File Storage And Piracy Issues?

Matt Tesch asks: "A couple of my friends and I thought it would be great to offer a free Web based file storage site built on Linux, MySQL and other open source software. Being able to offer it for free wouldn't be possible if we were confronted with licensing fees for our server software. The only problem is that our site, Globedesk.com quickly became home to a lot of software pirates. We now see one clear advantage of charging money for our service is that is would greatly reduce these abuses, as we would be able to verify names and addresses of our members. How can a business pass their savings on open source software on to the consumer and keep illegal abuse to a minimum?"

Ads?

[crovax]

What I would do is use credit card ID verification, wich would solve the legal problems, but rather than charge them for the service display banners on you site.
Many .COMpanies make there money by exposing users to banners, while offering a free service(for example /.).
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If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.

a few sugestions

[richie123]

I would say limiting logins per day would be a decent defense against piracy, a filtering system, or a tip off section. I don't think you can stop it completely, but you can surely cut it down.

age verification services

[scruffyMark]

Have you considered using those online age verification systems that some porn sites use? I don't really know how secure those are, or what information they offer, never having looked into them. (no really, I haven't. Honest, um, oh never mind)

Also I don't know whether that would let you allow people under the age of majority use your service or not. Maybe restricting your service to those over the age of 16, or 18, or whatever it is in the States (I'm just assuming you are an American company) would lend some legal weight to your terms of service, since then those not able to be bound by contracts could be excluded.

Lawyer??

[nowindowz]

Simple have a good disclaimer. If you speak with a lawyer he should be able to you come up with one. That what is good practice anyways. Also, is your company Incorparated, this will also protect you. This will not stop the probmlem but it will protect you.

Also another good idea is to have a user aggenment that has to agreed something along the lines of

By useing this service I agree to be bound by these terms, if you disagree discontinue use Immeatly and contact us to have your account deactivated. Only data that you are the copyright owner of or have written permission from the copyright owner, by be stored on this service. If you are belived to be doing other wise your account will be deactivated and your inforation will be turned over to the proper athorites.

Althought with you will need someway to verify who is so that you will have the proper inforation to give to the proper authorites

Look at existing services

[FigWig]

Why not see what the following sites do:

www.juston.com [juston.com]
www.idrive.com [idrive.com]
www.freespace.com [freespace.com]

credit card ID verification

[KyleCordes]

You would also lose 90% or more of your users.

Would *you* offer up credit card info for a "free" services? Not me.

Re:a few sugestions

[KyleCordes]

This would also greatly reduce the usefulness of the system.

We are seeing related issues at diskwise.com [diskwise.com]

(I might post more info in another message)

Re:Lawyer??

[KyleCordes]

How do you become aware of violations, though? Obviously noone would want to use a service which sifted through their files, looking for copyright violations.

Re:Look at existing services

[PooF]

All of those sites have lots of MP3's traded on them. They just shut them down once discovered.

It doesn't help the real problem of preventing users from doing this.

Aaron "PooF" Matthews

Re:Lawyer??

[nowindowz]

Good Point, Like I said most of it is just CYA (Cover your ass). But what I want to know is how do their service is being use for praiting perposes?? To me that shows that they are allready looking.

No it doesn't

[Dwonis]

They're probably getting FLOODED with WareZ. When you look at your traffic stats, and the top ten are all along the lines of diablo2_disc1.iso, you notice.
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"I already have all the latest software."

Re:No it doesn't

[nowindowz]

You only know if it is diablo2_disc1.iso if you look. I can see them keeping logs of file transfer, sizes, times, userid, connection type, and so to help tune performance. But the name of the file has nothing to do with performance, so you only know if it is pirarated software if you look. Not that I have a problem with them looking, because it goes back to your Dad saying "It's my house and I will look if I want to" , or something to the same effect. You dont like them being able to look at your stuff, use your own Hard Drive.

Re:Look at existing services

[rifter]

I think the real problem is not preventing users from doing this. The real problem is liability. If he has a good eula and disclaimer, he should be legally covered such that users who insist on storing warez are on their own, his company is not liable.

CC verification

[radja]

Not everybody has a credit card. From a dutch viewpoint nobody needs one, so not many people have one. Want to pay with plastic? you use either your normal bank-account, or the chipknip which is also hardly used by anyone. Much to the chagrin of the banks who lost millions on introducing it.

//rdj

one login per account at a time

[banbeans]

this will make it less tempting as a warez distribution site.
Allow linking of like 3 accounts for file sharing but only
one login per account at a time.
and like the post says above put
disclaimers all over the place to cya.
If someone wants more linked accounts charge a one time fee
for setting it up
just enuff to cover expences of setting it up say $15

Re:No it doesn't

[Dwonis]

I personally use Webalizer (sorry, forgot the link), a little perl script that looks at your apache access logs and displays stats in nice little pie charts and the like. It tells me the top 6 or so URLs being accessed on my site. If all 6 were thiscommercialgame.iso, I'd notice.
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"I already have all the latest software."

Re:No it doesn't

[nowindowz]

My whole point is, that your are looking.

Re:No it doesn't

[Dwonis]

I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO GET STATS FROM MY SEBSERVER! *Huff, huff*

Anyway, I'm not sure what you expect when you use these online hard-drive services anyway. I'd encrypt everything I didn't want people to see, or I would just plain keep it on my hard drive.
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"I already have all the latest software."