File Sharing Programs: The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to Access
Pornography (25-MAY-05, GAO-05-634).
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs represent a major change
in the way Internet users find and exchange information. The
increasingly popular P2P programs allow direct communication
between computer users who can access and share digital music,
images, and video files. These programs are known for having the
functionality to share copyrighted digital music and movies, and
they are also a conduit for sharing pornographic images and
videos. Regarding these uses of P2P programs, GAO was asked to,
among other things, determine how many P2P programs are available
to the public and which are the most popular P2P programs;
determine the ease of access to pornographic files on popular P2P
programs and the risk of inadvertent exposure; describe how P2P
program filters operate and determine their effectiveness; and
determine how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P
programs compares to filters provided by leading Internet search
engines. In commenting on a draft of this report, DHS officials
agreed that that our report accurately represented the work
performed by the Cyber Crimes Center.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-05-634
ACCNO: A25099
TITLE: File Sharing Programs: The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks
to Access Pornography
DATE: 05/25/2005
SUBJECT: Information resources management
Information systems
Information technology
Internet
Web sites
Product evaluation
Evaluation methods
Pornography
Online searching
WorldWide Web
******************************************************************
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GAO-05-634
* Report to Congressional Requesters
* May 2005
* FILE SHARING PROGRAMS
* The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to Access Pornography
* Contents
* Briefing Slides
United States Government Accountability Office
GAO
May 2005
FILE SHARING PROGRAMS
The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to Access Pornography
a
FILE SHARING PROGRAMS
The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to Access Pornography
What GAO Found
According to three popular file sharing Web sites, 134 P2P programs are
available to the public. Of those programs, Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus
were among the most popular, as of February 2005.
Pornographic images are easily shared and accessed on the three P2P
programs we tested-Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus. Juveniles continue to be at
risk of inadvertent exposure to pornographic images when using P2P
programs.
Two of the three P2P programs-Kazaa and Morpheus-provided filters intended
to block access to objectionable material, but the effectiveness of the
filters varied. Warez did not provide a filter. The filters provided by
Kazaa and Morpheus functioned differently: Kazaa filtered words found in
titles or metadata (data associated with the files that contain
descriptive information), while Morpheus required the user to enter the
specific words to be filtered. Kazaa's filter was effective in blocking
pornographic and erotic images in our searches, but the Morpheus filter
was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic content associated with
words entered into the filter. (See figure.)
The filters for the three leading Internet search engines-Google, Yahoo,
and MSN-also varied in their effectiveness. MSN's filter was as effective
as Kazaa's filter in consistently blocking pornographic and erotic images,
while Google's filter was not as effective. Similar to Morpheus' filter,
Yahoo's filter was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic and erotic
images.
Results of P2P Searches Using a Word Known to be Associated with Pornography
United States Government Accountability Office
Contents
Letter
Appendix
Appendix I: Briefing Slides
Abbreviations
P2P peer-to-peer
ICE United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
C3 Cyber Crimes Center
This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in
its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this
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copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material
separately.
A
United States Government Accountability Office Washington, D.C. 20548
May 25, 2005
The Honorable Tom Davis Chairman, Committee on Government Reform House of
Representatives
The Honorable Mark E. Souder Chairman, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice,
Drug Policy
and Human Resources Committee on Government Reform House of
Representatives
The Honorable Charles Pickering The Honorable Joseph Pitts The Honorable
John Shadegg House of Representatives
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs represent a major change in the
way Internet users find and exchange information. Increasingly popular P2P
programs, such as BitTorrent, Gnutella, LimeWire, Morpheus, Warez, and
Kazaa allow direct communication between computer users who can access and
share digital music, images, and video files. P2P programs are known for
having the functionality to share copyrighted digital music and movies,
and they are also a conduit for sharing pornographic images and videos.
As requested, we reviewed various aspects of P2P networks. Specifically,
our objectives were to determine
o how many P2P programs are available to the public and which are the
most popular P2P programs, in terms of users;
o the ease of access to pornographic files on popular P2P programs and
the risk of inadvertent exposure;
o whether advertising on P2P programs contains adult-oriented material
that can be easily accessed by juveniles;
o how clear and conspicuous the warnings are that pornography, including
child pornography, is accessible through the use of P2P programs;
o how P2P program filters operate and their effectiveness;
* how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P programs compares
to filters provided by leading Internet search engines;
* o other tools that are available to block pornography on P2P
programs; and
o the corporate owners of Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus file sharing
programs, as well as obtain corporate information for the subject
corporations, including the country of incorporation.
