Content availability, pollution and poisoning in file sharing peer-to-peer networks

Abstract

Copyright holders have been investigating technological solutions to prevent distribution of copyrighted materials in peer-to-peer file sharing networks. A particularly popular technique consists in "poisoning" a specific item (movie, song, or software title) by injecting a massive number of decoys into the peer-to-peer network, to reduce the availability of the targeted item. In addition to poisoning, pollution, that is, the accidental injection of unusable copies of files in the network, also decreases content availability. In this paper, we attempt to provide a first step toward understanding the differences between pollution and poisoning, and their respective impact on content availability in peer-to-peer file sharing networks. To that effect, we conduct a measurement study of content availability in the four most popular peer-to-peer file sharing networks, in the absence of poisoning, and then simulate different poisoning strategies on the measured data to evaluate their potential impact. We exhibit a strong correlation between content availability and topological properties of the underlying peer-to-peer network, and show that the injection of a small number of decoys can seriously impact the users' perception of content availability.

Converting Pirates Without Cannibalizing Purchasers: The Impact of Digital Distribution on Physical Sales and Internet Piracy

“…In the context of DRM protection, Vernik (2009) and Sinha, Machado, and Sellman (2010) argue that the presence of DRM may increase piracy by reducing the usability of the purchased files, causing consumers who otherwise would have purchased to pirate instead. In the context of degrading the performance of file-sharing networks, Christin et al (2005) study the impact of several different "poisoning" strategies on four popular peer-to-peer file sharing networks and find that the injection of a few replicated decoys can strategically manipulate users' perception of content availability in the network.…”

Signatures for Content Distribution with Network Coding

“…As mentioned in the previous section, this kind of network coding scheme is vulnerable to pollution attacks by malicious nodes [14], [15], and the pollution can quickly spread to other parts of the network if the peer just unwittingly mixes this polluted packet into its outgoing packets. Unlike uncoded systems where the source knows all the blocks being transmitted in the network, and therefore, can sign each one of them, in a coded system, each peer produces "new" packets, and standard digital signature schemes do not apply here.…”

Correlating Topology and Path Characteristics of Overlay Networks and the Internet

“…From the torrent files that can be found through the BitTorrent web sites, only the newest ones can be reliably and efficiently obtained from the network; the other files may be incomplete or even non-existent, or the number of peers that offer them can be too small to fill the desired download bandwidth. For non-fresh files, users typically resort to other networks, e.g., KaZaA or eDonkey, where locating files is easier, and old information can be more easily made available, at the expense of increased pollution [3].…”