FileWatch Expertise
Expertise of Dr. Frank Sarre, Diplom-Informatiker, Public appointed and sworn expert by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria
Summary
The purpose of this expertise is to show the technical correctness, significance and evidentiary value of the data provided by the file-sharing network monitoring software FileWatch. FileWatch was developed by the German anti-piracy company Media Protector GmbH and is used to log the file-sharing activities of participants in the file-sharing network eDonkey2000. The collected data can be used as evidence against those users who illegally download copyright-protected content such as music, games, films and images and/or those who illegally offer such works to a large number of other file-sharing participants.
The author of this expertise was commissioned by Media Protector GmbH to examine the correct functioning of “FileWatch” and to make an assessment of whether FileWatch is capable of logging the essential electronic activities of copyright infringers which are necessary in order to provide a complete chain of evidence. It therefore needed to be examined whether database recording of information about file-sharing activities of eDonkey2000 participants collected by FileWatch is accurate and reliable and whether these data can be read and used at later point, allowing reliable conclusions regarding the activities of the suspected users.
The technical expert who was commissioned to render this expertise expressly confirms the correct functioning of FileWatch and also that it perfectly fulfills its purpose as a reliable data logging software. In order to provide objective evidence for the correct functioning of FileWatch, extensive tests were conducted by the technical expert using the eDonkey2000 network’s live environment. In this live environment, the expert was able to create an ideal simulation of Media Protector’s day-to-day investigating and logging activities.
To identify files in the eDonkey2000 network as copyright-protected works, specialists from Media Protector GmbH conduct visual and/or acoustic verifications for each file in question prior to data logging. All further steps of the data logging are fully automated, i.e. FileWatch enters all relevant data into a database.
With the testing conducted in the eDonkey2000 live environment, the expert was able to demonstrate – among others – the following points in detail:
b) FileWatch records all data relevant for evidentiary verification of illegal (filesharing) activities, in particular:
ii. Date and time (to the split second)
iii. Hash value of the file-sharing network user
iv. Hash value of the file copied or made available to others
v. Large enough extract of the file which was copied or made available to others (this allows unambiguously verifying the identity of the file which was copied or made available to others)
c) With file sharing in the eDonkey2000 network, the use of forged IP addresses and/or the abuse of IP addresses is virtually impossible as a thorough and effective manipulation would require the Internet Service Provider’s participation in those illegal activities and would also imply further complex measures.
d) FileWatch is able to identify incorrectly transmitted file data. This ensures that user activities are only logged when data transmission was error-free and no other inconsistency occurred.
e) Technically it is not possible to log the real names of the internet users. Therefore, FileWatch records all anonymous data to the split second. By means of the corresponding Internet Service Provider, this then allows determining the user account which was used to commit the monitored copyright infringement at a later point.
In conclusion, it should also be noted that the exact version of the examined software together with the results of all conducted tests (including the entire test database) were secured on multiple data carriers which are kept in a safe place as agreed.
