Is sharing safe?

Submitted by R1N0 on Sun, 09/29/2013 - 13:19
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Soulseek General Discussion

I read somewhere a while ago about how sharing can get you in trouble.

thescarletfire's picture

Submitted by thescarletfire on Sun, 09/29/2013 - 13:19.

What are you sharing?

Submitted by R1N0 on Sun, 09/29/2013 - 15:42.

I'd only be sharing music. Been thinking of putting my entire library up on SS but i've heard things.

thescarletfire's picture

Submitted by thescarletfire on Sun, 09/29/2013 - 18:28.

Well, according to the Soulseek rules:

You should only share and download files which you are legally allowed to or have otherwise received permission to share. Soulseek®. was created to encourage the sharing of public domain music from unsigned, independent artists willing to share their work and communicate with a large audience in an efficient way.
____

You've "heard things", meaning you have heard that infringing on copyrights could get you sued? Think about it. Soulseek is safe just the same way that driving a car is safe: are you driving your grandmother to church or are you driving a getaway car after robbing a bank?

Soulseek is just a tool, a utility, a community-application. What you do with it, is your own choosing.

Share wisely.

Submitted by microwave on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 05:55.

Soulseek was being monitored by Peer Media Technologies (f.k.a. MediaDefender & MediaSentry) as recently as last year: (click for archived site) ... They've taken their site offline, so I don't know what the current status is.

thescarletfire's picture

Submitted by thescarletfire on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 08:30.

They can "monitor" Soulseek all they want. They're likely to only see information regarding searches & queries anyway (i.e. who is sharing what, they could browse files). But SoulseekQt has options for private sharing so that's not a huge deal in my eyes.

When a user connects directly to another user for a download or upload, I believe it's a direct connection between them so at that point no one can "monitor" that transfer unless they've targeted one of them specifically somehow at the IP level or whatever. I have no fear because I know and trust those I share with on Soulseek. And I protect myself as you all should.

Share wisely. Have fun!

MELERIX's picture

Submitted by MELERIX on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 04:52.

using "PeerBlock" you can block these monitors/surveillance companies.

thescarletfire's picture

Submitted by thescarletfire on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:16.

PeerBlock offers false confidence. It "finds" and blocks a lot but it's not really protecting you from anything serious. It does a thin layer of filtering at best. IP addresses are only the beginning.

Share wisely.

Submitted by microwave on Fri, 10/04/2013 - 15:46.

Indeed... most of these companies have long been using dynamic IP addresses, including residential accounts, through ordinary ISPs in order to evade the blocklists used by firewalls like PeerBlock.

MELERIX's picture

Submitted by MELERIX on Sat, 10/05/2013 - 06:10.

blocklist include dynamic ranges too ;)

also even you can include more list to filter.