Gamespot download manager may use your machine as a server (1 Viewer)

[mourad]

When I was going to download a game video demo from Gamespot, I was prompted to accept the license for their download manager "powered by Kontiki". Out of curiousity this time, I decided on reading, and guess what - bullet 3 says:

"You understand that Content will be stored on your personal computer until it is deleted at your direction or until it is automatically deleted by the operation of the Kontiki Delivery Network. You will be asked whether you agree to participate in the relay operations of the Kontiki Delivery Network that assist in the acceleration of delivery of Content. If you agree to participate, you are agreeing that solely as part of the operation of the Kontiki Delivery Network Kontiki may through the Kontiki Software access Content stored on your computer and reproduce portions or all of this Content in order to distribute such stored Content to other users of the Kontiki Delivery Network who request delivery of such Content." (sic)

in other words, your computer will become a server for any files downloaded!!

Obviously, if nothing is downloaded and the Kontiki software is not installed on your machine, then nothing's compromised.

Lesson - always read the fine print.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I think KaZaA and some other programs also work like this. That's why I don't use download managers, I only have one program that is a download speeder upper.

 

[BertFalasco]

If it is a video of a game. Where is the file sharing program within? Not possible. Sure it can be viewed by others, but others downloading off of you is not true. I'm 56k, now if I viewed the video, think of logic. Where is the connection between me and anyone else, and what if I view the video offline.

server
1. A program which provides some service to other (client) programs. The connection between client and server is normally by means of message passing, often over a network, and uses some protocol to encode the client's requests and the server's responses. The server may run continuously (as a daemon), waiting for requests to arrive or it may be invoked by some higher level daemon which controls a number of specific servers (inetd on Unix). There are many servers associated with the Internet, such as those for Network File System, Network Information Service (NIS), Domain Name System (DNS), FTP, news, finger, Network Time Protocol. On Unix, a long list can be found in /etc/services or in the NIS database "services". See client-server.
2. A computer which provides some service for other computers connected to it via a network. The most common example is a file server which has a local disk and services requests from remote clients to read and write files on that disk, often using Sun's Network File System (NFS) protocol or Novell Netware on IBM PCs.

Props to Link Removed
Ridiculous fellas....
OR does Gamespot MAKE you download some queer manager, then get the file off that? If so, wouldn't you know the basics as well then?
-Bert

 

[Morgan Jolley]

When the file is saved on your computer, I think that it gets downloaded from you when people try to download it from GameSpot at the same time as it is being downloaded from GameSpot. This makes it download quicker (of course, your PC must be on) and can free up some bandwidth from GameSpot.

 

[Dave F]

Bert - it's a download manager that you download before downloading the video/demo/etc...
Kontiki = Bad
-Dave

 

[BertFalasco]

How dare Gamespot. I remember back in the day when Gamespot was free, not this 3 day or whatever the hell the little timer is set on before it's locked for members. So shaftlicking...

-Bert

 

[Andre F]

Acccckkkk....why would a company do something like that? Spyware sucks...they must be getting paid some big bucks to promote that suck-fest!
-Andre F

 

[Jeff Kleist]

They published a public denial of it today

 

[mourad]

Jeff - Where is the public denial you're referring to?

 

[Brad Grenz]

Since when is spyware the same as peer to peer networking? That's what this all sounds like to me. You guys all knew that Napster does the same thing, you your computer as a server for people who wanted to download as shared file of yours. What's the friggin deal?

Frankly I have no idea as I've never had to use any download manager to get files from Gamespot Complete. I just click the link and save the file as a zip archive (that's what all the files actually are, I presume the download manager makes that part transparent to the user.).