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I was looking at the EFF’s recent article on How Not To Get Sued by the RIAA for File-sharing and thought this was an interesting point:

2. The RIAA appears to be targeting subpoenas at users who allow their computers to be “Supernodes” on the FastTrack P2P System (used, for instance, by KaZaA and Morpheus). In order to further reduce the risk of having your ISP subpoenaed or of being sued yourself, we recommend that you make sure your computer is not being used as a Supernode. To learn more about Supernodes and how to make sure your computer is not one, look here: http://www.whtvcable.com/fasttrack and http://helpdesk.princeton.edu/kb/display.plx?ID=9245. See also Disabling the Supernode function with KaZaA (PDF 331k).

Now for those of you that are unfamiliar with a ‘Supernode’ here is a good explanation as to what it is:

Supernodes are an essential part of the network. When being a Supernode, other users in your neighbourhood will automatically upload to your machine a small list of files they are sharing, whenever possible using the same Internet Service Provider or located in the same region as you. When they search they send the search request to you as a Supernode. This request will also be forwarded to other supernodes. The results are then send back to the user. The actual download will be directly from the computer who is sharing the file, not from you. The download goes from them to the person who wants it, peer-to-peer.

Any computer using Kazaa (Lite) can become a Supernode if they have a modern computer and are accessing the Internet with a broadband connection. Being a Supernode does not affect your performance noticeably.

Now, keep in mind, the RIAA is apparently targeting Supernode users, the question is however, why?

I’m wondering how Kazaa users will be able to communicate without Supernode users. Maybe the RIAA figured out that the Supernode users are an important glue within the entire system and without the coordination/communication that goes on between ‘normal’ and ‘Supernode’ users, file sharing would either be more difficult or impossible. If that is the case, than targeting these users first would be a smart move for the RIAA.

Remember, these Supernode users aren’t even necessarily trading the most files (or any for that matter), but what they are doing is assisting/aiding the swapping of files by acting as a decentralized shard in a DNS-like system.

Let me know if you see any other article that discusses this idea, I’d like to know the method to their madness (other than eating lots of paint chips and/or being a militant vegan).

I’m torn between finding my IP address in their database and receiving a summons or warrant from everyone’s favorite uniformed officers:

Subpoena Username Query Form

Concerned that information about your file-sharing username may have been subpoenaed by the RIAA? Check here to see if your username or IP address is on one of the subpoenas filed with the D.C. District Court. This information is drawn from the court’s publicly available PACER database and will be updated when that system is updated.

Username or IP address:

For more information on limiting your liability, check out How Not to Get Sued by the RIAA for File Sharing (and other Ideas to Avoid Being Treated Like a Criminal).

And as luck would have it, none of my 27 IPs attached to my huge datacenter(s) are found in this Database of Love™. I’d like to thank my mom and dad for this opportunity…