Better consult your lawyers again, Vinnie...
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but If I remember correctly, clean-room reverse engineering used purely to allow compatability and interoperabilty is considered legal pretty much everywhere. Even the post-DMCA US.

Yes clean room engineering is condoned however due to the implementation this would require breaking an extremely strong encryption cipher. Not possible or practical without inspecting machine language code.

hi all you out there,

i have been following a couple of these discussions going on out there with interest (although often more rant than discussion, but ...).

there is this option in BearShare - think it's only in the file and not in the gui - to turn of the notifications. wouldn't this stop the client from sending these encrypted packets? i mean, this would ensure you (the user) is not transmitting any personal data and at the same time allow vinnie to have his versioning information (since there are enough to send them and the client would still receive them).

just an idea which might help us to get rid of this discussion ...

Yeah I forgot about those

bFindFreePeers
and
bNotif*****Peers

(I think)

One of them supresses the version messages (i.e. doesn't send it out). This was needed for me during development, so I can test a new version on the public network without having everyone get the message.

Unfortunately, I might have deleted the code that actually checks these variables (this is certainly true in Defender, which has a different opaque message format). I'm not sure though, you should try it and find out.

you want to see spy software?

http://www.grc.com

dos attack in detail and hundreds of infected windows machines out there, good reading about how he tracked the attackers down.

this shows you why people are so upset over strange packets flying around.

vinnie, maybe it would be a good idea to include a similar option in defender also/again? all these guys having doubts would have noting to rant about then anymore ...

I can't do that.

Defender brings with it a major logistics nightmare when extended protocol messages have their format changed.

And, the issue of supporting multiple languages demands a robust 'product identifier' capable of distinguishing the OEM ID (for branded versions i.e. "LycosShare"), build number, alpha/beta/release status, and version number.

However, these messages have their TTL set to 1 now so it is strictly a servent to servent exchange.

it really is, because it means the rant will go on i guess it's also from your perspective, because it will be (and is already) a reason for users to change to other clients - at least when they become reliable and user friendly as bearshare is now.

btw i would be interested in getting to know your intention behind your (good) work. do you make money with the add stuff? is that your plan for the future also? i mean, since the installer allows to opt-out (good!), i think no one will install them anymore, will they? or do you plan to sell future versions without having downloadable free versions? or if it's not really about money, so why don't you make it open source? this would allow investigation for any suspicious guys and development also for other platforms etc. and you would still be the hero that created it (and manages the developement)?!? no one can take this title off you just a thought ...

Bodhi.....get a Life.

---- Mind reading device ACTIVATED.....

Originally posted by Vinnie:
>I can't do that.

I won't do that.

>Defender brings with it a major logistics nightmare when extended protocol messages have their format changed.

Defender is my attempt to wipe out all the other clients, so I need to do it my way. It's not that I couldn't let all the other gnutella developers know what my proprietary "I thought of it first so its mine, mine, mine" messages are, since I am using their network to try to make a buck, but I never was good at sharing my toys with others. Hope no one finds out.

>And, the issue of supporting multiple languages demands a robust 'product identifier' capable of distinguishing the OEM ID (for branded versions i.e. "LycosShare"), build number, alpha/beta/release status, and version number.

I hope that baffles them enough to just leave me alone. I have no clue what I just said. Hope they don't catch on. I've got to get back to thinking up more control packet stuff, I love this sneaky stuff....

>However, these messages have their TTL set to 1 now so it is strictly a servent to servent exchange.

I will set it back later because I know this won't work to my satisfaction, damn I'm sneaky!

----- Mind reader DISENGAGED