Forums General Discussion will Mirc start loging ip's

will Mirc start logging ip's now that this law has taken place

What law? Logging IPs from where?

mIRC is a client software.

I'm not aware exactly what law you're refering to, but if it has anything to do with recent RIAA vs ISP lawsuits, then I'm guessing you're asking if mIRC will store connection data for law enforcement and copyright holders.

No. mIRC is not a content provider, just a program. You can turn all channel loging off and not a trace of your where-abouts will be recorded on your computer. If you deleted your mirc.ini and servers.ini, information such as your nicknames and the channels and irc servers you frequent would be deleted aswell.

- Raccoon

forgive me if im wrong,but i've a sneaking suspiscion hes talking about the "stricter" filesharing law.

Thought of that, didn't feel like writing a long post when I might have been talking about a completely different law

racoon beat ya to it anyway

Well...

I figure since it is brought up, and you (Raccoon) have given him an answer s/he will most likely be pleased with, maybe mirc should log ips..



Though that may in some ways be true, if you offer any way to send a file, aren't you infact considered a "content provider"?. I mean I use the term loosly, but imo any place where you yourself hand out files, you are a content provider.

Though mirc will probably not have ip logging, it might be an idea to. IRC is afterall a large part of the filesharing community. Though Khaled explained he has nothing to do with what a user decides to use the DCC for, the evidence that people use it for such things are there. One could argue that the Gnutella network is for only sharing information that a user themself owns and has the rights too. Though users use it for other manners, the ability is there. Mirc is just the same, and as long as its being used as a client for breaking laws, it should concur with the new laws.

The RIAA sure doesnt need mIRC to supply them with the ips of filesharers, they're collecting tons of them every day just fine, all by themselves.

Last thing I think anyone here is interested in, is supporting some legislation which would make it easy for the government to say, "We understand that you have mIRC installed on your system, and are now confiscating your system to access the logs for investigation."

While this does seem far fetched, I still don't see the purpose in catering to law enforcement in such a manner. It will only scare off mIRC users, and not all mIRC users are subject to such corrupt politics. Why don't we just submit logs of our daily activity to fbi.gov and let them determine if we're being law abiding citizens.

- 1984coon

yes i was referring to the file sharing law. i was just making sure.

Best way to prevent getting caught sharing files illegally is to simply not do it. I have been told that there is a possiblity that these bots that are proposed to log the IP's of users will gain the information by tempting them to download files from them. The bot will then collect the time, date, nickname and IP address from the DCC session. The other thing is that the law, apparently, will only apply to the US as it is being introduced into their parliament. There's a big 'ahhhh okayyyyy' here because there would be nothing stopping affiliates of the RIAA around the world demanding that other governments enforce the same types of laws. Most IRC servers are either in Europe or the US so that is likely to be where the concentration of 'patrolling' will take place. Look out Quake and IRCnet users and possibly Kazaa.

Just out of curiosity, what country are you referring to? Because Racoon is referring to the RIAA which is in the US, and there have not been any laws passed recently in the US regarding filesharing.

While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in 1998, i imagine they are referring to the recent US Appeals Court rulings on requiring internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of sharing music and movie files. With that ruling, the RIAA went into high gear in their efforts to stop online piracy. Hundreds of subpoenas have already gone out, with more every day.

Yes but that is NOT a new law, that is a court ruling. Just as easily as that judge said they have to turn it over, there will be others who say they don't, and I know that ISPs are already fighting it in court. Legislation is passed by the legislature, not the judiciary. And, the DMCA makes no mention of logging IPs (to my knowledge at least) so I doubt that has any relevance.

The poster may be referring to an article (or the thrust thereof) on the IRC Junkie site, where there is a proposal to introduce such laws in the US.

Maybe so, but my point is, why would mIRC have to worry about a law that doesn't even exist? And he didn't say "proposed laws" he said a law that has "taken place" which makes it sound like he is referring to a law that is already passed, not one that is being proposed, and in any case, all of the proposed laws will never get passed anyway. The Berman bill for example has been in committee for over a year and based on the correspondance I've had with several different senators, it's expected to remain there until it dies.

Whatever happens in the next year or so, I would concede that mIRC won't have much to worry about, the users of it that trade files will though, depending on where they live of course. There are probably countries whose governments don't know or care for copyright restrictions.

No, it obviously isnt a new law, however i imagine many users see info about it on the web/news and think it is. The DMCA as written forces internet providers to turn over the info, the recent appeal upheld that. The resultant publicity over the RIAA's filing a ton of civil lawsuits is prolly the first time many ppl heard of it and started worrying, hence their concept that its "new".

My guess is the original poster isnt aware that their ip is seen by the other end when they fileshare, and mistakenly thought the programs they use to fileshare is how the RIAA is finding them and was in hot pursuit of a "safe" way to steal copyrighted material.

A discussion on whether any program should or shouldnt log ips is pointless. The filesharers are handing their ips over all by themselves. The end result of the RIAA's activities, their success or lack thereof, what other industries and countries do, what laws pop up, all come under the heading of "only time will tell" and not something we need to get into here.

In addition, the machines owned by those filesharing are often left unattended for large amounts of time. I wouldn't mind having a lazy fiver on the idea that many would not even realise what they have downloaded and then, hence, started uploading. Scary, ay.

If "lazy fiver" is a bet, you'd win. I doubt many of them have any clue whats coming and going on their puters. VERY scary.