Pirate Bay, Others Fight Back With Plan To Stop Domain Seizures

A BitTorrent-based DNS system has been proposed to combat the government's ability to seize domains at will.

Reacting to recent seizures, like this week's Cyber Monday crackdown, which shut down 82 domains, a group of Internet enthusiasts are working on a peer-to-peer-based system that will not rely on the current system.

DNS refers to the Domain Name System. DNS converts human-legible addresses like www.huffingtonpost.com into numerical IP addresses. The DNS keeps internet information stable and consistent, even if routing arrangements change; it is the phone book of the Internet. At the very top of the system are root servers, which are run by ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN manages root zones in the DNS on behalf of the U.S. government, as well as maintaining popular domain suffixes like .com, .org, etc.

The proposed BitTorrent based DNS will be protected from government shutdown. Currently, ICANN's control of the DNS allows them to easily shut down "misbehaving" domains. The Dot-P2P project, as it has dubbed itself, will decentralize the DNS system by distributing the system through an application that can be installed on the computer. The new system would run on a .p2p domain suffix.

"By creating a .p2p TLD that is totally decentralized and that does not rely on ICANN or any ISP's DNS service...there will be a way to start combating DNS level based censoring like the new US proposals as well as those systems in use in countries around the world including China and Iran," the project's mission statement reads.

Peter Sunde, co-founder of the torrent site Pirate Bay, is one of many P2P community members supporting the cause. "We want the internet to be uncensored!" he wrote in a blog. "Having a centralised system that controls our information flow is not acceptable."

Comments

[SaneThoughts]

09:08 PM on 12/04/2010

The copyright laws are a huge scam!

If my company records my performance to show others for training, for example, they will only pay me for that one performance and get free use showing my performance there after. Where are the copyright layers to protect my rights as the company steals from me? Copyright is a scam because I get no royalty for that performance. I once made a commercial for my company and got nothing not even compensation for the original performance. Its hard to feel sorry for Hollywood actors that got millions to make a move and then insane amounts of money for a reshowing of that move when they performed only once. One performance, one paycheck!

Seriously, if you walk over to your neighbor and borrow a hammer isn't that a copyright violation because I didn't buy that hammer?

Advertising is expensive and every product is more expensive because of advertising costs bundled in. I personally don't respond to any kind of advertising to get me to buy some unwanted product but I still pay advertising costs. Isn't this just a stealth tax?

[Marioth]

12:52 AM on 12/05/2010

+1. Add to this the quaint notion of "intellectual property," a dreadful oxymoron at least, that rewards who is FIRST not who is SMART. And after about Jan 3, the christmas presents get boring, and you are left crabbily defending a fad for the ages.

[Ginji ban07]

06:18 PM on 12/04/2010

What if "if possibily" the ISPs tries to block those kind of domains, then it would be rendered useless even if they make a new DNS. I'm not really sure what I'm saying can anyone explain to me how's this done. Your provider can easily track what you were doing so how is it impossible for the gov to track you down?

[Marioth]

12:56 AM on 12/05/2010

Having control of the DNS system means you have the snake by the head. The p2p domain is merely window-dressing; authorities would need, instead, to be able to shut down individual IP addresses, which can appear and disappear independent of the DNS system. The p2p domain would be for convenience only and not necessary for proper, distributed function.

[Unimatrix42]

12:27 AM on 12/04/2010

As a matter of due course, everyone shold be using a DNS provider other than the one provided by their ISP. OpenDNS is a favorite, but Google Public DNS is another choice.

[spytheweb]

06:16 PM on 12/03/2010

Good work Piratebay,RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

[EquinsuOcha]

05:28 PM on 12/03/2010

I think the biggest issue is not the theft of intellectual property, but the actual circumvention of due process. There is no recourse, there is no path to legitimacy, there is no appeal process. You have a singular entity that dictates access or not, and they are obviously not above acting on behalf of governments and corporate entities. There truly is no neutrality involved, and that is a big issue for a lot of people who don't even traffic in copyrighted material.

Our government has used the threat of "terrorism" to curtail our individual rights, and there is no doubt that they will do the same under the threat of "copyright infringement".

[heroine addict]

12:15 PM on 12/03/2010

Catch us if you can!

[Marioth]

12:57 AM on 12/05/2010

Completely and serusly. By the time they shut down limewire, all the horses had long ago left THAT barn...

[MplsStyme]

11:31 AM on 12/03/2010

This is such a waste of money and talent. They will never be able to stop this. The information age is so new that everyone thinks they will be able to control it based on old ways of thinking. IE, take the offending item off the shelf. As with all things we make they are based off nature. The government or those in power try to attack those that want to do something, it may work for a short bit but then adaptation and the powerful have to change again. This war against pirating is not going to work, it went from mixed tapes being mailed, to kazaa, to bittorrent p2p, and I'm sure something else will come out soon. It's called inovation and the internet is full of it. Then again comcast/att/communications monopolies may win the fcc fight and we will have to subscribe to a group of approved internet sites, then we are all. up the creek.

