for the word “t@gged” and a common file name (such as “matrix”) indicates how widespread the problem is, and how many servers are hosting pirated films without even being aware of them.
Those facing the problem can utilize software by James R. Twine that allows users to delete the irritating files and directories (available via his website). Twine dubs the software “Delete FXP Files”, because those who use the tactic usually refer to themselves as FXP groups, says Goldman.
Read more: HERE