To address our objectives, we obtained information from resources that
provide data about publicly available P2P programs, including user and
download data. We performed unfiltered searches on three P2P
programs-Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus-using search words known to be
associated with pornography and innocuous search words that juveniles
would likely use. We also assessed advertisements that appeared on the P2P
programs to determine if they contained easily accessible, adult-oriented
services. We reviewed information that was presented while installing P2P
programs to determine how clear and conspicuous warnings are that
pornography is accessible through the use of the programs.
Further, in order to determine how P2P filters function, we reviewed
literature and instructions provided by the programs' manufacturers. We
performed filtered searches on the three P2P programs using known and
innocuous search words, and we compared the results with the unfiltered
searches. We also performed filtered and unfiltered searches on leading
Internet search engines-Google, Yahoo, and MSN-using known and innocuous
search words and compared the results with the P2P program searches.
Lastly, we conducted an Internet literature search to identify tools
available to block pornography and to identify the corporate owners of the
three P2P programs.
We conducted our review from January through March 2005 in Fairfax, VA,
and Washington, D.C., in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.
On April 5, 2005, we briefed your offices on the results of this review.
This report transmits the slides from that briefing. These briefing
slides, including details of our scope and methodology, can be found in
appendix I.
In summary, our briefing made the following points:
o According to three popular file sharing Web sites1, as of March 2005,
there were 134 P2P programs available to the public to download.
According to organizations2 that track the number of users on P2P
networks and the number of times P2P programs have been downloaded,
Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus were among the most popular as of February
2005.
o Pornographic images were easily shared and accessed on the three P2P
programs we tested-Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus. In addition, juveniles
continue to be at risk of inadvertent exposure to pornographic images
when using P2P programs. For example, when searching Kazaa using a
word known to be associated with pornography, 65 percent of the 31
images downloaded were adult pornography, 19 percent were
nonpornographic, 13 percent were adult erotica, and 3 percent were
child pornography. When searching Kazaa using an innocuous word, 46
percent of the 13 images were cartoon pornography.
o The P2P programs we tested contained advertising for adult-oriented
services that could be easily accessed by juveniles. For example,
three of the four advertised adult-oriented services on Warez (two
gambling and one dating) had age restrictions that could be easily
circumvented.
o The three P2P programs did not display any warnings indicating that
pornography, including child pornography, was accessible through these
programs. However, the Distributed Computing Industry Association3 has
efforts under way to encourage P2P programs to include warnings about
the risks of exposure to pornography.
1 Zeropaid.com, http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php (downloaded March
4, 2005), Download.com,
http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?titlename=&author=&desc=file+sharing&qt=&
ca=&os=&daysback=&li=&dlcount=&dlsize=&swlink=false (downloaded March 4,
2005), and Slyck.com, (http://www.slyck.com/programs.php?cat=2 (downloaded
March 22, 2005).
2Slyck.com and MediaDefender track the number of users on P2P networks and
Download.com tracks the number of times P2P programs have been downloaded.
3The Distributed Computing Industry Association is an organization that
represents sectors of the distributed computing industry such as, file
sharing companies, digital rights management companies, and file sharing
consumers.
o Two of the three P2P programs-Kazaa and Morpheus-provided filters, but
the effectiveness of the filters varied. Warez did not provide a
filter. Kazaa filtered words found in titles or metadata (data
associated with the files that contain descriptive information).
Kazaa's filter was effective in blocking pornographic and erotic
images in our searches. For example, Kazaa's filter blocked all
pornographic and erotic images on all known and innocuous search
words. Conversely, Morpheus required the user to enter the specific
words that the user would like to filter. Morpheus's filter was
largely ineffective in blocking pornographic content associated with
the words entered into the filter. For example, when searching on
known word "X" and entering the known word "X" into the filter, we
were able to download 13 images, of which 9 were adult pornography, 3
were adult erotica, and 1 was nonpornographic.
o The filters for the three leading Internet search engines-Google,
Yahoo, and MSN-also varied in their effectiveness. MSN's filter was as
effective as Kazaa's filter in consistently blocking pornographic and
erotic images, while Google's filter was not as effective. For
instance, when searching Google using a known search word, we were
able to download 79 images, of which 11 were adult erotica. Similar to
Morpheus' filter, Yahoo's filter was largely ineffective in blocking
pornographic and erotic images. During the filtered searches, Yahoo's
filter did not block a substantial number of pornographic and erotic
images on two of the known word searches and did not block erotic
images on the third known word search.
o According to the product manufacturers, there are a variety of
filtering tools available that can block pornography on P2P networks.
