[HoM] Foil-hatted IRCop's Inferiority Tantrum

Some great amusement with the newest “Hall of Morons” entry. This is someone that should really know better, but clearly has trouble differentiating reality from wild-assed claims with no evidence. Alas, Seethe42 has a particularly strong Reality Distortion Field around him.

It’s no surprise then that when the channel took the political compass test a month ago, he was the only less right-wing than a Canadian drug-addict. There’s some message about believing crap and being right wing somewhere, but I’m not going to bother with it.

Anyway, to put this log in context, this is #p2p-Net – it’s the channel for the IRC network of the same name, and is the place to find the major players on the network, such as IRCops; people just like seethe42 in fact.

Log recorded  Tuesday December 11 2012 in the Eastern Standard Time zone (GMT-5)

22:52:32 «~Loki» why the hell is utorrent telling me a file I downloaded is potentially harmful
22:52:40 «~Loki» I don't need my programs getting uppity
22:52:44 «~Loki» YOU HAVE ONE JOB
22:52:46 «~Loki» DOWNLOAD MY SHIT
22:52:51 «_____» lol it does that to me sometimes
22:52:55 «~Loki» DON'T TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU THINK IT IS
22:52:57 «_____» not often, but sometimes
22:53:19 «_____» it also sometimes tells me that utorrent is free, and if i paid for it, to demand my money back
22:53:26 «_____» when i start it
22:53:33 «~Loki» lol
22:53:43 «~Loki» unless you have the pay version
22:53:57 «_____» well yeah, but i'm still on 2.0.4
22:54:10 «~Loki» I'm on 3.1.3
22:54:53 «+Killjoy» any older version is better than the newest
22:55:24 «+Killjoy» its got more ads and shit now

This is more for context than anything. Sometimes the 'this is free' popup comes back, and the 'potentially harmful' warning is in newer versions, to prod less clued-in users into thinking about what they're opening. 

Then the debate about 2.x against 3.x is one that's been ongoing for a while, but is mainly based on personal choice, rather than facts. The next line is the one that has absolutely nothing to do with facts though.

