Lawmakers in our nation’s capital have been trotting out LimeWire’s CEO for years now as it rehashes the same tired discussion about how to prevent the leak of sensitive and confidential information on govt and private PCs.

This past March sensitive information about President Obama’s Marine One helicopter, including ‘entire blueprints, engineering upgrades, avionic schematics’, was found, and just a few months later private info about Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer was also discovered. A recent study also discovered that countries like Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia actively scour P2P networks for classified information

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reopened an investigation into LimeWire this past April and demanded to know what it was doing to address the problem, and it subsequently released a new version, LimeWire 5.0, which by default, does not share documents even if a user purposely attempts to do so.

It was apparently not enough for lawmakers and so a new round of hearings was conducted.

“From what we heard today, it is clear that private citizens, businesses, and the government continue to be victims of unintentional and illicit file sharing,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns. “At its best, with the proper safeguards in place, peer-to-peer software has great potential. At its worst, it isn’t peer-to-peer; it’s predator-to-prey.”

Guess he hasn’t heard that LimeWire 5.0 doesn’t allow default file-sharing, even though LimeWire CEO Mark Gorton reminded him of the fact in his written testimony.

He writes:

• LimeWire 5 does not share any Documents by default. In order for a LimeWire user to change their default settings to enable Document sharing, they have to click nine times and disregard three warnings.
• A LimeWire 5.2.8 use cannot share or even place into the LimeWire Library their “My Documents” folder,“Documents and Settings” folder, “Desktop” folder, or “C” drive no matter what. And this setting cannot be changed.
• If a user shares the contents of a folder, LimeWire 5.2.8 will not share the Documents in that folder even if the default settings have been changed to allow Document sharing.
• In LimeWire 5 there are no “shared” folders, meaning that if a user elects to share a folder they are only electing to share the contents of that folder at that particular time, nothing will be shared that a user adds to that folder at a later point in time. All LimeWire versions 5 and above automatically un‐share Documents that a user may have shared using an earlier version of LimeWire 4.

So it would seem Rep Towns is a victim of a lack of knowledge about P2P. LimeWire has already addressed the problem, but it can’t physically go door to door and demand that people update their versions of the program.

The real problem, which has been glossed over in the past, is the fact the govt employees are being careless enough to put P2P programs on govt PCs or home PCs that also contain sensitive govt data! The outrage has always been shockingly absent in the discussion.

Until now.

“For our sensitive government information, the risk is simply too great to ignore,” Rep Towns continues. “I am planning to introduce a bill to ban this type of insecure, open network, peer-to-peer software software from all government and contractor computers and networks.”

Finally some common sense. Rather than blame a third party for its own failings at least one lawmaker has realized that they have no business being installed on govt PCs in the first place.

However, Rep Towns doesn’t want to stop there. He feels that P2P programs need some sort of regulation, that they need some sort of regulation if they won’t protect users on their own.

“I plan to meet with the new Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to request that the FTC investigate whether inadequate safeguards on file sharing software such as LimeWire constitute an unfair trade practice,” he says. “The file-sharing software industry has shown it is unwilling or unable to ensure user safety. It’s time to put a referee on the field.”

Again, it’s though LimeWire is speaking to deaf ears.

Rep Towns, a Democrat, even took a pot shot at the Bush Administration, insinuating that it took a sinister hands off approach when it comes to P2P even though Republicans are hardly advocates of the free flow of copyrighted material.

“In the last administration, the Federal Trade Commission took a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil approach to the file sharing software industry,” he told Reuters. “I hope the new administration is revisiting that approach.”

Gorton suggests that some of the lawmakers he testified before at the hearting, though not specifically naming Rep Towns, didn’t come to the hearing with an open mind, that entertainment industry campaign donations may have blurred their vision.

A peek at his reported lifetime campaign contributions places “TV/Movies/Music” at $370,361 USD so certainly they have his ear from time to time. Nowhere on the list the a file-sharing or technology related industry.

“To some extent I think many of them are also not familiar with the technical details of file sharing and don’t understand the difference between a search using LimeWire and finding a file that is served by a completely different program,” he told ComputerWorld. “It is a distinction that is very important in terms of understanding the security issues. But I think most of them did not come there to learn. Most of them came there to be angry at me without taking the time to understand the facts.”

I had to install Limewire 5.2 recently (gasp right?) and it was anything but easy to share files or folders on my PC. Everything was a very deliberate manual add and at no time did it share anything by default.

In short, the real problem lies with the user. LimeWire users, or any other P2P program for that matter, need to know what their installing on their PCs and how it affects it, especially those who handle important govt data.

Too bad he won’t propose a law mandating common sense.

I’ll certainly send a few dollars in campaign contributions for such a cause.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

LimeWire v5.2 has officially launched and it adds new features and functions that make it worth a second look from file-sharers who may have left the once popular P2P program for faster and safer applications like BitTorrent.