Lastly, Kazaa is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd., and is incorporated in
the South Sea island of Vanuatu in Asia. Morpheus is owned by StreamCast
Networks and is incorporated in California in the United States. We were
unable to obtain corporate information on Warez.
We provided a draft of this report to Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cyber Crimes Center (C3)
officials. In an email communication, the C3 acting section chief for
child exploitation agreed that our report accurately represented the work
performed by the Center.
As agreed with your staff, unless you publicly announce the contents of
this report earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30 days
from the date of this report. At that time, we will send copies of this
report to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and other
interested congressional committees. In addition, the report will be
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
Should your offices have any questions on matter discussed in this report,
please contact me at (202) 512-6240 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Other
key contributors to this report were Michael Alexander, Neil Doherty,
Mirko Dolak, Nancy Glover, Teresa Neven, Shannin O'Neill, and Jena
Sinkfield.
Linda D. Koontz Director, Information Management Issues Appendix I
Briefing Slides
The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to Access Pornography
Briefing to Congressional Requesters
April 5, 2005
Introduction Objectives, Scope, and Methodology Results in Brief
Background Results Agency Comments Attachment 1: Description of Selected
File Sharing Networks Attachment 2: List of Available Peer-to-Peer
Programs Attachment 3: Results of Searches on Peer-to-Peer Programs and
Internet
Search Engines Attachment 4: Tools to Protect Users on Peer-to-Peer
Programs
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs represent a major change in the
way Internet users find and exchange information. The increasingly popular
P2P programs allow direct communication between computer users who can
access and share digital music, images, and video files. Some of these P2P
programs include BitTorrent, Gnutella, LimeWire, Morpheus, Warez, and
Kazaa.
P2P programs are known for having the functionality to share copyrighted
digital music and movies, and they are also a conduit for sharing
pornographic images and videos.
Objectives
As agreed, our objectives were as follows:
g Internet search engines.
ess objective 1-determine how many P2P programs are available to
the public and identify the most popular P2P programs-we obtained data
from three popular resources that provide extensive lists of publicly
available P2P programs: Zeropaid.com, Download.com, and Slyck.com. We
confirmed the availability of each program by initiating installation for
each P2P program listed on Zeropaid.com, Download.com, and Slyck.com. We
obtained user data from Slyck.com, MediaDefender, and download data from
Download.com, in order to identify the three P2P programs that were among
the most popular.
To address objective 2-determine the ease of access to pornography on the
three most popular P2P programs (Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus) and the risk
of inadvertent exposure-we worked with an intelligence research specialist
at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Cyber Crimes Center (C3).1
We performed unfiltered 5-minute searches for six keywords: three keywords
known to be associated with pornography and three innocuous terms that
juveniles
1 The Cyber Crimes Center is recognized nationally and internationally as
a leader in the investigation of international criminal activities
conducted on or facilitated by the Internet.
would likely use (a popular teenage singer/actress, a popular cartoon, and
a popular movie character).
Of the files that the search returned after 5 minutes, the C3 research
specialist classified all images that we were able to download within 30
minutes. The classification categories we used were as follows:
o adult pornography-the visual depiction of an adult (a person 18 years
of age or older) engaged in sexually explicit conduct
o child pornography-the visual depiction of a minor (a person less than
18 years of age) engaged in sexually explicit conduct
o adult erotica-sexually arousing images of adults that do not depict
sexually explicit conduct
o child erotica-sexually arousing images of children that do not depict
sexually explicit conduct
o cartoon pornography-the cartoon depiction of sexually explicit conduct
o cartoon erotica-the cartoon depiction of sexually arousing images that
do not depict sexually explicit conduct
o nonpornographic-images that are neither pornographic nor erotic
To address objective 3-determine whether advertising on P2P programs
contains adult-oriented material that can be easily accessed by
juveniles-we assessed the first ten advertisements that appeared on each
of the three popular P2P programs to determine whether they offered adult
services (for example, gambling and dating services) and, if so, whether
they provided mechanisms intended to block minors from using the adult
services.
To address objective 4-determine how clear and conspicuous the warnings
are that pornography, including child pornography, is accessible through
the use of P2P programs-we reviewed all the messages, license agreements,
and warnings that were presented during the installation process of the
three P2P programs and looked for statements that specifically stated that
adult and child pornography was accessible through these programs.
To address objective 5-describe how P2P program filters operate and
determine their effectiveness-we first determined how the filters function
by reviewing literature and instructions provided by the programs'
manufacturers. Next, we performed filtered searches using the same three
known words and the same three innocuous words that we used to determine
the ease of access to pornography in objective 2. In order to determine
the effectiveness of Morpheus's filter, we entered each of the three known
words into the filter and then we searched on each word. The C3 research
specialist classified all images (using the same classification categories
used in objective 2) that downloaded within 30 minutes. Then, we compared
the results of the searches to the results of our searches in objective 2
to determine how many pornographic and erotic images had been blocked.
To address objective 6-determine how the effectiveness of filters offered
by P2P programs compares to filters provided by leading Internet search
engines-we referred to Neilsen//NetRatings, a service that provides Web
site ratings. It indicated that Google,Yahoo, and MSN were the most
frequently used search engines at the time of our review. Next, we
performed unfiltered and filtered searches on the three known words and
the three innocuous words used in the previous objectives.
The C3 research specialist classified up to the first 100 images as adult
pornography, child pornography, adult erotica, child erotica, cartoon
pornography, cartoon erotica, and nonpornographic. Then, we compared the
results of the unfiltered searches to the results of the filtered searches
to determine how many pornographic and erotic images had been blocked on
the search engines' searches. Finally, we compared the results of the
search engines' searches to the results of the searches from objective 5
on the P2P programs.
To address objective 7-identify other tools available to block pornography
on P2P programs-we conducted an Internet literature search and our primary
source was GetNetWise.2 We did not test the efficacy of these tools.
2 GetNetWise is a project created by Internet industry corporations and
public interest organizations to help ensure that Internet users have safe
and rewarding online experiences.
Finally, to address objective 8-identify the corporate owners of Warez,
Kazaa, and Morpheus and obtain corporate information for the subject
corporations, including the country of incorporation-we conducted research
using sources such as Lexis-Nexis,3 Dunn and Bradstreet,4 and
Whois.source.5
We performed our work between January and March 2005 at Immigration and
Customs Enforcement's Cyber Crimes Center, Department of Homeland
Security, in Fairfax, Virginia, and at GAO headquarters in Washington, DC.
Our work was conducted in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.
3 Lexis-Nexis is a news and business online information service that
contains comprehensive company, country, financial, demographic, market
research, and industry reports. 4 Dunn and Bradstreet reports that it
maintains a large business database containing information on over 64
million businesses worldwide, including 13 million in the United States. 5
Whois.source allows users to search all current, deleted, and expired
whois domains.
According to three popular file sharing Web sites,6 134 P2P programs are
available to the public. Of those 134 programs, Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus
were among the most popular.
Pornographic images are easily shared and accessed on all three of the P2P
programs we tested. Juveniles can be inadvertently exposed to pornographic
images when using P2P programs.
The P2P programs we tested contained advertising for adult-oriented
services that could be easily accessed by juveniles.
The P2P programs did not display any warnings indicating that pornography,
including child pornography, was accessible through these programs.
6 Zeropaid.com, http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php (downloaded March
4, 2005), Download.com,
http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?titlename=&author=&desc=file+sharing&qt=&ca=&os=&daysback=&li=&dlcount=&dlsize=&swlink=false
(downloaded March 4, 2005), and Slyck.com,
(http://www.slyck.com/programs.php?cat=2 (downloaded March 22, 2005).
Two of the three P2P programs-Kazaa and Morpheus-provide filters, but the
effectiveness of the filters varies. Warez, however, does not provide a
filter. Kazaa filters words found in titles or metadata (data associated
with the files that contains descriptive information). Kazaa's filter was
effective in blocking pornographic and erotic images in our searches.
Morpheus requires the user to enter the specific words that the user would
like to filter. Morpheus's filter was largely ineffective in blocking
pornographic content associated with the words entered into the filter.
The filters for the three leading Internet search engines-Google, Yahoo,
and MSN-vary in their effectiveness. MSN's filter was as effective as
Kazaa's filter in consistently blocking pornographic and erotic images,
while Google's filter was not as effective in consistently blocking
pornographic and erotic images. Similar to Morpheus' filter, Yahoo's
filter was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic and erotic images.
During the filtered searches, Yahoo generated a substantial number of
pornographic images on two of the known word searches and generated erotic
images on the third known word search.
According to the product manufacturers, there are a variety of filtering
tools available that can block pornography on the P2P networks.
Kazaa is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd., and is incorporated in the South
Sea island of Vanuatu in Asia. Morpheus is owned by StreamCast Networks
and is incorporated in California in the United States.
In their oral comments on a draft of this briefing, Immigrations and
Customs Enforcement, C3 officials, including the C3 section chief for
child exploitation, generally agreed with our results.
P2P file sharing programs are a major change in the way Internet users
find and exchange information. Under the traditional Internet
client/server model, the access to information and services is
accomplished by the interaction between clients (users or requesters of
services) and servers (the providers of services, usually Web sites or
portals). Unlike the client/server model, the P2P model enables consenting
users-peers-to interact directly and share information without the
intervention of a server. A common characteristic of P2P programs is that
they build virtual networks with mechanisms for routing message traffic.
Attachment 1 provides a detailed description of P2P file sharing programs.
In February 2003, we reported that child pornography could be easily
accessed and downloaded on P2P networks.7 The National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children has stated that P2P technology is increasingly
popular for disseminating child pornography.
7GAO, File Sharing Programs: Peer-to-Peer Networks Provide Ready Access to
Child Pornography, GAO-03-351 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 20, 2003).
We also reported that, when searching and downloading images on P2P
networks, juvenile users face a significant risk of inadvertent exposure
to pornography, including child pornography. Searches on innocuous
keywords likely to be used by juveniles produced a high proportion of
pornographic images: 34 percent of the images returned were adult
pornography; 14 percent were cartoon pornography; 7 percent were child
erotica; and 1 percent was child pornography.
P2P programs have added filtering capabilities to their programs to
provide users with the ability to block access to objectionable material
(such as pornography) when searching for files. Filtering software can
usually be controlled by an authority (such as parents). It has parameters
such as pornography, drugs, and music that can be set by an authority to
block access to objectionable material by keyword, usually for the benefit
of children. It is important to note that filters are not 100 percent
accurate, since they block content based on keywords found in a file's
metadata (descriptive information about a file) rather than on the actual
content of the files.
Objective 1-Determine how many P2P programs are available to the public
and which are the most popular P2P programs in terms of users.
According to three popular file sharing Web sites,8 as of March 22, 2005,
there were 134 P2P programs available to the public to download; 123
programs were free and 11 required a fee. We were able to initiate
installation on all 134 P2P programs. Attachment 2 provides the list of
these P2P programs.
Since user trends for P2P programs are constantly changing, it is very
difficult to definitively identify which of the P2P programs are the most
popular. However, according to organizations9 that track the number of
users on P2P networks and the number of times P2P programs have been
downloaded, Warez, Kazaa, and
8 Zeropaid.com, http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php (downloaded March
4, 2005), Download.com,
http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?titlename=&author=&desc=file+sharing&qt=&ca=&os=&daysback=&li=&dlcount=&dlsize=&swlink=false
(downloaded March 4, 2005), and Slyck.com,
(http://www.slyck.com/programs.php?cat=2 (downloaded March 22, 2005). 9
Slyck.com and MediaDefender track the number of users on P2P networks and
Download.com tracks the number of times P2P programs have been downloaded.
Morpheus were among the most popular programs as of February 17, 2005. At
that time, there were more than 2.5 million users of Kazaa and 1.5 million
users of Warez; we were unable to obtain the number of users of Morpheus.
However, Morpheus has been downloaded many more times than most P2P
programs: as of March 2005, it had been downloaded more than 131 million
times.
Objective 2-Determine the ease of access to pornographic files on popular
P2P programs and risk of inadvertent exposure.
Pornographic images are easily shared and accessed on all three popular
P2P programs. When searching on three words known to be associated with
pornography, we were able to easily find and download pornographic images
on the three programs. For example, from Kazaa searches for a known word,
31 images downloaded, of which 20 images were adult pornography; 1 was
child pornography; 4 images were adult erotica; and 6 were
nonpornographic.
Figure 1 shows the results of one of the known word searches.
Attachment 3 displays the results of all three known word searches on each
P2P program.
Figure 1: Results of P2P Searches Using First Word Known to be Associated
with Pornography
Warez (20 images) Kazaa (31 images) Morpheus (84 images)
pornography
Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist's classification of images.
In addition to allowing pornography to be accessed by a known word search,
Warez provides chat rooms that enable users to directly share entire
folders of files with one another, including pornographic files. Many of
these chat room discussions are sexually oriented.
While Morpheus also offers chat rooms, it does not allow users to access
each other's files directly. Kazaa does not contain chat rooms.
As we reported in our last review on file sharing,10 juveniles can be
inadvertently exposed to pornographic images when using P2P programs. When
we searched for files using three innocuous terms likely to be used by
juveniles (a popular teenage singer/actress, a popular cartoon, and a
popular movie character), all three P2P programs produced pornographic
images. Figure 2 shows the results of our innocuous word search on the
name of a popular cartoon show.
Attachment 3 displays the results of all of the innocuous word searches.
10 GAO, File Sharing Programs: Peer-to-Peer Networks Provide Ready Access
to Child Pornography, GAO-03-351 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 20, 2003).
Figure 2: Results of P2P Searches When Searching the Name of a Popular
Cartoon Show
Warez (14 images) Kazaa (13 images) Morpheus (31 images)
Non Non pornographic pornographic Cartoon
6% pornography
50% Cartoon 54% 46% Cartoon pornography pornography 94% Non
pornographic
Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist's classification of images.
Objective 3-Determine whether advertising on P2P programs contains
adult-oriented material that can be easily accessed by juveniles.
Advertisements for adult-oriented services (i.e., gambling and dating
services) were available on two of the three popular P2P programs. Of the
10 advertisements on Warez that we analyzed, 4 advertisements were geared
toward adult services (3 gambling, 1 dating). Of the 10 advertisements on
Morpheus that we analyzed, one advertisement was geared toward adult
services (gambling). Of the 10 advertisements on Kazaa that we analyzed,
none were geared toward adult services. Figures 3 and 4 show the results
of our research on adult-oriented advertisements.
Services offered by four of the five adult-oriented advertisements can be
easily accessed by juveniles.
o Three of the advertised adult services on Warez (2 gambling and 1
dating service) can be easily accessed by juveniles, since they can
easily circumvent the services' age restrictions by reporting an age
over 18.
o Similarly, the one adult service advertisement on Morpheus (gambling)
was also accessible by juveniles, since reporting an age over 18
easily circumvents this service's age restrictions.
One of the advertised gambling services on Warez limited juvenile
accessibility by requiring a credit card.
Figure 4 shows the results of our analysis. Figures 5 and 6 are two
examples of the adult-oriented advertisements that we found on the P2P
programs.
Objective 3 Results
Figure 5: Warez Dating Advertisement
Source: Warez.
Objective 3 Results
Figure 6: Morpheus Gambling Advertisement
Source: Morpheus.
Objective 4-Determine how clear and conspicuous warnings are that
pornography, including child pornography, is accessible through the use of
P2P programs.
During the installation of the three P2P programs, no warnings were
presented indicating that pornography, including child pornography, was
accessible through the use of the P2P programs.
The Distributed Computing Industry Association has efforts under way to
encourage P2P programs to include warnings about the risks of exposure to
adult and child pornography on their applications. A few P2P programs are
currently working with the association to add such warnings to their
applications, including Kazaa, Grokster, and TrustyFiles.
Objective 5-Describe how P2P program filters operate and determine their
effectiveness.
Two of the three popular P2P programs that we accessed-Kazaa and
Morpheus-provide filtering capabilities, which are intended to block
access to objectionable material such as pornography. The third program
that we accessed, Warez, did not offer a filtering option.
Kazaa's filter is based on matching words in the file's title or metadata
against a set of keywords embedded in the filter that Kazaa has associated
with the three filters.
Kazaa includes these three filtering options:
o Offensive content-filters any search results where the metadata
includes keywords that could potentially be used to describe offensive
material.
o Adult content-filters any search results where the metadata includes
keywords that could potentially be used to describe adult material,
plus all keywords from the offensive content setting. Adult content is
the default filter.
o Images and video-filters any search results that are in standard image
or video format.
On Kazaa, users can also add specific search terms into the filter's list
of blocked terms. Figure 7 is an image of Kazaa's filter feature.
Kazaa's filter was effective in filtering out all pornographic and erotic
images on all of the known word searches and the innocuous word search. As
previously discussed in objective 2, when searching Kazaa for a word known
to be associated with pornography without a filter, we were able to
successfully download 31 images. According to the C3 research specialist's
classification of the images, 65 percent of the 31 images were adult
pornography; 3 percent were child pornography; 13 percent were adult
erotica; and 19 percent were non-pornographic. When searching the same
word with the adult filter on, the search returned no files, thus
filtering 100 percent of pornographic images. Figure 8 shows the results
of Kazaa's filter when searching for a known word.
Attachment 3 presents the results of all three filtered known word
searches on Kazaa.
When searching for an innocuous word-the name of a popular cartoon show-
we were able to download 13 images (6 cartoon pornography and 7 non-
pornographic). When searching the same word with a filter, we were able to
download 12 images, none of which contained pornography. Figure 9 shows
the results of Kazaa's filter when searching for this innocuous word.
Attachment 3 presents the results of all three filtered innocuous searches
on Kazaa.
Morpheus requires users to create their own filter sets: users enter
specific words into the block list that are intended to filter and block
files that contain those words. Figure 10 is an image of Morpheus's filter
feature.
Figure 10: Morpheus Filter
Parental control Properties
Local
Share
Transfer
Block
Chat No filters Add new filter ... Delete filter
Proxy No filters
Bandwidth
Parental control
Antivirus
Search
Net
Location
Set Password ...
OK Cancel Apply
Source: Morpheus.
We determined that the Morpheus filter was largely ineffective in blocking
pornographic content associated with words entered into the filter. For
instance, when searching on known word "X" without a filter, we were able
to download 63 images; 42 were adult pornography, 16 were adult erotica,
and 5 were non-pornographic. When searching on known word "X" again and
entering the known word "X" into the filter, we were able to download 13
images, of which 9 were adult pornography, 3 were adult erotica, and 1 was
nonpornographic. In addition, the overall effectiveness of this filter is
dependent on the user's ability to identify keywords associated with
objectionable content, such as pornography.
Attachment 3 presents the results of the three filtered known word
searches and the three innocuous searches on Morpheus.
Morpheus provides users the option to password protect the filter setting.
However, like Kazaa's filter option, Morpheus's password protection can be
easily circumvented by un-installing the program and re-installing it to
remove the password protection.
Objective 6-Determine how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P
programs compares to filters provided by leading Internet search engines.
The filters for the three leading Internet search engines-Google, Yahoo,
and MSN-vary in their effectiveness. We determined that MSN's filter was
as effective as Kazaa's filter in consistently blocking all erotic and
pornographic images during the known word searches as well as in the
innocuous word searches.
Google's filter was not as effective. It blocked all pornographic and
erotic images on the filtered innocuous searches and on two of the known
word searches; however, when filtering the third known word, Google
generated 79 images, of which 11 were erotic.
Similar to the Morpheus filter, Yahoo's filter was largely ineffective in
blocking pornographic and erotic images. While it blocked pornographic and
erotic images on the innocuous word searches, Yahoo's filter did not block
a substantial number pornographic and erotic images on two of the known
word searches and did not block erotic images on the third known word
search.
Yahoo was the only application among the Internet search engines and the
P2P programs in which the filter could not be easily circumvented. As
previously mentioned, while Kazaa and Morpheus allows users to password
protect their preferences, a user can simply re-install a new version of
the program to circumvent the filters. MSN and Google do not allow users
to password protect their preferences. Yahoo's filter, however, allows
users to establish a password to save and lock their filtering
preferences.
Objective 7-Identify other tools that are available to block pornography
on P2P networks.
A variety of filtering tools are available that are separate from filters
offered by the P2P programs. According to the manufacturers, these tools
allow parents to establish which P2P programs can and cannot be run on the
computer and can prevent pornographic images from being displayed on the
computer.
In addition to the filtering products, other tools are available that
cannot directly block pornographic images, but can provide additional
mechanisms to limit the accessibility to pornography on P2P programs.
These tools include monitoring tools and time limiting tools.
o According to the manufacturers, monitoring tools record computer
activity and the access users have to the Internet. These tools can record
the P2P applications that have been downloaded, the searches that have
been conducted, and the files the user is sharing. Some of these
monitoring tools can send, for example, parents an e-mail report of the
computer's activity.
o According to the manufacturers, time limiting tools limit the time
spent on the computer and/or on the Internet and the time of day the
computer can be accessed. For example, according to the manufacturers,
time limiting tools can allow a parent to program the times when their
child can access the Internet.
Attachment 4 lists products that offer filtering, monitoring, and time
limiting capabilities.
Objective 8-Identify the corporate owners of Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus.
Obtain corporate information for the subject corporations, including the
country of incorporation.
Kazaa is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd. Sharman is incorporated in Asia
in the South Sea island of Vanuatu. Sharman headquarters is in Australia
and has management services in Europe.
Morpheus is owned by StreamCast Networks (formerly called MediaCity).
StreamCast is incorporated in the United States in California.
StreamCast's parent corporation is Stirling Bridge, which is incorporated
in Oregon.
We were unable to obtain corporate information on Warez.
We provided a draft of this briefing to and discussed its contents with
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, C3 officials. In their oral
comments, the C3 officials, including the C3 section chief for child
exploitation, generally agreed with the results in the briefing. They also
provided clarifying information that we incorporated into this briefing.
Attachment 1 Description of Selected File Sharing Networks There are three
main models of P2P networks. The first model is a centralized model that
is based on a central server, or broker, that directs traffic between
individual registered users (see fig. 12).
The broker model was used by Napster, the original P2P network. It
facilitated mass sharing of copyrighted material by combining the file
names held by thousands of users into a searchable directory that enabled
users to connect with each other and download MP3-encoded music files. The
broker model made Napster vulnerable to legal challenges and eventually
led to its demise in September 2002.