22:55:55 «~seethe42» not to mention it forwarding DMCA info to the MPAA
22:56:15 «_____» really?
22:56:42 «~seethe42» no, they stopped that, but it was
22:56:51 «maj0r_pawnage» u believe chince42
22:57:02 «+Killjoy» Firon fix the world
22:57:32 «_____» got a link for that seethe42?
22:59:02 «~seethe42» it was last year
22:59:48 «~seethe42» bittorrent/utorrent made an agreement with the mpaa and riaa and some isp's to collect data
23:00:00 «~seethe42» they backed down
23:00:16 «~Loki» that sounds stupid
23:00:29 «~Loki» ok, let me screw my user base
23:03:58 «~seethe42» the fact of the matter is that online piracy predates the world wide web and will always exist no matter what they do
23:04:09 «~Loki» yep
23:05:03 «+K`Tetch» 22:55:55 «~seethe42» not to mention it forwarding DMCA info to the MPAA <-- lol, nope, sorry, fell for a hoax
23:05:04 «~seethe42» people have been pirating code since code was invented
23:05:35 «~seethe42» !mute K`Tetch
23:05:36     —›  mode » ‹P2P-NET› sets ‹-v K`Tetch›
23:05:36     —›  mode » ‹P2P-NET› sets ‹+b ~q:*!*@p2p.researcher›
23:06:48 «_____» i want a link
23:08:19 «~seethe42» I can't remember the version number, it didn't last long
23:08:56 «~seethe42» it sent a call home telling BT your download history
23:09:18 «~seethe42» it was banned by all trackers almost immediately
23:10:01 «_____» utorrent or bittorrent
23:10:20 «~seethe42» BT and uT denied the call home was for data tracking, but then removed it shortly after
23:10:30 «~seethe42» it was after BT bought uT
23:10:34 «~Loki» why'd you mute K`Tetch?
23:10:44 «~seethe42» because he's an ass
23:10:49 «~Loki» lol
23:10:59 «_____» i'm trying to find a link for it, was it a bittorrent build or utorrent build, or both/
23:11:28 «~seethe42» it was a utorrent build after bittorrent took over
23:11:41 «_____» 1.7.*?
23:11:48 «~Loki» thats what google is saying
23:11:55 «~Loki» but that was like 07 or 08
23:12:18 «~seethe42» they tried it again in 11
23:12:44 «~seethe42» but it never went past the beta build
23:12:56 «_____» cant find a link. i see lots of suggestions that 1.7.* does it but seems to be debunked
23:13:13 «~seethe42» 1.7 did
23:13:29 «~seethe42» sniffer picked it up
23:13:36 «~Loki» (23:13:23) (K`Tetch) he's refering to http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/threads/52332-uTorrent-and-MPAA
23:13:37 «~Loki» (23:13:28) (K`Tetch) which was all a crock of shit
23:13:37 «~Loki» (23:13:58) (K`Tetch) and I'ma beta tester, I wireshark all versions, been a beta tester since 1.1, never happened
23:14:31 «~seethe42» he's an expert on everything
23:14:43 «~seethe42» he's about as reliable as wiki
23:15:07 «~seethe42» he claims to know everything and have a degree in everything and work in every field
23:17:54 «~seethe42» if it's politics, he's been a campaign manager for national candidates... if it's science he's a nuclear physicist... no matter the subject, he claims to be the preeminent expert on it
23:18:52     —›  *seethe42* sounds like you're feeling a little thraetened (so much you're channelling maj0r!) Didn't realise you were so against people having multiple jobs?
23:19:49 «~Loki» I'm an expert on IRC
23:20:01 «~Loki» I think you are getting upset over nothing
23:20:03 «~Loki» :P
23:20:09 «nate» my only issue with uTorrent is after 2.2 it seemed like they rigged it so you only got high speeds if you got the 'plus' version
23:20:18 «nate» so I've never upgraded beyond it
23:20:37 «~jetuser» i havent had any speed issues with a non-plus version
23:20:40 «~jetuser» so idk what crack you're on
23:24:07 «~Firon» seethe42: ut never sent data to the MPAA
23:25:20 «+Killjoy» youre wrong Firon!
23:25:26 «+Killjoy» the internet says it did
23:25:39 «~seethe42» no they didn't directly
23:25:52 «nate» jetuser: The crack that I tested on several boxes, and every time 2.2 would get my max internet speed, and 3 would not
23:26:01 «nate» so either they screwed something up or there's one hell of a weird coincidence
23:26:58 «~Firon» nate: there's no plus/non-plus speedup
23:27:06 «~Firon» plus is just a set of extra functionality
23:27:19 «~Firon» I can max out 100mbit fiber no problem with hdbits lol
23:30:40 «K`Tetch» one reason you shoulud know it's crap, seethe42, is that what you claim is actually illegal. But That's bluetack for you (what do you expect from a group that makes their money trying to sell a snake-oil protection product). But at least dwknight will be happy - got a new HoM entry!
23:31:03 «~seethe42» !mute K`Tetch
23:31:03     —›  mode » ‹P2P-NET› sets ‹+b ~q:*!*@p2p.researcher›
23:33:23 «_____» ...

So let’s recap here. He’s made a claim that a client sent info to a lobby group. The problem is, that would be problematic under California law. That’s why it never happened. However, there have been groups who have claimed µTorrent to be working for the MPAA etc. for years, groups like bluetack who have fabricated stories for years to sell their scareware.

During my time at TorrentFreak, we’ve had reports come in over the last 5 years or so about clients spying. Every time I’ve gone to examine them, I’ve found nothing. Mostly it’s well-meaning misunderstandings (such as the communication to the DHT bootstrap node being ‘sending all your torrent info’) because people saw something and jumped to a conclusion.

Other times it’s more insidious. I’ve gone to investigate some reports, which lead to ‘private’ trackers, and admins there have said “yes, we’ve evidence of it, and no you can’t see it, because it’s secret and they might figure out how we found out” (I kid you not)

But at the end of the day, the underlying claim is false; there has never been any ‘sending data to the MPAA’. Anyone with a brain would know that. Couple it with what seems to be an inferiority complex (my political experience is well known, my work with the Muon1 project is also not hard to verify, nor is my work with TorrentFreak) and you have a definitive, class-A Moron for the hall.

It’s why he had to mute, because the only way to delay the smackdown, was to shut those up he could. Alas, Loki (another IRCop) has heard me speak on politics, and P2P topics, Firon, also an IRCop works for Bittorrent Inc. and knows of my knowledge in the field, as does ______, a moderator for the Demonoid channel.

If there’s one takeaway, it’s that if you’re going to be a douche and try and bully, don’t squander any credibility you had left by picking a fight on an issue where EVERYONE ELSE ALSO KNOWS you’re wrong.