[LINK] CNN, Octoshape and Obama

[Roger Clarke]

Mmmmm, interesting.

I covered the theoretical possibility in 2004:
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/P2POview.html#Issues
"in some circumstances, surreptitious enlistment of devices into a 
P2P network may be feasible:
*   without the informed and freely-given consent of the person 
responsible for the device;
*   without any kind of consent; and even
*   without the person's knowledge;

But I hadn't tripped over any actual instances, then or since.  (But 
I don't follow the area very closely).

I couldn't quickly find anything on such terms as:
<surreptitious enlistment P2P>

What words would X- and Y-Gens use for such a concept?

And I wonder what "the CNN.com dialog box" contained ...


At 14:17 +1100 6/2/09, Pilcher, Fred wrote:
>This article  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoshape) is about the use
>of Octoshape by CNN during the live streaming of President Obama's
>inauguration.
>
>The gist of it is:
>
>"Clicking "yes" to a CNN.com dialog box installed a peer-to-peer (P2P)
>application that uses your Internet bandwidth rather than CNN's to send
>live video to other viewers."
>
>The suggestion is that up to 30% of viewers may have allowed CNN to
>install the Octoshape software on their computers without fully
>understanding what they were agreeing to.
>
>If the article's correct, and it certainly seems plausible, it would be
>a fairly serious issue of bandwidth hijacking, yet I couldn't find any
>other reference to it as a problem.
>
>Are they overstating the case?
>
>Fred

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW