Strategies for Unbridled Data Dissemination: An Emergency Operations Manual

359 Pages·2015·4.434 MB·English

by  Nikita Mazurov

Strategies for Unbridled Data
Dissemination: An Emergency Operations
Manual

Nikita Mazurov
PhD Thesis
Centre for Cultural Studies,
Goldsmiths, University of London
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Declaration

To the extent that this may make sense to the reader,

I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own.

Nikita Mazurov
2
Acknowledgements

The notion that the work in a thesis is ‘one’s own’ doesn’t seem quite right. This work has
benefited from countless insights, critiques, commentary, feedback and all potential other
manner of what is after all, work, by those who were subjected to either parts or the entirety
of it during encounters both formal and informal. To say nothing of the fact that every
citation is an acknowledgement of prior contributory work in its own right. I may have,
however, mangled some or all of the fine input that I have received, for which I bear sole
responsibility.

Certain images were copied from other publications for illustrative purposes. They have been
referenced when such is the case.

Certain other images were provided by sources who will rename anonymous for reasons of
safety.

Assistance with technical infrastructure in establishing a server for part of the project was
provided by another anonymous source; anonymous for the same reason as above.

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Abstract

This project is a study of free data dissemination and impediments to it. Drawing
upon post-structuralism, Actor Network Theory, Participatory Action Research, and theories
of the political stakes of the posthuman by way of Stirnerian egoism and illegalism, the
project uses a number of theoretical, technical and legal texts to develop a hacker
methodology that emphasizes close analysis and disassembly of existent systems of content
control. Specifically, two tiers of content control mechanisms are examined: a legal tier, as
exemplified by Intellectual Property Rights in the form of copyright and copyleft licenses,
and a technical tier in the form of audio, video and text-based watermarking technologies.
A series of demonstrative case studies are conducted to further highlight various
means of content distribution restriction. A close reading of a copyright notice is performed
in order to examine its internal contradictions. Examples of watermarking employed by
academic e-book and journal publishers and film distributors are also examined and counter-
forensic techniques for removing such watermarks are developed. The project finds that both
legal and technical mechanisms for restricting the flow of content can be countervailed,
which in turn leads to the development of different control mechanisms and in turn engenders
another wave of evasion procedures. The undertaken methodological approach thus leads to
the discovery of on-going mutation and adaptation of in-between states of resistance.
Finally, an analysis of various existent filesharing applications is performed, and a
new Tor-based BitTorrent tracker is set up to strengthen the anonymization of established
filesharing methods. It is found that there exist potential de-anonymization attacks against all
analyzed file-sharing tools, with potentially more secure filesharing options also seeing less
user adoption.

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Table of Contents
Cover...........................................................................................................................................001
Declaration..................................................................................................................................002
Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................003
Abstract........................................................................................................................................004
Table of Contents........................................................................................................................005
Table of Tables............................................................................................................................008
Table of Figures...........................................................................................................................009
Disclaimer of Liability................................................................................................................013

0. Introducing the Project: A Schematic Overview of the Operations Manual...........................014
0.0 Project Overview..............................................................................................................015
0.1. Part I. Methodological Mobilization: Towards the Hacker Academic............................017
0.2 Part II. Ordnance the First: Contraceptive Strategies for Data Liberation.......................020
0.3 Part III. Ordnance the Second: Emancipato-Surgical Strategies for Data Liberation......023
0.4 Part IV. Ordnance the Third: Distributive Strategies for Data Liberation.......................026

1. Methodological Mobilization: Towards the Hacker Academic..............................................029
1.0 An overview of the ensuing method.................................................................................030
1.1 Actor Network Theory: The Tunnel (↔).........................................................................030
1.2 Towards the Hack: A Critical Xylology of Rogue Intellectualism..................................039
1.2.0 The Lizard on the Wire.............................................................................................039
1.2.1 Stirner: Humanism, Realism, Personalism...............................................................040
1.2.2 Gramsci: Traditional and Organic Intellectuals........................................................042
1.2.3 Foucault: The Situated Intellectual...........................................................................045
1.2.4 Kristeva: The Dissident Intellectual.........................................................................047
1.2.5 On the Emergent Non-Legalism...............................................................................049
1.3 Anonymous Subjectivity: The Hack as a Rejection of Statist Stasis................................050
1.3.0 Monstrous Unions....................................................................................................050
1.3.1 Anonymous Unions..................................................................................................055
1.4 Participatory Action Research and Knowledge Propagation............................................057
1.4.0 Approximating PAR.................................................................................................057
1.4.1 Case Study 1: Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO).................................................062
1.4.2 Case Study 2: Hacking Away at Twilynax Publishing.............................................072
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2. Ordnance the First: Contraceptive Strategies for Data Liberation..........................................080
2.0 Did You See the ©?..........................................................................................................081
2.1 The is harder to ©.........................................................................................................098
2.1.0 $ floats in the ........................................................................................................104
2.1.1 V£R$O......................................................................................................................111
2.1.2 ©©............................................................................................................................116
2.1.3 Free Software (‘free’ as in ‘not’)..............................................................................119
2.2 The CS Approach.............................................................................................................126
2.3 Informational Illegalism (Anti Theory)............................................................................128
2.4 Case Study 3: Informational Illegalism (Critical Praxis) — Unwatermarking Eestro
eJournal Articles..........................................................................................................................132

3. Ordnance the Second: Emancipato-Surgical Strategies for Data Liberation...........................136
3.0 Cinema as Prison (CaP )...................................................................................................140
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3.1 Cinema as Prison (CaP )...................................................................................................143
2
3.2 Cinema as Prison (CaP )...................................................................................................151
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3.3 Cinematic Watermarking as Post-Disciplinary Control...................................................160
3.3.0 Soundtrack Modulation [AFM; L ]..........................................................................162
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3.3.0.0 Case Study 4: Auditory Forensic Marker Neutralization.................................164
3.3.1 Secondary Location Tracking [AFM, VFM; L ]......................................................166
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3.3.2 Primary Location Tracking [VFM; L ]....................................................................171
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3.3.2.0 Case Study 5: Emancipato-Surgical Operation for Visual Forensic Marker
Excision.......................................................................................................................................175

4. Ordnance the Third: Distributive Strategies for Data Liberation............................................181
4.0 Islands in the Net..............................................................................................................182
4.0.0 Layer Anonymity......................................................................................................184
4.0.1 Usenet.......................................................................................................................190
4.0.2 Internet Relay Chat (IRC).........................................................................................194
4.0.3 Cyberlockers.............................................................................................................196
4.0.4 BitTorrent.................................................................................................................199
4.0.5 Miscellaneous Services............................................................................................202
4.0.6. F2F Systems............................................................................................................203
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4.0.6.0. Freenet........................................................................................................206
4.0.7 Darknets....................................................................................................................210
4.1 Cautionary Notes Regarding Theory and Data.................................................................212
4.1.0 On the Dangers of Theoretical Compartmentalization.............................................212
4.1.1 An Ethnographic Crisis in Data Collection..............................................................216
4.2 Torrenting on Tor’s Onionland: An Empty Kitchen........................................................219
4.2.0 Setting up a Tor-based BitTorrent Site...................................................................219
4.2.1 Factors Potentially Detrimental to User Adoption of the Torrent Tor Site............221
4.2.1.0 Technological ‘Barrier to Entry’ Factors....................................................222
4.2.1.1 Personal Content Preference Factors..........................................................223
4.2.1.2 Privacy Factors...........................................................................................222
4.2.2. Concluding Remarks..............................................................................................230

5. Concluding Remarks: On the Copyright.................................................................................232
5.0 Disjunctive Embedding....................................................................................................234
5.1 On-going Polymorphism..................................................................................................235
5.2 Non-Legalism...................................................................................................................237
5.3 Future Implications...........................................................................................................238

Appendix 1: Sample Procedure for Content Protection Removal from Twilynax eBooks.........240
Appendix 2: Sample Procedure for Watermark Removal from Eestro eJournal Articles...........257
Appendix 3: Sample Procedure for Cinematic Auditory Forensic Watermark Neutralization...274
Appendix 4: Examples of Cinematic Visual Forensic Watermarks in Select Film Frames........288
Appendix 5: Sample Emancipato-Surgical Operation for Visual Forensic Marker Excision.....293
Appendix 6: Sample User Responses to Space Puppy Grotto Notice Postings..........................310

References...................................................................................................................................312
Audio......................................................................................................................................312
Software..................................................................................................................................312
Text.........................................................................................................................................314
Video......................................................................................................................................354
Web.........................................................................................................................................356

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Table of Tables

Table of Contents..............................................................................................................005
Table of Tables..................................................................................................................008
Table of Figures.................................................................................................................009

Table 3.0: Disciplinary Characteristics of Cinema.............................................................152
Table 3.1: Theatrical Watermarking Potentiality Matrix....................................................161

Table A2.0: eJournal Article Watermark Occurrence........................................................245
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Table of Figures

Figure 3.0 MPAA piracy reporting reward poster..............................................................154
Figure 3.1 Secondary location-based audio watermarking schema....................................168
Figure 3.2 Position estimation through secondary location-based visual watermarking.....170
Figure 3.3 Macrosegmentarity imposed on film print by a visual forensic watermarking
schema..............................................................................................................................173
Figure 3.4 Example of CAP-like visual watermarking.......................................................174
Figure 3.5 Explication of visual forensic marker segmentation via horse overlay..............175

Figure A1.00.0 Twilynax homepage.................................................................................229
Figure A1.00.1 Primary Twilynax login screen.................................................................229
Figure A1.00.2 Secondary Twilynax login screen.............................................................230
Figure A1.00.3 Tertiary Twilynax login screen.................................................................230
Figure A1.01.0 Search query results for a sample ebook selection.....................................231
Figure A1.02.0 Installation webpage for Httpfox..............................................................231
Figure A1.02.1 HttpFox launch botton..............................................................................231
Figure A1.02.2 HttpFox start button..................................................................................231
Figure A1.03.0 Read online option for the sample ebook selection....................................232
Figure A1.04.0 HttpFox log for the Twilynax online reader..............................................232
Figure A1.06.0 Firefox PDF viewer extended options panel..............................................234
Figure A1.07.0 Firefox Save window................................................................................234
Figure A1.08.0 PDF merge password prompt, as seen in Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional...235
Figure A1.09.0 Security Settings for a sample book page..................................................236
Figure A1.10.0 APDFPR content protection identification and removal............................237
Figure A1.12.0 Security Settings for a sample decrypted book page..................................238
Figure A1.13.0 Acrobat Combine files menu....................................................................239
Figure A1.14.0 Acrobat PDF Optimizer Discard Objects menu.........................................240
Figure A1.14.1 Acrobat PDF Optimizer Discard User Data menu.....................................241
Figure A1.15.0 HexEdit view of sample merged PDF e-book file showing date fields......242
Figure A1.16.0 HexEdit view of sample merged PDF e-book file showing UUID fields...243

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Figure A2.00.0 Eestro homepage......................................................................................247
Figure A2.00.1 Primary Eestro login screen......................................................................247
Figure A2.00.2 Secondary Eestro login screen..................................................................248
Figure A2.00.3 Tertiary Eestro login screen......................................................................248
Figure A2.01.0 Search query results for a sample DOI......................................................249
Figure A2.02.0 Firefox Save window................................................................................250
Figure A2.03.0 briss page exclusion dialogue box.............................................................251
Figure A2.03.1 briss PDF loading bar...............................................................................251
Figure A2.04.0 Eestro journal article loaded in briss.........................................................252
Figure A2.05.0 briss Save window....................................................................................253
Figure A2.06.0 The initial, uncroppped article page..........................................................254
Figure A2.06.1 The briss-cropped article page..................................................................255
Figure A2.06.2 Touch-Up Tool selection..........................................................................256
Figure A2.06.3 Nondestructive crop reveal.......................................................................257
Figure A2.07.0 Adobe Acrobat Print window...................................................................258
Figure A2.08.0 PDFCreator window with document metadata removed............................259
Figure A2.09.0 The TouchUp Object Tool reveals that there are no hidden objects...........260

Figure A3.01.0 New Avidemux (v. 2.6.0) window............................................................263
Figure A3.02.0 Avidemux (v. 2.6.0) File Open window....................................................264
Figure A3.02.1 Avidemux (v. 2.6.0) in the process of opening the sample file, Illegala.avi
..........................................................................................................................................264
Figure A3.03.0 Avidemux Audio Track Selection window...............................................265
Figure A3.04.0 Avidemux Audio Track Save window......................................................265
Figure A3.04.1 Avidemux in the process of saving the audio track being extracted,
Illegala_unmodified_track.mp3.........................................................................................266
Figure A3.05.0 Raven Lite Open Sound Files window......................................................266
Figure A3.05.1 Raven Lite spectrogram for the file Illegala_unmodified_track.mp3.........267
Figure A3.05.2 Raven Lite spectrogram for the file Illegala_unmodified_track.mp3, with
suspect blocks highlighted.................................................................................................267
Figure A3.06.0 GoldWave Open Sound window...............................................................268
Figure A3.06.1 GoldWave in the process of opening the file Illegala_unmodified_track.mp3
..........................................................................................................................................268
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