The second model is the decentralized model, which is based on the
Gnutella network. In the decentralized model, individuals find and
interact directly with each other (see fig. 13). In both the centralized
and the decentralized models, users share complete files with one another.
The decentralized model is not dependent on the server/broker model that
was the central feature of the Napster service, so these networks are less
vulnerable to litigation from copyright owners.
More recently, a third model has emerged-BitTorrent. In this model, users
simultaneously download segments of files from many different users to
obtain complete files. The more often users download and share segments of
a file, the more quickly the file will download. Applications using this
model include Morpheus and eDonkey2K (see fig. 14).
Name Free Fee Name Free Fee
Acquisition YEN eDonkey YEN
AlienIdol YEN eMule YEN
amule YEN eMule Plus YEN
ANts YEN Epicea YEN
Apollon YEN eXeem YEN
Arachnid YEN eXeem Lite YEN
Arctic Torrent YEN ExoSee YEN
Ares Galaxy YEN FileCroc YEN
Ares Lite YEN Filetopia YEN
AudioGnome YEN Flash! Torrent YEN
Azureus YEN FolderShare YEN
Baobab YEN Freenet YEN
BCDC++ YEN FreeWire YEN
BearShare YEN FreeWire (International) YEN
BearShare Lite YEN G3 Torrent YEN
BitBuddy YEN Gluz YEN
BitComet YEN Gnewtellium YEN
BitLord YEN Gnoozle YEN
BitTornado YEN Gnucleus YEN
BitTorrent YEN GreatDimensions YEN
BitTorrent Lite YEN Grokster YEN
BitTorrentExperimental YEN Grokster Pro YEN
Blubster YEN Grouper YEN
BT++ YEN Gtk-Gnutella YEN
Burst! YEN iMesh YEN
Cabos YEN iSwipe YEN
Crazaa YEN iTunes YEN
DC Elite YEN JavaShare YEN
DC++ - BCDC++ YEN JetiAnts YEN
Deepnet Explorer YEN JoeGalaxy.NET YEN
DICE YEN Kazaa YEN
DigitalPlay YEN KaZaA Lite YEN
DKMessenger YEN KazaaGhost YEN
Drumbeat YEN KCeasy YEN
51 52
Name Free Fee Name Free Fee
Kiwi Alpha YEN Pinky YEN
Lan2P YEN Piolet YEN
LimeWire YEN Poisoned YEN
LimeWire (Classic) YEN PTC YEN
Lopster YEN pysoulseek YEN
lphant YEN Qnext YEN
MacFreenet YEN RaidenFTPD YEN
Mammoth YEN RevConnect YEN
MediaSeek YEN Rockitnet YEN
mldonkey YEN Shareaza YEN
MLmac YEN Sigster YEN
Morpheus YEN SolarSeek YEN
MP3 Galaxy YEN Soulseek YEN
MP3 Kult YEN StrongDC++ YEN
MP3 Music Search YEN Swapper.Net YEN
MP3 Plus YEN TAZ-E YEN
MusicMatch YEN Tesla YEN
Mute YEN The Circle YEN
MyNapster YEN Torrent Search YEN
Myster YEN TorrentStorm YEN
Network Auralization for YEN TorrentTopia YEN
Gnutella
NapMX YEN TrustyFiles YEN
Napster YEN TrustyFiles Personal File YEN
Sharing
NATural IP SOHO Client YEN Turbo Torrent YEN
NeoNapster YEN VAMP Media Center YEN
NetFav YEN Warez YEN
Nicotine YEN WinMX YEN
Nova YEN Winny YEN
Nova Torrent YEN XBT Client YEN
OneMX YEN XFactor YEN
Ospray OpenNap Client YEN XoloX YEN
P2P Music Jukebox YEN Yet ABC YEN
Phex YEN Zultrax YEN
Source: GAO analysis of data from Zeropaid.com, Download.com, and
Slyck.com.
Attachment 4 Tools to Protect Users on Peer-to-Peer Programs
Time Monitoring Filtering limiting Program name capability capability
capability
Advanced Computer Monitor AOL Parental Controls Blockster Computer Cop
Cyber Patrol CyberSnoop Enologic Net Filter Home ENUFF PC EyeTimer
Guardian Monitor iProtectYou Kidsnet Parental Controls ModemLockDown Net
Nanny Noah's Web Norton Internet Security Screen Shield Spector Pro
SurfPass
YEN YEN YENYEN YENYEN YEN
YENYEN YENYEN YENYEN YEN YEN
YEN YEN YEN
YEN YENYEN YENYEN
YEN YEN YEN YEN
Source: GAO analysis based on GetNetWise data.
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