CORRUPTION AND ITS DETERRENCE IN SWARM DOWNLOADS OF PROTECTED FILES IN A FILE SHARING NETWORK

摘要

A method and apparatus for corrupting a swarm download in a file sharing network provides corrupt data in response to a request for a portion of a file so that when portions received from various sources are assembled, the assembled product cannot be verified and the process must be repeated. To defeat the method, bad sources are identified and disconnected or otherwise ignored, or good sources are identified and given higher priorities. In another method for deterring unauthorized copying of a protected file in a P2P network, a P2P client offering the protected file is choked with agents connecting to it so that its upload capacity is diluted. In another method, false sources for a protected file are injected into a file sharing network so as to dilute the legitimate sources, making them more difficult to find.