It now allows you to import contacts from Facebook, gMail, and other domains and thereby create lists of people with whom you want to share content like music, videos, pics, programs, etc..

LimeWire v5.2 makes file-sharing with friends much easier, especially with those who are less than tech savvy when it comes to P2P. It requires they run LimeWire too of course, but it doesn’t require elaborate setups like port forwarding, etc.. Simply start it up, login, drag and drop files to share, select who you want to share with, and you’re done.

More than anything, it makes for a safe and secure way to share content with family and friends.

The Facebook feature also means you can communicate via the social networking site about a particular song or album you heard and really liked for example, and then make available to those who want to check it out for themselves.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

DOWNLOAD LIMEWIRE v5.2

Limewire CEO Mark Gorton has responded to a recent inquiry by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee which said it had “become increasingly concerned about the significant risks posed to American citizens and entities from the accessibility of sensitive private and government information on P2P file-sharing networks.” It wants to know what’s being done to address it, and Gorton has responded in kind.

Limewire 5, the latest version released last December, “culminates a concerted effort to combat and eliminate inadvertent file sharing,” wrote Gorton.

The program, by default, does not share documents even if a user purposely attempts to do so, Gorton told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. It even un-shares documents that a user may have shared using an earlier version of LimeWire.

With LimeWire 5, the latest version of the software, “LimeWire has ensured the complete lockdown of the safety and security of LimeWire users,” said Gorton.

Gorton notes the following upgrades made to the software:

• Does not share documents by default.
• Automatically un-shares documents a user may have shared using earlier version.
• If a user elects to share the contents of a folder or directory nothing added afterwards will be shared unless the user affirmatively elects to do so.

No word yet on how whether the program will ever add the capability of rebuking users for installing the program on a PC with sensitive data in the first PC.

jared@zeropaid.com

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent letters recently to the Attorney General Eric H. Holder Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission Chair Jon Leibowitz, and Lime Group CEO Mark Gorton. The letters, signed by chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and ranking Republican Darrell E. Issa of California, ask what is being done to protect P2P users in light of recent news stories about privacy and security breaches.

“We have become increasingly concerned about the significant risks posed to American citizens and entities from the accessibility of sensitive private and government information on P2P file-sharing networks,” reads the letter to Holder.

It then goes on to cite several examples of breaches of security by P2P, presumably Limewire, users.

The biggest is last month’s leak of classified military information about President Barack Obama’s helicopter.

But, it belies the same response that Gorton made to Rep Issa two years ago during the initial investigation when the congressman asked if P2P and file-sharing programs could lead to a “cyber Pearl Harbor.” Gorton rebutted by asking why a P2P program like Limewire was on sensitive home or govt PC in the first place.

The letter to Holder closes by asking what the Justice Dept is currently doing to protect P2P users.

“We are hereby requesting that you provide the Committee staff with a full briefing on the Department’s role in protecting Americans from the dangers associated with P2P networks,” it reads. “We are particularly interested in learning the extent to which federal law enforcement action may be taken to protect private citizens, commercial entities, and government agencies from the security risks posed by P2P networks such as LimeWire.”

So what can his response be? You can’t make P2P software illegal, or sue Limewire for being a so-called “defective product” as rep Issa hinted at the first time around. Limewire has already changed the default shared folder settings, requiring users to manually add them instead.

“Our newest version, LimeWire 5.0, by default, does not share sensitive file types such as spreadsheets or documents,” said LimeWire spokeswoman Linda Lipman. “In fact, the software does not share any file or directory without explicit permission from the user.”

Undeterred by the truth, and ignoring the fact that some Limewire users are either using outdated versions or are simply ignorant, Rep Issa insists Limewire insists it is ignoring their concerns in the letter to Limewire.

“It appears that nearly two years after your commitment to make significant changes in the software, LimeWire and other P2P providers have not taken adequate steps to address this critical problem,” Rep Towns and Issa wrote.

He obviously hasn’t used the program himself – EVER. A 9yo could configure it properly if he wanted to.

The letter to Limewire also asks if what it’s doing to prevent the sharing of copyrighted material (yes, PREVENT.), as though it somehow could. If it suddenly did somehow people would just switch to a modified version or another like KaZaA Lite, BitTorrent, etc., etc..

“‘What measures have you taken to identify and eliminate illegal activities associated with the use of Limewire, including any measures to refer violators to law enforcement or other authorities?”

Laughable right?

It’s always funny to hear members of Congress try to make public policy about something they know absolutely nothing about. Remember former Sen Ted Stevens and his calling the Internet a “series of tubes?”

