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ISP Ordered to Hand Over Pirates’ Details After Cracked Software ‘Phoned Home’


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Alleged pirates who installed cracked copies of expensive Siemens CAD tools on their computers are facing potentially huge settlement demands after the software "phoned home" informing the company of the illicit use. The Australian Federal Court has ordered ISP Telstra to hand over the personal details of the suspected infringers.

 

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Reports of movie companies tracking down alleged pirates in order to extract cash settlements are commonplace today.

 

After IP addresses are monitored in BitTorrent swarms, companies regularly obtain court orders requiring ISPs to hand over the personal details of alleged infringers, to whom they send correspondence threatening a lawsuit, unless they pay up of course.

 

On first view, a case in Australia seems to follow a similar pattern but the details reveal a more interesting set of circumstances.

 

In an application filed at the Federal Court in Australia, Siemens Industry Software Inc asked the Court to compel local ISP Telstra to reveal the identities and personal details of “20 potential infringing users” who used “cracked” versions of its software.

 

However, instead of tracking these alleged pirates in BitTorrent swarms, Siemens obtained evidence of their infringement directly from their computers.

Expensive Software With the Ability to “Phone Home”

The software in question, NX and Solid Edge, are extremely expensive CAD packages that come in individually licensed modules carrying price tags of up to AUS$60,000 (US$41,200) each, with bundles topping out at more than AUS$337,000 (US$231,000) according to Siemens’ application. What’s special in this case is that both pieces of software are able to “phone home”, providing the developer with evidence of infringement.

 

“In order to prevent and detect copyright infringement Siemens has developed and uses an ‘automatic reporting function’ or ARF, which it has embedded in each of the asserted software products. It cannot be removed or ‘switched off’ from the asserted software,” wrote Justice Burley in his order handed down last Friday.

 

The ARF is able to identify the specific computer on which unlicensed copies of software are used, information that is then transmitted back to Siemens when the computer running the software is connected to the Internet.

 

Siemens is on the lookout for “cracked” versions with their protection removed, examples of which can be found on The Pirate Bay, among other sites.

 

Siemens Solid Edge

 

“The primary method of copyright infringement about which Siemens is concerned is where the alleged infringer uses versions of the asserted software that have been ‘cracked’ or tampered with by a person or (more likely) a company who is licensed to use some, but not all of the asserted software. The cracking allows the infringer to have full access to all of the modules of the asserted software without having paid to licence them,” Justice Burley added.

 

How the ARF works was detailed to the Court in a confidential affidavit but there are claims that it is sometimes able to identify the person who cracked the software, the email address of the entity using the software, plus an IP address, in this case those allocated to Telstra customers.

“Material Reproduction” of the Software in Breach of Copyright

Considering that the ARF is part of the software in question and was able to communicate back to Siemens, the Court was convinced that a “material reproduction” of the software had probably taken place without a license, in breach of copyright. As a result, Telstra is now required to hand over the details of the subscribers associated with the IP addresses identified by Siemens.

 

In his order, Justice Burley seeks to ensure that any information obtained by Siemens is used appropriately, referencing the ultimately-failed Dallas Buyers Club case of 2015. Interestingly and perhaps of comfort to those who may have downloaded Siemens’ software purely for home use, the company has assured the Court that it will not pursue people who have not used the software commercially.

 

TorrentFreak was able to obtain ‘NFO’ text files that were released by cracking/piracy groups associated with the Siemens products in the case detailed above. While they contain detailed instructions on how to get the software running without paying, they appear to be oblivious to the existence of the ARF.

 

The Federal Court Order, which includes the IP addresses targeted by Siemens and a copy of the letter it intends to send alleged infringers, can be obtained here (pdf)

 

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zanderthunder
5 hours ago, Mach1 said:

The ARF is able to identify the specific computer on which unlicensed copies of software are used, information that is then transmitted back to Siemens when the computer running the software is connected to the Internet.

One can easily block the app from connecting to the Internet tho. Or even better, run the software in a complete offline environment.

 

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1 hour ago, zanderthunder said:

One can easily block the app from connecting to the Internet tho. Or even better, run the software in a complete offline environment.

 

 

Exactly this, isolate it!

 

The majority of software "dials home" in some way, if you are running modified software and allowing it to have unfettered access, you deserve what comes your way.

 

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zanderthunder
33 minutes ago, Dodel said:

 

Exactly this, isolate it!

 

The majority of software "dials home" in some way, if you are running modified software and allowing it to have unfettered access, you deserve what comes your way.

 

Plus, while the article only mentions about the usage of that software in Australia, but no details if Siemens also pursue other pirated users in other countries. 

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zanderthunder
3 hours ago, wozzzzza said:

any particular file we need to block for this??

unless if someone willing enough to install the software and also do have wireshark to detect which particular files that "dials home" to siemens,  easier one can know which specified files that can only be blocked.

but to be safe for now, all .exe files on the installed directory should be blocked from connecting to the internet. windows firewall won't be sufficient, so you have to get a strong firewall solution for blocking these .exe files from accessing the net.

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On 7/1/2020 at 12:54 AM, zanderthunder said:

windows firewall won't be sufficient, so you have to get a strong firewall solution for blocking these .exe files from accessing the net.

why not windows firewall? is it that shitty??

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zanderthunder
1 hour ago, wozzzzza said:

why not windows firewall? is it that shitty??

In Windows Firewall, you have to put both inbound and outbound rules on blocking each app from connecting to the internet, which is quite tedious.

Also in certain cases, the firewall rules on Windows Firewall sometimes resetted and as a result you will lose the rules that used to block the .exe files from connecting the internet. And have to reconfigure all over again.

Therefore like me, I preferred to use 3rd party firewall to ensure that the settings are preserved. No worries, I have personally test for any firewall leakages and rules are enforced at all times. Besides, configuration is so easy compared to Windows Firewall.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/2/2020 at 6:18 PM, zanderthunder said:

In Windows Firewall, you have to put both inbound and outbound rules on blocking each app from connecting to the internet, which is quite tedious.

Also in certain cases, the firewall rules on Windows Firewall sometimes resetted and as a result you will lose the rules that used to block the .exe files from connecting the internet. And have to reconfigure all over again.

Therefore like me, I preferred to use 3rd party firewall to ensure that the settings are preserved. No worries, I have personally test for any firewall leakages and rules are enforced at all times. Besides, configuration is so easy compared to Windows Firewall.

True just yesterday I realised that windows firewall reset itself for some reason. software called home and then I had to go through the process of editing it ina hex editor to get it working again.

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