Re: P2P agents for software distribution - saving the WAN from meltdown?!?

[Laird Popkin <laird () pando com>]

To address the original question, there are several p2p companies focusing on optimizing p2p for internal distribution 
of software and rich media. In particular, Kontiki and Ignite both offer such services, and between the two have many 
of the Fortune 1000 as customers (Coke, Bank of America, Accenture, McDonalds, Canon, Burger King, etc.). Their systems 
manage not just the (p2p) physical delivery of the bits, but also the enterprise management aspects (e.g. sending the 
right versions of the right software to the right desktops, managing data flow in a way that works well on a corporate 
LAN, security, running the installs/upgrades, etc.).

Addressing the Revision3 comment in the thread, I don't think that the "RIAA and similar organizations" had any problem 
with Revision3 using the BitTorrent protocol, but with them running an (inadvertently) open Tracker that was hosting 
250K pirate torrents. The "attack" was pretty clearly a MediaDefender software bug in their code that monitors pirate 
torrents, multiplied by the large number of servers that they run, which unfortunately kicked in over a holiday weekend 
when nobody was around to fix it. Once MediaDefender was notified of the problem, Revision3 said that it was fixed 
quickly. So while you may not like what MediaDefender does for a living, it doesn't look like they were trying to DDOS 
Revision3 for using p2p protocols.

- Laird Popkin, CTO, Pando Networks
  mobile: 646/465-0570

----- Original Message -----
From: "Blaine Fleming" <groups () digital-z com>
To: nanog () merit edu
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12:20:28 PM (GMT-0500) America/New_York
Subject: Re: P2P agents for software distribution - saving the WAN from meltdown?!?

Christopher Morrow wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 9:53 AM, Netfortius <netfortius () gmail com> wrote:
>   
> > Has anybody used (and been successful at) a bit-torrent-like agent for fast
> > distribution of LEGAL software (install programs of large-DVD size), across
> > multiple sites, all over the globe, with bad WAN connectivity? I have read a
> > couple of references online (e.g.
> > http://torrentfreak.com/university-uses-utorrent-080306/) about such, but I
> > am a little reluctant to do it in a corporate environment, especially in the
> > light of potential misuse of such ... unless finding a way to install, use
> > and remove the P2P agent, all in one shot ... catch 22, sort of (distributing
> > the P2P agent, that is :)) ...
> >     
>
> revision3.com
>   

And we saw how it worked out for Revision3.com.  MediaDefender 
considered them illegal and launched a Denial of Service attack against 
them over Memorial Day weekend.  P2P is considered illegal and wrong by 
people with lots of money and that makes it hard to use for legitimate 
services.  Because MediaDefender is backed by the RIAA and similar 
organizations they seem to be immune to prosecution.  However, if *I* 
did the same thing then I know I would be locked up right now.

--Blaine