I haven’t used Limewire since BitTorrent came on the scene years ago, but it’s still fascinating to hear about members getting so worked up about something that not only could they never possibly hope to control, but that seems seriously irrelevant in the context of so many other more pressing issues this country faces like the economy, healthcare, the environment, and why it is we have so many darn people behind bars.

Instead of going after Limewire, how about going after the knuckleheads who think it’s a good idea to open up a govt PC containing sensitive data to the rest of the world so they can grab some songs or a movie or two.

Bet we’ll never see hearings on that one.

Both regular Limewire downloads as well BitTorrent torrent tracker downloads can now be run and viewed simultaneously. No longer is there a need to run both at the same time and wear down your PC’s memory usage. This is of particular concern with Azureus, which as we all know, leaves quite a big memory footprint.

You will of course need to have at least Java version 1.5 installed which you can download here.

DOWNLOAD JAVA HERE

DOWNLOAD LIMEWIRE BETA 4.13

The complete changelog for the new Limewire BETA version 4.13 is as follows:

- Integrate Bittorrent.
- Require Java 1.5.
- Many, many behind-the-scenes changes to modularize the code. Nearly ever single source file was altered.
- Added support for reading metadata from files in Quicktime format.
- Added support for reading metadata from files in MPEG 1 & MPEG 2 format.
- Fixed editing MP3 files to not use ‘unsynchronization’, which caused Windows
Explorer to be unable to interpret the metadata.
- Move deleted files to the Recycle Bin on Windows and Trash on OSX.
- Display “&” instead ‘&”, “‘” instead of “‘”, and other fixes for
metadata if the metadata incorrectly contained these converted values.
- Begin all file or directory choosers in the last directory that was used,
instead of the current working directory.
- Added the ability to drop new files or folders on LimeWire and have LimeWire
ask if you want to share them.
- Added the ability to drag search results to the download table and have them
start downloading.
- Added the ability to drag files into the media player and have them added to
the playlist.
- Added the ability to drag magnet links, torrent files, and torrent links onto
LimeWire and have them start.
- Updated D&D to work on Linux.
- Fix to set the icon to an hourglass while a preview is being constructed after
double-clicking on a download-in-progress.
- Remove magnet protocol check from LimeWire launcher and put it in LimeWire.exe
- Allow the user to choose whether or not they want LimeWire to be their default
magnet handler.
- Do not display hidden files in the library.
- Add a ‘Search in Shared Files’ searchbox into the library.
- Allow multiple hosts to blocked at once from search results.
- Fix to show that a download in ‘Connecting…’ status is really hitting more
hosts, by adding ‘Connecting (tried ## hosts)’ after 15 hosts are tried.
- Fix display of ‘Length’ and other formatted metadata values in tooltips and
filterboxes to show as ‘HH:MM:SS’ instead of a big number in seconds.
- Allow browse-host to work on yourself even if you’re firewalled or in a
private network.
- Allow files resumed from the library to go to the proper directory for the
file’s mediatype.
- Analyze all data files when starting to detect errors and ignore them, instead
of failing to startup.
- Fix many issues related to upload requests improperly being rejected.
- Improve security of OOB replies.
- Use a pool for deflater / inflater objects, reducing the amount of memory
required for initiating connections, sending/reading query replies with XML,
and sending/reading QRP tables.
- Re-enable the magnetmix button by default.
- Use the built-in XML parser instead of bundling an additional xerces parser.
- Fix scanning for stalled uploads to reduce the number of ‘watchdog’ objects
created.
- Fix launching processes to display a message if the process failed to launch.
- Add support for binding to a specific IP address when creating outgoing
connections.
- Internationalize the popupmenu from the system tray.
- Force Windows icons to be refreshed when LimeWire takes a filetype association.
- Open a URL on Windows without requiring the “donotremove.htm” file.
- Launch a file on Windows using the default command, instead of forcing ‘open’
always.
- Skip over invalid characters when reading XML (from the network or from disk).
- Do not print [Fatal Error] or other such comments to the console when parsing
XML from the network.
- Update the About window.
- Remove LimeWire.exe from the Window’s firewall exception list if it added
itself when LimeWire started.
- Optimize right-click menu on text fields to not require retrieving the
clipboard contents when determining if ‘Paste’ is available.
- Update the splash screen.
- Fix remembering the windows size, position & state so that if LimeWire is
maximized, it will start maximized during the next session (instead of
starting restored with a larger window).
- Optimize the tooltip in the statusbar bandwidth indicator to be lazily
calculated.
- Disable renaming when multiple files are selected in the library.
- Optimize displaying icons of files in the library.
- Fix to allow renaming a file from CAPITALS to capitals (changing the case of
the file) on Windows.
- Re-organized the context menu in the library to offer better ‘License’ options
- Updated the Creative Commons Publish option into an easy-to-use wizard.
- Fix to not allow invalid directories to be typed into the per-media-type save
directory table.
- Fix to prevent hitting page-up, page-down, etc.. from shifting the search
input panel left or right.
- Fix to prevent fields that aren’t searchable from being displayed in the
search input panel.
- Update OSX DMG image & OSX Installer image.
- Use the correct locale for formatting numbers.
- Ignore internal errors when opening a filechooser.
- Added ‘Refresh’ option to context menu in library.
- Fix to hide the splash screen if a fatal error occurs during startup.
- Fix the LimeWire icon to have correct alpha transparencies and look good on
all versions of Windows.
- Fix saving the playlist to allow saving the existing name again.
- Optimize startup time by expanding themes on demand.
(Contributed by Johannes Blume)
- Fix an exception when changing the save location from or to the root directory
- Fixed run script on Linux / Unix.
- Fix a divide by 0 bug when reading FLAC metadata.
- Ignore internal HttpClient errors related to reading cookies.
- Fix expiration of QueryKeys.
- Optimize throughput of FW-FW transfers.
- Optimize IP whitelist / blacklist to allow a store/lookup of hundreds of
thousands of IPs in under a millisecond.
- Read a ‘hostiles.txt’ file that will auto-add to the blacklist each startup.
- Don’t allow arbitrary errors when sending or reading UDP messages to close the
entire UDP socket.
- Optimized storage-space required for URNs (SHA1 hashes).
- Convert many things to an ‘enum’ for better type-safety.
- Prevent a socket connect with no timeout from potentially waiting forever.
- Optimize the collection of many small writes to a TCP socket into a single
larger write.
- Fix reading with a read-throttle enabled to reduce massive CPU usage.
- Optimize events in the I/O thread so that events causing data to be
read/written will happen before the throttle is informed of time-elapsing,
allowing the data to be read/written faster.
- Optimize the I/O selector, allowing the selector to sleep until it knows
something is available.
- Fix NIOServerSocket to close all pending accepted sockets when the
ServerSocket is shutdown.

SOULXTC: walking the streets of P2P

During an identity theft investigation that led to a local apartment, Denver police found personal and financial information from about 75 individual and business accounts located across the country. The information included tax records, bank account information, online bill-paying records and other data.

The Denver District Attorney’s Office, in a press release, said the information “appears to have been stolen directly from computers that were using LimeWire.” The office said apparently the hackers were able to access “every file, every document” from computers anywhere in the country.

“The investigation is continuing, and we are urging people who use LimeWire or other file-sharing software to ensure that their computer security is up to date, including adequate firewall security, antivirus software and other measures,” a statement from the DA’s office says.

The schedule for the Limewire case will ensure that armchair lawyers and pundits have plenty to talk about over the next year. No trial date is set, but any additional plaintiffs must be on board by January 31st and depositions must be completed by July 13th of 2007. Any expert witnesses must be registered with the court by 5/16/2007.

Limewire counter-filed against the RIAA in a rather bold move back in September. The filing really called the RIAA to the carpet over stifling innovation, and whether Limewire’s business model is wrong or right, they certainly nailed the RIAA in prose, “This case is but one part of a much larger modern conspiracy to destroy all innovation that content owners cannot control and that disrupts their historical business models. In recent years copyright owners have tried to prevent the exploitation of new technology by suing makers of software, makers of devices that play music (”RIAA vs. Diamond Multimedia Systems), ISPs, Internet search engines, venture capitalists that invest in internet companies(Hummer Winblad) [...] Their goal is quite simple: to prevent the development of any technology — even the internet — that is not designed and organized to control piracy”

According to the Internet Filter Review, the net hosts 4 million porn websites (12 per cent of the total) and 372 million porn pages. In addition, porn features in 70 million daily search-engine requests (25 per cent of the total) and 2.5 billion daily emails (8 per cent of all emails). Proof positive we are obsessed.

In response to the parade of digitised flesh, concerned parents can install family filters. However the filters are a bit of a joke because for every shield there’s a sword.

Given that kids are “digital natives” and usually a million times more technically adroit than their guardians, doubtless most can easily beat the filters, switching them off and on at will and tapping friends or file-sharing systems for the prohibited material.

The report featured Sally Rodriguez, who was recently surfing the Internet with her daughter, Delanee, 7.

Rodriguez and her daughter used a file-sharing service called Limewire.com. The service can be downloaded and installed on computers for free.

Limewire, like other file-sharing services, is a hub host — meaning you put in keywords and it does a general search, connects the user to other users who have the file and then usually disconnects from the process, the Local 6 News report said.

The story on StreamCast has been messy, though Baker will bring P2P-specific expertise into the LimeWire defense. The RIAA is a formidable opponent, though the details – which include internal LimeWire emails, memos, and other documents – will be a critical component of the upcoming case. Earlier this month, the RIAA initiated its legal assault on LimeWire, a favorite among file-swappers.