[Chris Fraas]

09:35 AM on 12/03/2010

'...combating DNS level based censoring...' Uh, this makes ZERO sense.
Censoring is based on cultural morals, like censoring a book for content the culture doesn't like. It has nothing at all to do with stopping illegal activity.
Using their logic the police and entire judicial system of this and every other country on Earth is censorship.
These are a bunch of thieves trying to circumvent an action another group has taken to stop their illegal activities.
I'm sorry they think that they have the moral high ground on this.
No matter how you look at it, taking someone Else's property, no matter if it is intellectual or not, is plain old stealing.
If you support them you are supporting thieves. And I hope that people can realize th.

[ValdaDeDieu]

06:02 PM on 12/02/2010

This should be FUN.

[Richard Lauren]

09:45 AM on 12/02/2010

This is a great project and we are giving our support.

[eShirl]

04:54 AM on 12/02/2010

Won't this just attract kiddie porn sites in addition to bona fide pirate sites? Because I don't want to be hosting 1/zillionth of a kiddie porn site on my computer...

[Aaron Aarons]

09:58 AM on 12/02/2010

Why would a government and ruling class that kills well over 50,000 children around the world each day care about the orders-of-magnitude-smaller possible harm to children caused by the distribution of so-called 'kiddie porn'?

They don't! It's just another pretext for that government and r.c. to spy on and terrorize people, interfere with anonymous and/or secret communication, and generally strengthen the police state.

By the way, if you are so worried about inadvertently "hosting 1/zilliont h of a kiddie porn site on [your] computer", you better make sure you don't own any stock in any telecom, ISP, computer manufacturer or provider of parts for same, since they all inadvertently facilitate the distribution of so-called "kiddie porn".

[Chris Fraas]

09:39 AM on 12/03/2010

You might want to pay more attention. I work for an ISP, and I can GUARANTEE that our company does not host any kiddie porn site -- BTW, there is no such thing as 'so-called kiddie porn', a site either is or isn't. There's no grey area. Nor does my company allow any site which resides on a customer's domain to host any kiddie porn.
Do you seriously think a company would knowingly host, or allow to be hosted, an illegal site such as this?

[ElBruce]

03:32 AM on 12/02/2010

Actually it should start with "p2p://" instead of "http://" instead of using a suffix, if it's bypassing the web entirely.

[Aaron Aarons]

10:13 AM on 12/02/2010

Changing the prefix would require reprogramming browsers to recognize the new 'p2p' protocol, while changing the suffix would only require adding to the list of domain name servers on any computer whose user want's to access '.p2p' domains.

But actually this new top-level domain is unnecessary. It is only necessary to set up domain name servers outside the reach of the U.S. government and its collaborators that would just ignore any U.S. orders to change the IP number associated with a hostname.

[TekG]

05:20 PM on 12/02/2010

You need to read up on the Root servers for DNS. It directly answers requests for records in the root zone and answers other requests returning a list of the designated authoritative name servers for the appropriate top-level domain. If you are not listed inside this area you can propagate you DNS info. Root servers are a listing of authoritative name servers by zone.

[Aaron Aarons]

02:40 AM on 12/02/2010

The word 'pirate' is not something to be ashamed of. The most famous pirates until the Somalis grabbed the headlines were those of the late 1700's. They were far more democratic, multi-racial and multi-cultural than almost any other social formations of that epoch. Moreover, they mostly robbed ships carrying the loot from the colonial conquest of South America.

Let the flag of piracy, the 'Jolly Roger', fly high! Long may it wave -- as long as imperialism exists!

[poster1122]

02:30 PM on 12/02/2010

You've been watching too many Pirates of the Caribbean movies I think. Most pirates didn't have the capacity to attack fully armed vessels carrying valuable plunder. Those were typically privateers who often had backing from a major power who were rivals of the target vessel's country.

Instead, pirates who didn't have the resources to go up against warships went have easier game, which led to their great infamy. Some examples:

"After heading to the Azores, Lowe became particularly noted for his brutality and sadism, which included acts such as cutting off a victim’s lips, cooking them, and forcing the victim to eat them."

"[Black Bart's] first act as a pirate captain was to lead his crew to Príncipe to avenge the death of his old captain Howell Davis. Roberts and his crew sprang onto the island in the darkness of night, killed a large portion of the male population, and stole all items of value that they could carry away."

"However, this ultimately led to [Edward England's] downfall, for his crew mutinied against him when he refused to kill sailors from the Cassandra, an English trading ship, captained by James Macrae."

And so forth.

http://listverse.com/2007/09/04/top-10-infamous-pirates/

[Aaron Aarons]

09:29 PM on 12/02/2010

My information didn't come from ANY movies, but rather from books and other writings. I'll admit, though, that I'm not an expert on the subject and that a whole variety of "pirates" likely existed, of which I have only read about a portion, and perhaps mainly those whom the writers admired.

[Linda Steimel]

04:58 PM on 12/02/2010

Better look up piracy...or maybe you recognize highjack? I sure don't want any of my intellectual inquiries to be censored by any official of any government!

[Clever Screen Name]

12:53 AM on 12/02/2010

Uh, Peter? Your argument might be more impressive if your venture wasn't named "The Pirate Bay" and the "information flow" you want to preserve consisted of stuff that wasn't, you know, pirated.

[maryjs]

02:20 PM on 12/04/2010

Ha ha...

[Counterglow]

09:26 AM on 12/06/2010

There's quite a lot of stuff on The Pirate Bay that isn't pirated, and there's a lot of stuff on sites with completely innocent names that is.

[edejan]

11:35 PM on 12/01/2010

Great news!! Yay for freedom!